May 29

Rhiza Lake

11:50 AM

Chrysalis Starr

We ran into Cassidy standing on the edge of the lake near the largest dock in the area. There were roughly twenty boats all tied up there, but none of them stuck out as looking too peculiar. She was staring down at the ground in silence, so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice us at first. It took a small tap on the shoulder from me to get her to turn around, but even so, her gaze was distant, like she still wasn't entirely present. "Hello, Chrysalis," she said with a small smile. She looked at Lily briefly before refocusing on me. Cassidy and I had a few things in common, one of the notable ones being how shy we could be around people we didn't know. I knew that was effecting her now since Lily was here. I'd just have to step up and introduce them, it seemed.

"You must be Cassidy Rinko," smiled Lily warmly. "My name is Lily Shield. I'm the lead attorney on this case. I take it that you already know Chrysalis here. We're working to defend your friend Neptune. We'd really appreciate it if you could tell us about what you saw the day of the murder. Could you do that for us?"

Cassidy's shoulders relaxed slightly. Lily's sweet approach was already making her feel better from what I could see, which made me happy. I didn't want Cassidy to be upset. Yuri would get mad at me over it. "Um... Sure..." Cassidy told us quietly. I could tell that she was still thinking about other things, but I wasn't entirely sure how to go about addressing it. Then again, I had known her for years, so perhaps the direct approach would be the best way to go.

"Is something wrong, Cass?" I asked, a frown on my face. "You seem a bit out of it today. Are you feeling sick at all?"

"No, nothing like that... I'm just a bit tired," Cassidy told me with a shake of her head. "I've been here for ages now. I just want to go home and rest for a little while. The police haven't questioned me in a few hours, so I feel like I should be able to leave, but they don't really want me to... I've tried to call Ghastly to get him to pull some strings, but it hasn't been working. He isn't answering his phone, so I've just been stuck here." She let out an exhausted sigh.

I shook my head with disproval. "Who here wants to bet that he's asleep and hasn't picked up his phone since he's been too busy sawing logs?" I asked. Cassidy let out a small but forced giggle and raised her hand. Even if she was still tired, I was glad I could at least get a smile out of her.

"If you would be so kind, could you tell us about what you saw at the time of the crime?" Lily questioned of her. "You seem to be friends with our client, at least from what she told us, so you'd be happy to explain it all, right?" I could tell she was trying to make Cassidy laugh a little bit since she was picking up on the tense atmosphere. I wasn't entirely sure if it would work since Cassidy warmed to people rather slowly, but it was at least worth a shot.

Cassidy nodded, though she didn't laugh. "I was here yesterday as moral support for Neptune. She wanted to talk to a detective that was here to watch a boat race, but she didn't want to come alone. I offered to go with her. We eventually found him and started to talk to him, but he was obsessed with wanting to see into her bag. Neptune refused to let him inside of it, saying that it was her private business, but the investigator didn't seem to care. She eventually stormed off, but I followed her. We were going to leave right afterwards, but he managed to get her bag while we were starting up the car. You see, one of the tires was a bit deformed, so we had to use a pump in her trunk to fill it out again. Her car is a bit old and beaten up, so she's used to having to carry around stuff to fix it," she explained. "She's got all sorts of stuff in her trunk. It was a bit messy though since she isn't exactly the most organized of people, so we had to dig out the pump before we could work to fill out the tire. The bag had been just at her feet, but he had snuck up behind us while we were looking through the trunk."

"She didn't tell us why you were standing outside the car. She just cut right to the part where he took her bag," I remarked. "We should make a note of that in case it ends up being important later on. We might end up needing it to refute a claim from the prosecution when the trial rolls around tomorrow."

"Neptune instantly assumed that he had been the one to take her bag. She rarely took it off her shoulder, but since it was a bit heavy, she decided to put it down for a minute. Once we realized it was gone, we stopped trying to fill up the tire and just went looking for it. She said that there were very important things inside of it that she didn't want him to get into. Unfortunately, we didn't ever end up finding him. The bag was found next to the dead body floating in the lake," Cassidy told us. "But... I did see a little something else. I just don't want to say it too loudly in case somebody ends up overhearing us... I want it to stay private, if that's alright with you two. You can use it in court tomorrow, when there will be armed guards around, but until then... Please keep it on the down low."

"You sound like you're about to reveal something really bad to us," Lily said, a small laugh of panic escaping her lips. Cassidy looked down. I followed suit. I knew her well enough by now to know that when she go this way, there was often something incredibly serious for us to worry about.

"I saw somebody running away from the crime scene," Cassidy whispered. "And let me tell you, it was not Neptune. Unfortunately, I can't say anything like that until the trial starts tomorrow... If Ghastly were prosecuting, I would feel a lot better, but since he isn't, I'm afraid that they won't believe me when I tell them the truth. I couldn't tell them before then though. If I did... I don't even want to imagine what could have happened to me. It would have been bad for sure."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "If it wasn't Neptune leaving the crime scene, then you should tell people about it. That will keep her from getting into any trouble. As her friend, isn't that what you want for her? It would be awful to see somebody so close to you go to prison for a crime they didn't commit."

"The problem isn't what I saw. The problem is that one of the people on this case could get really mad at me for it," Cassidy frowned. "I can't say that much about who I saw anyways. The sun was directly behind them, so they just looked like a shadow to me, but I know for a fact that it wasn't Neptune. They had different statures. I did see really long hair, but it was straight instead of being puffy like Neptune's hair. It was a chesty woman. Does that help you at all?"

"That's very helpful. Thank you," I smiled to her. "But why couldn't you mention it to the prosecution? Is somebody blackmailing you perhaps?" I wasn't entirely sure about this one, but it was at least a guess. I had heard about Venus' murder case and how the witness was being blackmailed by the killer into staying silent after the murderer threatened to kill her. Cassidy was a timid girl, so she would probably stay quiet about it until she could speak with somebody she trusted. In this case, she was away from familiarity. If this was the case, maybe she hadn't spoken up since she didn't know the prosecutors. They both seemed to be rough and tough men that would scare her off. Like I said, she's painfully shy, so that would make sense given her personality traits.

"Not exactly... I can't say for sure, but I think that one of the investigators on this case might be the killer," Cassidy told us quietly. "I don't want her overhearing us and getting mad at me for bringing it up. She might come after me. I don't want to die." Her shoulders shuddered as a tear streamed down one cheek. This must have been what was bothering her so much. I could see why she had been worried. This situation could easily turn sour if her suspicions were correct. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close as she rubbed at her eyes. She was around my height, but she still buried her face into my shoulder. I felt bad for the poor girl. She really did deserve better than what the world was giving her in this case. I already wanted it to be over for her sake.

"Thank you for telling us this, Cassidy," Lily told her gently. "Tomorrow, when the trial starts, you should talk to my brother about it. He's really a huge softie. He'll be glad to listen to you if you think that you're in trouble. He handled a similar situation a few months ago. He'd be happy to keep you safe if you're correct. Plus, I'm sure that he can help us catch the killer if you're positive this investigator is the one who did it. Do you know what her name is? Maybe we can go and talk to her after we're finished speaking with you to see about what she was doing at the time of the murder."

"I'm afraid I don't know her name... We haven't spoken at all. I just remember her talking to a few of the officers on the case. She seemed to have them all under her little finger. I don't really know how she's able to manipulate them so easily, but maybe I don't really want to know," frowned Cassidy with a shake of her head. "I think I'm going to head home in a little bit. Do you have anything else to ask me about before I head out for now?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Lily said. I wasn't entirely sure what she meant until she pulled out the picture from two years ago. I released Cassidy as tension rose in my shoulders from seeing it. I had been hoping that the subject of the photo wouldn't come up anymore. The case surrounding it was filled with painful thoughts I'd much rather forget than recall, but I figured the conversation would be brief, so I didn't openly object to it.

Cassidy gasped upon noticing what picture it was. "Where did you get that?" she asked of her.

"It was found at the scene of the crime. Can you tell us anything about it, Cassidy?" Lily questioned. She let Cassidy hold the photo. I could tell that she was thinking back to two years prior. Everything had been so simple up until that case, but afterwards, everything seemed to go downhill. The entire thing was a complete mess.

"I guess I can try," Cassidy said softly. "I don't know why it would be there though. That copy once belonged to my sister. It wasn't until recently that it came into the hands of Neptune though. I gave it to her as a gift. I figured that she would want it for her research into the Oracle of the Law. Since the case was mentioned by Occisor a month ago, it could easily be useful to her. I didn't realize it was out of her bag though. Maybe the victim managed to get it out before he was killed. I can't say for sure though."

"That's still appreciated information," Lily smiled. "Thank you, Cassidy."

"You're welcome," Cassidy responded. "That picture was taken two years ago after the murder of Natasha Morix. She worked at the Sparx Factory and was killed there. The killers got away though. From what Occisor said a month ago, they're the most likely suspects, but we can't exactly say who they are. The only person that would know went missing a long time ago, just after the murder was wrapped up. Without him around, nobody knows who Occisor is. He was really important, but now that he's gone, we can't do much of anything about the situation. Have you ever heard about Pieter Fury?"

"Pieter Fury?" Lily echoed. "No, I haven't."

I could feel my eyes going wide. I wished that I could magically talk to Cassidy and tell her not to talk about Pieter. There were a million other things to discuss besides Pieter. I had been hoping to not bring him up for a long time, not until we had found him, but this moment was saying that just wasn't meant to be. I knew that openly voicing my objections would only make Lily suspicious, so I decided to stay quiet for the time being. Maybe the subject would change and we wouldn't have to talk about it anymore.

"Pieter Fury was Chrysalis' big brother," Cassidy began. "Well, the younger of her two older brothers. It was Mr. Morix, Pieter, Prosecutor Lin, and then Chrysalis. He went missing after the murder case two years ago. He knew the victim really well since she had taken him in after finding him in a really rough state. He isn't related to them by blood, but he's technically their sibling since he was adopted by Ms. Morix before she was killed. We don't know where he is now though. He's been gone ever since the murder was wrapped up. That photo is the last physical evidence anybody has of him. No body has been discovered, no evidence has been left behind... It's like he just vanished off the face of the planet."

"I didn't realize you had another brother," Lily said, turning to face me. I stared down at the ground, suddenly finding the individual strands of grass to be the most interesting things in the world. "Why didn't you tell me about him?"

"He never came up," I said simply, though she could obviously tell there was more to it. There was. Pieter had just disappeared once the case was put to rest. Nobody wanted to get involved with it since the brief words about the killers were all terrifying. The testimony given by surviving victims of their assault said that there were five or so of them. Pieter seemed to know them, but he never got into how. He said that he'd rather not talk about it. I respected his privacy and pulled out of the conversation so as not to make him uncomfortable. Since the murder was set aside, Pieter didn't seem to have a reason to remain. He told me that his main purpose in life was to discover who the killers really were and to ensure they'd face justice. It had been the last time we spoke before he went missing. Cotoli and I wondered if he was involved in the Oracle project at all, since he went missing around the time it was brought up by Jackson Blocker, which is the whole reason we're curious about Oracle at all. If Oracle is related to Pieter, maybe they can lead us to him. We weren't just going to let Pieter vanish without a trace. He could have been dead or worse, but we had to know whatever the case was.

"You still could have talked to me," frowned Lily. "I don't want you to just suffer in silence over this. I'd have listened if you wanted to tell me about him. I know how hard it is to lose a family member like that."

I never really thought about Pieter these days, truth be told. As curious as I was to learn where he had gone, I was halfway afraid of what I might find. He could be dead for all we knew. It always made me sad to know that my older brother could be out there dying or dead. I had tried countless times to channel him, but it never worked, which meant he was still out there, though nobody could quite say where. To put it simply, it left me stressed and worried for his health. I didn't want him to get hurt. Nobody would want somebody that important to them to end up injured, you know?

"I wish we knew where he had gone," Cassidy whispered to herself. "Pieter shouldn't have tried to face it alone."

We were silent for a moment, all thinking about him. His face appeared in my mind's eye, so I did my best to brush it off. "You should go home, Cass. I'm sure that your mother is worried sick about you. Yuri is probably a bit concerned as well, even if you likely won't see her admit it since that's how she is."

Cassidy nodded. "Alright. You stay out of trouble, Chrysalis," she instructed of me. She turned over her heel and walked away, waving briefly before disappearing from sight entirely.

Lily didn't say anything for a good thirty seconds after Cassidy had gone. I was quiet as well. I simply didn't know what I was supposed to say. I mean, this was a dark situation, you know? It's not everyday that you hear one of your coworkers has a second older brother that's been missing for two years. I had been intending to keep things regarding Pieter quiet to keep the painful thoughts of him at bay, but it seemed that just wasn't meant to be. As annoying as it was, it wasn't anything big enough to make things go severely downhill. It would all be fine regardless of if Lily and Deirdre knew about his existence or not.

"What was he like?" Lily asked of me, breaking through the thick tension in the air. "Pieter, I mean. Was he nice? I sure hope he was."

"Yeah," I said with a gentle smile. "He first appeared to us after Cotoli's mother died. Since she had been looking after Pieter, though we never quite heard the reason, he was bound to show up to hear about what had happened. He had no idea that Cotoli's mother had a son, so he was overjoyed. Of course, since he didn't even know Cotoli existed, he was even further from the truth that he had two little sisters too. Apparently, Ms. Morix never brought him up since she was too busy making sure Pieter was okay after some unspecified catastrophe. When he finally met us though, he was as happy as can be. He spent nearly all the time he was around with me, making sure I was happy and such, since he said that he had always wanted a little sister. I was happy to be there for him since it got him all excited like that. Being with him really was fun. I was stuck in the hospital due to the murder investigation, but he stayed with me the whole time to keep me company. He really was spectacular back when he was still around... God, I'm making it sound like he's dead. I know he's not even if we don't know where he is. I've tried channeling him, but since it hasn't ever worked, I know that he's out there. I want to find him one day, even if the chances of that happening are as slim as can be. I want closure on why he left and why he didn't come back for so long, even if we never speak again after the fact."

"Wow..." was all Lily could say in response. She didn't say anything after that for a moment or two before speaking up again. "If you ever want to talk about him more, you can always come to me, okay? I'd be happy to listen if you felt like talking about the good old days with him. My door is always open, Chrysalis."

"Thanks," I muttered numbly. I stared at my feet for a few seconds more before looking up. "We should go and see Neptune now. I bet she's going to want to know about what we uncovered here today. Afterwards, we can go and get some lunch. It's getting late and I'm a bit hungry. How does that sound to you, Lily?"

She nodded. "I'd like that," she told me. With that said, we headed out for her car.

May 29

Detention Center

12:45 PM

Chrysalis Starr

When we arrived at the detention center, Neptune was sitting on the other side of the glass. She was tapping her fingers on the table in front of her as she stared off into space. She didn't even seem to notice that we were there. It took a wave from me to get her to snap out of it. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "You're back. Did you find anything that you could use to prove me innocent tomorrow? Is Cassidy alright? She didn't have a panic attack or anything, right?"

"We didn't find much of anything helpful, I'm afraid," I frowned, not wanting to sugarcoat it. She seemed like the type who wanted things told to her plain and simple. "We did talk to Cassidy though. She told us as much as she could about the case. I'm sure that her testimony will be able to help us out in the trial tomorrow. She firmly believes in your innocence just like we do, so she'll testify that you didn't do it. She didn't have any panic attacks, no. Cass was really tired though since they kept her there through most of the night. She's heading home now to get a little bit of rest for tomorrow, so if she doesn't stop by, you can bet that she's back at home sleeping," I told her. "Does that satisfy your thirst for information, Neptune?"

She paused for a moment before nodding. "Thank you," she said. "Is there anything else you want to talk to me about? Can you give me any details on what you found at the crime scene?" Neptune hesitated once again before sighing. "I've been locked up in here all day, so forgive me for being a little bit bored. I'm craving information since it will be used to decide my fate tomorrow. Anything will be able to help me with how tired I am of staring at blank walls nonstop. Even if it's really simple and doesn't seem to matter, I'd love to hear about it. I'm practically begging you at this point."

I turned to Lily and hesitated for a moment before speaking. "I want you to tell us about the picture from two years ago, from the GC-9 case. I want to know how you came to own this photo and why. I don't understand why somebody like you, who's so unrelated to the case, would want something like that," I said sternly. This had been bothering me a little bit for a while now. I just didn't know how to go about asking. It made no sense. Even if Neptune knew Cassidy, that didn't really explain why she had this picture. Regardless of if Occisor was related to that case, it didn't add up. Why would Cassidy give Neptune of all people this picture? It wasn't related to Oracle as far as I was concerned.

Maybe Cassidy knew a little bit more than she had been letting on.

"Cassidy said that she wanted me to have it since I was looking into Oracle," Neptune said simply. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No... No, there's nothing wrong at all," I lied, staring at the ground. Something about this had me suspicious. Either Cassidy knew more than she was letting on or Neptune suspected the photo had something to do with Oracle. Regardless of which one it was, something about this was not going well.

If Cassidy did know more than she was telling us, then why not open up? I mean, Cotoli and I have been investigating Oracle for ages to try and find out more about Pieter. She can't just hide something like that from us, right? Why keep it so closely guarded? Maybe she was trying to keep us from meeting the same fate as Venus, but she has to know that we know how to protect ourselves and keep from getting hurt. Besides, we're not involved with Oracle like Venus was. We should be mostly safe from harm.

If it was the other scenario and Neptune suspected the picture had to do with Oracle, why? Why would she think that we had something to do with it all? Neptune had only met Cassidy before now. As far as I could tell, Neptune and Cassidy had met up after Venus' death, which meant that Cass was her only link to the photo. She could have seen it on Cassidy's desk and asked for a copy since she was curious. I could only hope it was just curiosity and not something deeper and more dangerous.

Lily snapped me out of my daze by speaking to Neptune. My brain, which was going a million miles a minute, finally came to a screeching halt, leaving me even more confused than I had been when this conversation started. "We're going to prove you innocent tomorrow," smiled Lily to Neptune. "Everything is going to be just fine. Don't you worry at all."

"Do you have anything else to ask me about?" questioned Neptune, beginning to play with a loose strand of her puffy hair.

"We can at least tell you about the one piece of evidence that we found at the scene of the crime," offered Lily. "Apparently, there was one thing found near the body floating in the water. We can't exactly say how it ties into all this. I apologize in advance if this ends up embarrassing you, Ms. Mercure."

"What?" Neptune asked in concern. "Why would it embarrass me? It can't be that bad, right?"

I felt my face flush red, so I turned away to keep anyone from noticing. "God, I really don't want to talk about this... I can't believe this is happening..." I murmured under my breath.

"A bra was found near the body," Lily told her, cringing slightly as she spoke. "We think that it belonged to the killer, but we can't quite say for sure. It's really big, so I highly doubt that it belongs to you. The victim was fully clothed, so that rules him out..."

Neptune's expression was one of horror. "I... I don't know how to respond to that, but I don't think I want to talk about this anymore," she remarked simply. She looked away. I could tell that she was ready to curl up in the corner and never speak about this ever again. I couldn't blame her. I wanted to do the same. I only hoped I could get through this murder with my dignity still intact.

"That was pretty much it as far as things found at the scene of the murder," Lily said. "Nobody can really say how it ties into everything. At the very least, we can count a few of our blessings. For one, there's no murder weapon to be used against you. Second, there weren't any fingerprints of yours found at the scene of the crime. Third, the prosecution has already acknowledged evidence that proves your innocence. That's got to be something, right?"

"We don't have much evidence to go off, so this case isn't going to be easy, but there are at least a few things that we can say are good," I went on. "I guess that we can say that much is positive. We're going to be able to figure this case out. I can assure you that much... But before we head out for the day, I have one last question to ask of you, Neptune."

"Fire away," Neptune smiled. "I'll do anything to help out."

I nodded solemnly. "Alright. What do you know about the Oracle of the Law?" I questioned.

The room was quiet for a moment, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. Neptune eventually spoke up, her voice as serious as could be. "Nothing," she said simply.

I reached up and touched the Magatama charm around my neck. I was unsurprised to see chains spring into place with five blood red locks over the top. This told me one thing with certainty regardless of if she'd feign innocence or not.

Neptune knew exactly who the Oracle of the Law was.

I know I only updated once this week. I promise there's a reason for this. I went back through case one and edited it so that it no longer contains the canonical judge. Ervan is now there instead. It took a lot longer than I expected to edit that, so there's only one update this week.

We start the trial next week. I'll actually be updating DOD next week since I don't have any big editing projects to do.

Oh yeah. I have a legal obligation to talk about the reveal about Neptune from roughly fifteen seconds ago. In response, I have only this to say:

uwu

-Digiatl