A/N: I'm not sure where this came from, to be completely honest with you. It's obviously alternate universe: Yuri dies at Zaude, Sodia keeps it secret until two years later, blah blah. All I have to say is let it play out. I promise, there's a point.
The dagger that started and ended it all laid on the desk between them, finally harmless now. He hadn't known for sure - hadn't even had a reason to feed the flame of doubt that had burned since Zaude - but now it was certain. She had even spoken the words, uttering her guilt to her commanding officer and wondering if it had killed her more to keep it silent or speak it aloud. He knew he couldn't let her stay in the knights. Not after she had killed Yuri Lowell.
Flynn wanted to press his fingertips to his forehead against the headache building, but there was still more to be done in the official role of Commandant. "Why now?" he asked wearily. "Why are you tell me now?"
Without lifting her head, Sodia answered softly "Because it's been two years, sir."
Two years. Flynn closed his eyes briefly. Two years since he helped Brave Vesperia with destroying the Adephagos. Two years since the loss of the blastia. Two years since the battle with the former Commandant Alexei. And if Sodia was telling the truth... two years since she slid her dagger between Yuri's ribs in the resulting confusion. Yuri had needed to be brought to justice for his crimes, and now he never would. He'd never see his face again. That thought made him open his eyes again, steady on his former second-in-command. "You know you'll be thoroughly punished for your crime?" His voice was harsh, but he couldn't help it. Even through it all, Yuri had been his childhood friend. "After Alexei, you are aware no one is to be spared the full punishment of a crime?"
She nodded, her gaze shifting to a point behind him, a soldier's fixed look. Sodia knew all the consequences, and still went forward with it. Flynn nodded to the only other person in the room - a gaping guard, unwilling to believe Sodia would have done such a thing - telling him "Take her into custody" with a steely but not completely unkind tone. Even though... she had still fought by his side. He couldn't stop from being a little soft on her.
Once Sodia left the room in the guard's custody, Flynn let himself sag in his chair, his gloved fingers pressed against his eyelids. Two years of her hiding this, and it couldn't have been revealed at a worse point. While no humans had been attacked, there had been reports of small animals and monsters being found strangely mutilated in towns near Zaphias. There was a feeling it was only a matter of time before a human or a Krityan would turn up in the same fashion. Flynn had planned on leaving for Halure in a few days to investigate, but this would set his plan back by several days. He didn't think Sodia would fight the trial, and the sentencing would go quickly, but he would have to remain to follow it through to the end.
He owned her loyalty that much.
Flynn lowered his hands from his face, in some ways still trying to make sense of what had just happened. Yes, he knew that his second-in-command had just confessed to murder. He knew what he had just done, at least what it had meant. He knew he would never be called to the Lower Quarter again because Yuri was being Yuri and needed a good thumping-
With a shove, he pushed himself away from his desk and stood, trying to distance himself as much from his thoughts. In so many ways, he didn't know what to do now. The woman he always thought would ceaselessly be by his side was now in jail, having slain the man he had grown up with and perhaps knew him better than anyone else. Everyone was looking to him for guidance in of the mutilations, and he knew he would have to make a trip to Dahngrest. Brave Vesperia needed a true resolution as to the fate to one of their guild members. That, he reasoned as he walked out the door to his office, could wait. Or maybe it shouldn't. Repede, at least, would find a measure of closure in the sentencing of the woman that murdered his master.
He paused outside his door, the thought of Brave Vesperia, Repede watching Sodia's body twist in the breeze with a satisfied growl while Karol and Judith look on, with Rita and Lady Estellise in attendance due to the fact this was the woman that took their friend from them- was that really what they wanted? Was that really what they needed? The thought made ihim/i sick - would he really be able to let the people he fought beside see this? His head reeled as he opened the door, the previous decisions needing to be made buried under these new worries. And under it all, a rising tide of sorrow at the confirmation that Yuri wasn't just hiding out somewhere.
What was he going to do?