ashes to ashes

Aurelia

They can't keep her away from Hotaru for very long. She's the Arbiter, after all. It's her job to oversee this sort of thing, to enact judgement as it should be enacted. Of course, this is all a whole hell of a lot more complicated than any of that. A lot more personal, too, it seems. So Aurelia does her best to pull all of her own loose pieces together. Now would be a terrible time to fall apart, and she expects Hotaru will not be too keen on this visit.

She stands outside of the jailhouse with Sunjata for a few minutes, talking with him quietly so as not to be heard but for the murmur of their voices. He'll be there, a silhouette in the dark, waiting and listening, ready to interfere if something should go wrong.

Aurelia doesn't know if something will or won't, but she's not too arrogant or ignorant to think that Hotaru being in custody makes them all safe. The woman might be dangerous, but she isn't working alone. They know this.

Turning from the governor, Aurelia opens the door and steps through the entryway. Her footsteps are steady and slow as she moves across the stone floor. In these moments, there's silence but for the sound of burning torches on the walls. With a gaze that's dark and almost black from the lighting, she observes the woman who lays in a fetal position in the cell. She kneels down, the daggers along her hips glinting in the light of the flames like bared teeth.

"Did you think you'd seen the last of me? Hotaru."

standing in the ashes of who I used to be

Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight

It's a mistake to linger outside her cell, feminine tones hushed and indistinct. Hotaru's nails pierce the pillow in her grasp, stare unblinking and cold. Oh, she knows exactly who it is. It's an easy conclusion. Seren had told Deimos who had relayed it to Hotaru that the woman who had killed Atlas - who had narrowly escaped death at her own hand, the bitch - was the Arbiter of Torchline. If Sunjata refused to be impartial before, why would he stop now? Why not bring in the Arbiter, despite her involvement that night? It is the lingering at the entrance that saves Aurelia from a hand of lightning straight to her heart. It awards Hotaru a chance to simmer, to compartmentalize. There are heavier things weighing in the balance right now, and the cretin isn't worth the extra energy and drama.

Oh, but when the girl enters. Hotaru could laugh for the cliche she tries to employ, confident where she does not deserve to be with how Hotaru had nearly ended her miserable life with a thought.

Turning slowly onto her back to regard the stranger, Hotaru's eyes are icy chips even as her smile is cruel and sharp. "I see my name precedes me. Shame yours doesn't, sweetheart. Even greater shame you lived to make me learn it at all." Sitting up, she spins her legs, shamelessly entering Aurelia's personal space with a dark smirk. "Put your pitiful teeth away darling, before I burn them out of your head. Again." Her own are revealed in a feline snarl, and the static in the room rises in easy display of power that cuts away a moment later as Hotaru stands gracefully and moves to the chair they'd left in her room for such interrogations. She takes it, leaving the Arbiter to find her own damn spot.

"Ask your questions, murderer." The smooth venom of her words is almost kind, delivered on composed queenly vocals as her wrists twists in demand for the woman to continue this pathetic farce.

HOTARU

Aurelia

Aurelia's elbows rest against her knees as Hotaru turns to look at her, and that coldness in her eyes receives nothing more than an unimpressed blink. Where Hotaru could needle away at Sunjata and Nate's wits, plucking at their strings - whether it were to no avail - Aurelia feels nothing for the snake that lies curled up in her cell. Nothing but a strong urge to cut its head from its spine.

Anger builds in her chest just at the sight of Hotaru, the emotion manifesting in a subtle inhale. Teeth? I would rip you apart with my bare hands, Aurelia wants to say, and the words linger on her lips with a fierceness that has them twitching.

"You know my name," she corrects quietly.

For Aurelia, Hotaru is no longer simply Hotaru. She is a manifestation of everything wrong with the world, and if you'd like to narrow it down... she's a manifestation of the one that took Aurelia's father's life. In a way, this makes Hotaru all the more powerful, because without that emphasis... she would seem so very shallow. Unimportant but for the fact that she has a clearcut agenda for destructive vengeance. No, Hotaru is just another snake in the pit. It's the pit itself that is the problem.

Her words mean little, their merits garbled and strangled by Aurelia's conviction even as she hurls them at her with ill-placed confidence. Aurelia moves to stand too, though her motions lack the distinct need to overcompensate for a lowly position.

She's unfettered by the accusation. She is a murderer, it's true, regardless of what she wishes she were instead. She takes a seat afterwards, breathes in quietly, and stares across at Hotaru. "I appreciate your cooperation," she states.

"I'm not going to ask you to start from the beginning. I've read your statement already. So... we'll take a closer look at what happened, but first..." her jaw works a bit harder as she mulls over something. Then, she continues, "in your statement, you said that you came to Torchline with Deimos. You both got drunk at the Hanged Man, where you told him of the Devil's Advocates and what they were, who was in charge of them, so on. He left shortly after, and then you realized where he must have gone. And you rushed to stop him. Does this all sound correct?" She pauses to give Hotaru a chance to answer and add anything on as she saw fit.

"So what is Deimos to you? A friend? Family? What's the... history between you two, if you don't mind my asking?"

standing in the ashes of who I used to be

Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight

A blonde brow rises, looking the woman up and down slowly. "Well, don't leave me hanging then. Suspense only goes so far." Because Hotaru doesn't forget a face. It's part of who she is, who she was; a thief, a spy, cunning and powerful. Faces must be remembered if you are to know where all your pawns are on the board.

At least there is no more delay. Her temper is already on a hair trigger, and only her vows and plans for the future keep the lightning at bay. Though as the woman begins speaking, Hotaru can't help the twitch in the corner of her lips. Her relationship with Deimos? Really?

A hum of confirmation is Ru's only reply, waiting for the real question that follows after which prompts a soft laugh. "You aren't entitled to our history," she states plainly, crossing her legs. "Friend, family, yes. Even that does not cover in totality. I've lived nearly a lifetime at his side and his back, and he at mine. His battles and burdens are mine, and the same in reverse." Precisely why he'd burned the Advocates. Sunjata knows this, or at least she thought he did - it's clear much of what she revealed to him didn't stick, considering all he has thrown away or back in her face.

HOTARU

Aurelia

Aurelia doesn't care to explain who she is, to a point where it feels like there's an invisible wall between Hotaru and that answer, which Aurelia doesn't feel like taking down. So she lets the words suspend in the air, lost to the mix of their actions and words. If Hotaru wants to press further about it, she can, but Aurelia's not certain if she wants to say her name just yet.

Entitlement isn't exactly what Aurelia would call what she's feeling but, she makes no remark about that comment as she pulls out her notebook and jots down Hotaru's words. Word. For. Word.

Looking up from it once she's finished, which is fairly quick given that Hotaru hadn't said much, her gaze narrows slightly in both consideration and curiosity. "So, feel free to correct me as I go, if I am wrong. You're very close. I take it there's little that one of you keeps from the other, sharing burdens and all that," she summarizes, swallowing the tension down. With furrowed brows, she tilts her head a bit to one side. "Then, you must have known Deimos' feelings towards Sunjata before all of this. And he must have known that you were upset about Sunjata and Nate..." She turns the pen over in her hand a few times, trailing off, giving Hotaru room to correct the errors if there were any.

"When you.. told him about the Devil's Advocates. What did you think telling him about that was going to accomplish?"

standing in the ashes of who I used to be

Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight

The silence rolls off her back. Hotaru has her ways of finding things out; a spider in her web, as Aino had called her. The woman can try and hide, if that’s the purpose behind her silence, but it will not last long.

There is at least a trace of amusement at the woman’s intense exactness of her recording. Hotaru has never hidden her relationship with Deimos and the depths of it. Sunjata should know by virtue of being threatened alone. “I knew he hated them - still does,” she agreed plainly. “But even Sunjata can tell you that I do not drink. Drunkenness is not something I’m familiar or comfortable with.” Precisely why Sunjata’s constant drinking made her so uncomfortable. Folding her hands in her lap she frowns. “He had listened to me be upset about them before. I didn’t see why this would be any different, even drunk. But I told him about the Advocates because he’s our General. I may have been an Advocate, but I wasn’t willing to be anymore, and I felt he deserved to know about the Kraai.” She still wonders exactly what he will do about that. “I didn’t suspect anything until he left my side. If anything I thought he would target the Kraai first.”

HOTARU

Aurelia

She has no doubts that Hotaru will figure it out - sooner or later - and she certainly doesn't intend to hide her identity any further than this moment. But here and now, no, she doesn't give her name yet.

Aurelia jots all of this down as well, writing quickly and efficiently to keep up with Hotaru's words. She leaves out any of her own internal reactions, her expression rather stony and emotionless aside from the consistent furrow of her brow as the gears in her mind turn, stop, turn again.

"And is that all you talked about? While you were both at the Hanged Man?" She prods, the tip of her pen lifting from the paper as she pauses to regard Hotaru once again. Clarifying, she adds, "You talked about Sunjata and Nate, being upset over them both, I gather. But the rest was just details pertaining to the Advocates' activities. Nothing else?"

Her lips form a straight line and her brows relax as she awaits the answer. "And he never said anything to you that might indicate he wanted to... exact revenge for you?"

standing in the ashes of who I used to be

Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight

“No, or I would have realized sooner I think. We also talked about magic theory, and went out onto the beach to use our magic on the ocean. Scared a few tourists, though I’m not sure who you could track down for witness statements.” Though Hotaru doubts they would anyway. It has been made clear to her that this is personal, and scarcely a trial at all. Deimos’ exile judgment at this point would be preferable to sitting here answering the same questions over and over.

“Deimos doesn’t talk much of his own emotions,” she snorts softly, fingertips tapping on her thigh. “At least not when others are the one sharing, you know? Like taking turns. He’s not super talkative in the first place, and most days he won’t mention Nate or Sunjata to me even if I bring them up because he knows it upsets me.” The honesty grates at her. She doesn’t trust this woman, but she can’t afford to lie either.

HOTARU

Aurelia

When she's done recording Hotaru's statements in her notebook, she leans back against the chair. The wood carves into her shoulderblades and she presses her lips together firmly, staring down at the page. The pen spins in her fingers and she watches it, watches the object spin so swiftly around her forefinger that it creates its own current.

"So... let me see if I have this right," her finger clamps down around the pen, ceasing its movements. She levels her gaze on Hotaru's face now, forcing their eyes to meet - or Hotaru can look away, if she wants... but Aurelia's focus is predaceous. Patient, willing to stalk before she takes her leap.

"You and Deimos have spent almost a lifetime together, share one another's burdens and battles - but he doesn't tell you about his own emotions -" her brows raise a bit at this, "and he decided that he'd fight this battle on his own. Even though... you came to Torchline together, went to the Hanged Man - but not to get drunk. Because you don't drink, it makes you uncomfortable," she shrugs nonchalantly, as if this is totally fine and understandable. Why else would someone go to a bar than to sit there, sober? Unless it was to talk about something you didn't want anyone else to remember...

"Instead of drinking at the bar, you talked about magic theory, your situation involving Sunjata and Nate... and you told him the whereabouts of the Devil's Advocates... in all regions. Including Torchline. Which... you were visiting at the time, and which he would know is the one that Sunjata... runs..." she trails off, though only for a moment.

"And then," the space between her brows pinches with an anger she decides not to hide at this point. Her lips form a tight, subtle grimace, "the Slagveld is set fire. By magic. In fact, not only was it set fire to, but the Devil's Advocates within it was targeted. Specifically. But! Ah! You had nothing to do with it..."

Aurelia takes in a small breath, rubbing one of her hands across her lips. Finally, her gaze leaves Hotaru, her head tilts this way and that. She makes a show of glancing down at the notebook, then back up at Hotaru, back again. Oh, she's thinking very hard. She is incredibly stumped.

"That's quite a story..." she says. Her jaw sets and she tilts her head to one side slightly, "Hotaru, considering that you've at least betrayed your guild - whose leader is also the Governor ... What did you think would happen, coming here?" Really, she's genuinely curious, because from where she's sitting? Hotaru's blatantly put herself in their laps. Unless...

Unless..

standing in the ashes of who I used to be

Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight

Gods, they can’t help but twist her words can they? Hotaru exhales slowly, bringing a hand to rub her tired eyes.

“For having written it down, you’re only focusing on half of everything I said.” Dropping her hand back to her lap she stares at the woman, tired but unblinking. Undaunted by the assumptions and attempts at loopholes. “I said that Deimos wouldn’t turn my own night of venting into a talk about his own emotions. Even you must see that’s a social faux pas, even for best friends.” Or perhaps selfishness is simply her way of life. Hotaru doesn’t know the woman at all. “I also said that while I dislike being drunk, I had plenty of reason to get to that point - and in fact had planned ahead of time to get past tipsy for once, but I only told Deimos that so the point is moot.” More truth. None of this so far has been a lie, which makes it all the more exasperating that they refuse to so much as listen. The least they could do is pretend.

“You also said ‘instead of’ which, no. I did drink. I got drunk. We talked about magic and the Advocates. Are you following now?” It’s a Herculean effort not to roll her eyes. How much must she dumb this down? “And I keep saying I’m not innocent until I’m practically blue in the face, but you’ve yet to listen. I’m accepting blame for betraying the Guild. However no, I did not set the fire.” The woman’s dramatics won’t change that answer.

“Why don’t you tell me? Circumstances have been crazier in Caido, and yet the bitterness of my ex-husbands paints me as a black-and-white criminal. I came because I knew my presence there must seem suspicious, but I wasn’t going to hide away in fear and be assumed guilty. Giving my side of the story is all I can do at the end of the day.” Uncrossing her legs Hotaru sighs and cracks her neck. She is utterly done with this dog and pony show. “And now that I’ve spoken to all three of you, I would like to send a missive to my Warden and her council. You’ve yet to produce a witness, I am quite pregnant, and I will not be staying here for a week. I’ve already given you extra days to interrogate me. I have cooperated at every single turn. And Morgan can be held responsible for ensuring I’m not a flight risk, as Nate seems to think I am - which is similarly ridiculous since I came here willingly.” And where would she run to, if she ran at all? Halo is her home and she will not abandon it. “This is the worst farce of a trial I’ve ever seen, and I’m not going to risk my baby by being put under undue stress.” Because if her baby is harmed, no laws will keep her from killing and burning at will.

HOTARU

Aurelia

"No, I'm actually not following, Hotaru," she says forceably in return, uncaring as to the rest of the tangent woman has to add on. Still, she listens, though she makes it obvious that she's not particularly invested. When Hotaru is done, she shakes her head, "Enough."

"We both know that you were there, we both know it wasn't to play some fucking hero. You keep saying you didn't set the fire. You didn't, that was Deimos. But I have fire magic, and I've seen the damage after a fire. I've also seen damage after lightning storms and now? Now I have scars from you - from your lightning. The kind of marks left behind by the two elements are very different, did you know that?" She asks, eyes narrowing across at Hotaru.

"This questioning is part of a due process, you understand? Before that, investigating the scene of the crime builds the foundation for the case. When you use lightning against walls and floors and staircases, it tends to leave a distinct scar in the wood. Make sense?" Her brow raises to see if Hotaru is following or not, "You can say you're not innocent or that you're innocent until you're blue in the face, Hotaru, but we know already what part you played in the Slagveld. We have all the proof we need to pin this on both you and Deimos. The funny part is... you came walking in here on your own and now you think, behind a cell, you can demand things. What a genius. I'm sure you have some sort of plan, coming here? Hm? With Deimos?" Not that she expects to be given an answer, of course, it's Hotaru knowing that she can see right through her that's important right now.

"I don't understand something, though. For all the thought you've given this, I'm wondering..." she chews on the inside of her cheek for a moment, eyeing Hotaru up and down with disdain, "Did you think before you sacrificed another life for your own revenge? Or was Atlas just... a price you were willing to pay?"

standing in the ashes of who I used to be

Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight

Ah, so many words. Hotaru waits her out in the same manner, though a brow slowly rises. “Well I didn’t attack Deimos, so the only way my magic would have escaped my control would be - oh, that’s right. Because I can feel my companion’s pain.” It’s spat hatefully at the woman’s feet, eyes narrowing. “Nothing I’ve said has been a lie. I wasn’t trying to be a damn hero, I was trying to save my own ass from the mistake of telling Deimos in the first place.” Much more her personality angle. Though she rolls her eyes, practically gagging with the ridiculousness of the idea she’d planned something with Deimos.

“Deimos has already faced his consequences, but Morgan will not let you keep me here without a real witness. A fair trial. And you can talk out your ass all you’d like, but it won’t keep me here. ‘Plans’ aren’t needed in the face of that.” Deimos was likely still in Halo, grumbling and counting the days. Whatever concoction they believed her to be making never existed. It’s only their combined paranoia, because Hotaru couldn’t give less of a shit about Torchline at this point.

The next words are clearly meant to hurt her, but the anger is too deep for that. Instead she leans forward, eyes narrowed.

“How’d it feel to kill an innocent? How do you sleep knowing you could have stopped the fire so much sooner with the fire magic you so proudly tote? That you chose the wrong route, and let it burn because of your childish anger?” Snorting she leans back and crosses her legs anew. “Continue your baiting game, girl. I’m done speaking to you. You have my statement, and if you will not contact Morgan, I will simply wait for her to retrieve me.” So saying she stands and maneuvers easily past the Arbiter, gracefully climbing back onto the bed to rest reclined against the wall. A clear dismissal and refusal to talk any further.

- FIN

HOTARU