My head-canon is that like Adrian, Iris gets out of jail pretty quickly. However, instead of instantly starting a relationship with Phoenix again, she goes to Kurain to serve as Maya's (who's the Master by now) assistant. Remember, Iris's two really defining traits are her sense of loyalty and her sense of guilt. She was already loyal to the Master in the first place, but Iris probably feels like she betrayed Maya due to her role in Misty's murder. I think it would be in-character for Iris to put her personal life on hold so that she can "pay for her sins."
Meanwhile, Phoenix loses his badge and adopts a daughter. He falls out of touch with both Iris and Maya.
While she's in Kurain, she builds sisterly relationships with Maya and Pearl. Both Maya and Iris lost sisters, so they find comfort in each other. They raise Pearl together. To Pearl, Iris is somewhere in-between a sister and an aunt. She grows to love Iris, but Maya will always be her favorite.
Years pass. Maya settles down with a man who sires an heir for her, and then some. Defying Kurain's curse, they love each other very much and stay together. Iris is happy for them, and she tells herself she's not lonely. She has Maya and Pearl. Maya's kids love her. She may secretly long for love of a more intimate nature, but she has no desire to date anyone. She wonders if she'll grow old alone. She decides that if this is her fate, then she accepts it.
Still, she's bored. She wants to do something. Kurain is doing well now, and Pearl is a young lady. She doesn't need to be there all the time. Maya never held a grudge against Iris, but Iris feels the need to ask permission to leave the village anyway: not permanently, of course, but she feels like she's meant to do something else with her life. Maya happily agrees that this is a good idea, and she asks Iris what she would like to do. Iris doesn't know exactly, but she has some ideas....
Meanwhile, Trucy graduates from high school. She will be attending an internationally renowned college for artists and entertainers in Borginia, which Thalassa is paying for (though she had to audition in order to be accepted in the first place). Before she leaves, she kisses Phoenix goodbye and thanks him for everything. She tearfully thanks him for putting his life on hold so that he could raise her, even though she ruined his. Phoenix insists that Trucy coming into his life was the best that happened to him. Still, Trucy makes him promise that he'll live his life now and be happy. Kristoph is gone. His reputation is cleared. He has his badge back. He's a celebrity, this time, for his part in changing the judicial system of his country. In the eyes of many, he's a hero. Those who fear change hate him. Everybody knows his face: some want autographs, others send him death threats. His life isn't easy, but it never was. He couldn't imagine it any other way. Craziness gravitates to him.
The apartment seems so empty with Trucy gone. People ask him why he doesn't buy a house, now that he can afford it. He tells them that a house for one person is silly.
One day, he overhears two guards talking while he's waiting at the detention center to meet with a potential client. They talk about the beautiful lady who teaches poetry at the women's prison. He hears enough to learn her first name, that she's a volunteer, and that she's single. Apparently, this woman rejected one of the guards when he asked her out. The other guard jokes that the woman was way out of his league, anyway. Phoenix smirks to himself, because he has the mental image of his Iris turning this guy down. He knows that Iris loved poetry, but he doesn't think that this lady is the same person. Iris isn't that uncommon of a name, after all. When he finally gets to see his client, he jokes that if he doesn't get her off the hook, that at least she can take a poetry class in prison. She doesn't think his joke is very funny.
As it turned out, his client wasn't guilty of murder, but she was guilty of tampering with the body. The case triggers a lot of memories and emotions within Phoenix, but he crams them down and doesn't show the emotion he's feeling. She's sent to prison this time as she awaits her second trial, and because she intends to plead guilty, Phoenix agrees to represent her as her lawyer again and fight for a shortened sentence. He never got his driver's license, so he has to take the bus to the women's prison so that he can meet his client. He's reviewing the case file for her previous trial, so when the bus makes another stop, he barely notices the slender woman who enters the bus and sits down across from him. She's nicely dressed in a sweater and skirt, and she has long, black hair. Her face is obscured by the book she has her nose in.
Naturally, reading can't hold Phoenix's attention for long, so he finds himself stealing glances at the woman in front of him. She's exactly his type: she's pretty yet mature looking, and her clothes aren't garish or too revealing. He thinks the way she reads with the book an inch from her face is cute, and he figures that she probably needs glasses.
He sees that she's reading a book of haiku.
Just haven't been very active with AA stuff lately.
By the way...how much of this topic have you read? Reading all the pages is no mean feat. Welcome aboard!
X 
