Character: Elise Deauxnim/Misty Fey

Chapter Summary: She may have been gone for seventeen years, but a mother knows best. (In which Elise protects Maya, in a much more different way.)

Note: I wish we got to know Elise (what I'm going to be referring to her as throughout the rest of the chapter, sorry in advance if you prefer me using Misty!) more in 3-5. But I guess we got to know her longer than most victims, if that counts. I've always had this run through my mind several times - what if she had more time to speak to this 'Mr. Wright' she knew was looking after her daughter?

Elise starts off by preparing to do her part of the Prosecutor's plan: get close to Pearl and prevent her from following any of the instructions given to her by her mother, Morgan Fey. Pearl's participation was the sole catalyst of the entire scheme set by Morgan to completely rid of the main Fey bloodline in hopes of pushing for the nine-year old to inherit the title of Master of Kurain Channeling Technique. If only Elise could just distract Pearl enough to get her to forgo her duties... they - they wouldn't have to go to drastic measures.

Even so, Elise was prepared to fight for Maya. She reaches up to grasp at the charm clasped to her beaded necklace, hidden neatly underneath her black robe. The Master's talisman... Elise's thumbs knead the surface, feeling the encrusted Master's insignia and the wrinkle of the old photograph stashed inside the red talisman. A surge of guilt shudders throughout her body.

She had already lost one of them. Mia... she was dead now; murdered due to Elise's own incompetence - her shame had hurt the village, but now it was hurting her children. She is going to make sure Maya grows up and lives a happy life, with or without her mother.

...Mother? Can she even call herself that anymore, after all that's happened?

Elise supposes not, but she is okay with that. As long as Maya is alright... she is okay with just watching.

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Elise is smiling jovially after her talk with one Mr. Phoenix Wright and Maya, hand steady on her staff as she cocks her head to the side. "Well, you'll have to excuse me now." Elise nods over to the large cauldron that was being generously pre-heated from the fire in the middle of the room. It was one of the only sources of heat in the temple, the cold being one of the important factors in tapping into the potential of channeling spirits. "I have to go help with the dinner preparations."

Pearl bounces on her toes at this, craning her head to gain her idol's attention. Having done this, she exclaims happily, her eyes gleaming in admiration, "Wow! You mean you're cooking dinner tonight?"

"That's right. Would you like to help too, Pearl?" Elise asks, tucking her book beneath her arm. She bends down before Pearl, and affectionately sets about running her fingers through her fringe and setting the hairs back in place. She's such a cute young girl, Elise muses to herself, patting the top of Pearl's head.

"Yes, yes! I want to help with whatever I can!"

"Oh, I'll help too, then..." Another voice pipes up. Elise stands back up from her previous position, looking at Maya who begins to make her way towards the pair.

The older woman is quick to object.

The shift in Elise's voice is ever-present, but the mature, smooth tone is as wise as ever. She lightly shakes her head at Maya, feeling strands of her updo gracefully frame her face, the corners of her lips still curled into the makings of a smile. "...No, it's fine. Please don't worry about it."

Foreseeing the inevitable confusion in Maya's expression, Elise motions over to Phoenix, standing idly beside Maya with his hands stuffed into his coat pockets, evidently trying to prevent himself from catching a cold... or hypothermia. Elise suppresses a small chuckle before clearing her throat, hand balled into a fist as she presses it against her mouth as to suppress the noise. "Feel free to relax and explore the area with your friend."

Although she was trying to urge Maya to leave Pearl and her be in order for Elise to completely gain her trust, she sincerely doesn't mind Maya spending time with someone else instead; a part of her is even relieved that she has someone like Phoenix by her side. Elise has been watching over her daughters for years, and she knows how much a prominent influence the man has been in both of their lives, much more than herself, at this point.

"Huh!? But..."

"...Oh, yes! Please take this. I think it will be of help to you." Remembering something she kept in her robe, Elise quickly retrieves a rolled up paper and hands over to Phoenix. When she spots his bewildered face, she go on to explain, "It's a map of the area. We wouldn't want you to get lost now, would we?"

"Well, if you insist, I guess we'll take this chance to out check out the other temple."

Elise notes that Phoenix looks as though he is not paying much attention, but when he accepts the map, he seems to have snapped out of it a bit. Looking over warmly at Maya who is leaning over his shoulder to see the map, he unravels it and tries to pinpoint their destination.

His finger traces the line leading from the Main Gate to the Inner Temple, but there's a moment at hesitance when he reaches the bridge. It seems to have struck a chord as Phoenix begins to nervously shift in his position, and he gulps. Noticing his unease, Maya lays a hand on his shoulder, her eyes reading: "Are you okay?" and Phoenix pauses in his tremor to give a small nod.

Even as his finger finishes the trail back towards the Inner Temple and he is beginning to roll the map back up, Phoenix's eyes are still shielded; pained with something more than just bridges. Elise follows his gaze just past her towards where Sister Bikini, poor lady, stands over the hearth, clutching at her aching back and... Sister Iris.

"Okay!" Pearl chirps, not aware of the tension clouding the room, and her exclamation is enough to break Phoenix out of his disorientated state. Elise purses her lips. "I'll see you two later then!"

Pearl eyes the two up, folding her arms together, and overall reminding Elise of a mother chiding her daughter and her boyfriend before a date. The sight of a nine-year old girl squinting her eyes down at grown adults is enough to quell the atmosphere, and Elise even finds her actions charming. She quips, "Remember! You're not allowed to fight!"

Maya nods and does a one-handed salute as if to say "will do," and she hops back over to the hallway that connects the Main Temple back to the front entrance of Hazakura. She spins on her heel, and waits for Phoenix to come and catch up to her.

"Come on, Nick! Let's go! At least we'll stay warm if we keep moving!"

He does, after a while, his hand shaking as he holds the folded map between his fingers. Phoenix drapes his arm around Maya's shoulder in a reassuring embrace before it falls limply back to his side. He wraps his own arms around himself, and for a second there, Elise can't tell whether Maya's teeth are chattering louder than Phoenix's or if it were the opposite. But what she can hear are the playful comments between the two - "Maya, let me borrow your hot water bottle for just a moment." "Maybe you should've thought about that before we left the office!" - and lighthearted giggles. (Elise notices she passes the bottle to him anyway, and Phoenix's lips curl up into a grateful smile.)

Her eyes do not miss the added exchange between the two, either: Maya grabbing Phoenix's hand as she drags him back outside, presumably to Dusky Bridge to check out the Inner Temple, and Phoenix moving to intertwine their fingers together and squeezing her hand, as though the subtle gesture might bring him more warmth. Maya looks up and grins - widely and more brightly than Elise can ever hope to remember - and Elise thinks it may have worked. To an average person, it looks nothing more than two close friends who have grown used to these small gestures of appreciated, but to Elise, it seems that barely scratches the surface to what their relationship really means to the both of them...

"They're "special someone's," you know, Ms. Deauxnim." Pearl chimes in, even though Elise asked nothing of Maya and Phoenix's relationship, and her reply is something more of an automatic response. It does succeed in breaking her out of her reverie as Pearl draws closer to the kitchen hearth where the potatoes were beginning to boil, and Elise smiles.

"Oh, really?" There's a beat before Elise adds, almost pensively, "Pearl... do you think they're happy?"

Elise's interest makes Pearl beam in delight, looking up at the robed mistress. "The happiest!"

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Of course it wouldn't be so easy, Elise frets as she finds herself walking down the steps descending to the hallway connecting the rooms on the lower floor to the Main Hall. She would've been a fool to think a plan as such to be easy.

Her eyes skit around, skimming every corner, and she even makes to poke her head into unoccupied rooms. Still nothing.

Pearl isn't anywhere to be seen on this side of the mountain. With less than an hour to ten... this is bad, this is really bad.

The still silence is cut abruptly with the sound of heavy footsteps rings in Elise's ear, and she cranes her neck to spot a shivering figure emerging from the hallway, clutching their night robe as close to their body as it could get.

"...Mr. Wright?"

"Yaaaaaaah!" Phoenix yelps at the sudden call, jumping back from his destination and hitting his back against the wall. He spins around, wide eyes catching Elise's before he breathes a sigh of relief at the familiar face. "Oh! Ah, Ms. Deauxnim. Are you going to use the bathroom, too?" He asks sheepishly, jutting a thumb over to the slightly ajar door at the end of the hallway that Elise was pacing near.

Realizing how besides the bathroom might have seemed, she slides away from the room, shaking her head. "Um, no. But..." Remembering how taken Pearl was to Phoenix, she wonders if, perhaps, he knew where the young girl had disappeared off to? For all Elise knows, she might've gotten scared with all this lightning going on and moved to stay up in his room with him. The slightly beam of hope makes her chest feel lighter, but she knows it couldn't last very long; not tonight. "Have you seen Pearl?"

"No... not since dinner." Phoenix says, straightening out his slightly crouched posture by the door, and pursing his lips as he asserts the situation. His words are slow, and all too worried. "I thought she said she was going up to your room..."

Elise inwardly grimaces at the reminder of her carelessness, but try as she might to keep a calm appearance, she wouldn't be at all surprised if she looked very frazzled. Someone could only be unaffected for so long. She should have kept an eye on Pearl, she should have accompanied her straight back up to her room after dinner instead of waiting for her. She shouldn't have let Pearl out of her sight. There are too many 'should have's' and it's much too late to start regretting.

"I know... but she never showed up." Elise sighs, tucking stray strands of hair that have fallen out of her updo behind her ear. She glances over Phoenix's shoulder to the clock stationed at the beginning of the hallway. There's not enough time left. Elise tightens her grip on her staff, and bows her head in apology. "I-I'm going to look for her. Excuse me."

She moves to walk around Phoenix, but something inside of her makes her stop in her own tracks, putting her only a foot past the lawyer. Elise tilts her head off to the side, enough to see Phoenix in her peripheral vision, but not completely turning around. She sucks in a deep breath, and hopes he doesn't hear her shaky voice. She has to appear somewhat respectable, after all.

"Wait a moment. There's one more topic I would wish to speak with you about, Mr. Wright."

"Phoenix." He supplies, and for a moment there, Elise can tell that even he is surprised at how personal he is being with her. Despite that, a small, but tense smile graces his lips, and he nods for her to continue.

"Right. Phoenix," Elise begins, and suddenly her throat seems dry. She's scared. Of course she is. If Pearl is gone, she may never have a chance to say this again. "It's... regarding Maya."

"What about Maya?" Phoenix asks, looking baffled. She can see the cogs working in his head as he attempts to realize what she was talking about before she could find time to reply, most probably about what trouble the younger girl had caused. Her head dips, a pained look crossing her face for just a brief moment, and her eyes shut close. "Look, if she did anything, I'm sure that-"

"...You'll take care of her, right?" It seems like an empty request. Here Elise was, asking for someone to take in her daughter, as if she actually was a good person - a good mother, when she hasn't even been there for Maya herself.

"Uh..." He stares on at her with a confused look, and if this happened at a more appropriate time, Elise would've thought it was something short of amusing, seeing his reactions to her requests when he knows nothing of her true identity. While she supposes it would be much more meaningful that way, blowing her cover and letting the truth out, she knows to hold back. It's been seventeen years since she's started, so why now?

Still, Elise continues, "I'm trusting you with her, Phoenix. Maya's a good girl, and... someone needs to be there for her when she needs them. She can't always be strong by herself. You understand, correct?"

He's reaching up behind his neck to rub at it sheepishly, eyebrows raised in both hinted surprise and bashfulness. "Well, yeah, she is. She's... pretty amazing. But what does this have to do...?" Phoenix's sentence trails off, almost apprehensively.

"And I'm sure no one would oppose if something were to transpire between the both of you. I wish you two the best of luck with your relationship."

Phoenix's eyes widen, and he gulps while waving his hands in a frantic matter. "O-Oh. I think you have the wrong idea, Ms. Deauxnim. Maya and I -"

"If you ever hurt her, however... I will find out." Although she would rather not discuss the methods of how she would find out, granted if she were to die here, and someone was willing to channel a disgraced mother.

And then, without bothering to look behind her, Elise straightens her head, and walks back towards the staircase, her ebony robes swishing against the wooden floor.

Redemption...? She lost her chance for that seventeen years ago, when she packed up her bags and disappeared for her own selfish reasons; her own impunity, and left the fate of the village on her daughters' shoulders. Years of having chances to come back and return to their lives... not acted upon. Dying for Maya's sake cannot even scratch the surface of atoning for her own sins.

Yet... for the final time that night, Elise Deau - no, Misty Fey does what she can as a mother. She knows it's not enough, putting Maya in safe hands that is, but as she closes the door to her room up on the second floor, she's not prepared to go down without a fight.

Note #2: I'd like to take this space to tell all of my reviewers how much I appreciate them. You guys all rock, and thank you for the positive feedback! Keep on keepin' on. I feel terrible for the lack of consistency with these updates, but I'm sort of behind on my summer homework so I'm sure once I get in the pace of things, I'll begin writing more regularly. I really DO want to write, it's just time constraints suck big time. There's more information on my profile if you would like to check.

Again: thank you guys, so, so much.