La'ita Hara

"Thank you," Avantia told Sato. "For everything."

It seemed a strange thing to thank someone while standing beside Joshua's decapitated form, but through the whole ordeal Sato had shown herself to not just be an ally to Volaria, but a friend to Avantia as well.

"The scars of what happened will linger on for years yet, but perhaps this man's death will ensure that this travesty does not occur again, and that the world knows retribution for these heinous acts will be swift, and without mercy. Thank Prince Shimizu for me. We will not forget the assistance that was extended during this ordeal."

She would have offered her gratitude in person to the man, but the execution had left her weary. She nodded to Kamil as her men moved to escort her back to the Royal Palace. Others had been tasked to the matter of removing the remains of the body, and she needed not linger to oversee that.

In the crowds stood a woman who had watched the execution with her own eyes. The man had begged and cried for his life right up until the end. She firmly believed that his lesson had been learned before all of this and that none of this should have happened. There was no proof for them that the man had committed the crimes. There had been no trial and she'd lived here for over half a year now doing charity work. The whole thing had been so shocking that she hadn't believed it when she'd heard an execution was taking place and it was clear that the man hadn't know that his death was coming until he'd been told in front of everyone.

He'd had no mercy, whatsoever.

Well, she wasn't going to show this country no mercy either. The nation weren't known for their violence, but murdering a TNG citizen without giving him his proper rights was murder and she was not going to stand by and accept it. Avantia had now given her the power to speak up.

She watched the royals move from the stage. If only she had tomatoes, she would have thrown them then. But now was not the time. No, now it was time to call some people and start plotting. She wasn't going to get away with the abuse of her power. And she'd learn that for your actions there were consequences. Just like the man on the stage had paid for whatever his were by losing his head.

With that, she stalked off back home.

Three days had passed since the execution of Joshua Mattrix, and the city of Volary was returning to a state of normalcy for the most part. The market place had been re-taken by vendors and crates of produce as the farmers and merchants of Volaria went about their routines of making a living. The only change to the market place that still remained was the large platform that had been erected for the sole purpose of the execution. It lingered, untouched for the most part save for the removal of the body, and it served as a grizzly reminder of what had transpired here only days ago. Rust colored stains still marred its surface under the noon day sun, but even that seemed to go unnoticed for the most part.

It seemed a strange thing that people could so quickly return to their lives, seemingly forgetting about the whole bloody affair in its entirety. The man had pleaded, begged and cried for forgiveness even as his execution was broadcasted across the nation. No mercy had been afforded though. There had been some whispers of unrest within the sanctity of homes, and there were those that had been disturbed by the spectacle, but these people were the minority and none spoke out in public about what had transpired. It was as if the city had just picked up and carried on where it had left prior to the whole ordeal.

It had been three days. Three days she'd had to plan what she was going to do and say. And she had it all planned out now. Miley had not forgotten about the execution of the man. And she wasn't going to either. She was in the market place, staring at the erected stage. That was where she was going to make her speech. She wasn't afraid of what would happen. No. She was standing up for what was right and what was wrong. And now was a chance for other people to do the same.

With determination, Miley moved to the stage and climbed up onto it before watching everyone that was there moving around. She took out her microphone and speaker that would allow her to be heard over the crowds of voices that would otherwise drown out her words.

"People of Volaria!" She spoke.

It seemed only a few heads closed to her turned.

"PEOPLE OF VOLARIA!" She shouted louder this time.

There, she got the attention she wanted.

"Three days ago, a man was murdered on this stage. He was murdered, not executed. He was not given a fair trial and was not proven innocent or guilty. How long is it before another person is standing here facing the same thing, begging for their lives? Will the next person not get a fair trial too? Will they be killed publicly on TV for all to see?" She started her speech ready to see what her audience had to say and do in reply.

In a country where one's words could get you charged with treason, not many payed Miley much mind. The few that might have agreed with her knew they were the minority and kept their discontent to quite whispers and murmurs behind closed doors and out of the scrutiny of the public - or the police. Volaria wasn't a country well known for its public unrest, but the past few days had been something of a jarring experience for many.

Still, Miley managed to garner the ear of a few individuals from the market place, and a few bodies began to drift towards the large platform, drawn out of a mixture of idle curiosity and outright agreement. For the moment anyways, the market place remained clear of law enforcement, or the tell-tale uniforms of Avantia's Royal Guard.

People were coming closer and that is exactly what she wanted. Whether it was out of curiosity or not, she didn't care. She just wanted people hearing her and talking about what she was saying. Once people started to think, more would join.

"They butchered that man! Did they give the body back to the family? Does his family even know what happened or did they have to watch their son, brother, father die in front of everyone here? Did he even commit the crime that he was persecuted of? Do any of you know?"

Miley watched a few more people gather. "These are the answers I want to know. I know that it isn't good form to stand up on this stage and speak out against the royals but what happens when someone else comes up here to be beheaded? Are we just going to stand around and let that be done and watch it again? Are we going to forget the law and just ignore justice?"

"And where did the law get that girl?" a man called out. "Where did she get her justice?"

His words drew more attention, and people were beginning to pay the matter more mind.

"I'll tell you where she got it," he continued. "She got it right here, on that platform when that man's head rolled. How many other women did he take? How many who will have seen his execution and know justice was done."

There were mutterings of agreement.

"How do you know that he was the one that did the crime?" She answered. "I'm not against what happened to Shanthi. I'm sorry that it happened. It was a terrible thing to happen to her. But was he the one that cut off her wings? Was he the one that did all this? How did they know?"

She paused. "Maybe he did take those women. Maybe he did hurt people. But did he get the fair trial. Shouldn't he get that right and then be passed judgement? Wouldn't it be better for him to suffer in prison? But what if they had the wrong person? What then?"

She asked. "What about his justice? What happens when someone else commits a crime? Are they going to be passed judgement straight to a beheading? What happens if it's your relative next time?" Miley looked at everyone.

"Maybe that man deserved to die, maybe he didn't. But what right did Avantia have to do it without giving him a fair trial. He didn't even know he was going to die until that hood was removed. He begged them both for forgiveness. He begged everyone!" She frowned. "Has Volaria become a nation uncaring and heartless?"

There was a trickle of unrest working its way through the crowd, murmurs of talk as people debated among themselves at the base of the platform where Miley stood. There were growing signs of agitation and angry gestures as people argued back and forth, and more began to gather to see what the commotion was about. Of course, with such a large group of people congregating at a focal point of unrest, it was only a matter of time before the police took note of it.

From the crowd two locals joined Miley upon the platform, adding their voices to her own. It felt good to speak out, empowering even. The vigor of the trio upon the stage was infectious, but the love of the Volarian people for their Matriarch was strong. The anger that was permeating the crowd was not towards Avantia, but rather for those who spoke out against her on the platform.

People were shouting back and forth now, and tempers were inflamed.

It could be seen in Miley's eyes that she was loving the unrest. It didn't matter whether they were against her or not. Two other people had joined her on stage to speak against Avantia and what had happened. That was a start. People would be talking about this. People would be talking about her, talking about her questions, talking about the motives behind the brutality and that's exactly what she wanted.

It's what she needed.

"I get that Shanthi needed justice. But doesn't everyone need to find justice with the right people? Was that man the one that cut off her wings and caused her that humiliation? Did it really need to be aired on tv? That man might have been the cause of what happened, but what I'm saying is that it has to be done fairly and what happened that day was not fair."

People were angry and tempers were started to cause trouble, but Miley wanted it. Her plan was working and in action.

Standing among the crowd, there was a woman in a red crochet hoodie. Curly blonde tresses peeked out from the hood, snug against her neck. In one hand, she held a small paper bag from the grocery store down the street.

Her cloudy eyes were pinned onto the woman upon the stage with a an intensity rivaling even the more passionate of the crowd. She did nothing, said nothing, did not cheer with the rest of them, did not speak.

But she smiled.

Her fingers curled around the paper bag's twine handles, whitening for the lack of blood flow. For a moment she managed to tear her gaze away from the woman on the stage, giving a rather strapping man to her left a gander. He had been silent for a while, but was shuffling from one foot to another. He bit his lips, even opened his mouth a few times as though he were going to say anything.

Still with a smile, the grey-eyed woman kept her gaze. Not even a minute passed before the man took a sigh and began to yell out to the stage about fair trial, injustice, about Avantia's display.

The woman then turned her gaze back to the stage, thumbing the twine handle.

After been dismissed by her aunt, Soneanna decided she wanted to check out the chaos for herself. Despite things getting heated down in La'ita Hara, she didn't believe that she'd be the target of any danger and now here she was, watching a woman and two others been surprisingly vocal about it all. She carefully moved herself to the front of the crowd to watch.

"People of Volaria soon won't get their trials. Maybe this is the start of injustice. Where public beheadings become a common thing for every person whether they are guilty or not! Why hasn't this stage been taken down?" She heard the leading female shout, as she looked around the crowd.

She frowned wondering if her aunt would really be like that. Surely this was just a one of thing, no matter how much she disagreed with the whole thing.

"Oh look, one of the royals has appeared." Miley suddenly shouted.

Soneanna looked up only to realise that too her horror, everyone was now looking at her. Miley knew who she was.

"Come on up, Royal. After all, you are the niece of the Matriarch, am I right?"

"I'd rather stand down here." Soneanna replied.

"No, no. I insist." Miley smirked. Two people that were in agreement with Miley grabbed Soneanna's arms bringing her up onto the stage. She wasn't afraid that they'd do something bad as retribution, but she wasn't going to lie, she was concerned.

"What do you think about what happened here?" Miley asked.

Soneanna stayed silent.

"Oh, so the royal decides not to be vocal about her aunt. Tight lipped and sticking up for a murderer!" Miley grinned.

"I'm not sticking up for a murderer. I never said anything. It doesn't matter if it was right or wrong now, the matter is over. The man is dead."

"Did he deserve to die? If you were in her shoes, would you have done the same thing, Soneanna?"

Again she was silent, but this time only for a moment. "I wouldn't have let it gone that far to begin with, or I would have given him mercy when he cried for it." She admitted.

"And there you have it." Miley shouted. "Even her own niece thinks she's a murderer!"

"I didn't say that! I said there are better ways to go about it than how it played out. And there are better ways to go about this then riling people up like you are!"

Miley just laughed and shook her head. "Your aunt is a murderer. And this time we're not going to stand by and let her get away with her actions. For every action there is a consequence. She will have to justify her reasons for killing that man without a fair trial for all to hear and all to judge. Shanthi deserves justice, but she deserves it from the right person, not the wrong. That man begged for mercy. He didn't know he had even come here to die. We have rights and his was ignored, whether he was guilty or not."

Soneanna looked down to see a crowd of locals starting to get physical that were disagreeing with each other. This woman had caused quite the stir.

Miley's decision to physically drag Soneanna up onto the stage had been gasoline to the fire. To physically accost a member of the royal family was nothing short of treasonous. The gathered crowd was furious, but those that were favoring Soneanna's words were beginning to amass at the base of the stage to create a barrier of bodies to keep the outraged crowd at bay.

People were shouting and shoving at each other, and it seemed a physical confrontation was inevitable.

Large shadows passed overhead, announcing the arrival of Avantia's royal guard. Given their capacity for flight, they had arrived ahead of the police who were pushing their way through the crowds further down the street to reach the scene of commotion.

It was Ambar who spotted out Soneanna being held up on stage before the crowd of onlookers. "Shit. This is about to turn into a riot. We need to get her out of there."

The police were closing in on the location, but it would be a few minutes yet before they reached the scene of chaos. It was hard to say who was in more danger at the moment. Soneanna, or Miley.

"Come on, we'll keep the crowds back until the police arrive," he told those with him as he furled his wings and dropped for the stage below.

He alighted upon its edge in a crouch with his vishtafa held loosely in one hand. He didn't rise, and his eyes swept the crowd almost daring them to set foot on that stage.

Nalesh was flying with the guard and looked down at the scene below seemed worse than he had expected. Following Ambar Nalesh Dropped to the stage, Vishtafa in hand he landed in a crouch before standing up.

"Disperse Return to your homes!" Nalesh shouted aloud to the crowd. He knew he had orders to have the leaders arrested but he decided that the other civilians deserved one chance.

Once he spoke he turned his back on the crowd toward Miley. "Release the Lady Soneanna at once." He said giving Miley a stern glare.

The girl stood among the crowd. Pushing her way to the front, she looked around curiously, ignoring people yelling at her for bumping into them.Stifling a laugh at a fallen person stumbling to get up, she looks at the people on the stage, and remains in her spot as the rest of the crowd leaves.

Miley wasn't surprised then the Royal Guard appeared. "Oh look. They're here to chop off our heads too. Where's the one that did the beheading last time? I mean he might as well show up to hack the heads of the rest of us!" She called out, smirking. "See. They're here to arrest us and then behead us!"

Soneanna frowned as Miley continued and the royal guard showed up. This was bad. Really bad. And when her aunt found out she was caught up in the middle of it...

She was interrupted by Nalesh speaking to Miley and turned her head to look. The girl stood there looking at the man for a minute before bursting out into laughter. "I'm not even holding your Lady. How can I let her go when I'm not holding her?" The woman turned to the crowd. "You hear that? He wants me to let her go? I'm not even holding her and he's trying to twist this into me holding one of the royal family members hostage? Was I the one that forced her up here? I asked her up here. Other people merely helped her up."

Miley then frowned. "They want to make it look like I'm holding her hostage so that they can arrest me and behead me. Well let it be known that I did not hold her hostage! You are all witnesses today!" The crowd was getting rowdier, mainly the ones that were with Avantia, and the thought of holding a royal hostage.

Soneanna had had enough though. "Stop it! Stop this nonsense. I'm not been held hostage. Stop the violence! I'm sick of this! A man died up here. I get that it probably wasn't the right thing my aunt did, but we can't change that. Now stop with this nonsense and maybe we can sort it out." She was trying her best to reason with them.

Miley once again laughed. "What? Sort this out by lopping off my head and hiding the truth like your aunt. I don't think so! They're out to kill us for voicing our opinions!" Miley shouted.

Ambar scowled. "Lady, I think that crowd is the one that wants your head, not us. So might I suggest you shut your yap for five fucking minutes?"

Ira landed along with the other guards, planting his glaive on the ground and casting his eyes around. "That's enough," he stated calmly, "Nobody is going to be executed. But you are endangering yourself and others by holding this protest in such a manner - you're starting a riot."

He offered a hand to Soneanna, "Come on, cousin. You should get out of here before things get any worse. I'll escort you back home, or somewhere else if you wish. There is a time and a place to speak your piece on such matters, and here, in the presence of an angry mob is not either."

As the commotion gathered around the small platform where Josh had previously been decapitated. The young woman that seemed to be causing quite a stir attracted the attention of another figure among the crowd.

The auburn haired Legata moved swiftly through the assembled throng of people, flanked by Legionaries on either side, who shoved people aside with their shields and special batons.

"What is this travesty!?" The Legata called out, pointing up to Miley.

"Cease this at once! You're disturbing the peace!"

The blonde woman in the crowd stood, completely still, with her eyes up at the avorians who had joined the stage. She did not join the commotion that the crowd was making, no; she was far too busy scoping out the guards. Her eyes landed upon one certain, young avorian guard. She tilted her head to the side at him, and her lips pursed curiously.

Just before the legionaries joined them, she had targeted him specially, but not at all did she move. The excitement already called on from the situation would suddenly... be a bit more than exciting.

Perhaps a bit more than angering. Adrenaline-pumping.

Arjuna was furious with the crowd that was present. How dare they speak out against Avantia. He then caught sight of Soneanna being held held by one of the ringleaders on stage. His anger had reached it’s limits, and before he could even try to hold back, he swiftly advanced toward the man.

“You dare lay your hands on a woman like that!” Arjuna shouted at the man as he butted him in the stomach with the back end of his Vishtafa. The man collapsed to his knees and clutched his chest as he gasped for air. “And a member of the Royal Family at that!” Arjuna added as he brought the haft of his spear down onto the man’s back, putting him all the way down on the ground. Arjuna then activated the electricity in his weapon, and electrocuted the man. “That should teach you not to speak out against your Matriarch,” he spat before finally regaining control of himself. He deactivated his Vishtafa and scowled at the other people on the stage. He was disgusted with all of them.

"Shit, Arjuna!" Ambar hissed. "Was that fucking necessary?" he bit out.

This was going to look great in tomorrow's paper. Up ahead the police were pushing their way through the crowds as they shoved their way closer to the stage.

The Legata had finally made her way over to Arjuna and Ambar as one of the Protestors that was screaming against Josh's Execution shouted out, pointing towards Livia.

"Murderer!" He screamed, and then lunged at her, only to have one of the Argosian Legionaries clock him square in between the eyes with the hilt of his sheathed Gladius.

"What the hell is going on?" Livia asked, her Legionaries shoving people aside to clear room for the Police.

A shrouded figure drifted through the mob like a phantom as the chaos in the square escalated. His face was concealed in a dark hood, revealing only the faint glimmer of two pale eyes that shunned the sunlight. Baelin stood in the center of the crowd and gradually stretched out his hands to feel the chaos and strife flow through his fingers. Rage. Hatred. Fear. Heresy. A euphoric smile spread across the prophet's face.

It was time to spread the message.

A message of blood.

Miley's attention was turned to Ambar and she grinned. "You think I care? It'll prove my point because it'll be her supports that take my head, it'll just show how heartless and uncaring Volaria is now. How brutal of a nation it's become and I'll request it on live tv too, just like you did right here to that poor man." She spoke up, nothing seemed to close Miley's mouth.

Soneanna frowned as she glanced at the crowd and heard her cousin speak. She would have moved but one of the men was still holding onto her arm. And at the same time she wanted to stay and see out this whole thing. She wanted to help and dissolve the situation in some way. But with Miley opening her big mouth, she didn't think she would be able to calm the people down. And even now she was laughing and making matters worse.

"Oh go on, go home. Run away from this and your responsibilities like your aunt has. Like the Matriarch has. I mean, she sent her royal guard and hasn't come herself to explain her actions. No. So go home. Prove to us all that you're not willing to suffer the consequences!"

Soneanna looked at her cousin. Maybe if she stayed things could calm down. She could help things calm down.

"Ira, I think... maybe I should stay a little longer, just to try and calm things down. They're not going to come up on the stage. I'm okay. I just... maybe it's best that there is a royal here..."

"Dawww, the royal thinks it's best that she stays. What an honor it is that she feels like she should stay."

"I'm not staying for you. I want my people at peace. I might not be Matriarch but as the niece I feel like I should stay to help keep the peace." She told the woman.

Their attention was once again turned to someone else who was shouting at Miley. "Just remember it wasn't me that disturbed the peace!" She shouted at the woman. "I did not give the orders to behead that man. When Avantia decided to go ahead and behead him without a trial, without evidence, without defense and in public not even telling the man that he was about to die, she disturbed the peace. Not me."

Again, in all the chaos, their attention was taken back to Soneanna when she screamed at the sudden violence used with the man that had previously been holding her.

"LOOK!" Miley shouted. "They're using violence! That man made no threatening movements. He did nothing and the royal guard savagely attacked him. And when one of the Legionaries clocked another, it just gave Miley for fuel for her fire that she was building. "See! All of them! Savages and corrupt! Avantia has given orders to beat us all if we do not cooperate. Do we really want to live in a nation of no freedom or free-will? Do we want to witness more beheadings of people that could be innocent? WE CANNOT ACCEPT THIS!"

Soneanna frowned as the crowd got even wilder for different reasons. This wasn't going to be good. She wasn't a person that was made to lead, or speak to people, but she had to do something.

"Please, stop this madness." She called out to the crowd. "There are better ways to deal with this! We don't want to end up getting violent and hurting more people unnecessarily!"