OUR FOREST OF THORNS | tbosas ✔️

029 || The Mockingjay Lies Still

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE —        The Mockingjay Lies Still ..

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          There had to be some mystical secret behind Daphne's capability of looking so utterly divine regardless of her environment. No one should have been able to look like Heaven made flesh on the fierce last auburn blaze of daylight across a cloudless sky while being warmed by a sun ray slipping inside a much too deteriorated wagon through a dust fogged window. Yet, despite impossible odds, there she was, eyes capturing sunlight and turning it into the color of lava — Coriolanus had never actually seen lava in his life, but he imagined the power behind Daphne's eyes had conferred just about enough credibility to the color of her irises that he might just believe he had —, hair a smoldering fire held together in relaxed waves by completely concealed pins only he would know to remove one by one.

Every once in a while, in moments marked usually by a particularly tough shake of the wagon as it was rushed across the railroad track, Coriolanus' gaze would slip and land on a gratifying sight he alone could recognize for its true importance: around Daphne's neck hung the necklace worn by his grandmother in her youth, perhaps the very last jewelry piece from the Snow heirloom. With each bump, the slightly heart shaped pendant bounced too, hitting over Daphne's porcelain skin and shinning into the light of a late afternoon, sinking its luminescence past the ever spreading horizon.

Though anyone who knew of his frustrations would conclude that he would prefer at any time to sit right next to her, especially on such long journeys, Coriolanus had actually always preferred to sit across from Daphne, particularly for these sights. Alas, he had grown to accept that it had never been just him being appreciative of beauty, but rather him being addicted to her particular lure. That was why he hadn't objected to being seated across the table from her, though the whole wagon was theirs thanks to yet another privilege bestowed upon him.

"Our drones have detected radiation here," Daphne pointed with her pencil to the map she spread on the table between them. "Because we've consumed our whole reserve of Plutonium for the test and the third phase keeps getting delayed, the replacement element, made to coexist with the Plutonium, is starting to act up, as you well know. We require a natural substitute for Plutonium, albeit in smaller quantity than before, and because I do not yet want to propose a nuclear power plant plan to District 3, not while my uncle has his eyes on every move I make, I turned to radiation scans across Panem, in hopes that we can find residue to be recycled. Most of the known sites have already been swept clean for the test itself, but my scientists have detected a weak radiation signature here. Our guess is that it's a deep Uranium ore reserve and luckily enough, it's in the mining District, so it shouldn't be too hard to cover up our operation."

He nodded, never having questioned her sound reasoning as to why on Earth she would be getting them in District 12 of all place, but merely experiencing a prolonged ill feeling — the thought of Sejanus and Lucy Gray was making him sick, and at least one out of the two, he knew Daphne had included in her plan already.

"The cover up," Coriolanus nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "Are you sure your uncle is going to buy the fact that you want to take pictures with the winning Tribute a month after the Games?"

"It's what my brother would have done," Daphne leant back in his seat. "Get out there, give an interview, smile for the camera, get spotted hanging out with Lucy Gray, and as far as the public is concerned, I am just marketing my appeal."