by K. A. Linde
Alura and her mother took their seats to a series of whispers cascading around the room. But no sign of fear gave them away. Not even a single tremor.
Then, Presiding Officer Zoh called the council into session.
“Silence, please.” He raised his voice, amplifying it around the room.
The rustle of wings above revealed just how many dragons had come to hear Lorian’s case. The council looked as ill at ease as the dragons high above. Helly was grim-faced. Bastian had his arms folded. Kress couldn’t seem to make eye contact with anyone. He just stared off into the distance. The secretary, Lockney, was furiously writing on a piece of parchment. Anahi’s careful box braids had been removed for a new style, and she kept reaching up to twirl a braid and finding it gone. Her gaze was disoriented and uncertain. Alsia just looked haunted. It was only Boze, who sat forward, smug, as if he had already made up his mind. The slimy toad.
“We’re here for the case of Lorian Van Horn, a Society member and council member. He has been accused of the following: treason, conspiracy, murder, possession and trafficking of illegal magical artifacts, falsifying documents, lying to the council, and resisting arrest. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty, Master Zoh,” Lorian said. He stood, square-shouldered, before the podium.
Kerrigan had stood there. She knew the weight of judgment in that position.
“Mistress Hellina has filed the charge,” Zoh said. “She will provide the evidence.”
Helly stood from her seat on the council and came forward to address the entire court. “After the death of Basem Nix, an investigation began into who could have possibly infiltrated the Society’s defenses. It became clear to those involved that his death had to have been an inside job. Only someone with access to the dungeons could have done this without anyone noticing. The investigation quickly went nowhere, but against the wishes of the investigators, I continued my own search
“I had many members followed and discovered that Master Lorian had been meeting with some suspicious people. I had no evidence that he had done anything untoward, so I did not bring my concerns before the council. Then, an accusation came forward that Lorian had been selling illegal magical artifacts. The same ones that were connected to Basem Nix. We took this accusation seriously and had his home and study searched under a warrant from the presiding officer. We found illegal artifacts hidden in his study and home along with correspondence with the House of Shadows, detailing the sale of crates of them over the last year. Artifacts that many of us saw firsthand on the battlefield in Lethbridge.
Helly took a deep breath. “Thus, the evidence asserts that Master Lorian murdered Basem Nix in Society custody to hide his involvement in his illegal possession and trafficking of weapons to conspire with our enemy. An act such as this is treason, and I call for the council to determine the appropriate punishment for his actions.”
She nodded her head at the presiding officer and returned to her seat.
“You have heard the accusation. You may speak for yourself, Lorian, unless you have hired counsel to speak in your place,” Zoh said, already dropping the title Lorian had earned all those years ago.
Lorian had no counsel. He looked steely-eyed at his peers, tilting his chin up and not backing down an ounce. “This is a wonderful tale,” he said, clapping his hands slowly. “The clues all line up, leading you to believe that I must have done precisely what the honorable Mistress Hellina has said. Except that the facts are a fiction and this trial is a farce. I have never owned or sold an illegal artifact. In fact, if you remember correctly, I was the one who introduced the legislation for which artifacts needed to be taken off of the streets. I have no idea what you found in my study or in my home, but they did not belong to me. Nor have I ever communicated with the House of Shadows. I wouldn’t even know how to reach them or until the wall fell, where their home was.”
“You did argue on behalf of negotiations with the House of Shadows though,” Helly added. “You were the only one who wanted to speak with them.”
“Is it wrong to want to keep the killing to a minimum? Yes, I come from Venatrix, a war tribe, but I do not enjoy death and destruction, especially not at the scale of which we saw at the Battle of Lethbridge. I would keep that from happening if I could. I would always argue for an open dialogue before war.” He swept his arm aside, as if he could clear his name as easily.
“You have similar sympathies as the House of Shadows,” Helly countered. “You have cut down all legislation related to humans and half-Fae. You had one of our now-veteran soldiers kicked out of the training program due to your dislike of her heritage. You blamed the riot on the protestors because of who they were. These are all sympathies that were outlined in the letters we read from the House of Shadows, a Fae tribe known for their barbaric treatment of humans and half-Fae.”
“I am not the only person in this room who wants to see Fae continue to be elevated above all else. I certainly am not the only one who sees these protests as outlandish ways to incite violence in our city. And I would only ever kick someone out for their failures, which were well-documented. My sympathies aside, I would never commit treason or help a group I went to war with. That is absurd.”
Round and round it went. Several of the other council members got involved in the cross-examination, but it all seemed to point in one direction. At one point, Alura swayed uneasily as she jumped to her feet to defend her father. She was cut down and threatened with dismissal.
And while it all happened, Kerrigan watched Lorian. She had observed the man for the last year. She knew his wrath. All the ways that he hated her. All the ways that he twisted his words. But here, he seemed… sincere.
It made no sense. Because all of the accusations that had been put forth laid Lorian bare. He had obviouslydone it. Had he deluded himself so much into believing that his actions were justified? Had he twisted it all up so much that he thought himself in the right?
Kerrigan had always believed herself a good judge of character. She had hated Lorian as long as he had detested her. She saw him for who and what he was. But here, he was not pleading for his life. He was not begging. He didn’t look twitchy or even worried. He was certain that the council would believe him.
So, when the verdict came down, Lorian’s shock was the truest thing to happen in the court.
“The council finds you guilty of all charges. We have agreed to death by hanging the day after tomorrow,” Master Zoh confirmed. He banged his gavel, and the Society was in an uproar.
But Loria… he just looked stunned. As if he never thought it would happen. As if he hadn’t done anything wrong.
Anya doubled over, sobbing big, heavy tears as the majority of the Society filtered out of the room. Alura sat ramrod straight. Her eyes glassy. Her arm around her mother.
Lorian reached for his wife and was jerked away by a contingent of guards. Zoh waved his hand, and they released Lorian long enough to allow him to wrap his arms around her one last time. He kissed her frantically, reaching for Alura. The words of comfort were lost in the drone, but Alura finally cracked, tears streaking her face.
“We should go,” Audria whispered.
“I have my meeting after,” Kerrigan said.
“Oh, right. Do you want us to stay?”
Kerrigan bit her lip and shook her head. “Still no Fordham?”
“No. He has a meeting too, right?”
“Yes,” Kerrigan said.
Audria frowned. “I’m sure he’ll turn up.”
Kerrigan nodded and watched everyone trickle out. Eventually, even Lorian was pulled from the room. Alura and Anya passed Kerrigan on their way out. Alura leaned heavily on her cane as she tried to keep her mother upright. Anya looked devastated, but Alura was furious.
She snatched up Kerrigan’s arm. “Speak to them for him.”
“What?” Kerrigan gasped. “What would I say?”
“I don’t know, but for some stupid reason, they listen to you. They listen to you, and t
hat is why he was sentenced. Speak for him.”
“He had me kicked out of the Society, Alura.”
“And now, you’re back in, and he’s dead. That is not a fair trade,” she snarled.
Anya tugged her daughter back. She wiped her face, and then she pulled Kerrigan in for a hug. “Alura, leave her alone. She is not responsible for this.”
“She sure as hell is part of it,” Alura snapped and then hobbled off.
Kerrigan winced as she watched the once great woman have to use a cane.
Anya sighed as she watched her daughter. “She is grieving. For her body and her father. Forgive her.” Kerrigan nodded, and Anya patted her arm. “And tell your father that I said hello, will you?”
“Um… sure.”
“Alura mentioned that I might be welcome back in Lillington.”
“If you’d like.”
“I think I might need a rest after this,” Anya whispered. “I can’t imagine going back to Venatrix without him.” She choked on the words. “Perhaps I will reach out.”
“I am so sorry.”
Anya smiled sadly and then without a word followed after her daughter. The door closed behind her, leaving Kerrigan alone with the council and still… no Fordham. Where the hell was he?
“Kerrigan Argon,” Presiding Officer Zoh called out.
She stepped up to the podium. “Yes, Presiding Officer.”
“Where is Fordham? We also called him to this meeting.”
“I don’t know, sir. The message was delivered to him.”
Lockney tutted. “We won’t wait for him.”
Bastian sighed and steepled his fingers. “We can give him a few minutes. The boy has surely had a trial after seeing his people die.”
“Killing them himself,” Helly added softly.
Boze sneered, “He’s the crowned prince of the enemy.”
“We have a peace treaty with them,” Alsia reminded him. “They are not the enemy.”
“Bah!” he called. “We just went to war with them, and we’ve been to war with them before.”
“Fordham is a Society member,” Helly cut in. “Watch your tongue.”
“Helly is correct. Fordham fought bravely,” Bastian said. “He should not suffer the same consequences as the rest of his people.”
“Then, where is he?” Boze demanded.
Zoh cleared his throat. “That’s enough. We’re not here to argue. Fordham is a Society member regardless of his affiliation, regardless of being the crowned prince. He fought for us. He is one of us.”
Kerrigan fought back tears at the words. She wished that Fordham had heard them. He’d been so worried all this time that everyone would turn on him, but they saw him for the man that he was and not just the throne.
“Alas, if Master Ollivier is not present, we will begin with you,” Zoh said confidently. “Your case is more pressing, is it not?”
“Sir?” she asked.
“Before this court, we removed you from your training in the Society. This happened based on the word of Lorian Van Horn. He testified that you had magic sickness and were unstable. Thus, unable to fulfill your duties to the Society. Additionally, that you had ties to insurrectionists within Kinkadia. Yet you answered the call to battle, and you fought bravely alongside us at the Battle of Lethbridge.” He motioned to Helly.
“Furthermore, all signs of magic sickness have been eliminated from her body. Whatever the cause, it was clearly a temporary case due to the stresses of training along with… harassment from one of our own.” She met Kerrigan’s gaze with a nod. “Harassment that we now know was due to his undue sympathies against the Rights For All organization and humans and half-Fae more broadly.”
“More than that,” Bastian continued, “your accusations against the convicted were true.”
Kress leaned forward. He stroked his beard. “Without your information, we would not have investigated further into the magical artifacts. However did you know about this?”
Kerrigan gulped. “Master Kress, I had information from the people you believed to be insurrectionists but are actually just people. People who want desperately to be heard by this council and the Society as a whole.”
Boze sniffed. “We went off of the advice of some insurrectionists.”
“And it turned out to be true,” Anahi said. “Which adds merit to her words.”
For a moment, the conversation went down a rabbit hole about whether her information was valid and whether they should have been able to know before then. Kerrigan stood still and waited for all twenty members of the council to give her permission to speak again.
Zoh finally called it all to order. “This is not a debate, council. Silence.” Everything settled back down, and Zoh nodded at her. “This is a meeting to decide your fate. Before we brought you in here, we called for a vote on whether to introduce you back into the Society due to your heroic actions and help in discovering the mole in our midst.”
Kerrigan nodded, holding her breath as fear crept in.
“And we have agreed to give you full robes and make you a Society member,” Zoh said.
Her face broke into a smile. “Oh, thank you!”
“With conditions,” he clarified.
Her smile dropped. “Conditions, sir?”
“The terms of the treaty with the House of Shadows states that no new Society member may be admitted from tribe Charbonnet for the next hundred years,” Lockney said, reading directly from his notes on the treaty. “As you would be admitted as a new member, we simply cannot break the bounds of the peace treaty for you.”
Kerrigan gulped. Scales. “But… what about Fordham?”
“He was already a member of the Society at the time of signing,” Lockney said as if it were obvious. “The training group was granted full member status by the council before embarking to Lethbridge for battle. You, however, were not.”
“Oh,” she muttered.
“We have come up with a proposition,” Bastian said, nodding at Zoh. “If you renounce the House of Shadows as your tribe and give up your affiliation, the council will grant you leave to return to the tribe of your origin.”
Kerrigan blinked. They’d found a loophole to let her back in. And that meant… that meant she would have to leave the House of Shadows. Leave the very tribe that Fordham had given her when she had nowhere else to go. But also the tribe that had never wanted a half-Fae in the first place. She had never officially been a member of the House of Shadows. The king had never, would never recognize her. Though Fordham, as king, obviously could… if he ever took up the mantle.
But if she renounced it, she would have to return to Bryonica, to the House of Cruse, to her birthright as the lost princess. The thought of returning to the House of Cruse didn’t bring the same sense of terror that it once had. She had come to a truce with her father. She’d returned to Waisley and seen the people of Lillington. She had found hope in her lands and people. She had already decided to do anything she could to save them from a terrible fate. In fact, she had worn the House of Cruse livery to the winter ball. What difference would it make if she made it all official again?
March, of course, was the reason behind all of her problems. This would all make it easier for March to marry her. She sucked her teeth as if she’d tasted a lemon. This would make her plans for him much more difficult. But what other choice was there?
“I accept. I’ll return to Bryonica.” She held her head high and added, “Though I have some conditions of my own.”
Boze scoffed, “The audacity.”
“And what are these conditions?” Zoh asked, waving Boze’s objection aside.
“Two things. One, I would like start a sponsorship program for displaced refugees from the House of Shadows. Those people will be arriving within the week, and they are going to need help assimilating.”
“Ah, yes, Kress told me about you adopting two previously enslaved half-Fae.”
“Yes. Well, I didn’t adopt them, but I am helping them fin
d living arrangements and work where they will be paid for their skills. And I would like to see more Society members step up to help these people in need.”
“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Kress said. “I suggested it on the battlefield, but so much was going on.”
Zoh sighed. “Fine. That should be no trouble. We will set you up with people already doing social work. You said a second objection?”
“Yes, sir. I would like the council to consider the implications of what you have done in your peace treaty with the House of Shadows.”
The council shifted uncomfortably at the weight of her words. Lockney glanced up at her and quickly back down. Bastian arched an eyebrow at the gall.
Zoh was red in the face. “That treaty is the only reason we did not slaughter their people. They should be happy by what we allowed them.”
“Certainly. They had no bargaining chips at all. So, why not take them for everything you could?” she said, forcing the words out despite the stares of disbelief.
“That is how negotiations work,” Boze snapped.
“Yes. Of course. But then why did we admit them as a tribe at all? Why give them special dispensation to continue to exist? It makes no sense if we are then going to punish them for their existence. We made them join a government that they cannot be a part of for the next hundred years. That’s a long time for resentment to grow while we occupy them.” She took a breath, meeting each of their gazes in turn. “We can’t change it now. The treaty is in place. I will renounce my place with them. But there is a reason there is unrest in this city. Do you really want there to be more with another tribe? Perhaps there is a long-term way to ease the anger. A way to find a solution to this growing pain with anyone who is not a member of the Society.”
Alsia cleared her throat. She was stern but fair with her judgments. She leveled her eyes on Kerrigan, and then a smirk formed on her face. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were campaigning for a seat at the table.”
“Hear, hear,” Bastian said with a smile.
Kerrigan blinked at what Alsia had said. “I…”