Chapter Fourteen: Face to Face

"Oh?" Aftershave said, taking a few steps forward. "Remember me, then? I wondered if you would. We had such good times together."

"Sir," Sodia said in a low voice, "who is this man?"

"You two take care of the woman," the knight said. "I'll deal with the commandant."

Sodia whipped out her sword as the other two approached. "Sir, you need to focus," she snapped, but Flynn couldn't move.

"Sir!" She had to raise her sword to block an attack by the short knight. The two of them ignored Flynn and drove Sodia back. She was a strong fighter, but holding off two at once was a challenge.

Flynn stood paralyzed, staring at the tall knight pacing toward him. In his mind, he was in that room again and he was utterly helpless. The sword hanging loosely in his hand felt like nothing but a heavy weight. Certainty that he was going to die painfully gripped him and his breath came short and fast.

"What's wrong?" the knight asked. "Not happy to see me?"

He struggled to put words together. "Ge… get away…"

"So quiet." He reached Flynn and held his sword out, lighting poking Flynn's chest. "I used to be able to get much more satisfying noises out of you."

He couldn't think over his mind screaming, it's him, it's him, it's him, over and over. It was his worst nightmare come true, and Sodia was busy with the other knights and couldn't help him. The threads holding him together strained to their limits and another word from this knight threatened to send him into a sobbing heap on the floor. He had never been so terrified of another human in his entire life.

"Put down your sword, you pathetic excuse for a knight," the man said. The tip of his sword dug into Flynn's chest, light breaking his skin. It stung, but Flynn knew it was nothing compared to what was in store for him if he dropped his sword and let himself be captured.

His grip on his sword tightened. He would not let that happen. He would rather die than go back there. Terror still coursed through his veins but his trembling began converting from fear to anger.

The knight noticed his grip tightening and chuckled. "Are you actually going to fight me? You think you can? I know all your weaknesses." His other hand settled on Flynn's rigid shoulder, and he flinched as sparks seemed to radiate from his hand. "I've had you sobbing and begging at my feet and you're stupider than I thought if you think I can't do it again."

Flynn's skin crawled under the man's hand. His heart raced and alarm bells clanged through his head. Don't fucking touch me! He finally managed to move, if only to shake his head. "No," he said in a hoarse voice. "Sh-shut up."

"What's wrong? Don't want your lady friend to hear about how you moaned like a whore? I don't know why you're even making a big fuss about this - you obviously liked it."

Words caught in his throat as his vision blurred. No, no, no, no, no….

"Didn't you hear me?" he demanded, raising his voice. He leaned forward, his fingers digging into Flynn's shoulder as his sword bit into Flynn's chest. "Drop your sword, you wretch!"

The knight had counted on Flynn crumbling to the learned habit of cowering before him when he rose his voice. It almost worked. The last threads holding himself together snapped, but instead of falling to the ground, he ricocheted outward.

With an unintelligible scream of rage, Flynn's sword flew up faster than the knight could react. His blade dug into the knight's arm until he hit bone, and the knight pulled his arm away from Flynn's shoulder with a shout. Flynn was already moving forward, slashing at the man's other arm. The knight dropped his sword and clutched the bloody mess of his arm, stumbling backward.

Flynn drove forward, his sword clanking on the knight's armour. He only hit the armour because he could barely see straight through the red haze of rage. He had never wanted to hurt someone as much as this man, and every muscle tensed with the effort to deliver as much pain as possible with every blow.

"Stop!" the knight yelled, trying to block the blows with his arms and ending up with more lacerations across his forearms. "Please! I surrender!"

"How dare you?!" Flynn roared, driving him against the wall. "How dare you ask me for mercy, you bastard!"

He dropped his sword. It wasn't satisfying enough. He grabbed the injured man by the collar and threw him to the floor, and his helmeted head clanked on the ground with a grunt. Flynn tore the helmet off as he straddled him and drove his fists into his face. Something cracked, probably the knight's nose. Flynn was vaguely aware of a stream of profanities flying out of his mouth, and the knight screaming and begging him to stop, but it was hard to hear over the blood pounding in his ears. His vision blurred and his mind narrowed, only able to focus on one thing: cause as much pain as you possibly can.

His knuckles were covered in blood and his shouldered heaved with pants. Flynn had always believed in taking his enemies down as easily as possible, but all that flew out the window. All that mattered was that this man suffered as much pain as Flynn could physically inflict and every furious punch sent a thrill of satisfaction through him.

"Commandant!"

Sodia must have dealt with the other knights by now. Good, that meant he could focus on hurting this one.

"Commandant, you're going to kill him!"

Why was that supposed to be a problem? The only bad thing about him dying was that it would mean he couldn't suffer any longer.

"Sir, this man needs to be arrested. You can't do this!"

Her hand touched his shoulder and he swatted her away. "This is him, Sodia!" he roared. He smashed his fist into the knight's throat, cutting off his gasps for mercy. "This is the man who tortured me!" He couldn't keep his voice steady and his throat hurt as he snarled, "The man who raped me!"

Flynn grabbed his shoulders, pulled him up, and then slammed him back into the ground. He drove his knee into the man's crotch and a mad grin spread across his face as he heard the howl of pain. Good. "How do you like it?! How do you like being-" he smashed his fist against the knight's temple, "broken?!"

"Sir, you need to stop," Sodia said firmly. "This isn't you. You're letting your anger rule you."

Flynn ignored her, because talking to her took up words he would rather use screaming at the bastard in front of him. He still had energy in his muscles, which meant he still needed to make this man suffer. After everything this bastard had done to him, he had no right to complain about a few minutes of pain. He deserved this.

"Flynn." Sodia crouched and grabbed his arm, her voice soft but firm.

He jolted to a stop simply from the shock of hearing Sodia address him by nothing but his name. He panted as blood dripped from his fist onto the knight's bloodied face.

"Flynn, maybe I've never met the real you before, but I know this isn't it. This man must be arrested and stand trial for his crimes. You are so much stronger than this. Please don't lose yourself in your anger."

"But he…" Flynn gasped. His voice trembled. "He…"

"I know," Sodia said, letting go of his arm. "But it is not a knight's place to take out justice on whoever they deem fit. If the real you is even half the man you pretended to be, you know this. Please, Flynn, this…" she looked down at the man gasping for breath through his bloodied mouth and wrinkled her nose, "this piece of crap, if you'll excuse my language, isn't worth sacrificing the ideals we've worked for."

Flynn stared at the man, whose eyes were already starting to swell up. He looked so broken, lying on the ground with a crooked nose and tears leaking from his eyes. He deserved it… Flynn clung to that thought as he pictured what this bastard had done to him. But when he pictured that, the mental image was disturbingly similar to what he was seeing now. He deserves it, he thought again. That didn't change the fact that suddenly he had to realize he was capable of causing the same amount of pain and suffering. Maybe this bastard did deserve to die, but it wasn't Flynn's place to dish it out. He needed to be arrested and face justice, otherwise this was no better than revenge.

"Please, Flynn." She managed to keep her voice calm and firm, even though her face was torn up with worry. "We said we were going to reform the Knights, but that cannot happen if your first act as commandant is beating a man to death with no trial."

Flynn dropped his hand, and then in a quick movement he spun and fell against Sodia. She stiffened in surprise at first, and then slowly reached her arms up to hold him tight. He choked for breath, and tears squeezed from his eyes. There wasn't much left after his outburst earlier, but the past fifteen minutes had been a hurricane of panic, terror, rage, and grief and the stress had to escape somehow.

His hands rested on the ground by his knees as he choked out sobs against Sodia's shoulder. She said nothing, but her silent embrace spoke volumes of support. He was supposed to be her commanding officer, but here we was, sobbing on her like a child. She gave no sign of judgment or annoyance, though, and her steady breathing reassured him. She was an anchor to cling to, and he realized that he had been foolish to doubt her. Yuri was right; he could trust Sodia.

After five minutes, he finally pulled away and rubbed his eyes on his sleeve. "Thank you."

She nodded tightly. "Of course."

Flynn took one last deep breath and then turned to the knight, who had passed out. Now that the red haze had faded, he was able to get a good look at the man's face for the first time. In all his months in prison, he'd never once seen the man without his helmet. Flynn wasn't sure what he was expecting his face to look like, but certainly not this. He looked so… human. He was just a guy. Flynn had always imagined him as some hideous demon, but he was so average Flynn could have passed him on the street without looking twice.

This revelation comforted him. The man who stalked his nightmares was not an inhuman beast who could find and destroy him at any time. The only reason he'd had power over Flynn was because he'd been imprisoned, unarmed, and weak from malnourishment. He was just a man, and a man could be defeated.

"Sir, your knuckles are bleeding," Sodia said.

He glanced down at his hands. He'd thought it was just blood from the knight, but as the adrenaline rush died he noticed a dull stinging. "So they are." He mopped up the blood on his shirt. "Are the two you took out dead or unconscious?"

"Unconscious." Sodia snapped back to professionalism like, well, like a professional.

"Good. All three of these men need to be arrested. The first two merely need to be held until the situation with Estelle is resolved. This one," he gestured at the man, "is to be charged with behaviour unbecoming of a knight." It was a tricky case, since he'd been following orders from Estelle and Alexei, but the orders had so clearly been unlawful and immoral, Flynn wasn't too worried he'd be convicted.

Flynn stood up. "Take care of this. I'm going to Master Ioder."

Sodia got to her feet as well and asked, "Do you not want me to accompany you?"

Flynn hesitated, and then looked down at the knight at his feet. He was more afraid of this man than anyone else in the world, and he'd defeated him. If he could overcome this, he felt confident that he could overcome anything. He didn't know if he could do it without fear or without straining all of his senses from hypervigilance, but he could make it to Ioder without an escort. "I'll be fine. I'll find you when the task is completed to let you know I'm alright."

"Very well, sir."

He walked away with his head held high.

Estelle hurried down the hall, a vial of poison clutched in her hand. Things were not going her way. She'd told the knights to go after Flynn and bring him to her, but the stupid knights had mostly sided with him for some reason. Even if she managed to capture Flynn, what should she do if most of the knights remained loyal to him? They were at risk of a military coup, and without knights to back her up she had no way of winning.

She had tried to go to the Council to ensure she still had their support, but the damn Flynn brigade had sealed off the entrance. The Council was no doubt furious, but she hadn't even had a chance to explain to them what had happened. All they knew was that she and Flynn were feuding and that the knights were taking sides, so even though she was pretty sure they would side with her, it was still up in the air if Flynn showed up with evidence first.

Everything was falling apart, and it was all because of Flynn. If that worthless idiot had sorted through those boxes properly, Yuri would never have found those letters and none of this would have happened. She didn't think she even wanted to get Flynn back as her slave if he was so useless. She just wanted to capture him so he could be properly punished for screwing everything up. Oh, when she was done with him he was going to think back on those first ten months with fondness.

Ioder was the deciding factor here. Even if Flynn got captured, he would have a chance to tell the Council he believed Ioder was being poisoned and they could give him a poison bottle to check. If Ioder was dead, though, there would be no way to prove he had been poisoned after death and it would be back to her word against Flynn's. She had to kill Ioder as soon as she could.

She ran her fingers around the vial of arsenic. It comforted her, like a magic white powder that she just had to sprinkle on someone to make her problems go away. Once Ioder was dead, she could concentrate on capturing Flynn. It shouldn't be too difficult to prove he had staged a kidnapping to slip out of the castle and join up with the guilds. Most of the Council would jump at the chance to discredit him without Ioder to stop them. Then she could be crowned empress and she'd find a new schmuck to make the commandant.

She smiled as she neared Ioder's chambers. Everything was going to be alright. She just had to finish the job of assassinating Ioder and then she would be free to plan out exactly what she was going to do to Flynn as payback.

She heard voices and glanced around the corner. Five knights stood on guard outside Ioder's chambers. Damn Flynn; he must have sent them. Oh well, it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. She took a moment to summon mana and golden light glowed around her. Before the knights could notice, she murmured, "Come, oh silver light… Angel Ring."

Blinding golden light blossomed around the knight in the middle of the group. He looked down in alarm, but then a golden ring flew up around the others and pulled them crashing together. They smashed into each other, heads banging and then collapsing to the floor. Estelle wasn't sure if they were all knocked out, but they were incapacitated for now so she took her shot and ran for the door.

Estelle crashed through the door to Ioder's bedroom, but she froze when she saw people already there. She stopped in the middle of the room as the door slammed shut behind her.

"Not expecting us?" Judith asked, stepping in front of the door.

Estelle's eyes narrowed as she glared at the group gathered around Ioder's bed. "I should have known you lot would show up."

Yuri shrugged. "Yeah, well, we have this little thing called 'caring about other people's lives'. Perhaps you've heard of it."

"Estelle," Karol said, "can't you just snap out of it? Come on, this isn't really you."

Yuri shot his eyes to Karol. "Karol, are you still thinking like that? We've been over this. There is no Estelle. This lovely woman is Princess Estellise, and she's a monster."

Estelle's harsh expression dropped and she looked to Rita with wavering eyes. "Rita, you don't really believe them, do you? After all that we've been through?"

Rita held up her fists. "If you think you can toy with my emotions again, you've got another thing coming."

"Don't bother tryin'," Raven said, coming up behind her from where he'd been lurking by the door. "We all know what ya did ta Flynn, and you're one sick cookie." He grabbed her, pinning her hands behind her back.

Estelle shouted and pulled, but Raven was stronger than her. "Raven, let go of me! Please! How could you do this to me again?"

"Save it," Yuri snapped. "None of us are buying your little innocent princess routine anymore."

From the bed, Ioder groaned and opened his eyes. Yuri set the empty poison bottle on the bedside table and asked, "You alright?"

"Ugh… what's going on?"

"Ioder, help me!" Estelle said, squirming in Raven's grip. "Flynn spread terrible lies about me and now they're all turning on me!"

"That's not true!" Karol said. He looked to Ioder and said, "You've gotta believe us! She's been poisoning you and we just gave you the cure."

"And looky here," Judith said, picking up a vial Estelle dropped. "I'd be willing to bet this is more poison to finish you off."

Ioder wrinkled his brow and struggled to sit up against his headboard. "Estellise… why would you…?"

"I didn't!" she insisted. "They're framing me. Oh, please Ioder, you have to believe me. We're family."

"Estelle's been lying to us from the get-go," Rita said. "She's got this whole false persona constructed ever since childhood."

Ioder's face fell. "What…?"

"Don't listen to them, Ioder," Estelle pleaded.

"Just wait until Flynn gets here," Yuri said, his furious eyes on Estelle. "He can tell you everything she did to him."

"Estelle was giving orders to Alexei," Judith said, putting her hand on Estelle's shoulder to help Raven hold her still. "Yuri found out accidentally and she tried to kill him to silence him."

Ioder frowned and looked to Yuri. "How does Flynn play into this?

"Estelle was controlling him," Yuri said. He glared at her with fury and wondered if it was even possible to sum up what she'd done to Flynn in a single sentence. "This bitch tortured him into being brainwashed."

Ioder gaped at him and then turned his eyes on Eselle. "Estellise, is this true?"

"Of course not!"

"But why would your friends create these lies?"

"I don't know!" She frantically shook her head. "I don't know what happened, but they're all turning on me. Please, Ioder, you have to believe me."

"We just gave you a poison bottle," Rita said. "Estelle claims to have tried healing you already. Since the poison bottle worked, she clearly didn't actually use Recover."

"Estellise, the evidence is stacked against you," Ioder said. His face was pale and he had bags under his eyes, but Yuri wasn't sure if that was the lingering illness from poison or because of how exhausting it was to learn a close friend had betrayed you.

Yuri raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be accepting this fast."

"It does explain why I wasn't raised in the castle. When I was young and asked if I could meet my cousin, my guardians told me it wouldn't be a good idea and hastily changed the subject. I always wondered about that." He pushed the covers away and rubbed his sleeve across his sweaty forehead. He stood up shakily, and Yuri grabbed his arm to help him stay upright. "Estellise, we may be family but I cannot overlook what you've done. I'm still not entirely certain what I believe about Flynn and everything else, but the evidence is pretty clear that you poisoned me."

Rita scowled. "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

"We should get both of ya ta the Council," Raven said. "Get it all sorted."

"I need to find Flynn," Yuri said. "If we got to Ioder first, something must have happened to him." He wanted to trust that Flynn could take care of himself, but… Yuri wasn't sure he could.

"If Flynn was on his way here," Judith said, "we may run into him on the way out."

"Ioder, please, you're making a mistake." Estelle pulled against Raven's grip, but he easily overpowered her.

Ioder gave her a weary look and sighed. "We'll work this out with the Council."

They left the room, but didn't get far before stopping again. "Estellise," Ioder said when they stopped in the hallway. "What happened to these men?"

The knights on guard outside Ioder's chambers, who had helpfully let Yuri and company through, lay in an unconscious heap in the middle of the corridor. "Looks like Angel Ring to me," Yuri said.

Estelle shook her head. "No, this wasn't me. I saw them knocked out and I ran inside to see who attacked them."

"Yeah, right," Rita said. "I don't have any artes that pull enemies together like this."

Ioder didn't say anything, but Yuri could see his distrust of Estelle growing stronger. Good, the less work they had to do to convince him, the better.

They walked through the hallways, but with Ioder at their side, they didn't run into any trouble. Even when they encountered knights loyal to Estelle, Ioder trumped her and they were left alone. Yuri couldn't relax, because the instinct to stay on guard when knights were running around was deeply ingrained. His fingers kept twitching and he had to put effort into not reaching for his sword every time clanking footsteps approached them. It didn't help that Raven dragging Estelle along with them stirred up all those feelings of hurt and betrayal again. He wanted to punch something, but he kept it bottled up. The others no doubt recognized his tense face and jerky movements, but while Karol gave him concerned glances, no one said anything.

His hand reached for his sword again when he heard footsteps, but then Flynn strode around the corner. He stopped when he saw them, staring in surprise.

"Yuri?"

"Hey," Yuri said, a grin replacing his glower. "You're late."

Flynn looked to Estelle hesitantly, but then asked, "Master Ioder, are you alright?"

Ioder nodded. "Thanks to Yuri and his friends."

Yuri walked away from the group to approach Flynn. "Is everything alright?" he asked when he got close. He frowned as he glanced down. "Your hands are bloody."

Flynn covered his knuckles with his other hand, but since both were equally bloody it wasn't much use. "It's nothing. I just… I got in a fight."

"With your fists? What about your sword?"

Flynn' Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed heavily. "Yuri, I ran into… he was the main knight who…"

"Ah." He understood. "You ok?"

Flynn nodded. "I am now. He's been taken care of."

"Good. We're on our way to the Council. Are you coming?"

"Yes." He hesitated and then hung his head. "Yuri… I'm sorry I messed up. I had nearly reached Ioder when I ran into Estelle, and… I let her get to me."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Yuri patted his shoulder. "It all worked out now, didn't it?"

"I guess so."

"Now come on, we've got to turn her in to the Council.

On the way to the Council, Yuri and Flynn fell to the back of the group while Flynn filled Yuri in on everything that had happened. This, of course, did nothing to make Yuri less angry. He cast a dark look at Estelle, who was still trying to play innocent. He was pleased when he heard that the bastard who'd tortured Flynn had been arrested, though. That meant he was still alive and Yuri might have a chance to wring his neck himself.

"I won't lie," Yuri said quietly as Flynn wrapped up his story, "Pretty sure I would have killed him." If Judith and Rita in front of them were listening to their conversation, they didn't mention it.

"I know," Flynn said. "but that isn't the path I want to follow."

"I think I'm glad you didn't. Sodia is right -" it almost pained him to say that, "that isn't you. You're going to change the empire from within, so you have to keep your hands clean. I'll take care of the dirt that slips through the cracks."

Flynn looked down at his hand and flexed his bloodstained knuckles. "My hands certainly don't feel very clean."

Yuri frowned and glanced at Estelle again. "I've told you before that you can't be blamed for the crap you did for Estelle."

Flynn dropped his hand. "Yeah. I'm trying to get that to sink in."

"Actually, I meant to talk to you about that. I was thinking… well, to be honest, Judy suggested it, but do you think you should see someone? A, you know, a therapist."

Flynn was silent for a few seconds. Yuri knew he was working through the same stigma Yuri had, but luckily Flynn was a lot more logical about these sort of things than a lot of knights. "Actually, that sounds like a fantastic idea. I really don't feel capable of doing my job at this point, and I need all the help I can get to put myself back on track."

"Yeah, ok," Yuri nodded encouragingly. "Why don't you come to Dahngrest with me? We'll find you someone in Dahngrest and you can stay with me until you're back on your feet."

"Ok. Thank you."

The fact that Flynn was so easily agreeing to taking time away from work when he had more to do than ever confirmed to Yuri that he must really need the help. "You don't have to thank me."

When they reached the Council chamber, the members of the Flynn brigade stood aside and saluted Flynn. Ioder opened the doors and led them into the noisy chamber. Council members yelled at each other across the room, but everyone froze when the group entered.

"Master Ioder, you're alright!" said one of them.

"What's going on?" an angry man shouted. "Flynn, I demand you remove your knights from the entrance. This is completely unlawful."

"I told you!" another shouted, marching up to them. "He's trying to stage a coup!"

Flynn stiffened, and Yuri stepped in front of him before the councilman could get right in his face. He shifted his position to make it very clear that even though he currently wasn't holding his sword, that could change at a second's notice. "Flynn hasn't done anything wrong."

The councilman meekly backed away until he bumped into the long table on the left where half of the group sat.

"Yuri is correct," Ioder said. "As far as I can see, it is Estellise who is the instigator of all of this."

"The princess?" a man said. "Don't be absurd."

"You can let her go, Raven," Yuri said. "She's not going anywhere."

Raven released her arms and Estelle quickly stepped away. She glanced around to all the exits, but every member of the Council had their eyes on her. Even if she ran away now, it would only prove her guilt. "Everyone has turned on me," she said, giving the Council her puppy eyes. "Please, I must appeal to you as a last resort. Both Ioder and Flynn have sided with Yuri, even after he attacked me!"

"Oh, shut up," Yuri said with irritation. "I'm getting pretty tired of you pretending you're such an innocent little flower. Ioder, tell them what happened."

Ioder, who held Judith's arm to stay upright, said, "My sudden recovery from illness is thanks to a poison bottle. I was being poisoned."

"How can that be?" a woman said, leaning forward on the table. "Estellise claimed to have already tried a poison bottle and healing artes on you."

Karol crossed his arms and stuck out his chin. "She was lying, obviously."

"Estelle was working with Alexei the whole time," Yuri said. "I found a bunch of letters from her giving him orders."

"Do you have any proof of this, young man?" a man asked.

Yuri scowled. "Nah. She probably burnt them already."

"I see," the man said, looking down at some papers on the table and shuffling them.

"I can give you my word," Raven said. "I know the word of an old guildsman isn't worth much, but if ya want to consider it comin' from the late Captain Schwann…" He shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. "When Alexei supposedly kidnapped the princess here, she displayed some rather suspicious behaviour."

"If she's behind all this," the councilman who'd tried to confront Flynn said, "then how come it's the knights loyal to the commandant that are causing all the problem?"

"Flynn was trying to deliver a poison bottle to Ioder," Yuri said. "Estelle stopped him and then sent the knights after him. Most of the knights trusted him more than her, and started fighting each other."

One of the women crossed her arms and glared at Flynn. "Why don't we hear from the commandant himself? What's he doing hiding back there when his knights have been keeping us locked in here?"

Flynn faltered, and Yuri turned around to him. "It's fine," Yuri said softly with a reassuring smile. "Just tell the truth and explain what happened. You don't have to go into detail."

Flynn nodded weakly and took a few small steps forward. He bit his lip, took a deep breath, and then said, "I can tell you from personal experience that Lady Estellise has committed serious atrocities. I was a victim of…" he struggled to find a word that could sum up everything he'd been through, "cruel mental conditioning through torture." He paused to swallow hard and strengthen his voice. "It is only recently that I have been able to break the hold she had over my mind."

"That's not true," Estelle insisted. "Why would you say that, Flynn?"

Flynn pointedly avoided looking at her. "I can supply a lengthy list crimes she either committed or ordered during the past two years. In addition, we have arrested a knight who was complicit in her unlawful acts and can testify against her."

"You can search her room, too," Rita said. "I found a whole book about brainwashing in there."

"As far as I am concerned," Ioder said, "we have more than enough evidence to convict her of high treason, among other crimes. There will, of course, need to be a trial."

"This is quite distressing news," one of the councilmen said. "To even imagine that such betrayal could come from within the royal family…"

"It's all lies," Estelle said with tears in her eyes. "I would never do anything like this!"

"We would love to believe that," Judith said. "If you have an explanation for failing to give Ioder a poison bottle when you said you did, attacking Yuri, those letters you sent to Alexei, and the years of abuse Flynn endured from you, among other things, we would love to hear it."

Estelle glared at her, but couldn't come up with anything.

Ioder sighed. "Estellise, I have no choice but to believe you really are responsible for these heinous crimes. Flynn, please see that she is arrested. We will arrange a trial for the coming weeks to settle this."

Flynn nodded. "Yes, Your Highness."

"I'll put a stop to the fighting," Ioder said. "Yuri, you and your friends are welcome to stay in the castle tonight while we get everything sorted out."

"Alright," Yuri said. "So this means all the charges against me are dropped, right?"

"Yeah," Flynn said, stepping back out of the limelight. "I'll get Sodia to take care of all the paperwork for this case."

"Where is she, anyway?"

"Most likely her office," Flynn said. "I sent her to take care of arresting three men, so she'll be filling out the arrest papers for them."

"Right. Well, if there's nothing more to be done here, can we get going? I want to find Tokunaga and let him know everything worked out so he can send word to Harry."

"I'll be in my room," Flynn said. "I've had enough stress for today. I think I need to go sleep for a week."

"Ok. I'll come find you when I've taken care of things." Yuri gave one last look at Estelle. She returned his look with furious eyes, but in the moment, Yuri couldn't match her anger. He hated her for playing with him and hurting Flynn, but as he stared at her, he just felt sad.

He couldn't deal with this anymore, so he tore his eyes away and turned his back on Estelle. He would be perfectly happy if he never had to see her again.

Outside the Council chamber, he took a deep breath and strode through the gathered knights. He needed to send word to the Union, but there was something else he had to take care of first. As such, he soon found himself standing outside Sodia's office.

"Come in," she said after he knocked. She looked up as he entered, and then her face fell. "Yuri Lowell. Where is Commandant Flynn?"

"He's fine." Yuri closed the door with his heel and then stood by the desk, not bothering sitting down. "He's with the Council right now, and then he's going to take a nap."

"That's good to hear. Is the situation with Lady Estellise resolved?"

He nodded. "So far, at least. There still needs to be a trial, but that's in a couple of weeks."

"Very good. Why are you here?"

Yuri smirked. "What, I can't just drop by to visit?"

Sodia scowled at him. "You know perfectly well we aren't friends."

"Fine." He finally sat down. "It's about Flynn. You know you and I are the only people he really trusts, right?"

She nodded slowly. "I wasn't sure he trusted me, but I am relieved to hear it."

"Great. He's gonna be staying with me for a little while, but after that, he's going to be back here and I can't be by his side. I'm the last person he needs to get him back on the road of being a shiny white knight. You need to be that person, because after everything he's been through, he needs someone by his side."

"Of course. I will always support him." She seemed offended that he'd even need to tell her.

"What I really wanted to tell you is… about Zaude." Sodia flinched mildly at the subject. "Are you planning on telling him the truth?"

She looked down at her hands, her orange bangs hiding her eyes. "I'm… not sure. I told myself I would after the Adephagos was out of the way and the world was at peace, but now I'm not sure."

Yuri leaned forward on his elbows. "It's ultimately up to you, but for what it's worth, I don't think you should. I told you to make your own choice the last time we talked about it, but things have changed. Flynn needs to be able to trust you. If he finds out you lied about this, he might never trust anyone else again. I don't think I need to tell you that would be really bad for him in the long run."

Sodia nodded and then raised her head. "Yes, I agree. Maybe I can tell him in the future, but he's not ready to deal with this right now."

"Yeah." Yuri felt bad about discussing this behind Flynn's back. He thought of it as another case of feeling like a shitty friend in order to help him in the long run. It may not be right to collaborate with Sodia and agree to hide something from Flynn, but it was also true that Flynn was in a fragile mental state and they couldn't risk another break down.

He pushed up from the desk and walked to the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Take care of him for me. When he moves back to Zaphias we can talk again and I'll give you some pointers on helping him with flashbacks and nightmares."

She paused, gaping at him for a few seconds, and then said, "Yuri… thank you."

Yuri nodded and walked out.