BlackHeart Biohazards

Lucifer Was an Angel As Well (14252 words) by thesavagesabretooth

Additional Tags: Ambiguous Relationships, Dubious Morality, Post-Canon, Inappropriate Behavior, vera has a crush on the man who almost killed her, Extremely toxic, Vera Misham-centric, Kristoph Gavin-centric, not ship not not ship but a secret third thing

Miles Edgeworth has been looking out for Vera Misham since her father’s death, but he’s not the one she considers her guardian angel.
The letters had started almost immediately after the devil was locked away from the sunlight, and she keeps them hidden from everyone despite their influence on her.

Meanwhile in jail, Kristoph tries to weave another spell, and regain some measure of control. Will he be able to secure a deal that allows him his freedom, or anything like it? And what will happen if he does.

–

August 26, 2028– 10:15 am

Vera was almost done with her shopping and packing for police academy. There wasn’t much left to do, and a hum of excitement ran through her body, not only the thrill of her new future.

There were also the letters she’d received back from her guardian angel.

…it pains me to see the wrinkles and smeared ink on your letter– does the thought of me make you cry so much? Or is it really the thought of my absence that upsets you? 

If it’s the latter, I have news that might excite you. Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth will be contacting you very soon to ask you a question that may alter both of our fates…

Vera felt lighter than air as she folded her new wardrobe neatly upon the bed. She still had some shops to visit, some supplies still left to find, but she was nearly ready to face the Police Academy with all the strength she’d worked for these past few years.

The letter still lay open behind her against her desk, a source of strength and joy that she found herself returning to again and again as she bustled about her apartment. The news within, the amazing and unbelievable news, warmed her the way the last letter had left her cold.

Kristoph Gavin may escape the hangman’s noose– the opportunity she’d been hoping for to save her guardian angel…

According to my sources I need three people to speak on my behalf if prosecutor Edgeworth is going to strike a deal. One I already have. The others are yours and Miss Trucy Wright’s. Perhaps you could quietly put in a good word on my behalf?

Vera Misham’s heart fluttered in her chest as she once more turned back to the letter. With a word, she held his life in her delicate, paint-stained fingers. Mr. Edgeworth wanted to know if she forgave Kristoph for what he’d done…if she’d endorse his salvation.

He didn’t–couldn’t– know just how desperately she wanted to give it. And with Mr. Edgeworth’s offer, she no longer needed to throw herself into a drastic measure to save him from the gallows.

The small and fragile smile never left her face as she held the letter to her breast, inhaling its gentle perfume .

“I’ll tell him yes…” she whispered in reply to the written word.

And just like the devil had promised him in his letter, Mr. Edgeworth had sent her a message letting her know that he had a serious matter to discuss, and if it would be alright for him to visit this morning.

She’d responded in the affirmative, busying herself happily with preparing her bags for the big move to the barracks. 

She’d written a reply to her guardian angel and already mailed it out before Edgeworth would ever have the chance to see it. A promise that she’d put in a good word…that, if Mr. Edgeworth’s kindness allowed, she would see him soon.

All that remained of the visible evidence was the letter she held to her chest and refused to hide until it was necessary. 

Of course, it shortly became necessary when– right on time as always– Mr. Edgeworth knocked on the door of her home.

Vera quickly hurried to her drafting table, flipping open the drawer and hiding the letter under its false bottom with the rest.

After carefully closing it, she hurried over to the door and opened it with a bow of her head.

“…Mr. Edgeworth. Thank you for meeting me here, I’ve been busy packing..”

He smiled pleasantly at her, and even performed a little bow. 

“I’m very aware, Vera, thank you for lending me your time. I know you’re in the middle of a lot right now, and I hate to put more on your plate. Hopefully, this will be a simple matter.”

He stepped inside, letting the door close behind him.

Vera raised her freshly painted nails to her lips as she let him inside. 

“Can I make you some tea, or do you think you won’t have time…?” 

“Things are busy at the office right now, admittedly, but I always have time for tea with you, if you’ve got time to spare from your packing.”

He shrugged off his outer coat and hung it on the peg by her doorway, following her toward the kitchen area.

Vera smiled timidly his way with a nod as she bustled along to start the water “Busy at the office huh? Is it with whatever you need to talk to me about?” 

“That’s part of it, yes,” he nodded. “We’re in the middle of doing a lot of restructuring in the department. – is there anything I can help with, or shall I stay out of your way?”

Vera leaned on the counter as the flame flickered to life under her teapot. 

“Just make yourself comfortable…the water’s got to heat before I can do much of anything.”

She put her fingers to her lips again “I heard a little about that from Mr. Wright the last time we spoke..that there were changes happening in the justice system.” 

Edgeworth arranged himself elegantly in one of her kitchen chairs at her insistence and nodded. “Mr. Wright is correct. It’s a big job, but it has to be done.”

Vera thought carefully, disguising it as her usual quiet and hesitant affect. The restructuring of the justice system..; the changing of the very way they treated suspects and prisoners..this was what Kristoph had meant in the letter.

“I think that’s really admirable, sir.” She put her fingers to her lips, before they shifted to wind through the ribbon-wound braid over her shoulder. “The justice system has…has its flaws, we saw some of that in my trial, didn’t we?” 

“I suppose we did, yes,” Edgeworth nodded, leaning on her table. He seemed hesitant, and a little defferent to her today. “But thankfully we managed to get to the right place in the end, despite mistakes and assumptions.”

“Despite mistakes and assumptions…” she trailed off. “Part of why I want to become a detective, Mr. Edgeworth, is to try and help with that. By being one of the people with their hands on the evidence itself…” 

“I look forward to having you on our investigative team, Vera, truly,” he nodded. “Your skills, I know, will be incredibly valuable on the side of the law. Especially once we’ve finished refining how the law is applied.”

Vera smiled a little wider, a rare thing that only flitted on her face for a moment before she twisted her braid around her fingers again.

“I’ll be doing my best, I promise. Maybe I can help— help change the law for the better.” 

“Perhaps.Actually– the application of the law is the reason I’ve come to talk to you today.”

The water heated behind her, she could hear the faint burbling of it inside her old and battered kettle as she fussed her fingers through the ribbon of her braid.

“I’m happy to talk about it, Mr. Edgeworth…what is it?” 

“I’m afraid it’s not a very pleasant subject. So I’ll approach it delicately. Are you familiar with Prosecutor Simon Blackquill?” Edgeworth laid his hands on the table, one over the other as he leaned toward her.

Vera nodded quietly. “Yes sir, I know him. I followed Mr. Justice’s cases on TV. He’s the former death row inmate who was prosecuting for a while while serving his sentence. There was that whole thing with the Cosmos case, too.” 

“He was,” Edgeworth nodded seriously. “He was prosecuting cases for me as part of a larger investigation that I hoped would exonerate him for a crime he didn’t commit– and that is fortunately what happened. However, my actions with that regard have set a… precedent.”

The chief prosecutor spoke carefully, and precisely as he described the situation. As if he were in court in a delicate situation, or a tight corner.

“That someone could be allowed to prosecute from within prison, if they prove to be trustworthy enough?” Vera asked. “or even be exonerated, or pardoned if the situation allows? Just like Simon Blackquill?”

She kept her voice quiet and even, tensing her fingers around her braid. She didn’t want Mr. Edgeworth to think she was getting excited…to think she knew. Her letters had to remain secret, her thoughts on her guardian angel had to remain her own little secret.

He wouldn’t approve.

“Precisely,” he agreed, nodding. “And someone that I consider a dear friend, whose judgment I once trusted implicitly, and still put good stock in, has asked me to consider another case for such a situation. A prisoner has requested to be allowed to work with the prosecutorial department. A matter on which I am seeking your opinion.”

From the way Edgeworth’s stormy grey eyes caught hers, she could tell he was wondering if she would guess what he had to say next, or if he would take her off guard.

Vera’s heart fluttered in her chest, but…she’d always had a good control of her emotions. Her quiet, placid expression never left her face as she tilted her head to the side.

“If you’re coming to me…” she started carefully “then it has to be about that case, yes? Mr. Kristoph Gavin?” 

Edgeworth closed his eyes briefly behind his little glasses, and he could see his hands tense on the table. When he spoke again, his tone carried little urgencies in it– sure to be attempts at reassurances, so that Vera would not recoil in horror.

“Indeed, it is the very same. I will tell you now, that I am very hesitant to even consider the idea. Blackquill, we had good evidence that the conviction was wrongful. You and I both sit here knowing that Kristoph Gavin’s conviction was not. The man is a killer, and I do not trust him. But I have set the precedent, and I must give the matter due and honest consideration.”

Vera opened her mouth to reply, only to be startled by the shrill whistle of the teapot.
She jumped, her hand to her chest before she wheeled around and began setting up Mr. Edgeworth’s tea and her own.

In turning her back to him, she allowed herself the frail and tentative smile that had been threatening to bloom.

“Your friend thinks that he’d make a good candidate for the precedent you’ve set?” she asked quietly. 

“She has made the case to me, yes,” he said delicately. “She was very compelling, admittedly, but I am extremely hesitant. After all, we’ve seen that Mr. Gavin can be both dangerously forward planning, and alarmingly physically violent.”

Vera watched the water pour into one cup after the other, before adding the small metal strainers with her loose leaf tea packed within to each and clipping it to the side.

But he’s so much more than just the darkness. A devil is an angel too, after all. Where he could be physically violent, he could be tender, like when he taught me how to paint my nails. His forward planning could both be dangerous, and helpful…his advice sound.I wouldn’t have gotten this far out of the shell my father kept me in if it weren’t for his encouragement.“That’s true…” Vera murmured quietly. “But I wonder if it’s really true…his violence, or how much of it was circumstance.” 

Edgeworth looked up curiously, and there was a small, sad smile on his face. “That’s very compassionate of you, Vera. I need you to know I am very much not pushing you to agree to this. And rest assured your opinion isn’t the only one that I’ll be considering. I had him speak with a psychologist, trying to ascertain the answer to the very question you mention.”

“And what did the psychologist say?” She asked curiously, placing the mug down in front of him with the faintest smile. 

“She worked up a psychological profile of him that went on for ten pages,” he drawled. “The short version of it is that she thinks he’s stable, and that circumstances that drove him to kill are, in her words ‘unlikely to be repeated’. She believes him to be largely self-interested, and that despite his confidence, he wouldn’t attempt another murder now that he’s been caught. Additionally she– like Lana, my friend– brought up the idea of justice being done by him being given the opportunity to do good in the world rather than evil.”

 Vera sat down opposite him, looking up at him with her dark and serious stare.

“I think I agree with that, Mr. Edgeworth. From what I know of Mr. Gavin…that sounds like him.” Her hands folded around her mug, rubbing the ceramic with the edge of her thumb as she nodded once. “I think he’s not likely to kill again…and I support the chance to let him do some good in the world…though there’s on-one thing…” 

Edgeworth raised his eyebrows, and leaned toward her. “I’m listening, Vera.”

She rubbed her thumb nervously over the hand painted mug’s surface

“If it works out– and he prosecutes for you. If I don’t fail in my time at the Academy…I want you to assign me to him. “ She hesitated before she added– “so I can keep an eye on him.” 

Miles Edgeworth looked at her in sheer disbelief, his eyes wide and his glasses slipping down his nose. “Vera, I– that’s certainly a request I did not expect. I can see why you’d want to keep an eye on him, but wouldn’t you prefer I assign some– mm, more heavy handed watchdog to the man? Should any of this even take place.”

Vera watched every expression flicker over Edgeworth’s face. Perhaps he was thinking about what had happened with Simon Blackquill’s ‘watch dog’

Vera sipped her tea quietly before she worked up an answer. 

“I’m not as weak as I was two years ago…and I don’t think a heavy handed touch would help with Mr. Gavin, anyway.” She looked into the darkened liquid in her cup, and the ripples that flowed as she placed it down again. “I trust myself to keep him in line, and I don’t think I’d be happy if someone else were to watch him on my behalf.”

Miles Edgeworth wrapped his fingers around his cup of tea and took a sip. He made a wildly incorrect guess.

“You think it would be… useful… to remind him constantly of his sins.”

It was a useful lapse of logic for her, at the very least. Better than the unpalatable truth that the devil still held a hold on her heart. She smiled faintly with a nod. 

“Potentially, yes. It could be a reminder…I could be the angel on his shoulder.” 

Yes, the devil certainly had a hold on her heart– maybe his methods had even rubbed off on her. It was a bit manipulative to allow Mr. Edgeworth his misapprehension. But if she didn’t… would she get what she wanted?

“The angel on his shoulder,” Miles repeated, considering. “I suppose that you could be. If this were to move forward. You said that you’d support the idea if I were to allow this condition– shall I assume that if I do not, then you would revoke your consent?”

“I would have to strongly consider it,” she murmured. “but I want him to have the chance to make up for everything he did.” 

I want him to be free…I want to see him again. 

“As if such a thing could be possible,” Edegworth sighed. “Vera, I will consider your request, but I don’t know if I can guarantee it. If nothing else, there will have to be someone else assigned to him while you’re in the academy. I’ll be asking Trucy Wright her opinion next. if, for some reason, she should give her support…”

“Then Mr. Gavin will be given his chance at rehabilitation?” Vera couldn’t help but lean over the table, even if she stifled the hope before it became audible. 

He set his jaw, and wove his fingers together. 

“So far, as well as Lana Skye’s endorsement, my court psychologist, Athena Cykes has given her own firm endorsement. You have given me a hesitant one. In light of this, should Ms. Wright give me her own firm endorsement, I may be forced to allow the precedent to hold. If she’s more hesitant, I may return to confer with both of you on the subject. Vera– if you want to shut this down, all you need to do is give me a firm ‘no’ and it will be spoken of no more.”

Vera grabbed her mug with a quiet smile.

“I want this to happen, Mr. Edgeworth. …I just want to be a part of it. Like I said…” She brushed her finger over the mug. “…Please tell me what Trucy says.” 

August 27, 2028– 4:00 pm

It turned out that Vera didn’t need to ask Mr. Edgeworth to relay Trucy’s reply to her, because the next day, Trucy contacted herself and asked if she could come over and talk about ‘Mr. Edegworth’s question’.

Vera replied– after putting away her half packed suitcase and the partially complete attempt at a painting on her drafting table– telling Trucy that she could come over whenever she wanted.

So Trucy had already been told. Meaning the votes that will determine Kristoph Gavin’s future were cast.

When Trucy came in that afternoon and hung her hat and her magician’s cloak up, Vera could see the dark circles under her eyes, even though she smiled widely.

“Long time no see, Vera!”

Vera smiled at her faintly as she gestured for her to come inside. Her own eyes had dark circles, as they often did, for for once her and her eternally peppy friend seemed to match.

She could guess exactly why…

“Long time no see, Trucy.” she murmured happily. “I’ve missed you..” 

Trucy grabbed her into a little hug. “Aw… I missed you too. I know you’ve been pretty busy, like Pearl, huh?”

Vera squeezed her tight with a quiet laugh. “Yeah…the police academy’s got us both running around getting ready. I still wish I took a little time to visit anyway, though.” 

“It’s okay. I’ve been busy training up my new assistants, too. Seems like everybody’s busy, busy busy.” Trucy chuckled and shook her head as they parted.

Vera nodded, brushing her hair over her ear…she hadn’t had the time to put it into the braid just yet today, and it hung in curls over her shoulders. 

“The world’s changing and we’re changing with it…” She gave Trucy a smile. “…it’s not always a bad thing.”

“Sounds like someone’s excited for the big day.” Trucy smiled, and wandered into the room toward the kitchen. “You must be mostly packed, huh?”

Vera followed closely behind. “Mostly…I need to do another shopping trip for some essentials, mostly. But other than that it’s just the last suitcase…can I get you something to drink?” 

“Sure,” Trucy chirped. “Whatever you’re having– I don’t want to trouble you." 

The magician leaned on Vera’s counter and gazed thoughtfully up at her ceiling.

Vera thought for a moment before she got out some iced tea from inside her fridge, bustling around the kitchen as she worked to get Trucy a glass.

“You’re never trouble, Trucy…you’re one of my friends…” Something precious to her, given her late start and withdrawn personality. 

"You’re too sweet, V.” Trucy smiled, looking at her over her shoulder. “I’m really glad we’re friends. Are you doing okay?”

“I’m glad too, Trucy…” Vera turned with a nervous nod of her head. “Yeah…I mean, I’ve had a lot to think about, admittedly. Are you doing okay?”

She offered her a glass of iced tea, ice clacking against the glass’ sides. 

Trucy took the glass and raised it in salute to her. “Me? Oh yeah, doing just fine you know?”

Vera raised her own glass. “Even with Mr. Edgeworth’s question?” 

“Oh sure!” she said, taking a sip of the tea. “Kind of wild though, you know? Not exactly what I expected from my afternoon!”

Vera blinked a bit at her, before she took a sip of tea as well. “Not what I expected from my afternoon either when Mr. Edgeworth spoke to me…I..ah…I gave the idea my approval.” 

The ice cubes in Trucy’s glass clinked as she jolted. “You did, huh?”

She nodded slowly as she stared into her glass. 

“Yes. I did. I know Mr. Edgeworth wasn’t…happy…to hear it. And I know he killed my father, but I wanted to …” She trailed off before she spoke back up and continued “I wanted to give him the chance to do some good.” 

Trucy looked at her out of the corner of her eye, without turning her head toward her. “What about you, Vera? I mean, you’re the one he tried to kill, right?”

Vera looked at Trucy with a tilt of her head. “And he almost did, yes.”

She had thought about it, the feeling of the poison in her veins, the pulse of agony before she’d fallen into the seemingly endless darkness– the fact that death was hidden in her two favorite things in the world…

Her magic charm, and her favorite stamp of Trucy’s father and his troupe.

She knew Edgeworth, Trucy, Phoenix– they all would have wanted her to hate him for it. 

She couldn’t help but think it was almost mercy. 

She’d been, at that point, condemned to a life of being nothing but a printer of copies. Too scared to leave the house, ever deeper in criminal corruption without even understanding what it was she was doing.

She was glad he failed, and glad she survived. But she could see the logic she knew their surely had to be in the seemingly cruel and heartless action of the devil himself.

“But I-..in trying to poison me, it allowed me to meet all of you and to find a foothold in a life I was never meant to have.” 

“Well, I guess, but it’s not like he meant to do that, right?” She cocked her head at her again, looking at her with her deep, penetrative gaze. “Do you know why he did it?”

Vera’s heart skipped a beat, and her fingers tightened on her glass. “Not 100% for certain, but I have my guesses…strong guesses based on his behavior towards me since I’d met him.” 

“Can I ask?” Trucy brushed her hair out of her face. “Cause.. that’s kind of my hesitation, you know? I know he killed my dad and all, but…”

“But there was a circumstance?” Vera asked a little faster than she knew was ‘acceptable’.

She bit her lip and her manicured nails tapped against the side of her glass. 

“…I think he did it as a twisted way of trying to save me, Trucy.” She looked down into the glass “My life was hopeless when I met him. I was too scared to leave the house, and instead of…of ever doing anything to help me overcome it or even just protecting me as I tried, my father saw my talent for art and turned me into a production mill for forged art. My life was that rotting old house, my father, and my criminal talent.”

Vera frowned thoughtfully. “Papa was a demon who played the ‘kindly old man’ role to perfection. Mr. Gavin…he was kind to me from the moment I met him. I think in his own mind, letting me pass into the next life was the only way I could have been free. That’s why he chose something so quick, if not painless.” 

Trucy’s fingers tightened on her glass, and she nervously chewed the knuckle of her free hand.

“Trying to protect you, huh? From your rotten papa….”

Vera’s smile turned tentative on her face as she nodded. 

“Yes…trying to protect me from my rotten papa…and trying to help me escape the filthy prison I’d grown used to.” She brought her thumb up to her lips, nervously nibbling just under where her nail ended, against the fingertip. “like a guar…guardian angel. So…so I’m willing to give him a chance, provided I can watch over him. It…it sounds like you heard something similar?”

Trucy put her hand down, and bit her lip, looking away. “Something like that, I guess. At least I think I understand a little more. I wanted to know if you’d be upset, you know? And also if, well, he just tried to kill you cause he was completely bad.”

Vera shook her head. 

“…I’m not upset. I’ve actually asked if I can be assigned to him once I graduate…” She chewed her fingertip quietly as she murmured ‘…that makes sense…but no, I think he had a reasoning.” 

Trucy shifted where she was standing and turned to face Vera more fully now.

“You asked to be assigned to him, huh/”

Vera nodded, keeping her expression still and placid as she could. “Yes, I did. Mr. Edgeworth seemed unhappy, but I insisted.” 

“I can see why Mr. Edgeworth wouldn’t be too happy,” Trucy said. She took another long sip of her iced tea. “But if that’s your ambition, then Trucy Wright will support you all the way, got it?”

Vera looked up at her in surprise 

“Trucy…thank you. ..you really are one of the best friends I’ve ever made.” She smiled widely. Cautiously, she reached her hand out towards her. “Whatever your ambition is, you’ll have my support too. Okay? And if you need someone to talk to about…all this…” 

Trucy smiled back, and clasped her hand. “You too, okay? A magician is great at keeping secrets, you know. So you can tell me anything you don’t want to tell anybody else.”

Vera nodded seriously. 

“You’ll be a confidant.” she murmured softly, and her eyes briefly glanced towards her desk “…sworn to secrecy.”

“Magician’s honor. And I trust you to keep my secrets too.”

Vera laughed into her shaking hand “I’m no magician…but I can promise you that I can keep a secret. I won’t tell a soul anything you ask me not to.” 

Trucy put her finger to her lips and nodded. “I trust you, Vera! So that makes us confidants.”

Vera nodded. 

“Confidants, Trucy Wright.” She looked down into her glass before she looked up with a genuine smile “I’ve been keeping correspondence with Mr. Gavin since his imprisonment.” 

Trucy’s hand flew to cover her mouth as she gasped. Her look was shocked– but not necessarily judgemental.

“Oh my goodness, you have?”“Please don’t tell anyone…” Vera’s fingers tightened on her glass. “but he sent me the first letter only a few months after I woke up from my coma. Ever since then we’ve been writing back and forth…he’s given me advice, and I’ve kept him company through the…the written word.” 

“Oh wow…” she chewed on her knuckle. “Right after… I guess it would be easy to send you letters, huh, since you live alone?”

Trucy glanced away thoughtfully.

“Exactly… and something grew out of that. A correspondence, back and forth.“ She looked up at Trucy, her expression making it clear something was on her mind “…thoughts?” 

She bit her lip, looking uncomfortable. "Just that if he ever sent me any letters around that time.. I don’t know that I would have received them.”

Vera nodded slowly, brushing her hair over her ear with a sad half frown. “…Because you live with your father, who…who was very unhappy with Mr. Gavin.” 

Trucy nodded along with her. “Yeah, um. Mr. Gavin and my daddy were very…. close. I think it hurt daddy a lot when it turned out he did what he did, and he got put in prison.”

“I understand…I think Mr. Gavin hurt a lot of people that day. Mr. Wright most of all, perhaps.” Vera sank into her chair. “And Mr. Wright isn’t a man who forgives easy.” 

She followed Vera over and put her arms around her from behind the chair. “He’s super not. Daddy’s amazing and loving and cool and courageous– but he doesn’t forgive people easily at all. So. If Mr. Gavin ever sent me any letters, I didn’t get them. But it sounds like you’ve had quite the correspondence.”

“Sorry you didn’t get any, Trucy. …I can ask him if he ever sent you any, if…if you want me to.” She bit her lip “..I have over five hundred letters in my drafting table…if you want to see some of them.” 

Trucy’s hand flew to her mouth again. “500– in two years? That’s so many…. wow. You guys must have shared a lot by now. Um… honestly, I’m curious, but I think it would feel too rude to snoop on your private letters.”

Vera relaxed a little bit, leaning back into Trucy with a little smile. “That’s fair. We’ve shared a lot…twice a week like clockwork. He’s the one who suggested I try and become a forensic scientist after I lost my inspiration for art.” 

“He is, huh? Well, you seem pretty excited for it.” Trucy leaned down close toward her, unconcerned with personal space as the magician usually was.

A while back, Vera had been nervous about it. She was unused to others, especially so close to her personal space. The attempted kidnapping, her father, they all lead to a certain wariness over her personal space.

But the more she got to know Trucy Wright, the less nervous she got. She had to admit it was a comfort by this point– a sign of friendship and care.

“Of course I am…when he brought up the idea I got excited…more excited than I’d felt in months. My eyes and hands are good for more than just forgeries, after all..”

“It’s true. You can do whatever you want to do with your talent, not just what–” Trucy faulted and fell silent for a moment, and Vera felt her fingers tighten on her, “well, what other people expect you to do with it, you know? You don’t have any duty to just keep doing what you were raised to.”

Vera looked up at her, tilting her head back with a concerned furrow of her brow. Trucy Wright– the magician scion to the Gramarye legacy, her old idols from the only show she’d ever seen, certainly knew about the weight of talent, and the path of expectations.

She’d followed every trial obsessively, tracked every revelation and twist during that tumultuous year in the Wright Anything Agency’s life. She knew the cursed and bloody Gramarye legacy weighed heavy on Trucy’s shoulders…after all…

She’d written part of it with her forger’s hands.

If anyone aside from Mr. Gavin understood her, it was Trucy. And she understood her.

“Nobody’s beholden to what they’re raised to be. Even if it’s hard to break away from it.” ” she quietly agreed. She reached up and put her hand against the side of her face with a sad smile “…Thank you Trucy. I know you understand that as well as I should.” 

“Yeah,” Trucy nodded, leaning her cheek against Vera’s hand. “It can be hard to break away from, but you’re not beholden to it. It’s all up to your own choice. And it sounds like… somebody’s helped you make a good one for yourself.”

Vera nodded, her thin fingers brushed against Trucy’s face with smooth and manicured nails.

“Someone has, and…and I’m embracing the path I chose with the push I needed.” she smiled at her, the implicit continuation on the tip of her tongue. ‘And you can too’.