Aura doesn't notice me until I'm a stone's throw away. Leaning against the mountainside in front of her beige tent, she bares her teeth. Her neat hair horns have unraveled into a curly, tangled mess falling down her back, but her expression is far from weary.

"What are you planning?" Skinning knife in hand, she twists her foot to better support her weight. Her other leg is slack. "I know you're allied with the rest. Just come out and kill me already. You're not surprising anyone."

"No one's going to kill you. I'm alone right now." I take a second to catch my breath before taking one step closer. "I just want to talk."

"Talk, huh? Fine, then! Talk!" She holds her knife in front of her, blade facing me. "You can start with who killed my brother."

I instinctively lean back a little. "He... He wasn't really killed. There was a trap inside the tunnel—have you been deep inside one?" She doesn't look very interested in speaking. "There's a point where electronics stop working because of some sort of surge, I guess, and... that's where his handcuffs electrocuted him."

She adjusts her weight-bearing elbow. "Handcuffs? Is that what he got from the feast?"

I nod.

She glares at me for a moment longer before lowering her knife and laughing. "Of course! Of course. Why would our district send us anything if it wasn't to kill us?" She eyes my sword but pockets her knife anyway. "It's not like any of you runts could have taken him, anyway. So. I don't imagine you came all this way to answer my questions. I'll be fair. What do you want to know?"

I don't know if I'm prepared for the truth, but it's time to ask, anyway.

I cross my arms, bunching my fingers together. "Who killed Clay Terran?"

"Clay, huh?" She gazes upward, rummaging her hand through some child-sized machine in front of her. "He died in the bloodbath, right?"

I nod, unable to tell if that question was a good or bad sign.

"Well, it wasn't my brother." Once she realizes her hand has stopped moving, she goes back to her mindless machine-digging. "He only took out one girl in the whole thing. Wasn't me, either. Between keeping an eye on him and guarding the best supplies, I didn't go after anyone."

That seems odd. I... can't detect her lying, at least. Even with one eye gone, I would be able to tell, right?

"I take it you didn't see him, then?" I prod at my forehead.

Slamming the top of the machine shut—it now has a face that glows with a blue smile—she leans on top of it. "No, I didn't. The other Careers took their jobs seriously enough not to go gossiping around the campfire about how they got their kills, either. Although that idiot Tonate set off his bombs while my brother was still below. But he paid for that." She looks up with her eyes. "Maybe they just didn't want to upset that lug from 10."

Bobby? Yeah, I do wonder how he could hang around with such 'unjust' people. "Speaking of which, who killed him?"

She shrugs. "I don't know."

"Hey! You said you were going to answer my questions!" I point at her.

"I can't answer what I don't know. Three of us were beating on the guy, and we stopped when the cannon fired. Nobody was checking his pulse the whole time just to see what blow offed him."

I fold my arms. Holding one out is too tiring. "So you don't even care whether you killed him or not?"

"Tributes don't have time to feel guilty. He died, and that's all there is to it. Or do you think I'm worried about my kill list?" She scowls. "Is that what you think I volunteered for? A little glory?"

"I... I guess I had assumed so." I swallow. "...Money, then?"

"Ha!" Laughing, she smacks her palm down on the robot a few times in a gesture that seems oddly familiar. "There are a lot safer ways to make money, you know. But time? That can take some desperate measures."

Time?

Apparently my look is curious enough she doesn't need me to ask out loud.

"Everyone in the district knew my brother was going to be executed this year. Since it was such a high-profile murder, they wanted to kill him in the most spectacular way possible, so they were going to force him into the Games. But!" She holds a finger up. "But, I thought, surely they wouldn't force him into the arena alongside his own sister! They could try again next year, but by then we could have found the evidence to prove his innocence. And if you don't think I can snap twenty-three pathetic little necks to save my brother's life, you're wrong."

She narrows her eyes. "But oh, no. I greatly underestimated the cruelty of my own district. They had abandoned me the day they found my brother guilty. Why did I think for a second that they would treat us fairly now?" She laughs without smiling. "All of that, and they just kill him here themselves. What a sick joke."

My stomach churns at the thought of asking her, but I barely have a choice. "A high-profile murder? And you're certain he was innocent, too?"

"My brother is no killer!" She bares her teeth before glaring at the ground. "He only did in that 12 whelp because the princess made him. I can't believe how much he would do for that girl. He took the blame for her in the case, even confessed. He wasn't blood siblings with her, and he chose her over me! 'Both of our deaths will have been in vain if Cykes-dono doesn't win.' I can't... believe him..." She stares at the ground, tears threatening to spill before she straightens up. At least, as much as she can without moving her left leg.

My heart is pounding so hard my pulse alone is enough to make my hands shake. "Took the blame? You—you mean Athena did it?"

"Of course. She was the only other one there at the time of the murder." She shuffles through the robot's brain again. "She at least pretended to yell and scream that Simon was innocent, but in the end he still took the sentence for her. Why would she kill her own mother? I don't know. The princess had more than enough of her attention."

Thus the... the "princess" thing, I guess...

She continues, "There's no way a kid like her hid all of the evidence. She probably got Simon to help, but there must have still been traces. They couldn't have done a full investigation at the pace the conviction went. They were rushing things because everyone was riled up by some district kid killing a Capitol citizen."

"W-wait, what?" I draw back, blinking. "But Athena's from 3, isn't she?"

She slaps the robot's head shut. "Well, she is. Real shame, too. If she wasn't born in District 3 where her father could see her, she could have gone off to the Capitol and saved me a world of trouble. It would have been a shame to have not met Metis, but... that's a decent price to pay. The woman barely had time for me, anyway."

"Is that... so?" My voice is strained.

I... It couldn't really be true, could it? B-but even Simon wasn't sure that Athena was innocent... Could he have really covered for her? He always planned to die for her, so it wouldn't be out of character. But... But it doesn't make sense! Not Athena... Not my friend...

"Yeah." She slides down to sit, examining the robot's face—the virtual mouth is opening and closing as if it's trying to talk. "Oh, still didn't fix it. Oh, well. I usually want you to shut up, anyway, Hunk of Junk." She turns back to me, arms folded. "So, why the sudden interest in my personal history? Just didn't want to be rude and walk away while I was talking?"

I avoid her gaze. "I just, um... wanted to ask about Clay, and..."

"Oh, did you think it might have been the princess?" She tilts her head back. "It would make enough sense. A girl who can kill her own mother isn't going to back down in a fight to the death, not even against her own district partner. I didn't see her at the bloodbath until Simon had caught up to her, so who knows what she did before then?"

"Bu... But I'm sure she didn't do it!" I'm shouting too loudly. One of the others might hear me. Or can they? I don't hear any of them...

Aura lifts her eyebrows. "Why's that?"

Gripping my ribcage, I stare back at her. "Because she's my friend... And I trust her."

"Oh, isn't that sweet?" she responds in a stilted voice before hmph-ing. "She was practically my little sister for years, and I don't trust her one lick. I'm sure blind faith must be nice, but it's pretty stupid when it's kill or be killed."

She waves a hand at me. "Whatever. It's none of my business what you believe. I've had enough of this. Scram."

I take a step back, but she doesn't move. "Th-that's it?"

She coughs. "Yeah." Leaning her folded arms on her good knee, she stares into the distance. "I'm not going to kill another stupid kid if it won't do any good."

From the glazed look in her eyes, I can tell that's all she has to say. She might not even move if I tried to run her through right now. Is she dying? Has she just stopped caring?

I... don't know. I'll go on and let her be, I guess.

I cross from the flat ledge to the uneven stones before a cannon fires. Steadying myself with one hand, I whip around to see Aura. But she's still sitting there, pulling a twig from her hair.

She looks over at me innocently. "Oh. The princess strikes again."

Heart stopped, I gawk at her, heaving for breath, before whirling back around and making a break for it.

I have to get over there now! What happened?! Did someone really die? This c-can't be right! What... What... I...

I never should have left them alone with Athena...!