Droplets that fell (for you) [Wriolette]

Primordial water, true form come forth

"Are you sure you saw something here?" Clorinde asked Carole as she and Navia walked behind her. Carole was leading them to a place she had been standing guard at last night with Vautrin and she claimed to have seen something suspicious.

"Even Vautrin didn't see or hear anything, you know," Navia said as reasonable as ever. She was honestly tired of walking since Carole had fetched the pair from the other side of the city. Clorinde glanced at Navia and shrugged. She was kind of on the same page with Navia. Carole's spirits were still high as ever and she insisted on them following. Until, she stopped and turned around to look at the pair with doubt on her face.

"You don't trust me, do you?" Carole asked. Clorinde and Navia stayed silent as they did not expect such a straightforward question. In fact, they had mixed feelings despite their trust in the Chief Justice. Clorinde felt guilty for feeling this way since she had promised the Iudex that she would be there to protect the Melusines but maybe that was not the case after all. Maybe if she had actually done her job the murders wouldn't grow in number. Navia wasn't as close to the Iudex as Clorinde but this was her duty and a case she was entrusted with. Why wasn't she doing her job then?

Carole saw that they were hesitating to answer and said, "I understand." She turned back around and continued walking in the direction she was leading the others to. "I've sensed your feelings ever since we met but I can assure you they've gotten better!" Carole said and smiled as she turned her head to look at the two behind her. Clorinde and Navia couldn't help but smile back slightly with apologetic looks. Melusines were quite good at detecting things, and both women took note of that.

They eventually reached their destination and the place was wrecked. Clorinde and Navia immediately ran closer as they saw the state of the place. It was a small corner in the city with stuff scattered around like bottles, books, and so on. What caught their attention though was the hard-to-miss patches of blood around. Carole wasn't kidding. Of course, she wasn't.

Carole didn't expect this to be so serious and froze as the two women picked up a few books and bottles with gloves on and inspected them briefly. Clorinde looked at Navia, "Which one of us should report to the Iudex? Bringing these news to him is never easy, as you might imagine." It was very true. Every time a new murder got reported to Neuvillette he would lock himself inside his office or go somewhere outside. It was clearly not easy for him and even nature agreed with him. It had been raining quite often lately. 

None of them wanted to take over the task but despite that, Carole said quietly, "I'll inform him."

"You don't need to do so if you don't want to. I'll be able to cover for you," Clorinde said but Carole shook her head anyway. Her own kin was being murdered and she could be next on the list any day. That was a fact she had to come to terms with. Maybe reporting this to the Iudex would give her some kind of realization of the cruel reality. It was hard to get it to sink in after all.

"Would you like for us to accompany you after we're done looking here?" Navia asked and squatted to get on the same level as the small Melusine. Her eyes were full of concern and genuine worry for the creature. In some way, the two of them were kind of similar. Carole really reminded Navia of herself when she was younger. Suddenly, it really hit her just how much times and the people have changed. She unconsciously reached out to Carole and pulled her into a hug. Carole was a bit surprised but the sudden warmth made unexpected tears spring to her eyes. She curled herself closer to Navia and sniffed. Clorinde smiled a bittersweet smile their way and also walked closer. She bent down over the pair and put her arms around them as well.

"I could've done something..." Carole sniffed. If only she'd followed the strange feeling and intuition a life would've been spared. What's even worse is that nobody was found in the area. No proper burial could be held, no one knew who had just lost their life. This was a fate no one should have and they would deserve to be paid proper respects to. Who knows what sick stuff was done to the Melusine's body?