If the witness does not appear in the next 15 minutes, we’re done here.

Augustine Kir does not appear to expect what is about to happen, and neither does his family. They are tense, he in his finest suit and hair combed back, sweat dotting his brow. A large crowd gathers to witness his fate, but one crucial figure is missing.

The Kirs have reason to fret. Despite the pricey legal team they have at their disposal, they would be facing the prosecutors of Verdant Fields, a group founded by a one-time partner of Carthage & Daughters - the storied Central law firm created by Lem Carthage’s ancestors. As a result, Verdant Fields has a close relationship to the Life Fountain Foundation, and access to Roha’s official assessments, as well as doctors, data and fellow Life Fountains for comparison. Experts declare her middling in terms of competency; prone to be taken advantage of, and unaware of abuse and mishandling that might affect her extensive remaining lifespan.

What Verdant Fields doesn’t have is Augustine’s full trove of videos, though they absolutely try for it. A raid of his apartment turns up several drives and what was left sitting on his computer, which consisted of his most recent ‘girly videos’ and the cards he had brought back from the winter vacation. Augustine’s presence in the girls’ antics is already a matter of debate, and the holiday snapshots seemingly support the idea that Roha was welcomed and willing, which doesn’t help the Foundation’s case. Aside from the footage uploaded to the AK Undercovers channel (and their already court-approved level of blurry-faced anonymity - not that it matters now), all additional materials are mysteriously, suddenly unavailable.

The residences of Lis and Vira undergo minor searches, but little else is discovered. The two assistants decline further participation, and refuse to comment on the videos they partook in. As Vira says, ‘I didn’t want my hands any dirtier than he’d already made ‘em’.

The two women do not attend the court case. And even though she is called on, and seemingly agreed to appear, Roha is also missing. The Foundation aides do not find her in her home.

Considering how neutral and quiet Roha tends to be - and both sides of the table bring up this quality of hers at some point - her words may not actually have impacted the outcome. But her lack of appearance at all infuriates the presiding judge. It indicates a lack of respect, a lack of planning, a lack of a serious case on the part of Verdant Fields and the Foundation. They are supposed to be responsible for her, an alleged victim, and yet they allowed her to wander off?

The crowd consists of many AK Undercovers fans. As the prosecution’s time limit winds down, someone begins a riotous countdown. The judge makes no effort to stop them.

Augustine walks out of the courthouse with not a spot on his record, and hardly a slap on the wrist. He has been downright rewarded in comparison to the tongue-lashing that the livid judge lays on the Foundation and its representatives. He targets Cadmus as being superfluous with his litigation, getting ahead of himself and the rights he supposedly represents - especially for a creature that does not legally qualify as human. He also chides the 60-year-old Lemina for trying to leverage her family nepotism; she is, he says, a disgrace to her heritage, a failure of good blood who has thankfully failed to reproduce.

I hope you think twice before you try to ruin a fine young man’s life again.

—

Augustine finds Roha at one of the food courts the two of them visited in the personal videos, the ones that didn’t make it to the channel - the ones investigators would not have known existed. According to the shopkeepers, she had become a regular.

It’s such a special occasion, he comes in filming. She is picking at a pile of fries with a vacant smile. When she hears his outburst, she turns slowly.

You’re a genius, babe! You showed them, you showed them all, without even trying, without lifting a finger.

Who?

The prigs at the Foundation! The court, the judge, all of them. I’m free, and it’s all you.

The court. Do I still have to go? Neither of them seem to pick up on the strangeness of this question.

Nope. Neither of us will be going back there. God, it’s like you don’t even realize - no, it’s better that way. You’re so pure. You saved me, but in your own way. This is all so beneath you.

He lowers the camera and moves in for a breathy kiss. The camera goes black against fabric, and the wooping of bystanders can be heard. He comes away panting.

Don’t be sad, Roha says.

I’m not sad, babe. I’m a lot of things right now, but I’m not sad at all.

—

Augustine’s affection begins to boil into an obsession. He makes daily posts about his devotion to the one who chose him. Over all the beings in the world that she’d meet, all the places she could go, through ice and fire and brimstone, she settled for him. He is going to make it worth her while.

She’s the only one who’s ever put up with me, actually. A literal saint.

He can’t always hold back his old impulses, though.

Who would have thought I’d be worthy of a girl who’s going to stay young and hot forever.

On the other end of town, Lemina and Cadmus retreat into their home for safety, pursued by jeers and insults. But at the same time, the Life Fountain Foundation classes have an influx of interested human visitors, mostly men. Staff nervously laugh in interviews at how it’s become the hot spot to find a date.

—

The domestic videos pick up once again. Augustine appears better at drawing Roha into conversation now. At times, it seems like everything will be okay.

Say that you’ll be with me forever.

That’s not something we say.

Who’s this ‘we’? Crazy Cadmus and his old lady? You don’t seem like them. C’mon, it would mean a lot to me.

Roha’s smile falters for a moment. It’s just not something I can promise.

Then say you wouldn’t mind. That’s not a promise - it’s just a wish. A dream. Those usually don’t come true anyway, but to be in the dream of a goddess-

Her smile is secured back in place. Just a dream, then. I wouldn’t mind being with you forever.

—

Petra looks upon the days after the court case with distaste.

I didn’t say anything, I didn’t want to be involved. Maybe it would have been the sisterly thing to do, I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not good at that stuff. That idiot Kelbi just went and pulled some strings of his own accord.

As it happens, her then-boyfriend, the Kelbi family heir, was the nephew of the judge who let Augustine walk and tore into the Life Fountain Foundation.

I knew the guy was shifty. That’s why the case upset me. Because after that little favor, I had to marry him. I told Augy this - he said he was happy for me. He didn’t understand a damn thing.

Kelbi proposes, and Petra accepts. Augustine is more than happy to attend his sister’s engagement celebration. He even pays for the venue, the roof of a grand hotel overlooking Central’s lower bay. There are news crews and celebrities of all kinds present to witness the union of Central’s legal elite with the family that rules the silver screen.

No more than an hour after his sister ends her line of mandatory, tearful speeches, Augustine taps a fork against his glass. Once all eyes are on him, he bends down onto one knee, draws out a small box made of purple suede, and asks Roha to marry him. She glances at it with an appreciative nod, as if the glittering white diamond set before her is simply an unusual flower or insect. Her gaze slowly shifts back to her dinner plate and its equally interesting prospects, but seems to know something more is expected.

You can’t say no, a guest prompts her.

So she says yes.

Augustine places the ring on her hand and beams at a camera.

In the backdrop of the shot, Petra wears an expression that could annihilate a small city.

—

One does not need an inside source to know that the family was apprehensive of the union. When confronted about the new daughter-in-law during a press interview for the film The Wraith Transformation, Andon’s smile is rigid as steel and his well-wishes to the couple, even more stoic. Augustine’s status updates are rife with accusations of ‘abusive naysayers’. But Roha is above it all.

Nobody could hurt her even if they tried.

The indignance that came from victimhood made Augustine creative, and eloquent. He began releasing long-form, surprisingly well-researched videos about the life and work of Life Fountains. He speaks of the city’s longtime denial of their humanity, even though in Central’s Core Cities, they numbered greater than griffins and faeries combined. He even throws a few words of sympathy towards his old nemesis and Foundation leader Cadmus, arguing that the ‘old man’ has some right to feel defensive, having fought an unseen, losing battle for over a century. It is mostly these videos that make it into the coursework of variant students today, though at the time they were met with some pushback.

But when it came to Kir, controversy and publicity came hand in hand, and AK Undercovers celebrated its millionth follower in May 200x.

And gradually, the family came around, beginning with Augustine’s mother. Once again, given the floor during her organization’s quarterly gala, she speaks of her son. She is proud that he has dared to give a ‘very special woman’ a chance when nobody else would.

The sentiment spreads, claiming the Kirs one by one. Distant cousins crawl from the woodwork to give praise and snag themselves interviews where they talk about the apocryphal family vacation. Calya takes a role in one of Central’s first ‘progressive’ Life Fountain-human romance films, and her name gets top billing. Andon denies he ever showed any doubts in his son and his choice of wife - indeed he never literally spoke an ill word about Roha.

Augustine becomes the frontrunner in a fresh new movement focused on very old creatures. But, he says, he needs to spend time on his Life Fountain before he can think about helping them all. The rehearsal and wedding are scheduled to take place in a mountain resort across the sea in the far North, where snow falls year-round and there will be no chance of gun-toting neighbors.

And you’ll be close to your hometown, babe - I remember you said you come from somewhere up there. See, I do listen!

The rehearsal and preemptive festivities would consist of roughly 50 guests, largely family members and longtime associates. The full guest list for the wedding itself was to be 180-people strong. Augustine also put out a call for multiple afterparties, for anyone willing to make the journey out and join them. There were various budget motels and hostels in the nearest town, three hour’s drive from the resort. He’d hire a DJ, book the bars, and organize a street fair for the fans. Although there was no proof he’d follow through, an enormous number of fans - and members of the press - booked their tickets.

It is estimated that almost 600 people intended to participate in some aspect of the revelry. Not included in that number were Lemina and Cadmus Carthage.

—

Much later, Lemina revealed to the Daily that Roha told her she’d sent her old mentors a wedding invitation in the mail. However, the Carthages never received anything of the kind.

It would be easy to pin that on Roha’s absentmindedness, and lack of commitment. But when it came to letters, Roha was known to be fairly diligent. She was in semi-frequent correspondence with a friend in her hometown, to whom she wrote once a month (though the friend rarely wrote back). And while mail would build up if Roha slept through a day or was whisked off by Augustine for a stint, she was known to check her mail thoroughly when she got around to it. Foundation aides recall seeing piles of opened letters left on the table after her return from Kir's winter vacation; she had read through all of it, even the junk.

—

Regarding his lost court case, Cadmus laments his poor planning, to this day. He should have spoken with her more, gotten to know the places Augustine had taken her. He should have stayed with her, never let her out of his sight knowing the risks. He really should have picked her up and driven her to the courthouse himself. It was hypocritical, he says to the waiting raft of reporters, to argue Roha needed help and not spare his own time to offer it. He had foolishly believed the court summons and phone calls would be enough.

But later investigations propose that Roha did likely read and understand the letter commanding her to testify at the Central courthouse. The letter was pinned to her fridge and the date was marked on her calendar, alongside the days for her lessons at the Foundation. However, for reasons that were never confirmed, the letter contains an error - it states that the hearing would take place a week later than the date it actually occurred.

This information did not come to light until further investigation by Verdant Fields, following Kir’s acquittal. A new probe was planned, with some relation of the Kir family suspected to have been tampering with Roha’s mail. Calya’s relationship with Judge Kelbi’s nephew would also be put under scrutiny. The Foundation would redeem itself yet.

The new case would never come to fruition. But the Kirs would not escape the web of events unharmed. Another legal battle would inevitably unfold, and this time, Roha wouldn’t be the one who was made unavailable.