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A/N: I'm back, thank you for your wonderful patience, I did my best to plan out some chapters after this Arch, and I hope you enjoy. Once again, thank you/
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Lia waited within the shadows, watching Winslow with eyes as cold as his, a stare down taking place between them. From behind him, she could see the figures of Rian and Lukali taking their positions behind him.
He was trapped. He had no whee to go.
She would get her answers.
"You know why I've come."
Winslow tilted his head, acting confused.
"Do I?"
"I think you do."
"Explain."
Lia took a deep breath, her hand reaching deep within a small pouch on her side, pulling out a scroll of paper, she tossed it at his feet.
"You marked Voln's position on the map. You knew where he was all along. I would bet you even kept it hidden."
Winslow didn't say anything, only watching Lia's eyes with an intent to do something, something she didn't know. He was still hiding behind his mask, the dominoes not ready to tip over just yet.
But, despite this, she waited, watching him with the same eyes intent with purpose.
Answers.
"Perhaps."
Was all he said, standing properly as the head butler must. But Lia didn't buy any of it. She knew that this was most likely his means of keeping calm, showing no signs of hindrance or change. Change that could give her answers.
"Perhaps it doesn't work. I came back for answers, answers to questions I already know. But I want to hear it from you."
"Why? Would it make you feel better about the whole issue?"
Lia remained silent for a moment, surprised that Winslow had come out and said what he wanted to say so easily. It was completely unlike him to not bounce around questions, make the receiving person feel like his mind was open to every possible answer, yet made himself seem like he knew nothing at the same time.
That was his tactic. Winslow made it so that people, interrogators, or otherwise anyone at all, would feel like they knew more than he did. Make them feel stupid for asking him.
"You kept him hidden for five years. I can't even guess that it was you and Saul that snuck food out for him, especially during the winter months. These mountains must get the occasional snowfall every now and then."
"Your point?"
"My point is that you obviously seem to care for Voln, whether those feelings are reciprocal or not, but you kept certain things hidden from him. Things he has a right to know. If you had just told him-"
"Told him what?"
Winslow asked, interrupting Lia, as his voice began to contain a sharp edge to it. He was no longer holding back in this argument.
"Told him who killed his father? Who did the deed? Who hired them to do it? What?"
Lia didn't say anything, surprised to see this change in Winslow.
"Then what would have happened? Voln has never taken a life, and until now, I've made sure that never happened. I kept things hidden from him, ordering Saul to do the same, just so that he would remain the same innocent boy that once grew up here."
"He isn't innocent anymore, Winslow. The man's been through enough, and he's an adult now. He deserves to know."
"For what purpose? To kill this murder? To get revenge? Then what? It has been his life goal to find this person, and get revenge. I understand that he deserves to know, but with everything he's been through, what happens when that purpose, that one thing that's keeping him going in life, is gone?"
Lia frowned, her mind already working inside. She didn't think of this murder and Voln's revenge as being a purpose driving the man. In fact, she had only seen it as the same thing she was searching for.
A reason to let go of your past.
"He won't lose his reason for living. He's simply trying to get rid of his past, let it go."
Winslow shook his head, his own frown plastered on his face.
"To what purpose do we forsaken our past? Forget or forgive, we lose the very same thing that has brought us to where we are. If Voln gets what he wants, releases his past regrets and his hatred, what will drive him then? His future?"
Wnslow gestured to Lia, using her as an example to his meaning.
"That man's been fighting this battle for too long. Like a soldier, when they've seen war, blood, death and gore, they don't see much else in the world any longer. You know that don't you?"
"I know that there are things better left to forget, rather than forgive."
"Did your friend teach you that?"
Though Lia didn't think she could get many more surprises coming her way, she was forced to do a double take once again.
"...what did you say?"
Winslow didn't speak for several moments, and Lia found the urge to yell at him, urging him on to speak his mind. But she suppressed that urge, knowing it was better to be silent in this moment than it was to voice concern.
Finally, after several minutes of silence, Winslow spoke, his words matching his blank expression.
"Did you really think I wouldn't know you were a summoner?"
Lia could see Rian and Lukali tense up behind him, their desire to protect her already showing clearly in their eyes, figures, and stances. They would fight if necessary, but Lia needed them for something else at the moment.
So she played along.
"You knew Voln was one. I had my suspicions that someone would know sooner or later. I just couldn't tell if it was going to be you or Saul."
"Well, when you often travel these halls at night, alone with your own thoughts, you think at times you see something, hiding like a rabbit in the shadows."
Lia frowned, her confusion settling back in.
'What does he mean? What did he see?'
"But, other times when you think it's an illusion, the night and silence working together to fool you, you eventually realize that what you see is no illusion."
He gestured with an open palm towards Lia's face, her eyes in particular.
"Those are not the only pair of eyes I've seen at night. Sometimes they lie in the forest edge, sometimes they stare out at me from the shadows. More than once, I thought it was a group of Devils playing with me, laughing at my fear."
"...but?"
"But…yes, I eventually learned a thing or two from those eyes. I didn't know exactly who they belonged to, but when I saw his figure standing over this case, I knew who it was."
Coincidentally, or rather, purposefully, Winslow had walked the very same hall he had once spoken to Lia in, who's own figure was vivid in his memories leaned over the glass case with a desire in her eyes. The same case he currently had a hand on.
"He has the same desire that was in your eyes when I caught you here. He watched me with such empty eyes I could have sworn he was some demon of the night."
He took his hand off the case, holding his head in one hand as he smiled, the memory making him almost as mad as he had been when he saw those two glowing crimson eyes.
"I even welcomed him as one. So no, Lia of Endless, your eyes are not the only ones I've seen at night. And no, your questions are not the only ones I've had to answer."
"You…met him-"
"Yes. I did. Only for a moment though, he disappeared shortly after. I almost thought it was a figment of my imagination, but the fear I felt was the same. He almost…"
Winslow glanced down at the glass case, his eyes tracing over the runic symbols and pictures, the old and worn paper crumpling in on itself.
"...seemed upset that this was locked up. Like it was some caged animal."
Lia was at first compelled to ask more about this short meeting between Winslow and Cain, something she did not know even happened, nor did she see the need to ask Cain about any of it.
He wouldn't tell her anyways, and she couldn't blame him. She knew the story behind that parchment. But she would never know what it was like for Cain to see it. To lay his eyes on that piece of paper, knowing it would never fall back into the hands of its former owner.
But she kept her mind focused, seeing that Winslow only wanted to direct her attention elsewhere. So, to make her point heard loud and clear, she drew a long and slim dagger from her belt, the silver in the blade shimmering in the night.
It had been the same dagger Kal had presented her with, from the dead shinobi. A weapon she kept with her till now.
"Enough of your games Winslow. Tell me who killed Daniel Green, and where can I find him."
Winslow didn't flinch at the sight of the blade, instead seemingly welcoming it to the conversation.
"Did you hear nothing that I just said? Lia of Endless, you're smarter than this."
"You're testing my intellect. Don't test my patience."
Winslow seemed to observe Lia for a moment, his eyes and face as blank as ever, but with a hint of curiosity behind them.
"You're not like other Hunters, Miss Lia."
"And what gave you that impression?"
"Other Hunters would have cut first, asked questions later. But you Miss Lia, you've indulged in an entire conversation before ever drawing your dagger. Might I ask why?"
"Will you answer my questions if I do?"
Winslow nodded his head, seeing that he would have to give some answer sooner or later.
"Fine. I ask questions first not to establish fear like others would when they choose to cut first rather than ask. I do it in order to know."
"Know what?"
"Know whether they have the answer I'm looking for, or whether they're just some mindless fool who knows nothing."
Winslow seemed to chuckle a bit at her last words, knowing now why she had chosen to ask Marcus questions before she resorted to violence. He was just another mindless fool.
"I see. Then please, tell me why you asked me all the questions before this? Why wait so long if you already knew I had what you wanted?"
"..."
Lia didn't say anything for a moment, her eyes locked with Winslows as the man began to wonder why she wasn't saying anything.
Finally, after a minute or two, she placed her dagger back in its sheath, surprising Winslow who took an interest in this action. Her voice was calm, but also sad, as if pity was laced with every word.
"Because I won't harm a man who already wishes for the blade to cut his skin."
"...."
Winslow's face remained blank, but his eyes opened wide as if someone had just told him the world was ending and had even given proof. As if a crack had appeared in his world, shattering the mirror inside him.
"H..How…how did you -"
"I can read minds Winslow. I've been reading yours since we got here."
"My…My mind?"
Lia nodded slowly, careful to keep her expression blank.
"Well, it comes with the perks of my summons. He's quite the extraordinaire."
"Ah…I see…"
Winslow's eyes fell to the ground, avoiding the gaze Lia had stuck back on him. She knew. Her friends knew. Everyone around him at the moment knew he wisehd for death.
Taking a deep breath, he raised his head with the same blank expression.
"My guess is that you can only see vague memories. Things that give you guesses, assumptions, but never truths."
Lia shrugged, one hand on her waist as she shifted her weight form one foot the other.
"Assumptions are the start to a paved road. A road filled with lies and truth. I just need to know which is which in the end."
"And you think I can give you truth, where others have delivered to you lies?"
She nodded her head, crossing her arms.
"Then I take it you don't know who killed Daniel Green, do you?"
Lia shook her head.
"No. I only know that it was someone within the Manor. Who it is I don't-"
"It was me."
Silence.
Lia's closed eyes opened immediately as she stared with wide and gaping eyes at Winslow, who wore the same empty expression he had worn since the start of their talk. Even Rian and Lukali, who were behind him, flinched at the sound of his words.
It wasn't like him. It wasn't like Winslow in any way.
And it made it all the more shocking.
So much so that Lia couldn't keep herself from speaking her mind, her words already flowing out of her mouth before she could stop them.
"No you didn't."
"What are you now, a truth seer?"
Lia didn't know what to say, as she stood with wide eyes filled with disbelief as it appeared to her that Winslow was telling every bit of truth as if his own words weren't surprising to him.
"I don't need to be a truth seer to know that you didn't kill Daniel Green."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because for a man who preaches about purpose in life, you have very little of it. Especially in these scenarios. You are a man who does not act without purpose, so how can you kill a man when you had no reason to?"
Winsow was a bit taken aback, surprised that Lia had put it all together so quickly.
"Yes…I suppose that is a good reason to believe I'm lying. But following that same reasoning, what purpose do I have in lying."
"To keep Voln from committing murder. You think that if we go back believing you killed Daniel Green, then we won't say anything to Voln, and he will be left wondering."
"Fair point. However, I'm not lying. I did kill Daniel Green, though it was not on my own accord."
Lia tensed up, clearly seeing that Winslow was about to give her the answers she needed.
"Explain."
Winslow sighed, finding the painful memory still lingering in his mind. A memory he would have preferred to forget.
"Five years ago, in the midst of January, it was cold, there was snow on the ground, and for Daniel, who was still working in the fields, he was freezing. I brought him inside to pour him a glass of warm tea - tea I had just made that same hour."
Lia could already see where this story was going, and where Winslow's "Confession" stood in the tale. She said as much, speaking her mind.
"Hemlock has to be ingested for it to become deadly to the human system."
"Yes. I didn't know the tea was poisoned that day until nearly a year later, when I was bringing tea to the Dorrows, I overheard a few things in the hall."
"...Like what?"
"Like a certain someone bragging about how they slipped the Hemlock into the herbal powder I used to make the tea. And how it was the thing that killed Daniel in the end."
Lia's eyes filled with pity as Winslow's voice broke over his last words. She knew this was hurting him, eating him up from the inside. He had carried this with him for over five years, and it was killing him from inside.
"I…I was the one who gave him the poison. I was the one who killed him -"
"No you're not!"
She said, louder than she intended to, causing Winslow to look up in surprise.
"You were taken advantage of, you were used and discarded. That isn't your fault."
"You don't even know where the fault lies in this do you?"
"...I…You…"
Lia could say nothing, her own lack of knowledge keeping her from speaking.
"You wanted to know who killed Daniel. Well, I was the one to feed him the poison. Take a guess who slipped it in?"
The name was already on her lips and tongue before Lia could even begin to wonder how it had gotten there.
"Marcus."
"Correct. He had been hired to kill Daniel, use the poison against him, and do so inadvertently."
"But…why would Marcus kill a man who's done nothing to him?"
"I said he was hired, did I not?"
Lia shut her mouth, allowing Winslow to continue on, hoping that her questions would be answered.
"Ask yourself this Lia, do you know why Marcus prances around all the time like he's better than everyone? As if he can do whatever he wants? You don't think there's a reason for that?"
"No…I do, but…why would someone let him do all that?"
"Because he knows who hired him to kill Daniel. And that creates risk."
His voice dropped low to a mumble, but they all heard it clearly in this silence.
"Especially if he threatened to tell your wife you killed her former husband."
Lia's eyes widened, the name already on her lips, just as Winslow said the same.
"Clark Dorrow."
The connection was made.
The puzzle pieces laid.
All that was left was to play the game.