Astraea

Alecto

There's always enough retribution to be dealt.
~Amber Silvia

* * *

Three years later.

Camilla sat beside a familiar, if not degenerate gravestone. Both silhouettes stood out against the rising sunlight's rays, and both looked worn down and beaten into submission by rain, wind, and lack of care. Camilla's beauty had lost its luster. Her hair hung limply across her shoulders--no longer pinned up--the only trace of her once beautiful features, worn thin by hardships and self-loathing. The breeze whistled through it, and Camilla brushed it all to droop over one shoulder. Glinting against her neck, a silver ring was looped around a chain. It hung heavy on her heart.

Marcellus.

Suddenly she was torn once again between the relief and anguish which had plagued her all these years she had been on the run. Her brother's murderer had payed--blood for blood--but why did she feel so empty? Her lust for revenge had taken its toll on Camilla--physically and mentally. And just as Melody had predicted the night Camilla killed her, Alecto had come after her, a whip of fiery retribution cracking in her hands and flames licking at her heels. The Goddess of Revenge had begun her pursuance of Camilla only moments after Melody's death, rushing her out of the city limits and instilling terror before unknown to Camilla which forever would haunt her mind.

Camilla had been on the run for years now, staying just ahead of Alecto and her stinging whip and words. But now...her strength and health were waning. Camila felt no reason to go on. She had accepted her fate and found herself back in the graveyard on the borders of her city she had abandoned at the sight of Alecto, collapsed before the grave of her brother, the empty cup of libations pressed in her shaking hands.

This is where it had all begun. And this was where it was destined to end.

There was a cool wind, and Camilla's shoulders tensed. She dropped her silver sword, the gift from Astraea and lifted her eyes to the heavens.

"Alecto." Her voice was hoarse. "If you're here to finish me, do it quickly. I wish to see my brother again."

There was a soft, delicate laugh, not like the harsh cackle which had followed her wherever she went, no matter how hard she tried to hide from the Goddess of Revenge. No one could hide from a goddess for long. Camilla frowned, her tears spilling over her cheeks as she glanced behind her to see who had come.

"If you wanted a swift death, I doubt Alecto would give it to you. Especially after all the horrible things you've done in the name of Justice."

Camilla's whole being trembled at the sight of the figure before her.

"Astraea."

The goddess nodded, smiling. Camilla wondered whether her eyes were smiling as well, underneath the blindfold. She doubted it though.

"You've let me down dear, Camilla. I thought I could count on you. But you've twisted my Laws against me and torn my name from my temples, giving it to my sister."

Camilla fell to her knees before the goddess. Astraea took the silver sword from where it had been leaning against her brother's tombstone.

"My gift. My one blessing to you. And you tainted it with innocent blood."

"I--I didn't know--!" Stammered Camilla.