Chapter 15: Prison blues

"They are looking into our dealings. Fortunately, you already cleaned house. We are looking at a fine, for the fact that we didn't have a license, but all the evidence they needed to bag the rest of us is gone," Feneria told him, from the other side of the bars. Filion was with his farmers, training them. She had not sent a letter yet.

"How is Prisila taking it all?" Filarion asked. He was wearing orange. Striped orange. Feneria scrunched up her nose at that.

"Not good. I had to destroy most of the incriminating potions in her stash. She took it badly. Hasn't gotten out of her room in the past two days," Feneria said, and sighed.

Prisila had put her blood, sweat and tears into the poisons that Feneria disposed of. It was good that one of the people who had gawked in the market had been one of theirs. Or, they would have been caught red-handed.

"And the Leaf party?" Feneria sighed again, at the hurt expression on her brother's face.

"They took it hard. You were their hero," Feneria told him, and saw as that final thing broke her brother. He sniffled, and she wanted to hold him. "Come over here."

Her brother stood, tears straining to be let loose. Feneria began to pet him from between the bars, when he was close enough.

"It is all going to be fine. As soon as they announce the house arrest and your bail, we will pay it, and you will be at home again," Feneria told him, her voice gentle. Still, Filarion's sobs racked his entire body.

"I thought I could atone, with time," Filarion told her, and her breath hitched in.

"You still can. They won't give you the death sentence. I won't allow it," Feneria had played her part, even when it left her with a foul taste in her mouth. She had thrown her brother under the wagon, hid the help. Hid the evidence.

"What is the point now? Johnny and the kids hate me," Filarion's voice sounded heart broken.

"The kids don't hate you. They are simply conflicted," Feneria told him. "Look, I can get them to visit you. Would you like that?"

Filarion looked ready to refuse, when they heard footsteps.

"Lady Elathana," the prison guard spoke, spitting out the lady part. "Your time is up."

"Just a couple of moments longer," Feneria pleaded. She couldn't leave Filarion broken-hearted and crying in a cell.

"Your time is up. There is another visitor that is waiting," the prison guard then stepped back, and Feneria saw Johnny behind him.

"You," Feneria roared, getting in Johnny's face. "Have you come to gloat? That you destroyed a good man? A man who loved you? Who still does!"

Johnny wouldn't meet her eyes. There was guilt in his blue eyes, and she rejoiced.

"I will make sure you end up behind bars as well," Feneria hissed. "I still remember how you came to know Filarion, Morrel. You used the family business to your advantage once, or have you forgotten."

"Getting me in prison means getting yourself behind bars," Johnny finally told her.

"I don't care," Feneria snarled. "You will end up in orange with stripes, and boxed in behind bars!"

Feneria stormed off, and Johnny went to the cell. Filarion was still standing up and there were tear tracks down his cheeks. Johnny's heart broke at the sight. His hands twitched to wipe the tears away, but he forced them to remain at his sides.

"Filarion," Johnny began. He was going to call him Elathana again, but thought that it would just rub salt in the wound.

"You got what you wanted," Filarion murmured, not letting him speak. "Me, behind bars. Paying for what I have done."

"Quit crying," Johnny snapped at him. The tears were tugging at the tank's heart. He didn't know what Feneria had said to Filarion to make him cry, but the elf didn't deserve to cry right now. He deserved to suffer.

At least, that was what Johnny told himself. But his heart screamed at him that this was wrong. Made excuses for the elf. Tried to ask him to be kinder.

"You will probably pay your way out," Johnny snarled, the anger of all the dead people he had read about that didn't have a suspect for the act coming back to him. This has been going on for five thousand years. Too long, too much blood. It needed to stop.

"Johnny..." Filarion tried to speak again, but Johnny gripped the prison bars, and leaned in.

"I don't care if we end up in the same cell," Feneria's threat rang in Johnny's ears. He was sure she would find the documents of his own dealings with the Elathana family, or fabricate them, if Filarion had gotten rid of them. Still, he really didn't care. "I need to pay too. I guess I always thought that your business was shifty. You were too ready to get me weapons and potions, and didn't have a license. If it means that I will bring your siblings behind bars as well, then I..."

Johnny was stopped by a punch. It happened lightning fast, and now his nose was broken.

"Don't you dare do anything to them," Filarion roared, and the prison guard came running.

"Elathana, calm down, or it will be a cold shower for you," the guard snarled, and then took Johnny under the arm. "And you, no baiting the prisoners!"

The guard walked Johnny out, who clutched at his nose in disbelief. For a long while, Filarion stared at his hand as if seeing it for the first time. There was blood on the knuckles, and he was blinking furiously.

"What an asshole, he had it coming," the prisoner opposite his cell said. Filarion just shuddered violently, and curled up in on himself in a ball on the floor. He began to rock back and forth.

He had hurt Johnny. Johnny had threatened the family. This was all fucked up.