The Salvation Hunt

XVI. Let's Get To Executing

"What? No! We're not executing them, what the hell!"

"We're not?" Nova cocked her head to the side, still perched on her dragon. She gestured all around them, to the Colosseum, Ground Cirros, the execution grounds... "Why are we here, then?"

"We–well, okay. I don't know. This place is huge and smells like blood and metal and it's kind of gross, and it really kind of seems like they're here for something important," he put up his hands, "But we're not killing them."

"Why?"

"Why? Why? he sputtered. "Because they're my parents, that's why."

"I'm afraid I do not understand, Mr Joule. My duties require that I maintain professional distance from the defendants. My own parents would have been no exception."

"Yeesh," Volta coughed. "Guess you're glad they're just a botanist and an architect.

Nova shrugged. "I'm not sure. They never struck me as evildoers. Perhaps morally... challenged when it came to sacrificing their eldest child to the gods, but no one I would see on the execution grounds." Nova crossed her arms. "Still, the fact remains. If they were, I would have felled them without hesitation."

"I'm... not sure I can say the same." Volta faltered. "It's not just about killing that I'm concerned about, but, like," he gestured to the older human woman. "That's still my mom. That's my dad. They didn't exactly hurt me–"

"Did they not?"

"Well, they didn't do anything to warrant me hurting–"

"That is not what I asked, Mr Joule." Her voice was gentle, but hardened into something firm. Commanding, even. Something about that edge freaked Volta out.

"It's not... their fault, right? They were busy, they were tired. They didn't have the time. it 's not like they didn't want to, they just couldn't–"

"Again, Mr Joule. Did they or did they not hurt you?"

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, almost expecting to bite something back at her, but sighed and hung his head in concession. "Yeah, okay. Fine. I guess you could say I'm... sad or whatever. And it sucked."

"It super fucking sucked."

"It super fucking sucked." He spat the words out as if it physically strained to say them. He threw his hands up. "Happy now?"

"Perhaps. What else?"

"Oh, come on, Nova. Listen to yourself! " he jabbed a finger in her direction, "You know damn well that me saying that they sucked isn't going to make them suck any less. I stopped crying about it years ago. I've moved on already onto actually important things, so can we please–"