three ✦ written

[axwielding]

Professor Raine, I was hoping if I could speak to you about something. It's about my loss. I couldn't think of anyone else that would be able to understand. [Anyone that she's on well enough terms to speak about this with anyways.]

Comments

[ruin_mania]

I can see why you'd come to that conclusion. [Funny how many people say that. And yet, not a single person has looked down on her for being a half-elf. For most of them it doesn't even register as anything significant in the slightest. Galadriel had even welcomed her. It's hard to hate a place where she doesn't have the constant anxiety of her race hanging over her head.]

Of course. What is it you'd like to know?

[axwielding]

how did alicia die? [It was hard enough writing that to consider grammar.]

[ruin_mania]

[Oh, Presea. There's a can of worms if ever there was one. Raine hesitates for a while before deciding how to word her answers.]

Do you remember that they had experimented on her as well as part of the Angelus Project to incubate a Cruxis Crystal?

[axwielding]

[Despair helps up in Presea's chest as she begins to type her answer.]

I think so. It sounds a bit familiar.

[ruin_mania]

Do you recall what happens to those who are given Exspheres or Cruxis Crystals and the reaction goes badly? Specifically, to those who do not have a Key Crest?

[Presea hadn't been there when they discovered Clara, but perhaps she remembered the story - or that of Marble, or even Anna.]

[axwielding]

They turned into monsters, do they not? [Terrible feeling increasing.]

[ruin_mania]

Yes. I am afraid that is what happened with Alicia. After she changed, she begged her former master to kill her.

[axwielding]

[There's a long break before she jots down.]

she was murdered.

[ruin_mania]

[There's another pause as Raine attempts to figure out how to say this without implicating Regal too much.] I would say by those who forced the Crystal on her.

[axwielding]

Why did she have to die? There had to be a way to turn her back!

[ruin_mania]

Because the only known copy of Boltzman's healing technique was in Sylvarant at the time, and Cruxis had no interest in sharing that knowledge. Because the Unicorn's Horn had not been claimed by one in need for four thousand years, that was necessary for the transformation.

Believe me, had such an option been any easier, Kratos would have taken it when his beloved Anna had fallen victim to the same fate.

[axwielding]

Do... you know who had to kill her?

[ruin_mania]

[...There's no easy way to say this.]

Will you hold it against him, knowing what he had to do and why?

[axwielding]

[She takes a moment to think about it.]

I can't make any promises.

[ruin_mania]

Understood. I only ask you attempt to understand the situation, and that it was not a choice made out of cruelty or malice, but in grief and a sense of necessity.

It is the murder for which Regal Bryant was imprisoned.

[axwielding]

Regal Bryant.

I remember traveling with him. I don't understand. How could he do such a thing.

[ruin_mania]

[Raine taps her pen a bit against the paper.]

In self-defense and not without endless following guilt.

[axwielding]

Are you sure?

[ruin_mania]

Yes. It's why he continues to wear the shackles, though he's been a free man for some time. He won't remove them until he forgives himself.

[axwielding]

I see.

Do you know if alicia was happy before she [she stops there, it's difficult to write. Raine should get the point.]

[ruin_mania]

I didn't know her at the time, Presea, but from her spirit's impression in her Exsphere she was happy and prosperous until the experiment. She led a good life until Cruxis cut it short.

[axwielding]

Is there a chance she could appear here someday?

[ruin_mania]

Considering Martel herself is here, yes. It's always a possibility.