[ Sirius or Chilka, as he’s called, stares long and hard at Ranmaru from where he sits. His questions go unanswered. The fairy before him is undeniably, unmistakably Betelgeuse, and yet his eyes only wince at the sight of the wound. They flicker with concern, but it’s far from the guilt that Sirius knows would otherwise wrack the his former partner’s soul.

“Ranmaru” instead recognizes him, but as Chilka. He says his name as if it’s all he knows.

The rage Sirius feels knotting in his throat, lodged so high up he could gag on it, tightens. ]

…So she took Betelgeuse from me too.

[ This is the only conclusion he can draw, for now. The only guess he has. The last he’d seen the other fairy, the color of his eyes had been flushed by the stream of his own tears. He’d been desperate and frantic— he’d sided with Procyon, but he’d been distraught. ]

Of course she would.

[ Because that’s the ugliness of the world they’d come from. Chilka rises from his seat and takes a step forward, drifting through the air with the powers that’ve been granted to him in thanks to the Kenoma. To Ranmaru, he’s like a phantom pulled from an old, forgotten painting. ]

Look at you, so pitiful without anyone to follow. Is that why you chose the darkness? Because you had no one left?

[ Chilka stands before him with a cruel smile on his face. Despite his madness, it appears sorrowful. Lonely. ]

—Or did your soul follow mine?