To Be Determined

Chapter Seventeen: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

It all hits at once. It all fucking hits at once. I can't move. I can't speak. I can't even breathe, yet I do it anyway. My ears are ringing like the parlor is dead silent, but in all actuality bodies bustle in and out of it, a dozen or so different people must have been in and out of the room since Asha and I arrived. The only time where I have known there to be peace in the palace was when the Empress and I met face to face in the room where the clocks ticking mocked me. Bell has been acting distant since I visited Iliad in the dungeon the day that we were apprehended. She stands on guard at the edge of the couch, snipping at whoever passes too close to me. Tine, however, curls into my lap. Running my finger across the top of his rested head is the only thing that brings any comfort to these broken bones.

"You simply must excuse the commotion," Kamilia says. She seems entirely unphased by the hustle and bustle of the people whose faces practically blur when they walk past. She is standing in front of a bookcase that spans the length of the entire wall. There were no empty spaces in it either, hundreds of books sat in spots where they have not moved for quite some time. I envy the sedentary of those leather-bound texts. Unsatisfied, she discontinued her search and returned to sit on the lavish sofa across from us. "I looked all over for it but I must have misplaced it. It truly was a spectacular book, no other books on grief can trump it."

"It's alright, I don't think that reading is going to help."

Despite all of the noise going on in the background, all I hear is silence. Nothing seemed to matter. Ever since the execution, it has been hard to breathe, as though I was the one at the end of the noose. In a way, I believe that I was. My skin burned to the point where the vibrations in the air, the clothing that covered my skin, and the lavish seat underneath me were on the cusp of being unbearable. My smile is convincing, even though it is forced. It is one that I had practiced over years of social solitude. Good to know that I still haven't lost my touch.

The tension in the air is humid and thick. Yes, because the three of us are uncertain of what words to speak, but also because I know that my Iliad is in the same institution as I, under the same elegant light fixtures across a mansion's worth of space. I want to run but I do not know where. To him perhaps? My home? Deep in the woods somewhere? None of them sound digestible. So I sit and look straight at my husband's assassin.

"I hope you will accept my apologies for this entire endeavor, justice works mysteriously."

Apparently, Asha had heard enough.

"Justice? Is that what this charade is? This cataclysmic abuse of power? You look us straight in the eyes and act as if this act of retribution is just?"

Tine is now up and moves rapidly up his magician, "Ashara please..."

"No Olyvia, this can't go unaddressed. You can't stand up for yourself anymore so now I will. There was no trial by the people, only a jury where the noblest were cowards. Even if a guilty verdict was destined it would have given the three of us the chance to clear his name, to clear ours. It would have provided closure, but you stripped that away. Now Doctor Iliad Dobrzycki's legacy will go from beloved physician to diabolical villain. Olyvia's will go from esteemed professor to that crazy witch with the evil husband. Neither is true but we can't do anything about it now. This city, this government, this sycophantic agenda took everything that my sister has ever truly had. You knew and you knew damn well that Iliad crashed the system and made it so no replication of the plague could be made. He stopped the entire thing. I understand that the ultimate reason that you strung them up was that nasty wench Joy, who brought the plague into your home under the disguise of a hero. So no I won't sit here and look you ceremoniously in the face when she just witnessed the merciless execution of her other half. You aren't the protagonist here anymore."