𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑬𝑨 ¹ ↳ 𝒍. 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏

lvii. peace in the chaos

Vera struggles to form words, feeling his words touch her heart and fill with immense love for her friend. Then, she takes a step forward to help him, finding that her actions may speak for itself.  However, Aragorn stops her by bringing a hand up in a halt. Lifting the rag to soak it in the bucket of water after it is stained red, he quickly gazes across the room for any more shreds of evidence of her previous felony, before meeting her eyes. He could visibly see her tall frame shaking in the coldness of the night, despite the fire burning from the corner of the room, and he has a small feeling that it has something to do more with the last events.

She is still in shock. Her dazed, wide eyes stuck in a trance, where she was half-present in the current place but half-absent, stuck in her own dreamland. Aragorn could wager that Vera could not clearly hear him talking, perhaps only letting fragments of his sentence in but enough to be able to register his exact meaning behind them. Her body was reacting like any normal person would after doing an atrocity like murder; a disbelief of what she could do, shock over what she actually did, fear for what could possibly happen to her. It was normal and he had seen it countless times during his days amongst the Dunèdain, where he watched as one of his friends suffered the trauma of killing another man in cold blood. Granted, they were both innocent as it was mostly self-defense or accidental and their victims weren't innocent themselves, but they committed to the task nonetheless. He could not imagine how much Vera could be going through at that moment and thought of the several things he could do to help her move faster. 

"Vera...I need you to sit still, for a while. I know that you want to help and right the wrongs you have done but nothing can change what happened. It is in the past and I fear that if you do not let this settle in your mind and accept it, you will never be the same person again. You do not have to help me at this moment...but if it helps your mind, at all, then know that you can repay the favor one day," Aragorn instructs gently, coaxing Vera into agreeing with his orders in a compromisable manner — one where Vera, even in her fragile state, would accept the gentle approach to her desire for equality. His wishes were answered once Vera nods numbly, settling back on the bed as she processed the request with care from her friend. He supposed that the smile helped, as did the joke. "Just relax...and think...let this settle in."

As Aragorn returned to his task of ridding the evidence, Vera numbly follows his orders and takes the moment to actually think about what had happened and let it register in her head before she finally accepted it and let it become her. Evian Decourt would definitely not rest until his cousin was avenged or brought justice, with the intentions of killing Vera or not. Corin is bound to be neutral about this situation, perhaps even stretching to supportive as he never really held a bond with the man and had strong opinions about his messed-up family. However, Neptune was a different story. Vera was there when he fell into a phase of sorrows and griefs after the realization that his father was gone, Vera was there by his side when he would ramble about the times he wished he had with his father, and she had just stripped him of a chance like that. 

She did not know how Neptune would react towards her choice but she severely hoped that she would be forgiven one day...if not by the Valar, then by her baby brother. 

Vera lifts her hazel eyes to meet with Aragorn's blue orbs as he stands, moving the bucket of water and rags to another corner of the room and revealing the stainless, stone floors and the destruction of any pieces of evidence that could be held against Vera in any case. Forcing herself to smile at Aragorn in thanks, Vera lets her mouth quirk upwards on one side but her eyes remain worried. Aragorn could undoubtedly sense this and sighs heavily, settling on the bed next to Vera with wet hands — he had previously soaked his own hands to rid himself of the blood — and pushing her head nearer to his shoulders before wrapping her in his arms comfortingly. Despite the unorthodox situation, the duo both appreciated the small moments they would get together, having missed one another after the turn of events placed on them all.