𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗶𝗮 ♛ ꜱᴇᴊᴀɴᴜꜱ ᴘʟɪɴᴛʜ

♛𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻♛

After that heartbreak of a finish, Aurelia said her goodbyes to her tribute and left the hall.  They were supposed to go to a different room for their sheets to be collected.  It appeared that the Snows were the only ones able to answer even the most basic questions.  She assumed it paid off to treat the other children like actual human beings.

Dr. Gaul seemed pleased with them, but then turned on the others.  "What happened to the rest of you?"

The room fell silent for just a moment, before Coriolanus spoke in the other mentors' defense.  "I had good luck with my tribute.  She's a talker.  But most of the kids wouldn't communicate.  And even my girl can't see the point in making an effort at the interview."

"And what about you, Ms. Snow?"

Aurelia flicked her eyes from her feet to the desk where Dr. Gaul sat.  "I guess I found what made him click.  Something we had in common.  He doesn't really want to try at the interview either though."

"And why should they?" spoke a voice from a few seats to her left.  "What does it get them?  No matter what they do, they'll be thrown into the arena and left to fend for themselves."

Aurelia didn't even have to look to know who was talking, but she glanced in that direction anyway.  

Sejanus was already looking at her.

"You're the boy with the sandwiches," muttered Dr. Gaul.  "Why did you do it?"

At that question, Aurelia watched the boy tense and move his eyes to his notebook.  "They were starving.  We're going to kill them; do we have to torture them ahead of time as well?"

"Hm.  A rebel sympathizer," said Dr. Gaul.

Still avoiding her gaze, Sejanus continued.  "Hardly rebels.  Some of them were two years old when the war ended. The oldest were eight.  And now that the war's over, they're just citizens of Panem, aren't they?  Same as us?  Isn't that what the anthem says the Capitol does? 'You give us light, you reunite'?  It's supposed to be everyone's government, right?"

Aurelia began to see where Sejanus was going with this.  They were too alike in the way they thought, the way they viewed society, giving her a glimpse into his mind at the current moment.  

"Thats the general idea.  Continue," urged Doctor Gaul.

"Well, then it should protect everyone.  That's its number-one job!  And I don't see how making them fight to the death achieves that," ended Sejanus.  It was a valid point that he made, but Aurelia couldn't see Gaul ceding this argument.

And she didn't.  "Obviously, you don't approve of the Hunger Games.  That must be hard for a mentor.  That must interfere with your assignment."

Finally, Sejanus relaxed his shoulders and glance up from the floor.  "Perhaps you should replace me and assign someone more worthy."

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, Aurelia knew that this was where Sejanus was going to finish, but she assumed Gaul would have some rebuff.

She laughed, out loud, before speaking firmly, "Not on your life, boy.  Compassion is the key to the games.  Empathy, the thing we lack."

Seeing Sejanus's face fall, Aurelia felt the urge to do something, anything.

"He has a point, you know," she spoke without thinking.  Every eye in the room turned to look at her.  Aurelia wasn't know for speaking her views, or even really speaking at all.  Coriolanus was the twin with all the opinions, because he had all the right ones.

"Does he, now?" Doctor Gaul asked, clearly surprised as well as everyone else.

"The way I see it, the districts rebelling against us tells us that there is something wrong.  People don't just willingly sacrifice their lives because they're mildly upset.  The districts had something they needed to say, and the Capitol didn't really listen."

Doctor Gaul didn't affirm this, but she didn't make her stop either, so Aurelia continued.  The words were really flowing now, like a river rushing through a broken dam.

"So how can we support something that doesn't feel right?  As humans, we all have some sort of moral code, and this goes against it.  War goes against it as well, because no human being is born wishing for bloodshed and really wanting to kill.  Everyone is given a motive for what they do, and by forcing those kids to kill each other, I don't think we're really fixing anything.  

"Every child that is lost to the games, every family you hurt, every community that suffers, it's more people adding to a building anger that just stacks on top of more anger until it's raging and pent up.  That's what happened in the first war.  And at some point, I can't tell you when, and we may not even be alive to see it, that anger will explode and we'll just have another war all over again.  And nobody wants that, do they?"

Faint head shakes and murmurs were present in the room.  Dr. Gaul turned a stern eye on the blonde haired girl.  "So what are you saying, do you have a better solution?"

"I guess I'm saying that if we fix the issues in the districts, we won't have to kill their children and they won't have to rebel against us."

Gaul nodded, before speaking once more.  "Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone in the audience felt as passionately about the tributes as these two here?  And they have just given me a marvelous idea.  A way to let people personally affect the outcome of the Games.  Suppose we let the audience send the tributes food in the arena?  Feed them, like your friends here did in the zoo.  Would they feel more involved?"

As the conversation spiraled into gambling and sponsoring, Aurelia shot a terrified glance at Sejanus.  His face read, what have we done?

♛

"Thank you for supporting me in there, even if it ended kind of badly."

Sejanus crept up behind Aurelia in the hall, similar to the way she did just a few days prior.  Was this his way of apologizing?  She really hoped it wasn't, because after what he put her through, she deserved much better.

"I didn't do it for you.  We just happen to have the same beliefs on the Games, that's all."

"That's why we get along so well, huh?" Sejanus said with a smile.  When he smiled, he smiled with his whole face, those brown eyes she had come to know over the years crinkled at the edges.  It took everything in Aurelia's very soul to not forgive him right then and there.  She wanted so badly to be his friend again.  But something in her mind wanted him to feel the same way she did, to know the way he had hurt her.

"We used to."  Aurelia muttered without thinking, and turned on her heel, walking down the hallway, leaving Sejanus Plinth staring after her wondering what went so badly wrong.

♛

screaming crying throwing up

i wanted her to forgive him so bad but they havent fought for long enough

ALSOOOO

anthophilia hit 5k and im so grateful for that and that means alemurity (the sequel) has been released!!!

thank you guys so much and thank you for 1.7k on here!!!

i will be now managing 2 books but i will do my very best to keep regular updates on both

QOTC: do you think aurelia will forgive sejanus soon??

thank you all again :)

drink water or i will break down sobbing <3

-jess