She dropped forward in supplication, gritting her teeth.
Bruce turned into a beast kin. As he reached out, Tysien flew forward and into his hand. He bent her over his knee.
A ringing smack sounded out and Tysien grunted, holding back tears.
“Children will be treated as children!” Bruce barked as he smacked her backside again. In front of him, she was no stronger than a toddler.
“You are a member of the legion, a member of my clan, and instead of helping those in need, restoring the balance, you were willing to allow others slide into chaos!” Two more smacks rang out as the others shook in fear.
A total of five smacks landed on Tysien’s backside. She forced tears back, blood on her lips and the injustice clear in her eyes.
Bruce shook his head. “I can see it in your eyes. Look at me, girl.”
Tysien forced her head up and looked into Bruce’s eyes—eyes that had seen the pass of centuries, the rises and the falls of Dena and the beast people. A progenitor of the bull clan.
She unconsciously relaxed looking into them, seeing the care and feeling ashamed seeing the frustration.
“Anthony over there has his own worries to deal with. We work together to deal with those issues,” Bruce said in a soft voice that was filled with a timeless quality.
“You erred. As much as you’re trying to put that blame on Anthony, what has he done to you? Against you? He has started to build support for this city, looked to help people who have been looked down on by one another and others for the clan that they come from.” Bruce raised his voice so that others could hear him and feel the anger within. “That are now looking down on others with their small-minded thoughts! That instead of banding together and seeing one another as people of Dena, they are looking to be divisive and create a rift between groups of Skalafell. Build, help, and work hard.”
Bruce gave her one more look as he stood up from kneeling.
“Do you know why the nobles are hiding in their homes? It’s because they are dying. Their entire families are dying within those compounds. None of the medical supplies are working. They’re too weak to leave their homes. But, here you are, pissed off with life, pissed off that you feel like you can’t do anything; you feel like you can’t go anywhere.” Bruce shook his head. “Nothing is instantaneous. It takes time—it takes hard work to get what you want. You feel like you’re spinning your wheels—that is no one’s fault but yours. It is your life. You need to take control of it, instead of blaming others for the fact it isn’t working out. You want to piss people off because of the inner joy it gives you? That sadistic little part of joy you get in the back of your head? That is the true poison, the poison that will corrode you from the inside. We don’t have long in this world—do you want to spend it being the asshole who started a fight in the middle of a plague, or the person who brought food and water to those who couldn’t move from bed?”
Bruce let out a tired sigh and looked at Anthony. “Charge them. Hopefully they’ll learn.” He turned into a green light and entered Anthony’s arm.
A purple hammer appeared in Anthony’s hand and the Guardian emblem lit up. He dropped the meerkat. He swung his hammer and a crisp sound rang out through the square. The mana that had gathered formed into a table and desk; six more seats appeared as judges sat in their own seats.
There was a pig kin judge this time. He crossed his hands in front of him, glowering at the men and women in front of him.
“Neutral mindset,” Anthony said.
“I will listen to their crimes. For daring to hurt their kin and clan, I will not be kind,” the beast kin said.
The other judges refrained from speaking, silently acknowledging his authority.
“Do you want to seat this judgement?” Anthony asked.
The pig kin stood and cupped his hands. “This city is under your protection, Guardian, and I thank you for your offer. I will not refuse, but for sentencing I will need all of your help.”
The pig kin looked to all of the judges, who nodded and smiled.
“Aren’t we people of Dena?” the dwarven judge asked. The hob judge let out a hooting laugh of agreement.
Anthony held out the hammer and it flowed out into the pig kin judge’s hands. He seemed to come into focus more.
“I bring this court into session!” His voice was low but it contained a deep power. The beast kin shivered, looking at the man as he tapped his gavel.
“For the crimes of raising a public disturbance, for wishing to gather a mob in a time of chaos, and incite violence and suffering among the population, how do you plead?” he asked.
“Guilty!” There were a smatterings of “innocents” from the crowd.
“We will start with the first defendant,” the pig kin man said, his voice like rolling thunder on the horizon. His expression darkened.
Everyone shivered under his gaze, as if seeing their own parents’ disappointment and disgust.
***
Tysien was bound by her bloodline. She knew that it was a clan spirit that had publicly humiliated her. She was burning with anger at Anthony for putting her in this situation.
She couldn’t think of how she was waiting for him to get involved in the situation, to become part of the issue so that she would have a way to lock him up so that he would never be able to leave. So he couldn’t lie and deceive others. Now she saw him sitting there at his table, one of six other judges as they reviewed case after case.
They were listening to the defendants’ reasonings; they were entranced after the questions were asked, leaving them no way to lie to the judges.
She had never seen anything like it as people’s crimes were revealed in front of everyone. Sentencing was swift and quick, with the judges operating like a machine to work through the cases and make sure that everyone had a fair trial.
What is going on with me?
She shivered, not sure just where her mind was going. The more she watched, the less her mind could defend her, as she saw Anthony working, not leading the judges but one of them, listening to them and allowing the pig kin judge to lead them all.
Her thoughts turned inward and she shifted around awkwardly, thinking of what she had done to someone else, of how nasty she had been, and the way that she had acted. She felt shame, looked for ways to make it not that bad, to prove to herself that she wasn’t that bad.
As she couldn’t, she started to feel worse, spiraling.
Now the dam had broken and she had started to think in a new vein, she no longer watched the trials. She started to think when and where she had gone wrong, why she thought the way that she did.
She wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and hide in it.
***
“I would like to call a recess.” Anthony looked to the other judges.
They looked at one another and agreed.
“A five-minute recess.” The pig kin’s gavel tapped and the tables wrapped up into a circle. A purple barrier blocked one from seeing what was happening inside.
Anthony looked at the judges. “I feel like this group and others are brought about by Agents of Chaos. We went through a group of them who were trying to transform people in a blood ritual outside of the city. When looking at the area, it seems that those affected are in certain high-traffic areas. The most affected are the nobles and there is someone targeting them when they can’t defend themselves.” Anthony left his words hanging there.
The judges all had dark expressions.
“It does seem that there is someone with a different agenda here,” the elemental judge said.
“I don’t feel like the majority of them know what is happening—they were just stirred up,” the elven judge said.
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” the pig kin assured them.
They finished their recess and looked back at the accused.
Many of them had been forced into community service for their crimes of trying to harm others when they needed their help more than ever.
<
br /> People were arguing and complaining, but all of the Black Rags stood there, glaring at those guilty of trying to carry out violence just because they thought that they could.
More people had gathered. With the group of rioters’ crimes being examined and read out, the older generation were tutting and displeased, while the younger generation had a fire in their eyes. They were all supposed to be citizens of Skalafell, working together but instead they had been shown the disappointing truth of some of their fellow citizens.
“Next defendant!” the pig kin said.
A duck kin stepped out, with broken feathers and other scratches and blemishes. Even though he was from one of the smaller and weaker races, he was much larger than other duck kin.
“Tungur!” a honking duck voice called out over the square as Tungur seemed to be trying to make himself smaller.
An older-looking duck stood there with a cane. She glared at the younger duck kin. Beside her, there was a younger duck kin man with a smaller build than Tungur but similar features and his arms crossed.
Grandmother and father—well, it’s his fault for being an ass, Anthony thought. There was a hierarchy in all of the clans. Going against those who were older was dishonorable on everyone.
“You have pled guilty for trying to disrupt the operation of the city and to try to incite violence with your fellow citizens. Do you understand these accusations?” the pig kin said.
There was a deep honking noise from the boy’s father. His grandmother stood there with her hands resting on her cane.
Tungur stared at the ground. “I understand, Mister.”
“Were you coerced into this action by any other party?”
“I wasn’t, sir,” Tungur answered to the ground.
“You were looking to incite violence from the beginning or did someone invite you to start a riot?” the head judge asked.
Tungur looked up, his eyes in a daze. “I was asked if I wanted to join and my friend Kleo asked me multiple times, told me about the nobles looking down on us and I couldn’t help but want to get back at them. My parents and grandmother forbade me from doing anything and wanted me to join the Black Rags to help our neighbors, but Kleo said that they were just the slaves of the nobles. I wanted to show my family that I could affect change, to show my strength and be recognized more. Treated like an adult.” Tungur’s eyes cleared. He looked down in shame, sending a glance at his family.
“How do you think that has gone? Do you feel like more of an adult now?” the pig kin judge asked, his voice damning.
Tungur shuffled his feet and didn’t answer. As he wasn’t under compulsion and wasn’t part of the case, he wasn’t forced to answer truthfully.
“Judges, I believe that he will serve with the Black Rags for the remaining time. He will look after supplies, food, and water for those who are unable to get it themselves.”
The others nodded their agreement.
He used his gavel and then manacles appeared around Tungur’s wrists as he shifted the wings that lay down along his sides.
“I’ll pass him to you now.” The pig kin looked at the father and grandmother.
“Clan spirit.” The grandmother’s stormy expression cleared as she curtsied and the father tucked his wings back and bowed.
The pig kin clan spirit nodded as Tungur waddled away from the defendant’s podium.
“Kleo, are you here?”
A mole kin stepped forward.
“Defendant Kleo, it is good to see you. You have pled guilty...”
The court continued on, quickly charging people, handing out punishments, and keeping things going. Mai, Jun, and Ubi had showed up. The guilty parties went over there, filled with shame, only to see that Ubi, Jun, and Mai all had purple chains on their wrists as well.
They felt a little better, until they saw the stormy expressions on the trio’s faces.
Running the Black Rags for only a few days, they had learned just how bad things were in Skalafell.
The more they saw, the angrier they were with themselves for threatening the little miss Keze. They only slept when they needed to, and Anthony had a feeling that they would have the guilty “volunteers” quickly following in their footsteps, even if they didn’t want to.
They were sent off across the city as Ubi, Jun, and Mai’s presence also made those who were watching and were part of the Black Rags quickly run off and see to their duties. Others who had heard about the group started to learn more about them as people went to the marked walls, adding information or carrying out tasks that were listed.
A gloominess had covered Skalafell. Few people gathered in public places, but the event had brought the people together since the plague had first showed up. People even offered their own information to help the Black Rags and reduce the load on them.
Anthony discreetly paid attention to the head judge’s probing questions, chasing the people who had influenced others to join the rioting group, exposing their leadership as the community watched on with displeased looks. This wasn’t spontaneous; someone was organizing it all.
People in the crowd started to catch on as well as more leaders were brought forward and exposed, getting worse sentences than others who had just been part of the issues instead of starting them.
It wasn’t long until they got to the meerkat kin that had been leading the group.
“Mister Rody Barrett, by all accounts, you are the de facto leader of this little band. Why did you become their leader?”
“I would get paid and was told that my family would be cared for. The nobles have always looked down on us. This way, I would be able to get power with the people. I could make money as well and my family’s health would be secured,” the meerkat kin said.
“Who gave you this offer?”
“I do not know their name,” Rody said.
“Do you know where we can find them?”
“They contacted me.”
“Do you have any information about them?”
“They knew about the plague, said that if I was able to distract the nobles then they would be able to steal from the nobles and secure a cure for the plague and share it with me and my family.”
The others who had been part of the group now all looked at Rody with accusation in their eyes. They knew that they would be going up against the nobles in the city, but he was using them as a cover so that someone else could steal a cure for his family.
“Did he ever give you evidence to show that the nobles had some cure?” the pig kin asked.
“No. They promised me, though,” Rody said.
“Oh, a promise from someone you don’t know, don’t know how to contact?” the pig kin asked. “Did they give you anything that made you think that they would follow through?”
“They helped me find the people who were annoyed with the nobles and gather them. They told me about secrets that the nobles have that no normal person would know and they paid me money,” Rody said.
“How much money?”
“Forty gold coins, with a promise of a share of what they looted, which could be in the hundreds of gold. If we sold off the cures, then it would be more.”
“Did they just plan to steal from one noble?”
“No, they wanted to steal from a number of them,” Rody said.
“Which nobles?”
“The Haskas, Vrykn, Lemar, and Mesen families were their major targets.”
“Was there anything odd about them? Did you find there was an odd smell in the air or that your bloodline felt weaker after you met with them?”
“Yes,” Rody said.
The judge’s eyes focused on Rody before a few of them glanced at one another.
Anthony leaned forward, resting his head on his hand while he tapped on the table with his finger. Pretty much confirms that the person who was talking to him had the power of chaos inside their body, which caused his bloodline to reject it and went a little haywire. His jawbone opened; he looked like a laughing skeleton inside his hel
met. His glowing eyes turned colder. Too bad for them I was in the area. For them to be this powerful to affect the running of a city and introduce a plague right next to a camp of legionnaires... There aren’t any gates open to their lands yet. I need to get stronger so that I can deal with more of these problems and remove the Agents of Chaos from Dena.
The trial continued.
“You used the people of Skalafell for your own means, not caring about the lives of others in the process. You will serve as a member of the Black Rags for the remainder of the plague. Once the plague is cured, then for seven years you will not hold more than ten silver at one time and must donate it or use it to buy supplies or items for those who are in need. You will carry out tasks to assist your community at least three times a week. You will take up meditation and meditate on what you have done once a day.”
Rody was pale as he knew everything that he had said. He shook in fear as the head judge struck his gavel.
Those who were part of the riot sent Rody dirty looks while their faces burned in shame as they and the others of their community and city heard of how they were being led around by someone who just wanted to lash out at the nobles because he was on a power trip and he was promised a cure that he wasn’t willing to pass onto anyone else.
The remaining trials went quickly. A few were found to have hidden crimes and were charged accordingly.
Some were found to actually be innocent but they were in the minority.
The pig kin struck the gavel as they all stood up.
“Judgement has been passed.”
The pig kin turned to Anthony and cupped his fists. “It has been a pleasure serving with you, Guardian. Even your legends have made it to our plane. Good luck and stay safe.”
Death Knight Box Set Page 23