Chapter Two: The Sky Under The Dome

May 7, 2027

Lumine was naked in the tub, the water covering her breasts and her shoulder-length wet hair clinging to her neck. Her eyes were closed and her lips pale from lack of hydration and food while enjoying a cigarette. In her right hand she had a rectangular flower-patterned lighter, with this she turned it on and off over and over again as if the result were going to be different. Her skin was beginning to wrinkle from contact with water for a long time, not even she knew what time it was and likewise she was no longer hungry, hot, cold, or sleepy. I didn't even know what day it was today. She had drunk a couple of beers to be able to fall asleep or at least relax, but the more she drank, the more she smoked and worse, her mood didn't improve one bit, it just ended up breaking. With the passing of the minutes she became aware that she was getting worse, her hands trembled for no apparent reason and her breathing was agitated, she tried to keep the peace with one of her last cigarettes that she bought today by delivery, as it seems the nicotine was a One of the few things that made him regain his feet on the ground for seconds, but she wasn't strong enough to get up from the tub either. However, his tired expression was disturbed as soon as she opened his eyes because she felt that the cigarette wanted to burn his lips, so she threw it on the wet ground with the impulse together with the others that she had also thrown and they were extinguished by the splashed water that fell. she barely moved a bit, and she revealed a look as empty as a soulless home. She got to thinking, "How many beers did she have to drink before she could forget how her brother slammed her best friend to the ground?" She had a feeling she was going to end up in an alcoholic coma before she could forget it, but she didn't care.

"This is a joke" she said before suddenly bursting into tears again, as if she were losing her sanity, so she hugged herself to try to comfort herself.

Her throat was already burning after smoking so much, she had to get up to eat the potato chips that entertain his stomach, too sad to buy vegetables and cook them, but as soon as she looked for the towel to dry himself, she realized that the had left on his bed. At that moment, she cursed even her ancestors and pounded the wall with her fists.

"Aether! Can you pass me the towel?" She said aloud, receiving only silence as an answer.

Desolation filled her completely when she realized that she was not going to answer, inadvertently with that silence she felt that another piece of her soul fell to the ground, she could only think: "Did they really leave my life like that? impossible" For her, what she was experiencing could not be possible, so she reached for her cell phone that was on the side and shook it to get the water droplets off the screen, as soon as she unlocked it with the facial recognition of her destroyed face, she was able to read the following emails marked by teyvatmail as "priority":

"Notice of request for assistance with witness role • Supreme Court @noreply"

"Notice of request for payment in case of possible delinquency • Supreme Court @noreply"

"Request to withdraw from studies RESOLVED • University ********* Faculty of health and sciences @noreply"

"DIACRIM List Enrollment Alert • Directory of Criminal information @noreply"

Lumine played the fourth notification with nerves in her hand. To then read as a murmured.

"Dear Lumine Bonafeste:

As a result of your family ties to a possible high-level criminal, you have been placed on the DIACRIM early warning list. Your background status will be automatically updated on Thursday, May 12 depending on the resolution of the supreme court within 1 to 3 business days. For more information, read our article "What to do if my direct or indirect relative receives an accusation?" by clicking here.

In case you believe that this notification is in error, please contact us immediately through our public channels available from Monday to Saturday from 08:00 to 12:30."

She put her cell phone aside, controlling herself not to just drop it and break it in a fit of rage. It was humiliation enough to have to withdraw from nursing school at the request of her director and have her years of study go to waste, after her neighbors question her and treat her brother as a murderer when she still does not accept what has happened.

"I want to disappear" she thought as soon as she finished reading the notification.

Lumine no longer felt strong enough to cry, so she slowly sank into the tub, little by little until her mouth was filled with water, then her nose accompanied by a small sensation of irritation in her nostrils that was not strong enough for her to stop what she was doing and finally closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles, becoming one with the water. It sounded stupid to resort to that method to get over things, but at that moment she didn't see anything more of that hole she was in either. As the minutes passed, her smoke-filled lungs needed at least a little more smoke, but she didn't have the will to come out. As she felt about to pass out, a vibration snapped her out of the reverie she was entering, forcing her out of the water abruptly with gasping breaths and coughing. Scattering the water everywhere in that white room with a ceramic finish.

She fixed her vision on her cell phone and decided whether to answer or let it ring, but decided to take it out on someone. So she answered and put the unknown number on speakerphone.

"If you're going to sell me something better, go to hell" said Lumine, still recovering from the incident.

"I'm not going to sell you anything, I'm your brother's lawyer" clarified the voice on the other end of the line with a calm voice.

"Then I'm not going to pay him anything, let him die." emphasized.

"You don't need to pay, I'm a state attorney," explained the attorney.

"Then just fuck off, I'm in…the middle of something."

"I need to talk to you about—" she was interrupted by Lumine's finger pressing the red button.

Once again she heard the sound of water moving and falling to the ground, she let out a sigh that was interrupted again by the annoying and intermittent vibration. Lumine wasn't exactly Mrs. Patience, she was getting pissed off, so she answered again to put an end to that.

"Miss, please, I need to talk to you" Jean insisted.

"And I already said that I have nothing to do with him, just stop calling and that's it."

"Of course you have to see! You are his sister and the hearing is in a few days"

"Stop calling!" She exclaimed and cut again, not a minute passed before she felt that vibration in her hand again.

"Insistent" said Lumine, already defeated.

"We need to talk" she kept insisting.

"Ok, talk. But I'm not going to listen. I don't care"

"In private" she specified.

"I am not going anywhere"

"I'm outside your house"

"What?" Lumine sounded really confused.

She unconsciously covered the microphone of her cell phone and looked around, she felt foolish to remember that there was no window in the place, nor did she hear the knocks despite having the door open.

"H-How long have you been out" she stammered.

"10 minutes. I rang the bell and called you, worrying that no one was there."

"You're overreacting, I was…" The nerves were too obvious at this point.

"You'd be surprised how many cases I've seen, miss. Are you going to let me through or not?"

Lumine hesitated to let the lawyer in, but it's also not like she had a choice, or like she had any other support right now. So she got up from the tub and climbed out of it, spilling all the water onto the floor and leaving a clear river on the way to her room, which tapered off as she went, being careful not to step on the trash that interrupted and left no see the floor tile.

"Give me about 5 minutes" Lumine said and hung up the phone.

She quickly dried herself with a towel, still leaving her skin damp, and changed into her underwear, a long T-shirt and simple shorts. Walking barefoot from her room to the front door and turning the knob, displacing the trash behind the door. Revealing that blonde woman who this time was wearing a blue suit and matching blazer. In addition to sunglasses and a slim brown portfolio.

"I suppose you are the young lady, Bonafeste. Let me introduce myself, I'm Jean Schmidt," she said with a warm smile.

"Yeah, it's okay I guess. Just come in and that's it"

They both entered the house and saw the clear disaster that was there, while Jean showed surprise the other had already gotten used to the entropy of the place. There were still objects reminiscent of that day's party, no piece of furniture, streamers, beer cans or cigarettes had been moved. Even the cake they were going to slice was rotting and full of flies. Surprisingly, it was the same as the photos of the expert reports that Jean has obtained since she took the case.

"Everything remains the same as the photos I saw," Jean commented.

"Yeah, they told me not to move anything because anything is evidence, they're not back yet but I guess I'll have to leave this house soon so I'm not cleaning shit up," she explained.

"Did you receive the mail from the DIACRIM?" Jean scanned with her eyes a place on the floor to be able to step without slipping. I didn't know if something was still alive there.

Lumine sat in a dirty armchair and lit a cigarette while looking at Jean, putting the pack down and offering one to the woman in front of her, who also decided to keep her company by letting her light the cigarette.

Yes, but I didn't read much. I don't feel like remembering it either. Now what do you need to talk about and why can't we talk about it over the phone?"

Jean decided to be punctual. So as Lumine took a puff on her cigarette, she decided to blurt out what she came to say.

"It is possible that your brother is innocent"

That was the sentence that caused the cigarette to hit the ground and miraculously go out in the wind.

"It's... it's impossible, I understand that I'm his lawyer and that but... I was there, I saw how he—"

"You are not understanding me"

"No, you don't understand. I saw how my brother broke my best friend's head, she was there, paralyzed. I wasn't able to interrupt them, maybe if I had been quicker I would have but he was so…"

"Out of it" completed.

"Exactly, it was as if…as if it wasn't him? Aether is incapable of hurting someone. Many times he was bullied at school and I had to save him, I had to help him because he was a bit of a coward and I could always take the action that he sometimes hesitated. He would never attack someone like that, never did, not even with people he had misunderstandings with. If someone had done that, it would surely have been me, not him."

Lumine burst into tears, and received Jean's hug that made her feel a little warm despite being so wet. Jean's clothes got wet at the gesture, but she cared nothing more than comforting that heartbroken young woman.

"Do I really know my brother? I don't know what happened before they met, but nothing could make him react that way, especially with Amber, she's too compassionate to make him angry. She was the bridge that united us when we argued, she was everything and now she is gone..."

"I understand, I also have a little sister who is everything to me. Now we are very far from each other, but every night on the weekends we can call each other and talk. What I'm getting at is that even distance doesn't break the relationship you have, and even less with what I just remembered. Let me explain what I want to say now?"

Lumine nodded and they both distanced themselves, Jean wiped Lumine's tears from her face with a handkerchief and helped her regulate her breathing. On the other hand, Lumine relaxed a lot after hearing that, her eyes definitely looked more tired and with prominent dark circles. Jean took her hands and handed her the briefcase.

"When I was in law school, I had a friend who entered the defense and investigations department. His father was a renowned detective and activist who fell into oblivion due to strange circumstances. Jean related.

Lumine opened the portfolio and took out one of the photos of "criminal #2956", in which she saw a man with a beard and fire-red hair, very mature and approximately 50 years old. On the back of the photo, it was written in black ink: Crepus Ragnvindr. He looked very nice, protective and above all: transparent. He was the kind of person you would rarely expect anything bad from.

"It was a tremendous blow to the institution that he allegedly murdered his partner and tried to suffocate his own son. The most shocking thing is that he never admitted his crime hours after what happened, his drug and alcohol record was zero and the most shocking thing was the amnesia that lasted for months. There were many rumors of a new psychedelic drug that could have affected him, and of course, we do not have any records to prove the existence of this type of drug, since it is a new molecule and not homologous with the ones we have within the recognition system. And if I'm not mistaken, his son also refused to testify against him and claimed that he never tried to suffocate him and that the link between his partner's murder and his father was just a coincidence, because they had evidence that could be used to show their innocence. But there was a young man who testified against the detective's son, and for that reason he fell into Oblivion because of that young man's testimony."

"Who testified against him?" Lumine asked.

"A young man that Mr. Crepus took care of because he was his guardian, he decided to adopt him after the disappearance of his biological parents and years later he graduated and stayed in the Ministry of Defense and Investigations. He dismantled the son's lie, saying that "real" justice must be done for what happened and since he was already of legal age when it happened, despite living with them, he later continued on his way, since the son also attacked him in full hearing after testifying. Which further aggravated the situation of the father, who lost the possibility of having a mental check-up instead of falling "

"And what happened to the detective's son?"

"His whereabouts are currently unknown, the last thing I heard is that as his father fell into oblivion and after attacking the young man inside the supreme court, he became one more person listed in the DIACRIM, so he had to be expelled from the research school and move to another city"

"I was also asked to withdraw from nursing school…" Lumine sighed sadly.

"It is normal, many people have to put aside their professions, homes and possessions because no company, university, bank or landlord wants to have a relationship with someone on that list. In fact, the best thing is that you sell this property now and relocate soon before the DIACRIM begins the seizure and withdrawal of your brother's bank accounts."

"And how are you going to contact the son of Crepus?" Lumine asked.

"You will have to do it, my conversations are strictly monitored and it is not suspicious that I talk to you because you are my client's sister. At the trial you will say that you know nothing more about the client's condition and for nothing in the world do what the man says in the DIACRIM article. You will only complicate things for us."

"What are you talking about?"

"One of the ways to recover your privileges is not to deny your relative's crime of everything that is accused of him so that he receives the punishment he deserves. But by doing so, the victim loses the status of presumed guilty and becomes only guilty. In order for him to reopen Aether's case, I need him to get the presumed guilty status that you will give him once you give your testimony saying that you don't know anything else about Aether because you are the only key witness to the crime and we have a video from a confusing angle pointing at you and your brother."

"The agents told me they had a lot of witnesses," Lumine denied.

"Yes, there are witnesses who heard your scream that night and were under the influence of alcohol, but no one saw the scene. When you screamed, you scared them away and they stampeded away while some called the police."

Lumine looked too confused, so she placed her palm on her forehead trying to remember the fact.

"I remember other people went into that room," said Lumine.

Jean stared at her until she raised an eyebrow.

"Who is it? Lumine, in the video that is part of the evidence shows you falling into a state of shock due to the incident, you became paralyzed and no one else entered to see what was happening. You were the only one who saw the scene and scared the others away. It's not like you guys were in a very accessible place either, since you were both on the second floor, in the attic."

"No, I really saw someone else enter" Lumine insisted.

She held her head and stared at nothing, she had an intense haze that prevented her from remembering anything else.

"Lumine, what you're telling me can change our entire outlook, how sure are you of what you're saying? Are you sure you're not mistaking yourself because of your alcohol use? Besides, why didn't you say it at the time?"

Lumine felt indignant at the doubts about her memory which was already quite good, but upon examination she realized that it was damaged for some reason.

"No, maybe Aether doesn't drink and isn't a good drinker either, but I can remember everything, now I don't know why I can't remember that in particular" she closed one eye and swallowed as she touched her temple.

Jean sighed, for this was even more complex than she thought.

"Listen, whether you remember it or not, we don't have time to remember it. So on the day of the hearing you are going to act confused and you are going to pretend that you do not know anything or are in a position to declare, so for lack of evidence they are going to give Aether the presumption of guilt".

"And what about the gun?" Lumine asked.

"The bloody bat doesn't have Aether's fingerprints on it, but your friend's body does. It's enough to make him fall into oblivion, but not enough to make him guilty."

Jean got up from the sofa and headed for the door.

"Keep the portfolio, since I'm a state attorney I can't contact Crepus' son directly, but you can. Inside the portfolio I left some reference addresses that I got so that you can find him and ask him directly. In a few months I will contact you again to start the request to reopen the case due to new evidence."

Lumine watched her walk towards the door.

"How long is Aether going to be in Oblivion?"

Jean had a complicated expression that she did not show, those words that she said to her a few days ago were not easy to swallow. They were, in fact, a death warning and a clear "I'm going to do whatever I want".

"It will have to be there for the necessary time, but trust me, I will help you to get it out"

"Miss Jean!" Lumine exclaimed to get her attention.

Jean decided to turn around for a few seconds, but she didn't expect Lumine to run towards her and catch her in a big hug. She froze for a few seconds, but responded to the gesture with surprised eyes.

"Thank you very much for your work"

Jean gave an expression of peace mediated by a smile, messed up the shorter girl's hair and said:

"Yes, that's my job," she replied.

As soon as Jean walked out the door, she met the teary and bright eyes of the young woman who said goodbye kindly and closed the door on her. That scene made her feel a heavy heart that the sky tried to calm by caressing her face with the water of a drizzle. It was hard for him not to think about her friend with whom she lost contact after his father's death, and it made him miserable to think that a lot would have changed if she had meddled instead of keeping his distance from his friend out of fear of throwing him out. lose your future.

Isolation was normal for relatives with criminal ties and that is why everyone is guided by strict social norms so as not to fall into situations like this by chance.

"I'm doing this for you too, since I couldn't defend you or do anything for you at that time, Diluc." she muttered as she walked to her car.

May 10, 2027

Aether had never felt so alone in his life, and of course, it was not customary for him even to go out alone. Well, he and his sister were practically inseparable, besides, they were also many friends. He didn't know when he went from having to think about who he could go out with this afternoon to waiting for the nurse who was the only one who gave him the news from abroad, since he slept and ate in a strange routine. Being the presumed culprit of a strange crime, he was not authorized to even get out of bed because of the shackles that stun his arms.

Until today, the day where her fate would definitely change: The day of the grand hearing in the supreme court, while others would like to flee by any means, in these 5 days Aether had already assimilated her fate. He thought: What's the point of fighting if I've lost everything? And even if he hadn't, would anyone believe him? Hell no, he was a rich kid after all who could have bought justice. As soon as he heard Jean's deal, he decided that it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard in his entire life and for good reason.

Some men in black suits helped him up and handed him a paper bag with his already clean clothes, although it was humiliating to have to stand naked in front of them and have them watch him carefully as he dressed as if they wanted to devour him at that moment. room, he was able to get over it. However, one of them violently grabbed his arm and put thick bracelets on his wrists. Which with a button were attached magnetically preventing their free movement. Then, they pulled him out of the room, at which point Aether realized that he had been in a police station all this time.

Aether was shoved into a black van where they forced him into it and then held his head down to look down. He was in an uncomfortable situation, and he knew that they were pigs more than law enforcement officers, so every time they laid a hand on him he was disgusted and nauseated, all he wanted was for this to end soon. As soon as the car parked, they pulled it down and knocked it to the ground, being greeted by a bunch of flashing lights and a crowd waiting for it. They didn't even wait for him to get up to start with the morbid and tabloid questions.

"Bonafeste, did you receive the rejection of the young woman and that's why you killed her?", "Young man, is it true that she rejected your sexual advances and in a fit of rage you killed her?", "What was the last word you heard from him?".

The agents shoved the journalists while they continued to bury his head. Preventing him from seeing the great neoclassical monument that looked very different from the futuristic environment that surrounded it, except for the great cathedral that also remained in force despite the years, however, the interior of the supreme court was almost as technological as the abroad.

The journalists followed Aether until they were stopped by the guards and throughout the journey Aether couldn't stop thinking that he wouldn't be able to do any of those acts to Amber, even if there is evidence to the contrary.