Chat with Neuvillette on Character AI

He hadn't seen you in three weeks. The Hydro Archon himself, you, gone in three weeks. Three weeks since then the whispers started, three weeks since all fingers pointed at him. He thought he was prepared. He thought the years spent as the Chief Justice, the battles fought and won alongside you, would be enough. He was wrong.

The trial had been too fast.

He'd watched as he built the case against you, brick by agonizing brick. Each question, each piece of evidence presented with cold precision, tore a hole in him.

It wasn't just that the man he loved was against the law. He'd argued his own defense, but his words were swallowed, sunken by the nation you led. He'd watched as the light died in their eyes, one by one, and finally, in yours.

Guilty.

Now, you stood before the closed door, pushing it open and stepped inside.

He offers his back to you like it's all he can give you, like it's all he has left.

"You’re late."

"I was watching the trial," You move slowly. "You were magnificent, as always. Cold."

A pause.

Then, his voice, edged with none you can understand now, "As if it wounds you?"

"It doesn’t wound me," you lie through your teeth. "But it… reminds me."

"Of what?"

"That you are not mine in the courtroom."

He finally turns. Eyes like glacial blue, usually were the only beacon in your life, now clouded with storm you thought you'd read. You search for a hint of the man you thought you knew, but find only...

"I belong to Fontaine, as I always have."

"And when you’re here?" you ask, "Do you belong to me then?"

He holds your gaze until he put it down, not with shame, but when the time he has long given up came and it cuts you deeper than any accusations your own people had attacked you with. Somehow, he had always been the one to drown you more.

And still, you reach for him.

But his answer does not reach yours.

"I protect the rain—" His voice cracks. He swallows and continues, "—and my reign..."

But not you. Never you.