Avett finally manages to catch a glimpse of the wall that he and Auren have been running at for the past hour, and with it the door that they'd entered through. It’s only a few more shelves away, and if they keep going at this rate they’ll be out of this mess in no time.
They turn another corner, and then another. Avett isn’t running at his usual speed anymore, and Auren looks like he might puke at any given moment from the overexertion. Just a bit more. Just a bit—
He skids to a halt. Auren stumbles next to him, his eyes bleary and unfocused.
“What is—what is it?” he pants.
Avett’s not sure what he’s asking for, considering the fact that what he’s looking at is directly in front of them. There’s a bright light beaming down on the two figures like he’s watching a screenplay and everything. Then he realises that Auren is probably on the verge of either blacking out or throwing up, and he tries his best to forgive him.
He recognises one figure immediately from the tone of her faded, blue jacket. Lilith is lying against the ground, and her head is resting in the second figure’s lap. The second figure must be the artifact Auren had referred to earlier.
Without hesitation, he rushes towards Lilith and crouches at her side. It’s then when he realises the artifact is crying, and that she’s not the confident warrior he’d expected such a powerful force to be. Her silvery hair falls over her eyes in misshapen curls. Her shoulders shudder with each sob.
Avett places a hand on the girl’s shoulder instead. “Hey. Hey. It’s alright. You’re safe now.”
The girl shakes her head. “She’s dead.”
His limbs go cold briefly, and he puts a finger against the side of Lilith's wirst. It takes a second too long for him to understand that she's not referring to Lilith. “It’s ok. It’s not your fault.”
“It is.”
“No it isn't. It’s alright, you acted in self defense, it's ok.”
The girl breaks down into incoherent babbling. Despite himself, Avett looks at his immediate vicinity, scanning every nook and cranny for a stray foot, or a pale and motionless face. He finds nothing of the sort. With Claire dead, there won’t be anyone alive to take the twins to the incinerator. He thinks to retrieve the bodies, but the girl clutches at his sleeve when he goes to move.
“Claire is alive,” she says. "It's not her."
Avett raises an eyebrow. “Then who did you…?”
She shudders again. Then she whispers, “The other twin. I didn’t know it would kill Lethe, I didn’t know it’d make Claire scream like that.”
She must be confused from the trauma of witnessing Lethe’s death. Avett knows Auren’s doubling back behind a shelf right now, and he’s probably sixty. This girl can’t be any older than seventeen, and, well—Avett knows all too well how it feels to be in this scenario.
He hushes the girl and presses her to his chest. “It’s ok. You didn’t kill Lethe. That mercenary did.”
“No.” She pulls away from his grasp. “I did. She wouldn’t have come down here—”
“She came for me.” He reaches forward again. “Not for you. Just for me.”
“No!” The girl swats his hand out of the air. “I made her come here. I caused all of this to happen. I didn’t mean for her to die, I only wanted to be free, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen—”
“I don’t understand, you need to breathe—”
Auren places a hand on Avett’s shoulder. He’s swiping at his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, and there’s a particular stench about him that informs Avett he’s just cleared his stomach. Nevertheless, he begins to speak, his tone solemn. “She told the truth, Avett.”
“The fuck are you on?” Avett snaps. “We saw Eltia shoot Lethe, we heard her smarmy fucking ass taunt the both of us.”
The Gallian man regards the girl with an uptilted chin and downcast eyes. “Kashira Hellsborne, New Order Gallian and current holder of the Exodus sanctuary’s overseer position. You used your affinity for fateweaving to influence Eltia Earlstone to infiltrate this laboratory, no?”
Avett coughs. “What the fuck are you saying?”
The girl whimpers. “I didn’t mean for it to end this way.”
“Additionally, you also used your affinity to lure Alexei into the initial laboratory, would I be correct?”
She doesn’t say anything.
“And finally—you influenced us to arrive to your rescue.” Auren doesn’t move from his position. “Am I wrong?”
The girl shakes her head.
And with that, Auren nods to himself. “That is all I needed to know.”
He heads for the door, leaving Avett flabbergasted and alone.