74 Suddenly These Changes

“I stain the floor with my love. It runs from my mouth and I choke on the air. It bleeds from my ears and drips from my chin. My head hangs low, heavy with thoughts of you.”
~Paulina Vasquez~

Maya Fey
Fey Manor
March 1, 2025, 9:00 PM

Maya had been mindless to everything around her when she’d raced from the Meeting Hall earlier and to the sanctity of her chambers. Slamming and locking the door behind her, she’d flung herself onto her bed and sobbed into her pillow about the impossible dilemma she’d been thrust into and the feelings of being completely distraught and overwhelmed about what to do.

A little while later, she heard the timid knock at her door and Pearl’s gentle, pleading voice, begging her to open up, but she couldn’t face anyone just then.

Through a voice hoarse from weeping, she croaked out: “Pearly, I’ll be alright, don’t worry. Go get something to eat and just head to bed. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow. Be a good girl for me, and don’t talk to anyone or do anything silly trying to defend me or Nick’s honor, OK? I love you.”

“OK, Mystic Maya,” Pearl’s soft cadence held a mixture of defeat and sadness to it, which only made a fresh bout of tears well up in the Master’s eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning. I love you, too.”

As she heard the quiet sounds of her retreating cousin’s footsteps, Maya wiped the last of her tears angrily with the sleeve of her robe and reached for her cell phone on the night table. She knew it was a Saturday night, and Phoenix was still working at the bar. He wouldn’t be done till 2:00 and depending on if he caught a ride home with his friend Tyler or got stuck taking the bus, he would be unable to call her until nearly 3:00 in the morning when he got home. However, she was overcome with the desperate need to hear his voice, even on his answering machine.

Besides, surely if he knew that if she’d called him while knowing he was on the clock and hadn’t been able to wait till his shift was over, it had to be important. Maybe he’d even call her during break or on his way home so she could connect with him that much earlier, and regale him with the horrid details of the evening and the ensnared tangle she was now in. Together, they would find a solution, she was sure of it.

She struggled to keep her speech leveled, not wanting to alarm him too much when he got the message yet ensuring the urgency was evident in her tone as she spoke quickly.

“Hey, it’s me. Please call me as soon as you get this message. It doesn’t matter what time it is. It’s very important, and I really need to talk to you. I’ll be waiting for your call. And Nick, baby, I love you.”

The next few hours seemed to crawl by. The Master couldn’t remember a time before when she’d seen the second hand on her wall clock ever move with such painstaking slowness as the minutes, then hours, crept by at a snail’s pace.

She tried to kill time by napping, watching TV, and even reading some cheap, tawdry romance novels she’d picked up at the airport newsstand during her last business trip, but when she looked at the time again, it was only 1:30 am.

Still no call or text from Phoenix.

He rarely did contact her from work, ergo she hadn’t seriously expected him to ring yet, especially with Saturday being the busiest night of the week. Nevertheless, Maya was inexplicably disappointed. Nick was her soulmate, dammit! Didn’t he sense she needed him? Couldn’t he have checked his phone, just once, on the way to the bathroom or something, and shot her back a quick text? Surely he wasn’t a camel who stored up liquids for months on end and had needed to relieve himself at least once between the hours of 6:00 PM and 2:00 AM?!

Maya realized in her frenzy that she was being irrational, and let out a rueful chuckle, despite herself. She was being ridiculous! Phoenix was just busy; of course, he wasn’t ignoring her! Hell, he’d even been in touch with her via text and email while she’d been out of town in New Orleans. Not too frequently, if she really thought about it though, and only in short but sweet replies to her instigated contact efforts for the past few weeks, come to think of it …

What in the name of Elton John’s codpiece?! We’ve actually only spoken once or twice since the Monday after Valentine’s Day!

Every day since the Hallmark Holiday, the psychic had tried, without success, to contact her boyfriend. She’d always left messages, but instead of calling her back that night, more often than not, she’d only get a quick text reply the next morning, explaining he’d worked later than planned or had simply crashed and burned the moment he’d gotten home.

This ducking and dodging MO of Phoenix’s suspiciously reminded her of the two weeks he’d been entirely MIA back when he’d first been disbarred, although not as blatant. He wasn’t ignoring her presently, per se. Nonetheless, there seemed to be something incomprehensibly … off with Phoenix lately. And for the life of her, Maya couldn’t quite place her finger on it or figure out the cause!

It was beyond bizarre. In the past, before being given the reprieve of Edgeworth’s condo as a safe haven, she and Nick had gone much longer than a mere fortnight without seeing one another. Hell, at one point, they’d gone nine months at a time!

And even then, during one of their most challenging times as a couple, she still hadn’t had these impromptu shadows of misgivings dwelling within her!

Stop it, Maya! She scolded herself. You’re just overreacting due to being so upset and emotional because of The Dragon Lady and are blowing things out of proportion, as usual! Nick isn’t avoiding you! He loves you! There’s surely a logical explanation for his monosyllabic texts and subdued tone that you’ve noticed since you went to Louisiana!

The diviner sat and impatiently stewed for the next hour. She thought 2:30 would never come, but of course, it did. She sprang like a tightly coiled spring at her phone when it finally rang at 2:31, answering on the first ring.

“Nick, thank God you called!” She cried by way of greeting. “I’ve nearly been losing my mind!”

“I got your message, and here I am, returning your call,” Phoenix replied, almost casually, as though oblivious to the distraught note in her voice. “What’s gotten you so worked up, Maya?”

She frowned at the phone. It wasn’t as though her swain didn’t call her by name anymore since they’d been together – naturally, he did – since she’d never been able to come up with a more affectionate nickname for him other than Nick, in the past six years. It was just that whenever Maya was upset or sad, he always sensed it. Then, in turn, he’d use that concerned, loving voice he reserved especially for her, prompting her with something more along the lines of: “why are you so upset, my love? Talk to me.”

And yet this time around, all she’d gotten was a mild, almost off-hand, query of: “What’s gotten you so worked up, Maya?!”

He was acting like she was distressed over a run in her pantyhose, rather than being forced to contend with the worst possible scenario on earth since she’d become Master!

Feeling even more vulnerable now than before Phoenix had called, Maya swallowed back the fresh wave of tears threatening to fall at his callous inflection but proceeded to pour out her myriad of fears over the arrangement. About the fact that it was such an important, strategic, tactical alliance. That she was supposed to be fulfilling her duty as Kurain Master, otherwise the old crones would ensure her life was an unescapable living hell. As she spoke, she couldn’t help shedding a few more tears, despite her stern resolve to no longer ineffectually blubber over the matter.

The pianist listened quietly until she was done before he spoke again.

“That all sounds pretty rough,” he remarked mildly, as though she’d just told him the Kurain chef had mistakenly given her a vegan patty instead of her usual bacon cheeseburger. “How about I come up and visit you tomorrow after I’m done working? I think you’ll feel better once you get this all out of your system in person, won’t you?”

The village leader was torn between wanting to shriek at Phoenix for sounding so dismissive about the worst plight she’d been presented with, in her entire life – did he just not get how this affected him as well her?! Had she stuttered?! – and simultaneously being overjoyed at the prospect of seeing him so soon. Moreover, he was volunteering to come up and see her. He hadn’t set foot in Kurain since her Master’s ceremony!

“Y – You want to come up here to Kurain, t – tomorrow?” Maya stammered. “I mean, you can, no problem! Everyone will have long since gone to bed by then since you get off work so late. Um, except, of course, for me, so there are no issues with sneaking you in. I mean, this is so nice of you, Nick – but it will be about 4:00 in the morning when you get up here! Won’t you be too tired?”

She could almost hear her lover shrug.

“Welp, desperate times call for desperate measures. These are extenuating circumstances, after all. I’ll see if I can duck out of work a bit early and if I can borrow Gumshoe’s car. Driving-wise, Kurain is only about 90 minutes away, possibly faster at that time of night since there’s no traffic.”

The Master was astonished at the offer – she hadn’t thought she’d be seeing her boyfriend again until her next LA conference later that week. Also, since when could her technologically inept, “dumb phone” holding, completely Luddite swain drive?

“When did you get your license, Nick?” She couldn’t keep the befuddlement out of her intonation. “Also, please don’t speed on my account – we don’t want you getting pulled over!”

“I may not have a license to drive, but I never said I didn’t know how to operate a motorized vehicle if need be.” The hobo laughed mirthlessly. “Besides, who’s going to pull me over if I’m driving Brutus, the Police Chief’s huge honking tank of a car?”

“Brutus?” The spirit medium echoed blankly, still staggered by his doting willingness to do such illegal activity for her while being torn between letting him and trying to talk him out of it.

“Gumshoe’s black Dodge Charger. It’s the automobile of choice for most unmarked cruisers. Also, it’s one of the few wheeled beasts the hulking tank of man can easily fit into! Nobody’s gonna get in my way when I’m driving that thing – it’s the Bullwinkle of all cars!”

“Nick, I don’t want you to go through so much trouble and risk –”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night, Maya, even if I have to walk there.” He abruptly cut her off, silencing any further protests she’d been about to make. “It’s getting late and I’m sure you’ve had a draining evening. I know I sure am beat! Goodnight.”

He clicked off before she could even respond. The diviner sat there, staring at the cell in her hand, wondering why she didn’t feel better at the prospect of seeing her boyfriend again so shortly after alerting him to her crisis. Nick was her pillar of strength, after all, and she needed him. Fittingly, her soulmate had said he’d be there for her and was coming to her even sooner than she could’ve hoped or planned to see him.

So then why was she now feeling slightly worse off now, than she had before he’d called?

The Kurain head had a hard time sleeping that night, and when she finally did drift off, her slumber was filled with tormenting dreams, which only further fueled the inexplicable feeling of dread in her heart.

Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey
Kurain Village
March 3, 2025, 3:15 AM

Maya was waiting at the main entrance of the village when she saw a set of headlights flash on her, bathing her in its glaring brightness as an enormous dark car pulled up. Turning off the engine and pocketing his keys, the pianist exited the vehicle swiftly, a ghost of a smile on his lips as he loped towards her.

“Brutus drives like a dream,” he told her. “Handles great even on sharp turns. I have to admit, I’m going to be mighty sad handing him back to his owner.”

“I’m surprised, what with being a cop, that Gumshoe even loaned it to you – considering you don’t have an actual license.”

“He didn’t ask.” He shrugged. “My motto – don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Since when?! The spirit medium wondered. Aside from bluffing in court, Phoenix had always been the most forthright, honest man she’d ever known. What was up with him?

She searched his handsome visage, made visible by the night torches that lit up the gated entrance, but he was wearing an unreadable poker face at the moment, along with the despised beanie as well, for the first time in ages. He made no move to remove it, and for some reason, the necromancer was hesitant to do her normal playful jesting about it or try to pull it off of him, as usual. There was something oddly foreboding in his expression that made her refrain from the usual antics at that moment.

Also, thus far, he’d made no move to hug or kiss her in greeting, so she just stood there a few feet away from him, awkwardly mimicking his action of jamming his hands into his sweatshirt pockets by placing her own into the pockets of the light cloak she’d thrown on over her nightgown. She’d been lying in bed, not expecting him until at least 4:00, when he’d texted that he was now nearby, so the outer garment had been all she’d grabbed when she’d rushed from the manor, taking not even her house keys or magatama from her night table. It was a warm enough night – about 18 degrees Celsius – but she wasn’t sure how long they’d be staying outside, and she wished she’d worn closed-toed shoes rather than her sandals; her exposed feet were already feeling the chill of the late-night air.

“Does this thing have wings? Because you must have flown it to get up here just after 3:00 when you left the bar at 2:00,” she joked, attempting to ease the tension. “How lead was that driving foot of yours coming up here, Nick?”

“I got time off for good behavior,” he smirked. “So I got to leave about fifteen minutes earlier than planned. Also, since Gumshoe uses Brutus for work and home, that baby’s got an inner light bar in the back that silently flashes when going, ah, high speeds on the roads…you’d be surprised how fast folks in other cars get out of your way!”

She frowned at him disapprovingly. Driving without a license and speeding – in a cop car, to boot? This sort of thoughtless, reckless behavior wasn’t typical of the upstanding citizen she knew and loved at all!

The ex-lawyer caught her reproachful expression and put his palms up in a gesture of mock innocence.

“Don’t look at me like that, Maya! I didn’t drive recklessly – it was just as fast as I could while trying to get over to you because I thought you said you needed me!”

Sure, she thought sourly, folding her arms across her chest. Use me as your trump card to excuse your borderline criminal actions, why don’t you?

“As long as I return that car without a scratch on it, Gumshoe’s cool,” he went on. “I told him you had a crisis that needed tending to, and he said I could borrow his wheels, no problem. All he asked was that I have the car back to him by 8:30 in the morning as he starts work at 9:00.”

The psychic didn’t know what to say in response, so she simply gestured for him to follow her to the pretty gardens just off to the side, where there was a stone bench among the fragrant blooming flower bushes. She sat down and patted the spot next to her. He took a seat beside her but kept his distance somewhat so that he was close but not touching.

Something definitely was not right. Maya didn’t even know how to begin. In all the years she’d known her swain, she’d never been at a loss for words with him. This imposter was clearly her significant other’s doppelgänger at most, and despite whoever he claimed to be, he was a total stranger as far as she was concerned! The man seated next to her may have looked like her longtime lover, but instinctively, she somehow knew he wasn’t.

Since the disbarring, the Master knew her beau had changed. His zaffre eyes had lost their bashful, slightly naïve expression from his lawyer days and attained a slightly tortured, cynical air, yet generally still retained the same gentleness.

There was none of that evident in the orbs of this foreign body sitting next to her now, his eyes guarded, hard, and unreadable.

This isn’t my Nick.

“So, what did you tell Trucy this time?” She began awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

The anterior attorney groaned.

“The kid worked tonight, and I sent her a text telling her I was in a late-night poker game and might not be back until she’s in her first-morning class. Luckily, she’s old enough now to be home alone and can get herself dressed and to school without my help anymore. Still, I hate having to lie to her.”

“A poker game?” The confused Maya queried, although glad they seemed to finally be having a normal, non-stilted conversation. “I’m lost here. I thought you played piano at The Borscht Bowl?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess I haven’t mentioned my stealthy accompanying role to the gig, have I? My bad.” Phoenix smiled thinly, not sounding sorry at all. “I’m a double agent at the bar – I play a lousy night of piano till about 11:00, then I go downstairs to the Hydeout in the basement and let the wannabe five-card studs take a crack at the reigning, undefeated poker champion.”

“Undefeated poker champion?” The Burger Queen’s eyes were wide with disbelief, uncaring that she was beginning to sound like a parrot. “Nick, you’re gambling?”

“For the past six years,” he affirmed smugly, not appearing even remotely contrite at this admission, despite her stupefied reaction to the news. “The piano playing is a front, Maya. I’ve been making a living playing poker right from the start. But relax, it’s nothing illegal. We play for glory, not money. I’m the reigning, undefeated Baron of Bluffing. It turns out those years of bullshitting my way through court made for a transferable skill.”

“It still sounds sort of shady…” she began slowly, not wanting to sound judgmental yet stunned at the revelation. “I don’t mean to sound so pious! It’s just that…”

“It doesn’t sound too prudent for a prestigious village master to be associating with a shady, lowlife con artist, is that it?” The poker champ sneered. “Is that what you meant?”

Maya shrunk back, aghast at his tone.

“How could you say such a thing to me, Nick? I’ve always stood by you, even when you told me not to!” She stared at him with tears filling her eyes. “I’ve never looked down on you! Do you really think something as trivial as you playing underground cards is all it’d take to make me start now?”

“Maybe not. But it’s just another black mark against me in the minds of the elders if they ever get wind of this.” Phoenix spoke with his head to the dusty ground. “Someday, Maya, you’ll wise up and see me the way they do – as a derelict, worthless bum who is beneath you and unworthy of you in every way possible.”

“Why are we on this again, Nick?” The village leader was exasperated. “Did someone build a time machine and put us back in the year 2020 for a second time? I’m not a snob, and I never have nor will ever care what occupation you have. What does it take to convince you that I couldn’t care less what those capricious hags think of you!”

“Well, you should. Because they’re right about me, Maya.” The beanie wearer regarded her with a pained expression. “Trust me, the day will come, when one day, you’ll hate me.”

Maya stopped like she’d taken a bullet to the duodenum.

“Why would you say such a thing? I love you. I can’t live without you.”

Phoenix raised his gaze to meet hers, so she would know he wasn’t messing around.

“It’s what happens to a great love when the expectations are too high. We’ll be fine for a while, then the monotony of having a lover who is nothing more than a vagrant hobo will kick in. And you’ll realize you’re a woman of great power and prestige who has been wasting her life slumming it with a poker shark, a fake pianist. A borderline criminal, with no name or money. One whose stigma of being a disbarred forging attorney will forever plague us wherever we go.”

“Nick, where is all this coming from?” She wailed, fighting back the deluge building up behind her eyelids. “Moreover, why are you talking about us as if we’re nothing more than transient all of a sudden?”

Undaunted, Phoenix continued debasing himself, as though she hadn’t spoken.

“Ultimately, I’ll only find some way to let you down in the end, can’t you see that? I won’t bring you flowers or gifts anymore. I’ll forget our anniversary. Your friends will have nicer homes and fancier vacations. I’ll have long since ceased to be exciting; I’ll be a burden. A disgrace. And you will be as ashamed to associate with me as everyone else is!”

Maya’s fair-skinned mien had lost what little color it’d had.

“Damn you, Nick! These are all nothing more than lousy excuses to just stop trying! Or maybe you just don’t love me enough to bother anymore?!”

Her orbs washed with the kind of tears that only came when people finally broke, in ways not easily repaired. But when she met his eyes, his were just the same as they’d always been. Nick did love her. She knew he did!

So what was all this sudden nonsense about hate?

Clearly, he’s begun that familiar spiral down that recurring, woe-is-me, self-pitying route yet again for some reason. I need to snap him out of it!

“I know we’ve got our problems, Nick, but you told me you found your lawyer and were making investigative progress in clearing your name! Stop being in such a funk, old man!” She jumped to her feet and placed her hands on her hips. “Come on! We’re two smart people; we’ve gotta think of something – for my situation as well as yours! But we’ll do it together, OK?” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “No matter what, I’ll stand by you. Because I – I can’t lose you again.”

“Maya, some problems can’t be solved.” He replied flatly, burying his head in his hands.

“I don’t want to think of us as a problem, Nick! Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me – well other than the whole Mia being killed and me being accused of the murder and me thinking I must have done it –” The necromancer realized she was rambling. “But I’m telling you, I love you. Let’s find a solution, together! We’re an unstoppable team!”

“No, we aren’t Maya. Not anymore. I can’t do this any longer, can’t you see that?” Phoenix cried, jumping to his feet, and placing his hands on her shoulders. “Being with me is going to tear you apart! These elders don’t have the wrong idea! You should try to find a better man than me, who can give you the future, the love, and the family you deserve! If you stay with me, I’ll be sucking the life out of you like a parasitic leech, bit by bit. That’s what I do to those who love me.”

“Nick, don’t –” She pleaded, but to no avail, as he relentlessly pressed on.

“I’m not entirely sure why I’ll end up doing it, but when you’re soaring high, I’ll only hold you back. I’ll stir up your anxieties just so I can be the one to calm you down and help you find fault with anyone who competes for your attention. This is about as reasonable as I can be, so consider this your warning. You’re settling by being with me, choosing this path! Pay attention to my words, Maya! If you know me at all, you’ll realize I’m not joking.”

He grabbed her face in his hands, tilting it up as he watched the tears fill her eyes and he swallowed hard.

“So, my smitten lover, you have some serious thinking to do.”

Phoenix never argued with his fists but his words packed a powerful punch. Carefully spoken, without drama, his words had an air of finality to them and no matter how hard she railed against them, nothing would change his mind. Nevertheless, she had to try!

“How can you say these awful things about yourself? It doesn’t matter what the world or society thinks!” She shouted, the droplets beginning to trickle down her face as she frantically grasped his hands and clasped them to her cheeks, needing to feel his touch. “I don’t want another husband! I only want you! I love you, Nick! I’ll wait for you! Being with you raises me up, and gives me a reason for being. You could never drag me down!”

“But I’ve already begun to, Maya. I heard it in your voice when you told me what the Dragon Lady was planning for you. She wants better for you, even though her methods might be unorthodox, and so do I! Being a woman of your stature, being forced to be with a nobody like me has been killing you softly all these years! You just can’t admit it, even though I’ve seen it!”

She started shaking her head in denial, but he shook her gently, trying desperately to make her understand.

“Stop refuting the truth! You’d deny it whenever I tried to talk about it, but I saw it every time. The lies over your lips, faking smiles and words, trying to convince everybody you were perfectly fine. Whenever you smiled, something felt wrong, like a little crook over your mouth, coming from deep inside your soul. Oh, Maya, you will never know how many times you broke my heart whenever I saw the sad look in your eyes, the corrupted fake smile you put on as a daily dress, denying yourself the right, to be honest with the way you felt. Tell me, are you sure you were just trying to convince the world? Or maybe you just desperately wanted to convince yourself?”

Phoenix released her then and turned his head away from her so she could no longer see his countenance.

“I guess we will never know. I wish I could know.”

His words were spoken softly, as if they were a mist, but stabbed her in the gut like glass shards. Maya felt her innards being ripped apart and the blood drained from her cheeks. A rising hysteria made her want to laugh, but she knew he was deadly serious. His eyes were colder than she had ever seen and his features were motionless. He looked like someone about to vomit.

She was trying to understand the words he was telling her but she couldn’t. Nick must still love her! He had for so many years, and to be honest, aside from Pearl, he was the only one in the world left who did.

Then he turned away to go, shoulders sunken and his hands in his pockets.

Before Maya knew what she was doing, she was standing in his way and they locked eyes, the prime distance for a kiss, but he shook his head. She could see her pain mirrored in his navy gaze.

This all smacked of moral and obligatory duty. Her lover had always said he’d stick around while she tried to persuade the elders to accept him someday, but in the end, it seemed they’d won after all.

But she couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen!

“Please, let’s just say to hell with the elders, to everything, Nick!” The diviner begged. Slow, desolate liquid beads ran from her unblinking, flooded orbs, and dripped steadily into her nightshirt. “We’ve talked about this before, let’s just grab Trucy and Pearly and just run away! To Canada! To Connecticut! To anywhere but here! We can find a place where nobody can trace our whereabouts! Where no one can find us and give us orders or tell us what the rules are…”

“Maya please stop this.” The pianist sounded absolutely drained then. He looked at her with pity in his eyes as he spoke his next words. “I didn’t want to have to tell you this – I was hoping I could just let things end with a clean break between us, but it looks like you’ve left me with no choice but to tell you the entire, terrible truth.”

He took a deep breath.

“I got an email from Edgeworth a few weeks ago. The motion plea we put through requesting an early release for Godot and Iris has been granted. He got out in December – he’s been the one sending me those gourmet coffees in the mail that I’ve been telling you about. And Iris … has been granted parole as well. She’s being released from prison this Friday.”

The necromancer studied him apprehensively, a feeling of dread within her stomach. This was her worst nightmare come true. She knew what his next words were going to be, but found herself powerless to stop him, to save herself the soul-crushing agony she knew the next verse would bring.

“I went to go see her two weeks ago.” Phoenix’s expression was pained as he faced her. “Seeing Iris again, after so long…it was as though the years had stood still – as if no time had passed for us at all.” He dropped his gaze then so she could no longer see his eyes. “Iris – she never stopped loving me. And when I saw her again … I realized I felt the same way. I never stopped loving her, either. Sh – She was my first love. We were each other’s, first love. You never forget your first, Maya. We have another rare chance to try again … and I have to take it.”

He was staring down at the ground as he mumbled his next words.

“I hate to do this to you, but I can’t go on lying to you any longer.”

“You’re kidding, right?” The village leader’s voice was quaking as his unfaltering eyes met hers. She wanted to beg, plead, get down on her knees and tell him that without him, her life had no meaning; that their love had meaning, but she knew that staunch face of his. Knew it all too well. It was the one he wore when his ears were closed and his mind had put up barriers to all new information.

“No, Maya, it’s over.” He slowly turned away, trying to hide the sadness in his eyes. “I – I’m sorry.”

Hearing the words caused her stomach to contract violently, as if the contents of her stomach were about to be expelled. She could feel her chest tighten and her heartbeat became alarmingly erratic. As she stood frozen in place, eyes brimming with hot, unshed tears that blinded her vision, it was within that instant that Maya heard her heart utterly crack in two. It was a loud, sharp sound, like a brittle tree branch being snapped in half.

“You’re – sorry?!” She screamed, not even recognizing her own voice anymore, it was so shrill. “I was gone away for one week … and in that time you’re telling me you secretly met, fell in love with, and now are leaving me, not for all the bullshit excuses you just spewed at me about not being good enough, or because of the elders, but for my cousin? Because she was your first?! Well, you were my first! Does that not matter at all to you, you soulless son of a bitch?! I gave you my heart… my body… my virginity …”

She broke down completely then, the rivulets cascading down her cheeks in unending streams, unable to go on.

“It wasn’t bullshit, Maya.” Phoenix sounded maddeningly calm in comparison, unlike the spirit medium, who was sobbing so hard now that her entire body was shaking.

Looking up at him through her bloodshot eyes, she saw that somehow, in stark contrast, the poker shark was utterly composed. In the half-light of the moon, her now former partner looked like the shadow he’d become. Hunched over in that sweatshirt, mien partially obscured by that hated aqua cap, he could have been anybody, and in a way, Maya guessed he was. She’d thought their bond was everlasting, and in her naivety, she’d believed it to be unbreakable.

Phoenix went on speaking in the same flat, matter-of-fact tone, as casually as if discussing the weather, uncaring about the devastation he’d just caused her.

“I meant what I said. You are too far above me in stature. It just wouldn’t work in the long run. As it is, we only see one another a couple of times a month, and only in hiding! That’s no way to live your life. With Iris, there’s no need to sneak around, deal with any drama from the elders, or worry about societal expectations. I’m a low-life poker player. She’s been to prison. We’re two peas in a pod when you think about it. Both on the bottom rung of society – two of a kind in that sense.” He laughed humorlessly then. “Aside from our shared history, we genuinely can relate to and understand one another, don’t you see?”

“You’ve been plotting this all along, haven’t you?” Maya wept, wrapping her arms around herself in a vain effort to contain the sobs that wracked her slender body. “Was I just your filler girlfriend until she was released? Was Iris the one you truly loved all this time, even while you were singing songs to me and giving me jewelry and making love to me …?”

“No,” he shook his head. His face was somber, although his eyes were still unreadable. “I hadn’t realized that I’d never gotten over Iris until I laid eyes on her again. And – I really did care about you, Maya. I still do. Please know that.”

“You care for me?” She shouted, glaring at him with outraged indignation even as the tears continued to fall. “You care for a cat, or a dog, or your … clients! Me … I gave you my virtue …my soul … my all … and you tell me … you care for me?!”

“Maya…” he reached out a hand then, and tried to place it on her shoulder, but she shrunk away from him, crying so hard now she could barely see.

“No! Don’t touch me!” She shrieked, slapping at his hand. “Don’t you dare touch me, Phoenix Gryphon Wright! Never, ever again!”

Her mind began to spin like a whirling kaleidoscope of memories racing through it from the last six years.

The night of her 21st birthday, when he’d first told her he’d loved her after singing that Bruno Mars-themed song for her at the Borscht Bowl.

“And you already know I would break every law for you.”

“I will never love anybody the way I love you, Nick.”

Their marriage-like vows in Edgeworth’s condo as he made love to her.

“I’m never gonna give you up, my love. Tell me you’ll never leave me.”

“Never. I’ll never leave you, Nick.”

When he’d given her that heart-shaped locket with Mia, Pearl, and his photo in it with the engraving on it: “I love you madly, without question or reason, and care naught if it’s for a lifetime or a season.”

Christmastime, when he’d given her that ring.

“What are you promising me?”

“Me.”

“You and me… we’re end game, Nick.”

“Maya Fey, I’m forever yours. Faithfully.”

Her hands were trembling as she reached behind her neck then and undid the clasp of the gold chain that held the locket, which she never took off. She was alone, scared, and devastated. Her heart had been torn apart and her love taken away piece by piece. She spoke with a trembling voice.

“I invented every excuse for staying. I have to admit, and I think you’ll agree, I got pretty creative over time. But you kept giving me every reason to leave. And I still tried to ignore them, like a lovesick fool or a drug addict dying from an overdose. It seemed like in those days, even if I’d died, if I’d have let you kill me, I still would have made an apology for you to use. You should have given me something to hold on to, like a false hope or a beautiful lie. Maybe then things would have gone differently. Maybe you would have changed and we could have grown into something beautiful together, instead of opting for Iris. We both know it’s because she’s the easier choice and no other reason than that!”

Maya gripped the locket in her hand for the last time before flinging it at him, not caring as it bounced harmlessly off his chest and onto the ground.

Phoenix didn’t make a move to pick it up.

“Or maybe I would have finally let you shatter me into a million pieces and end up as a broken photograph in an obituary. But for once, I would have listened to you, not just your lying eyes or false words. For once, I would have paid attention to the things that couldn’t be faked. Yes, you told me in so many ways that I should leave you, go far away and never come back. I foolishly didn’t listen, because I’ve never given up on anyone in my life. But now it seems I have no choice.”

She yanked the silver chain the promise ring had been dangling from around her neck; didn’t even bother trying to undo the clasp, and felt some grim vindication as she felt it break in two. Just like her heart. She took aim and hurled that at him, too. It hit him right in the face.

This time, Phoenix caught the ring before it fell to the earth beneath them.

But still, he didn’t move. Didn’t even blink.

In contrast, Maya couldn’t believe that it was possible for a person to feel this kind of searing, agonizing pain and still go on living. It burned within her, coupling with the white-hot rage which was rapidly replacing her sorrow as the full weight of his betrayal hit her, the waves of wretchedness threatening to engulf her mind, body, and soul.

“You were my life! Now you’re nothing more than a mere slither of worthlessness. I trusted you! I loved you! I prayed to God that you remained healthy, happy, and strong. And this is how you repay me! This!  By telling me you loved me, taking my body whenever you pleased … and in the end, having the colossal nerve and audacity to tell me your heart lies with my cousin?!”

Then Maya’s hand moved, by way of its own volition, as she reached out and sharply slapped Phoenix Wright cleanly across the face.

The sound of the strike was as loud as a clap and stung his face. It had been an open-handed smack, and it had left a red welt behind. Phoenix staggered backward, clutching his cheek, as he gaped at her in shocked disbelief at what she’d just done.

Maya didn’t care. She was seeing red as she pointed to the direction of the dirt path leading from Kurain, her chest heaving with the force of her rage.

“Now, you get the hell out of my village, you heartless, low-life, Godforsaken bastard! You are nothing to me anymore, Phoenix Wright, do you hear me? Nothing! You’ve lost all my trust and weakened your status to the point where you are now dead to me. Get out. Get out! The very sight of you makes me sick!”

And just like that, Maya Fey, Master of Kurain, lifted her head like a dignified queen looking down at a peasant she no longer deemed worthy of her presence. Then she somehow, reaching for the last of the inner strength within her, gulped down a sob, dragged together the remaining rags of her composure, turned on her heel, and walked away, back towards the village, not even once looking back over her shoulder.

With each stride, her mind became clearer, and more resolute, as if the growing physical distance between them had now become an emotional chasm. As the nascent moonlight caressed her skin, promising that the next few hours would bring a new dawn, a new beginning, she entombed her memories of him in thick-walled ice. Then, abruptly pausing to close her eyes and take in a deep breath of dewy air, she steeled herself to only think of her future from here on in. A future she would mould, build, and direct. Then, with each stride after that, she felt more in charge, in command of her own mind, body, and soul. She was no longer the girl he’d once known. She was a grown woman now, walking into her own destiny, a destiny that lay squarely in her own hands.