Chapter 201: Doing The Right Thing
Aveline tried to get the guards, but Aelion stopped her. As she looked, the girl’s resistance faltered.
The boys shoved closer.
The girl, instead of fighting or shouting or running, went suddenly still.
Aveline stared, the blood draining from her face.
"This is not right," she said, her voice gone flat with shock. Her eyes no longer looked angry. They looked hollow. "There is no struggle."
"Because there is no point in struggling," Aelion said grimly. "And even the guards will not do anything against the boys of House of Velmora and Terravain."
Aveline’s hands curled into fists.
"That does not mean—"
The words stopped in her throat when she saw the boys drag the girl farther away, toward a patch of bushes beyond the path. The girl walked with them without fighting. Not because she wanted to. Not because she had accepted it. But because something in her had clearly learned that resistance only made things worse.
As she passed, her eyes met Aveline’s.
For one brief, unbearable moment, Aveline thought the girl might ask for help.
She did not.
She simply looked at her, and there was something in that look that made Aveline’s stomach twist. It was just the exhausted resignation of someone who had learned the shape of her own helplessness too well.
Aveline’s fists tightened until her nails bit into her palms.
"This cannot be," she said under her breath. Her voice had gone cold, too quiet to be called calm. "This does not feel right."
Aelion pulled at her sleeve again. "She knows how things work here, Ava. These are the rules."
He gave a small, dismissive scoff, as though the ugliness of it could somehow be softened by naming it properly. "Are you not always the one insisting on rules?"
"You should walk away."
Aveline looked at him in disbelief.
Walk away?
She could still hear their laughter. She could still see the girl disappearing into the brush with that empty, defeated look. She could still feel the sick weight of the moment in her chest.
Were they really not breaking any rules?
Or had the rules themselves simply become corrupt enough to protect men like that?
Aveline stood there in silence for a long moment, her jaw clenched, her whole body trembling with the force of everything she did not yet know how to say. Then her eyes hardened, and whatever hesitation had remained in her vanished almost completely.
She was not certain yet what she was going to do.
But she knew one thing with absolute clarity.
She could not keep walking as though she had seen nothing.
Aveline turned and started toward the bushes.
She could stop them. She knew she could. Whether through shadows, fire, or simply sheer determination, she could drag those boys away from that girl and make certain they never touched her again.
But before she had taken more than a few steps, Aelion caught her arm.
"Are you going to reveal yourself now, Ava?" he asked, his voice low and urgent. "My half-brothers may have been too humiliated to speak of what happened between you, but these boys will not stay silent. They will involve their families. And when the Houses of Velmora and Terravain learn of it, not even the Archduke will be able to shield you."
Aveline stared at him.
Why should she care?
What did noble houses, reputations, or consequences matter compared to what was happening behind those bushes?
She tried to pull away, but Aelion tightened his grip.
"Shouldn’t you be focused on the raid?" he asked. "This is a distraction."
The words struck her like a physical blow.
The raid.
She had agreed to help.
She needed to help.
Theron needed that cotton. The people needed it. If she exposed herself now, if trouble followed her, she could jeopardize everything. The raid would become more dangerous. The rebels could be discovered. The cotton might never reach the people who would freeze without it.
And Theron...
Her fingers clenched around her skirt.
Slowly, painfully, Aelion’s reasoning began to make sense.
That only made it worse.
Because now she had a reason to walk away.
And somehow, having a reason made the act no less cruel.
Aveline looked one last time toward the bushes where the girl had disappeared. Her feet refused to move. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to go, to do something, to stop this.
But she turned away.
And as she did, something inside her seemed to crack.
The walk to the guard station felt impossibly long.
If she could not intervene directly, then she would do this properly. She would report it. She would make the authorities act. Surely that was what one was supposed to do. Surely that was the right way.
When she arrived, however, the guards did not immediately rush to investigate.
Instead, they questioned her.
Who were the boys?
Did she know their names?
Had she actually witnessed an assault?
Was she certain the girl had not gone willingly?
Could she identify witnesses?
Paperwork was brought out. Forms had to be filled. Statements had to be recorded. Aveline answered every question. Patiently. Precisely. She wrote everything down. By the time she finally left, the sun had already begun to sink lower in the sky.
No guards had gone to the bushes. No one had hurried anywhere. No one had looked outraged. It had simply become another report among many.
Aveline walked back in silence.
She had done something. She had followed the rules. She had reported it. She was not heartless. She was not selfish.
She had done something, right? She did.
Then why did it feel so much like she had abandoned that girl?
The question followed her all the way back, heavy and relentless, and... Aveline found herself wondering whether following the proper channels was always the same thing as doing what was right.
"I’ve spoken to the old man about the creatures," Aveline said quietly as Aelion began explaining the principles behind lightning. "I promised that I would personally keep them in line, and he agreed to give them more freedom. They can leave their cages for walks now. At least for a little while."
She tried to smile as she said it.
She needed that smile.
Needed to believe it.
Because she had done something. She had changed something. The creatures would no longer spend every moment trapped in darkness and fear. They would breathe fresh air. They would see the sky.
She was helping.
She was changing things, little by little, in whatever ways she could.
The girl from earlier... She would be fine.
Probably.
Someone else must have stepped in. Surely someone had. Aveline repeated the thought to herself so many times that it began to lose all meaning.
Aelion watched her for a long moment before letting out a quiet sigh.
"You should rest," he said. "Your mind isn’t here."
Aveline lowered her gaze.
He was right.
She could not focus when all she could see was a pair of empty eyes meeting hers from across a path.
The lesson ended shortly after.
That night, Aveline could not sleep.
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