The feeling of powerlessness aches almost physically - but not in a place, it's a disembodied pain. But the power is still there, just out of reach. 'I'm ready if you need it,' it says.

The police show up and go through the motions of arresting her. She's put into a squad car - Range Eye follows, holding a hand or something if it seems like it might help. They go to the police station and she's briefly questioned - she gets a change of clothes and a cold meal and is left to stew in a stereotypical interrogation room for about half an hour.

Then Range Eye comes back, with two officers and a tall woman with the most elaborate spirit bearer costume she's seen in person yet - A flowing white-and-blue gown with shiny armguards and boots, all sorts of embellishments, and a silver crown that makes elaborate rings floating above her head. Everyone knows a magic costume as elaborate as that denotes serious power.

"Anna, this is Leona Krellis. Also called Soothseer. She's employed by us to verify the truth of statements in sensitive situations like this."

"If the story I was told is true," she says in a cold tone, "Then the foster system of the state of New York has failed dramatically and tragically once again."

One of the officers rebukes, "No extraneous comments please, Mrs. Krellis. This is all going on record."

"My foster parents hurt me. They used to leave marks but I was clumsy when I was younger, everyone knew I was clumsy, and they were so sweet to me in public and they hurt me worse when I tried to tell so I eventually stopped and I was so scared, all the time, and then a genie offered to give me magic if I killed them and I didn't want to but I was so scared."

None of this is a lie.

"All of it true," reports Soothseer. She looks at Anna sympathetically.

The cops want more details. What exactly the genie said and how it acted is of particular interest. Some specific incidents of abuse are requested as well.

"Yeah. Um. Can you, um, I told the guy who got me my name--it's Anna-Seraphina, hyphenated, but he kept calling me Anna, can you call me the full thing, my foster mother--said my name was ridiculous, she would pointedly call me Anna when she was--correcting me for something." She reports the genie's actions as well as she can. She can refer them to specific incidents of abuse--her foster father mostly preferred verbal abuse and restriction of 'privileges' that were not, legally speaking, privileges, like enough sleep every night; her foster mother had more creative less shouty verbal abuse and places you could pinch someone for maximum unpleasantness with no marks.

Range Eye looks surprised and bashful.

Soothseer says, "Ah, yes. Of course. Anna-Seraphina. It is a bit long so I might forget. If that happens, please remind me."

"If you can't remember the whole thing Sera's better than Anna but I'd really rather the whole thing if you can."

"I'll try."

The cops are stone-faced as they take down details Range Eye leaves before too long, but Soothsayer stays to maintain the veracity of everything.

Soon enough they're done. She'll have a case worker and public defender soon. "Until then, and most likely for a while after then," the imposing Soothsayer says, "I will stay right next to you, Anna-Seraphina."

One of the officers clears his throat. "You are in a lot of trouble, though, miss. Even under severe provocation, murder is not something we can simply let slide since you were not actively in fear for your life at the time. It's just how the law is written."

"I know."

"Well, officer, that is a discussion that Anna-Seraphina has the right to have with her lawyer and not you."

"Of course. Anna, uh, Seraphina, please stand up and go out the door now. We're going to escort you to a temporary holding area."

"Okay." She does that.

Soothseer stands by her promise to stay with her. Though she does bring out a book to read unless Sera wants a conversation.

Soon her lawyer arrives.

And someone she vaguely recognizes, but never directly talked to, from the foster system.

She's not feeling especially talkative. Soothsayer can read her book.

She looks nervously at foster system dude.

The lawyer is harried and quick, keeps checking his watch.

Foster system dude looks grim and introduces himself as "Head of the Sprit Bearer subdivision of our office." They both mostly remember to use her full first name after being reminded.

...Basically her options boil down to 'go to court, get a trial by jury, probably get executed at the end of it all' or 'plead guilty, agree to a ten-year probation and glorified community service plan'. Under the latter, another Spirit Bearer would be her new guardian, and they would both be under much better scrutiny than before. Definitely.

Definitely the plea bargain. If by some miracle the new scrutiny fails she can always decide to get executed then if she's that desperate.

They start making the arrangements.

She'll have to sleep here tonight until the paperwork clears. She gets a phone call if she has anyone she wants to call. They're required to let her go outside and exercise if she asks to - might be a good idea to exercise her magic. In a nondestructive way. Spirit Bearers find using magic healthy and mentally stabilizing, generally speaking.

She has no one to call but she would love to exercise her magic.

Well, the exercise yard is a soccer field-sized dirt area enclosed by tall fencing.

All the other inmates give her plenty of space, muttering, when she pulls on the spark and the magical clothes come back.

She looks at them nervously but manages to ignore them after a little while if they keep giving her space. She pokes at her magic.

It's! Eager! She should do things with it! She can do the water jet, or she can do another thing.

She will be happy to do things with it! What's the other thing?

...It's a thing! It feels more toggle-y than the water jet.

Okay what happens if she toggles the thing.

Now she is holding a short (lightly blue-tinged) wooden spear with a sharp metal tip. It materializes from nothingness with much the same effect as the genie's body.

She probably remembers a few gym class spear exercises, right? Every year gets a couple weeks of them.

...Yes but she should probably put it away rather than brandishing it in a prison yard in front of the other inmates. She can do spear stuff later and just settle for water stuff right now.

Nobody is looking twice at the Spirit Bearer's undoubtedly extremely dangerous spear.

...For the water jet some control practice is probably a good idea. She will also notice that relatively little of her water sticks around for long. Some of it, sure, but if it all stayed she'd make a mud pit pretty quick.