After almost two more hours of study with the princess, Trucy rubbed her temples. She’d been letting Rayfa quiz her on terms and procedures– and thankfully, getting a lot of it correct.
Studying with Rayfa had been interesting, that was for sure. The young woman was well versed in the court, and its various intricacies like the divination seance– but it seemed occasionally that she’d falter on important words and the occasional concept.
Mostly, it seemed, when it came to the defense.
Still, she approached it with a kind of determined-to-help excitement that she seemed to try and quash into reservation at every opportunity.
It was fascinating in its own way, and honestly a lot more fun than studying alone had been. But admittedly by now, she was losing focus. Even though she didn’t want to admit it.
Her body betrayed her though– in a quiet moment, her stomach growled loudly.
Rayfa’s head snapped up, and her fierce and intensely alert eyes stared Trucy down for a strangely tense moment before she spoke.
“I..” She held her hands up “I have been terribly rude, Attorney Wright. You’re hungry, are you not?”
Trucy balled her hands into fists.
“I can keep going! I’m tough!!” her stomach growled again and she hung her head. Honestly, she was feeling a bit dizzy. “Okay, maybe I’m a bit hungry.”
Rayfa stood suddenly and offered her a hand up.
“L-let me take care of that. I’ll take you to the royal kitchen and have someone whip you u–” She paused for a moment, and twisted her looped braid around her finger. “Or is it more polite for me to cook it myself? Either way, please, follow me.”
“Oh! Do you cook?” Trucy asked cheerfully. “Its something I’ve kind of been wanting to learn to do, myself. My daddy’s great but he’s a really lousy cook.”
“Barbed head cannot do something as elementary as cook? Tsk…” Rayfa shook her head with a huff as turned and bent down to grab her cloak, buttoning it around her shoulders with a prideful smile. “I shall wow you with my cooking prowess, Miss Wright! Follow me! Perhaps you may learn more than just law in my company!”
With that, the young princess pushed out of the study.
Trucy happily followed Rayfa out into the palace halls, wondering if there was a way she could manage to tease her dad with ‘barbed head’ when she got back.
“I sure wouldn’t say no! Maybe I could teach you a magic trick or two if you wanted. It’s okay to share secrets if it’s with an apprentice magician,.”
Rafya walked with her hands folded behind her cloak, sneaking peeks at Trucy with wide and curious eyes that she tried to hide. She flushed and ducked her head.
“Apprentice magician, me? …mother would say it was a waste of my time when I haven’t learned all there is to know about leadership…but…”She bit her lip “yes? Yes please.”
“Awesome!” Trucy bounced on her heels as she followed her. “We can do an exchange of skills. But– how come she’d say its a waste of time? I mean, if you wanted to tell me…”
Rayfa’s eyes glanced around…there were some guards in the hallway, who she looked up at with a slight downturn of her lips before she lowered her voice with a shake of her head.
“An exchange of skills seems amenable to me.“ She turned down a hall, past a tapestry of Khura’in’s…it looked like maybe a founding, going by the faceless woman and the masses…and a few old weapons kept free of dust.
“Mother gets disappointed when I become distracted,” she started in a quiet voice to Trucy. “I’ve already wasted too much time being raised as a…a spoiled housecat…when I should have been learning to carry the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. The responsibility of the people– their hopes and wishes for this country.”
"That sounds like a ton of responsibility,” Trucy murmured. “Is she a good role model? She must work herself to death, huh?”
“Of course it is!” Rayfa sniffed– the thought that it might be derisive died when she sniffed again “It’s what I was born to do, even if my father lived in disgrace, I was born to lead this country and give everything I had to the people.”
She placed her hand on her chest and intoned “What you want does not come first. Or second. Your people come first. The country comes first. That is the duty of a princess or a queen.”
The words didn’t sound like hers, not with how practiced they were, or the way her voice shook when she said them. “….” she fell quiet for a moment before she said “my mother works very hard…preparing me for the crown. She’s abdicated from the throne, however. Her time is spent undoing the m…mistakes of my fath—false parents.”
“Oh.” Trucy was starting to get the sense that there was a lot to unpack here. The question was, where to start. “Um…false parents?”
Rayfa hurried along, until they came to a dining hall, and shut the door behind them with a word to the guard to leave them be.
She took a deep breath. “Do you remember Queen Ga’ran and Inga? The victim and prosecutor of that case you attended.”
“Yeah, I do remember them,” Trucy said, biting her lip. “A little anyway.”
“I was raised by them.” Rayfa said with a chilly coldness to her tone. “…Queen Ga’ran took me from my mother, and tasked her to raise me as a nanny…and Inga took me in as his daughter.”
“You were going to call him your father, weren’t you?” she asked as she looked around the dining hall with curiosity. “A minute ago.”
Rayfa jolted and her hand went once more to her heart.
“N-no, of course not. I..He…” The young queen-to-be was shaking as she gripped her chest, “he spoiled me like a housecat , and left me struggling to prepare for the burden of rule. He was an evil man. Mother says…”
Uhoh. This is above the Trucy Wright paygrade, but we’re gonna fake it til we make it. This sounds a lot like when Mr. Edgeworth gets upset…
Trucy carefully approached Rayfa, and put her hands on her shoulders to steady her. “Rayfa… um, by spoil you, do you mean that he was nice to you?”
Rayfa jolted slightly, but she took soft, shaking breaths as Trucy’s hands settled against her quivering shoulders.
“Ah..yes. He was kind to me…he’d bring me things for my garden and for my room. He’d let me make him medicine and tell me all sorts of stories…he acted like he loved me, and cared for me…I thought he was a hero…but…but mother…”
“Rayfa,” she said her name again to ground her, hopefully. “Rayfa that’s how a dad is supposed to act. He did that cause he’s your daddy, no matter what else he was, okay? Blood isn’t the only thing that makes family.”
Rayfa sniffed softly, and Trucy heard her hiccup.
“He was always there when I was upset. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what he was doing as the Minister of Justice.” She reached up slowly and wiped her eyes. “That is correct, Miss Wright. He’s my daddy. but my mother, she says he’s r-ruined me. That his s-spoiling made me unfit to do my duties without atonement and sacrifice.”
She looked up at Trucy with watering eyes.
Trucy bit her lip. “Your mom– the one who’s saying this…. she didn’t like your daddy, did she?”
Rayfa shook her head. “n-no, Miss Wright. She did not. Even less than her sister, who she…she seemed to believe in until that…that verdict was handed down.”
“I don’t like to say this, but I think maybe some of her words here are coming from jealousy, or bitterness, Rayfa. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about you or anything like that. But those sound like destructive, tearing down words, not supportive, confidence building words.”
Rayfa brought her balled up fists to her mouth “…destructive, tearing down words…?”
“Words that make you feel bad about yourself, and tear down your feelings, instead of words that help you grow and learn,” Trucy said patiently. She was no expert. It was above her paygrade. It was all pulled from daytime talk shows, things she’d heard Mr. Edgeworth saying, and old psychology books left around the apartment that she was pretty sure had been gifted to her daddy from Kristoph Gavin and ended up in her room as part of a… joke.
Rayfa straightened a little under her touch, her hands pressed over her mouth as she took another deep breath.
“…I …I see.” She swallowed, Trucy could feel the way her back tensed before she said “My feelings are secondary to my duty as a queen, Miss Wright. I…I have to simply grow and learn no matter the s-sorts of words mother is fond of using.”
“Well, I mean, we all have to grow and learn,” Trucy said. “but your feelings shouldn’t be secondary. I do get that being a queen is a huge deal though. Probably more important than even being a magician…”
Even being a magician as important as a Gramarye. But somehow she could still relate. Her conversation with Vera came to mind once more, the talk of responsibility and the weight of a legacy.
She knew how heavy that could feel on a girl Rayfa’s age, even if the weight couldn’t begin to compare.
“My feelings are secondary.” Rayfa said sharply, though Trucy heard the way it warbled without conviction “I’m secondary! Tertiary! It’s the country, the people…our faith that comes first. J-just like your magic, yes?”
The girl turned and looked up at her with watering green eyes “it’s my legacy, Miss Wright! I’m a queen first..”
And a person second. She didn’t finish it, but it was clear what she was trying to say.
Trucy bit her lip so hard it almost bled. “And I’m supposed to be a great magician, not a lawyer,” she said finally. “What do you want to be, Rayfa?”
Rayfa looked down, quickly and obviously trying to shut down her own answer. “it’s n-not proper of me to speculate on such things.”
Trucy squeezed her shoulders. “Well, not everyone’s proper all the time…”
Rayfa looked up at her with a quiver to her lip. She took a deep breath before she whispered
“I don’t know for sure…but I am fascinated by the techniques Miss Skye performs.” Her head hung low “…I started to daydream about being like her…using s-science to solve mysteries and help others find justice outside of the divination seance.”
“So, you want to be a forensic investigator?” Trucy said brightly. “That’s so cool though. I totally love watching Ema– Miss Skye work too. Like I said, I’m supposed to be a magician, but my daddy… he’s inspiring too, you know?”
Rayfa nodded shyly.
“or something like it, yes…” Her hands twisted together, but something like a smile crossed her face again “i-isn’t it cool? Miss Skye is impressive…inspiring. J-just like my big brother on the prosecutor’s bench…or Mr. Apollo Justice when he defends. But I w-want to be like her. With the chemicals and the determining time of death and everything!!”
She took a breath, having not taken one in since she’d managed to speak her wish for who she’d want to be into the world. She composed herself before she smiled curiously. “…you are supposed to be a magician? I remember you talking about magic tricks when I ran into you…but you’re studying law…because of your daddy? Mr. Wright…”
“Yeah…” she fussed with her hat. “It’s a pretty complicated situation actually. I’m supposed to be the heir to a great magician legacy. The greatest ever, really. And I’m supposed to carry on the tradition.”
Trucy had wanted to. For a long time it was the only thing she had really wanted. To live up to the Gramarye legacy. To make her father– her magician father– proud of her in his absence. To be the person she’d been born to be.
But lately the only thing she thought about when she thought of the Gramarye legacy was how much pain it had caused. Not just her– but everyone.
Mr. Reus had talked about them like they were a curse, and no matter how hard Trucy tried to find the joy she once felt… and the urge to make her birth father proud… all she could see was the blood and loss. Magnifi’s scheme, the division between ‘brothers’, abandonment… Thalassa… secrets, they were all part of a legacy of pain.
Rayfa watched her with big, green eyes. Her hands were clenched before her, balled into fists against the clasp of her ornate cloak as she listened and nodded.
“…that’s a heavy legacy to bear” she murmured “…the greatest magicians ever…I would imagine it would leave you no time to follow in your daddy’s footsteps too, no?”
She shook her head thinking about it.
“No, not if I wanted to live up to the legacy. It’d be my whole life. It’s been what I’ve been working toward for years, but…” Trucy shrugged. “There’s a lot of bad stuff in the history that I’ve found out about.”
It wasn’t something she’d opened up about with anyone yet. Not her daddy. Not Pearl. Definitely not the De Famme sisters. Maybe it felt safer to tell a near stranger. Maybe there was just something like herself she saw in the sad young princess.
“Bad stuff in the history…” Rayfa’s fingers tightened around one another “yet it’s supposed to be your whole life. Meaning the burden of that bad stuff would fall upon your shoulders, yes?”
Trucy let go of her, and she leaned heavily against one of the counters, sagging. “Yeah. And… everybody’s done a lot of bad stuff to uphold this legacy. I’m afraid I’ll start… doing something like that too.”
Rayfa bit her lip “it’s a frightful thought, Miss Trucy Wright. A heavy thought, too.” She inched over and tentatively put her hand on her arm. “I understand the fear well…”
Trucy leaned into her a little and nodded. “I bet. Seems like we kinda have a bit in common. If you don’t mind me saying.”
“I don’t mind in the least…” Rayfa flashed her a sad smile “it isn’t often I meet someone who understands. Much less one I can talk to so easily.”
She put her fingers to her chin, looking down, “If you don’t mind me saying, you’ve taken to law no? Does that mean you’re turning away from that difficult legacy?”
Trucy hesitated. Did it mean that? She’d only volunteered to help out Apollo and Klavier– it wasn’t as if she had any real intention of being a lawyer– did she?
She remembered all those times in court next to Apollo. The tension. The excitement. More surprising than a magic trick.
“I…” she began, and then closed her mouth. She couldn’t help but think about the view from behind that bench, the evidence making its grand debut to turn the case around. It was thrilling…and in the end, justice was done with a cloud of confetti and the smile of someone who came out the other side of the worst day of their lives.
And wasn’t that beautiful? The time she was in their shoes, standing behind the podium as a man told her she deserved to burn for the sins of her grandfather…she couldn’t help but compare. The Gramarye Secrets in their locked little book brought smiles to the faces of the crowd, and blood to the hands of those who kept them. How long was it until the legacy fell to her? Would Bonny and Betty become jealous of the secrets within the book?
Would Apollo? Or would yet another person her grandfather hurt crawl from the darkness to tear her down?
It was all she could see anymore when she thought of that grand stage.
“W-well…”
Rayfa was looking at her with a furrow of her brow and a small and worried pout. She had to say something.
Daddy had always been so supportive of her, and her magic acts. They had even helped support them while he was disbarred. But… he wasn’t any more. He was a lawyer again.
Would he be proud of her, if she wanted to follow in his footsteps.
The Gramaye legacy. It was a legacy of cheering applause in the name of tricks and illusions. Smiles brought to people’s faces, all while there was scheming and blood in the background that the audience would never know.
Except sometimes they found out anyway.
What would a Wright family legacy look like?
She thought of the marvelous turnabouts in court, and the smiles on the faces of the defendants whose whole lives and livelihoods her daddy and Apollo, and Athena had saved.
That happiness wasn’t a trick, or an illusion.
She took off her hat, and put it on the counter beside her.
“Yeah. I– I’m turning away from that legacy,” she said quietly, as her hair fell in her face. “I want to be more like my daddy– my adopted daddy– than the family legacy I was born to follow.”
“Oh..” Rayfa’s hand suddenly touched her arm, thin fingers giving it a squeeze. Trucy could feel she was shaking again “that is very brave of you, Miss Trucy Wright.”
She took a soft breath “…Mr. Barb– Wright, I had many fights with him while he was here, but he helped me understand a truth that saved my brother and my country. To follow in the footsteps of your adopted father rather than the legacy you were born for takes strength…but I think in his footsteps, you will make an amazing lawyer.”
"Thanks, Rayfa,“ Trucy murmured gently, leaning closer to her again. Her heart was beating fast, but there was a kind of lightness in her chest. Like a weight had been lifted.
The moment would have been more somber if her stomach hadn’t growled again.
Rayfa leaned just the slightest on her for a moment…close enough that she startled when she heard the growl. She hopped back up and bowed deeply.
“O-oh! Ah…sorry…I had gotten so invested in our talk that I neglected the reason we came here.” Peeking over her shoulder at the kitchen, “I’ll prepare you the finest meal I can, please… have a seat. As thanks for telling me your story.”
Trucy was grateful for the talk. And for her own resolution
But she was also deeply grateful for the distraction, too. She had a lot to think about.
"Thanks for telling me yours, too, Rayfa.” She rolled up her sleeves. “Now!! Let’s get cooking! You can tell me the stuff you need and I’ll get it for you.”
The young woman seemed to have a lot on her mind as well…there was a thoughtful furrow in her brow even as she put her hands on her hips with a broad smile “Alright! Be prepared! It shall be the finest meal you have ever laid upon your tongue!”
Her smile turned suddenly sheepish as she declared “I don’t know how to make anything but herbal teas and a simple curry. But it’ll be the best you’ve had! I swear!”
Trucy laughed. “Herbal tea and curry sounds great!”
October 4, 2028– 12:40 pm
Apollo noticed that none of them were letting each other out of their sight as they headed back into the palace together, and he wasn’t exempt from it. He stayed close to Ema, Nahyuta and Kalvier as if they were a pack– as if an attack could come from any direction.
It really felt like it could.
I’m really not loving this whole random violence, ‘Pollo.
Yeah, me neither… Do you think Klavier’s nose will be okay?
Worried it’s going to ruin his pretty good looks?Ema looked twitchier than usual– he noticed she was reaching for the pocket he knew she kept her cigarettes in, her fingers twitching nervously as she walked closer to him and Nahyuta.
Everyone was on edge…even Nahyuta. His expression was clouded, but why wouldn’t it be? His father’s movement was turning against him piece by piece.
Apollo wasn’t surprised. Especially about Ema. Especially with what they’d been talking about, and what she and Clay had been talking about before.
As they passed through the quiet hallway, Klavier asked “So what do we do now” at the same time that Apollo had leaned over to Ema to say “We should have that talk.”
Ema pulled out her cigarettes and tapped one out to place between her lips with a nod.
“Yeah, we should.” She spoke up. “Nahyuta…we gotta talk to you in private.”
Nahyuta was silent, still staring off into the distance as he walked. Lost in his own head.
Apollo startled– he hadn’t expected her to want to include Nahyuta immediately. But he realized he shouldn’t be surprised.
“’Yuta?” he repeated, trying to shake him out of his head and back Ema up. He noticed Klavier cock his head with interest. Probably wondering if he was invited too.
Ema pulled her lighter out and looked at Klavier to whisper something to him. Klavier seemed to brighten, and nod.
Nahyuta shook out of it, blinking quickly to look down at him with a subtle smile. “Pollo…sorry. I was just thinking about the schism.”
Apollo grabbed Nahyuta’s hand. “Yeah, I thought so. Look– I think we should all regroup and talk about this stuff. Does that sound right to you, ‘Yuta?”
Nahyuta sighed, and pushed his hand through his hair with a nod “….yes, I believe that’s for the best.“
"Maybe somewhere a little more comfortable than an office, ja?” Klavier suggested. “Or at least less formal?”
“Less formal than an office?” Nahyuta closed his eyes. “…alright, I’ll take you to my bedchambers.”
“Forward, Yuta.” Ema puffed at her cigarette, the smoke curling into the bright blue sky above “sounds like a date.”
“Sadly not as much of a romantic mood as I was hoping earlier in the day,” Klavier sighed. “But still, who knows what the day will bring?”
“We’ve already proven anything could happen,” Clay grumbled. Apollo winced a little as it came out of his mouth. But he wasn’t wrong.
Ema laughed sharply, and exhaled her smoke. “Yeah, we sure goddamn have.”
Nahyuta gave them a tired smile, and led them back to the palace and towards his room.
A few minutes later they were settled there in the couches around the tea table. Apollo had sat himself next to Klavier, feeling bad about his nose and everything else, and Ema across from them with Nahyuta.
Ema gave Klavier another look of worry— made sense given she had a front row seat to the bruising that was setting in, before she took a deep breath. “so we all agree things are going to hell, right?”
“I would not put it quite so direly,” Nahyuta said as he folded his hands on his lap. “but they aren’t good.”
“Mein prinz, I have to say public brawls with government officials over public policy is pretty dire,” Klavier said.
Government officials?
He means us, ‘Pollo.
Ema laughed tensely.
“Yeah, it’s pretty dire when the brawls start, Yuta. Tempers are rising, you know?” Her fingers tightened on her lap “I think it’s time we had a frank talk about the viability of the system as it stands.”
Nahyuta sighed quietly “…I was afraid that was where this was going.”
“It’s hard not to talk about it,” Clay said, rubbing the back of their neck. They felt sore– their own bruises already starting to form over their face and chest. “Especially now that the politics have come up.”
Ema nodded slowly, rubbing gently at her forehead.
“There’s a contingent of communists who want to rid the country of monarchist rule. Which, given the monarchy before you guys, I can see why they’re unhappy.”
Nahyuta frowned. “Yet we deposed Ga’ran and they didn’t speak then– they have waited until Rayfa has settled into her rule and escalated into violence.”
Klavier raised his hand. “Ah, I was not here so forgive me– but did they have an opportunity to speak then? Were there perhaps messages that were ignored or intercepted, or anything like that?”
Apollo made a face. It was a fair question. “I have no idea.”
Nahyuta’s eyes closed “I didn’t receive anything of the sort, though I admit…when the change in rule occurred, I was tasked with my prosecutorial duties and that sort of correspondence was handled by other parties. Interception is possible.”
Ema leaned her head back. “Great…which makes them think they’re being ignored, which makes them violent.”
Apollo rubbed his chin. “Yeah, a lot of the stuff at the palace was being handled by clerks and things. Some of whom have been around a long time. It’s possible they just… got rid of that kind of stuff, assuming we didn’t want to see it. It wouldn’t even have to be, you know, ill meaning.”
“Just typical government paperwork, ja?” Klavier sighed.
“Precisely…” Nahyuta hummed quietly. “Which as Miss Skye stated, leads them to feeling ignored and thus more likely to take drastic measures.”
Ema gestured to Apollo and Klavier. “Which they’re already starting. Who knows when it’s gonna be something bigger than a fist to the face.”
“Could be any time,” Clay murmured.
Klavier leaned forward, putting his hands together. “So what do we do about that?”
“Weather the storm and reassure the people. Find a way to extend the branch of peace to the schism dragons” Nahyuta murmured “for the safety of Rayfa and her future.”
“Yuta, babe…” Ema spoke up. “…this could lead to Rayfa and you being executed if it gets bad enough.”
“We already talked a little bit about that, didn’t we?” Apollo murmured, leaning toward him. “We have to be realistic, politically, ‘Yuta. You talk about weathering the storm, but what are we going to do? Put 50 Dragons who used to be our brothers in jail? Cause we can’t let them run around inciting violence.”
“For wanting political reform,” Klavier added quietly.
Nahyuta winced, his lips tightening and his eyes staying closed as his arms crossed delicately over his chest.
“I don’t wish to imprison any of them for wanting reform…I don’t want that to be necessary.”
Ema tented her fingers “nobody wants to…but they’re inciting violence sure…but it is in the name of reform.” her voice shook a little as she continued “Nahyuta, I think we need to talk seriously about abdication. I KNOW you and Rayfa have been suffering these last few months. I know you don’t want this either!”
Klavier cocked his head. “We spoke a little of this earlier, ja, Nahyuta? ‘Yuta is a cute nickname by the way– may I?”
Nahyuta flushed very slightly and finally opened his eyes with a nod.
“…of course. I’d like it if you did.” He took a deep breath “but we did…and I admitted you had a bit of a point.”
Klavier smiled, and probably only Apollo and maybe Ema would notice the nervous edge to its bright gleam.
“’Yuta– I’m an outsider here. I know that. But I have to say, things don’t look good. You and your sister are being asked to run the whole country. Your clerks and administrators are full of people you’re not sure if you can trust to pass on important messages. The people who supported you once are not stepping up to help you run the country, and half of them want you out of power. You really only have three ways this situation can go.”
Apollo didn’t like it, but he had a point. “Three ways?”
“First,” Klavier said, “You can resort to tyranny. Lock up those who disagree with your regime. Use force where words will not do. Show them that your resolve and your regime is strong and unyielding. Make them bow to you as a leader.”
Nahyuta’s fingers balled into fists against his sides as he nodded. “my aunt’s preferred method, yes.”
“I am not suggesting its route, but it is effective,” Klavier said. “It possibly the only effective route to cement your monarchy against those who want to abolish it, mein prinz.”
“Okay, what are our other options?” Apollo asked. He could tell Klavier was putting on a show. Might as well help him out.
“The second option is that you continue as you have been. You continue to attempt to rule fairly and justly in a position in which you have no allies, and too much work, where your enemies are closing in on you and you refuse to raise your hand to them out of mercy, ja? That is the course that you are suggesting, mein prinz, and it is… unsustainable. It will come to a natural end, one way or another.”
“You’ll fucking die.” Ema spat in frustration, her head still laid back against the back of the couch.
“Either through overwork or revolution, yes…” Nahyuta sighed, twisting his braid around his hand.
“The third option is that you abdicate while the abdicating is good,” Klavier said. “It is not as bad as it sounds. These communists– you say that they were your brothers until recently, ja? So you must have some trust in them. If they want so badly to run a free government, let them have it. Mein engel, it should not be on the shoulders of one brave man and a little girl to rule a whole nation, no matter how romantic the idea is in stories. I have read many of these stories, and so many of them end with brave dead men, and weeping little girls.”
Klavier was in fine form. His words send a shiver through Apollo. It was amazing how much of a performer he was. How much weight his words carried.
Apollo didn’t want to face any of this, but when Klavier said it, it sounded obvious.
Ema tensed, and her shoulders shook as she took a deep breath.
“The glimmorous fop is right. I’ve been scared that was how this would all end since the first batch of dragons refused to help you defend or prosecute the other cases.”
Nahyuta was struck. At some point he opened his eyes, and at some point his fingers rested over his heart. “I…see.” he murmured in deep concern, “brave dead men and weeping little girls…”
“I don’t know what Dhurke would have wanted in this situation,” Apollo murmured plaintively to Nahyuta. “I don’t know what he would have done– because he would never have been in this situation. But he’s not here. I want to carry on his will, his dream, of returning Khura’in to its glory– but I don’t know how to do that. Do you, ‘Yuta?”
They realized with a start that there wasn’t a meaningful distinction between Apollo and Clay right now. There had been earlier– it had been obvious, broad. But now Clay’s feelings were his, and his feelings were Clay’s. Apollo couldn’t summon up the suicidal– yes, suicidal– willingness to die for Dhurke’s cause now. Nor could Clay summon up the will to just… get up and leave.
Nahyuta’s cool demeanor wavered for only a moment, a look of terror and dismay in his eyes before he stilled it with a deep breath “…Dhurke would have continued fighting for the glory of Khura’in…I..”
His body went rigid as he muttered “I do not know how to do it, Apollo…but a dragon never yie—”
“The dragon fucking DIED!” Ema almost shrieked as she flung herself up from leaning her head back on the couch, looking over at him with wide eyes. “he died and dumped all of this on your laps without anything to support you!”
“I– he didn’t– that wasn’t his fault,” they sputtered. “Dhurke didn’t know that the Defiant Dragons would fall apart like this,”
Klavier put his hand on Apollo’s shoulder. “Ja, but they did. And you have to face that. If you want to fight, Apollo, ‘Yuta– they you’re going to have to actually fight. That is what I am saying."
He stood up from the couch as he continued speaking, and he raised his chin. "It is not good enough simply never to yield. If you are under attack you can fight, or you can run. But you two are talking about simply waiting for the jaws to close around you as if that were noble. I like to think that I am a good man, justitia knows I have faltered, but if you bring out the tanks and the guns, I will lay down my pretensions to sainthood. I will support you if you choose to fight and refuse to yield. But I will not let you just let yourselves drown!”
Ema sighed and smiled up at him with a nod “that’s right…that’s damn right. You two can’t just sit here and drown. That’s not going to do anything for you, for Khura’in, or for Rayfa; It’s fight or run, and I’ll support you no matter what you choose.”
Nahyuta’s surprised eyes widened. They watered as he took a sharp intake of breath. “Fight or run.” he murmured quietly to himself. His whole body shuddered for a moment before he managed to speak.
“I will not let myself become another tyrant for Rayfa to suffer under.”
Thank goodness.
They felt themself shudder as Apollo felt Clay– separate from him again, and triumphant– while all the air had rushed out of Apollo. There was a thickness in his throat. Had they really come all this way to let Dhurke’s dream falter?
That’s not what we’re doing, Apollo. At a basic level Dhurke’s dream has already come true, and you’ve done all that you can to support it. Let someone else take over now.
I guess. But it feels wrong.
Do you want Nahyuta and Rayfa to be killed? Do you want to be killed?
Me? You know I’ve thought about it.
I don’t want to die again, Apollo. And I don’t want you to die. Nahyuta won’t fight– and he’s right to turn from bloodshed. So we’ll run. It’s not our responsibility. It’s not our mess.
Am I a coward for this, Clay? I feel like a coward.
You’re no coward, my love. You’re a hero. You’re helping save their lives.
Apollo thought of Rayfa’s fear and sadness under the assault of her mother’s words. He thought of the dead flowers. He thought of Nahyuta hunched at his desk, and the time they;d been unable to spend together.
“For Rayfa’s sake,” Apollo croaked out. “Yeah. Yeah. We– we can’t let her be used as some political token. We can’t go to war to keep her in power for a position that’s already killing her.”
Ema nodded. “We’ve seen the way she’s been wilting, right? Between he way Amara’s been treating her, and the weight of the crown…she’s still a kid, dammit. And YOU Nahyuta…you’ve been crushed under it too.”
Nahyuta grit his teeth…a trail of tears leaked out from under the pale fringe of his hair as he took another deep breath. “I refuse to allow it. She’s had enough of being a tool for others to keep hold of this country. If…if abdication is the only way, then I will support it if the alternative is becoming a monster like my aunt– a woman twisted by this legacy of fire.”
Apollo watched Klavier move toward the other couch, and he scrambled up as well, hurrying over to put himself practically in Nahyuta’s lap as Klavier collapsed gracefully into a kneeling sit on the floor in front of the couch.
Apollo put his arms around Nahyuta’s shoulders without a word.
“She deserves better than such a legacy, ja, mein engel,” Klavier murmured. “and so do you. Let the communists have the country, ja? And you can have your own life. You are worth your own life.”
Nahyuta looked in pain, Ema draping over his side with a plaintive look as he took several deep and steadying breaths. His fingers rested against his beads as tears flowed down his face in uneven trails, as if they had no well trod path to follow on the normally stoic man’s face..
“…We…we should speak to Rayfa.” he said in a low voice as he looked down at Klavier, leaned into the embrace from all sides. “If you all insist, if Apollo will yield…then I will yield as well. But we must speak to Rayfa.”
Apollo held Nahyuta tight, his own breath hitching in his chest. “Should we do it now? Before we have time to change our minds? I– it hurts, ‘Yuta. It hurts to think about. But all we’ve done here is be crushed under the weight of the world. I want to… I want to let Klavier win this one. And Ema.”
Klavier, still on his knees, smiled gently. “Let us take you away from all this.”
Ema nodded and squeezed his arm. “I promise, you’ll be happier. I know how much you love learning new stuff, Yuta…I saw how much fun you were having in LA.”
Nahyuta nodded “It hurts…very much.” He murmured “but let’s go now before I start to second guess. It’s true…I already miss travel, and the joy of experience.”
He offered a hand to Klavier to help him up with a quiet smile, framed by tears “I’ll accept this offer of salvation. Thank you.”
Apollo wiped traces of tears from his own face as he stood up, and let Klavier help Nahyuta to his feet. “Yeah… thanks, Klavier.”
“Any time. Promise.” Klavier smiled as he pulled Nahyuta up, and Apollo let himself half rest on Ema’s shoulder.
