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[color=9AF781]Time: Morning, 11 am
Location: Athletic Arena
Interactions: Mina [@Tae][/color]

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Leo watched transfixed as the execution began. The guards made a dramatic unveiling of the stake and pyre before the criminal was cuffed to it. It was clear why no offer of a pardon was presented, the only answer to high treason was death. But even stranger that the royal family didn’t see this as worth their time; they showed indifference toward a crime that attacked order and rule of law. 

Why the criminal had been allowed to keep his treacherous tongue, and why the guards had allowed him last words, was beyond Leo. The traitor’s ravings were wild and mad as he was granted both stage and audience to spread his chaotic notions about the king and hidden power. Ideas that now spread through the crowd. Leo wondered for a moment just how long they were going to permit this lunatic to rant. Far too long it seemed. 

There was a subtle chill as the executioner was beckoned and strode towards the pyre, gleaming torch in hand. He felt Mina’s hand on his arm and heard her say [i][color=#758173]“something isn’t right…”[/color][/i], just as the executioner removed her hood and decreed it time for the traitor to burn. It wasn’t right, the entire execution was a bungled mess so far but at least the finale would be difficult to screw up. He glanced at Mina, noting her closed eyes and disquiet expression. It was a surprise, Mina did not strike him as being easily shaken. Leo remembered the first time he’d seen a man burn, the immense weight of dread and horror that time and experience had rid him of as he stood to watch another. There was a spark of envy and a sobering realization that he didn’t feel much of anything to watch this now. 

The torch was finally dropped upon the pyre. Even stranger, as much as the doomed man struggled amidst the rising flames and billows of smoke, he did not scream. He laughed. And from within the flames, a flash of glowing red orbs that Leo mistook for rising embers, glowed. One of the guards, it seemed, had accidentally lit his own pants on fire. [color=9AF781][i]What an idiot.[/i][/color] Leo shook his head, he had more than a good idea of the state of Caesonia now. His odd nostalgia, and burning curiosity, for the event, were far less important than Mina’s current state of distress. Leo was about to offer to escort her somewhere else when she took a weak couple of steps backward. 

[color=9AF781]“Mina?”[/color] She was now a ghastly shade of pale. He moved to steady her, an arm around her waist with enough time to stop her from crashing to the ground just as her slight frame became only dead weight. He gently guided her down onto one of the seating benches in the area, unceremoniously pushing anyone nearby out of the way. [color=9AF781]“Mina?”[/color] He repeated softly. He knelt to her level and figured the event had all just been a bit too much for her, surely she’d be up in a few moments.[/color]