[HAWI]
It was really happening.
They were back at the same spot, the same stage, the same accused.
Everything was just like it had been. Her bloody crown sat on her head. Her torn groin was on her body. The blisters she had once had, were visible for everyone. The pain she had gone through because of that one trial could be seen.
She was no longer the girl who had been teasing Mbali about Amina earlier, or even the girl who had been telling Mbali that having a mate wasn't always going to be a bad thing.
She was the same girl who believed that Jabali Lihle deserved to be loved and that she just had to let Amina in... That Mbali just had to take the risks like Hawi had with Rukiya. It was something that she wasn't sure she would ever get over.
But right now, she was different.
Awuor Hawi looked like the girl the wolves had banished. The one with a pained heart. The girl who stood there with the same pride and conviction in her eyes you would think she was about to yell at them and remind them that she was guilty again.
It was something that was expected of her, given how unpredictable everything had been with her. There was no telling what would happen especially even Hawi didn't know. However, like the first time here, she wasn't scared this time.
She wasn't worried about her fate. She was innocent and they knew it. So whatever decision they made, she wouldn't be a bother. After all, the facts pointed to her being the one who was framed, right?
"Do you think she will be okay?" a worried Rukiya asked Malaika as she kept her eyes on the love of her life sitting on the throne that had so much blood on it. The throne that had cost her entire family.
She knew this wasn't going to be easy for her, but she hoped that the Sicario wolves could finalize this once and for all. There Was no reason for them to be holding out and letting go through this shit again.
Rukiya was tempted to go up there and take her mate and leave. But then she wanted to wait for what hair would do. Even that still finds it any easier on her. Perhaps they would come to a consensus, right?
She was above them in every way, and while that wasn't exactly why she had remained seated, if anyone asked her, she would say that.
She couldn't tell them that the urge to go and smack the sense out of Jeremiah was so intense that she had to remind herself that this was a trial and not a murder plotting session.
She scanned the crowd, waiting for this to start and for them to lash out at her again.
Hawi didn't trust the Sicario wolves. She may not have wanted to kill them all right now, but she refused to put her trust in people who were cruel enough for her to recreate the day she had been at her weakest.
The day she had lost more than she would ever put into words. She hated days like that. She hated it and they had forced her back into it.
"Good afternoon Sicario," Asmodeus, the leader of the elder council, greeted the sicario wolves who had assembled to tell the outcome of the trial they had seen how Hawi had fought for them.
They had seen everything that she had done and they knew her stance.
They were aware that she was well within her right to lash out, but then was that ever going to be enough to make the elders decide to grant her a release from her father's banishment?
Was that going to be okay for her to live with as long as they didn't leave her out of the mess?
"We are gathered here to tell you the result of our findings from our investigation on the Awuor Hawi and Eniola Sicario casefiles. For the past four years, we have been hoping that the woman was alive and here she is.
"The meeting today is not about a trial. But it is about the facts that we found out along the way. The facts that could explain more than we can in this session," Asmodeus began and Hawi let out a loud laugh as she stared at the lot of them.
They had come here for the trial and yet the decision had been made? An investigation? How the fuck did they even interrogate when for the past four years they all knew she was dead? Were they somewhat psychics in the mess they had created on their own?
"Isn't this a trial?" Rukiya asked and Malika stared at her pitifully.