Kju looked at the unconscious Kiresula in fear. He had learned that class assignments took longer when not using ambient magic, but feeling his magic decrease in Milliseren made him worry. He tried not to check her status using his [Affiliated Status] as this costs about half a dozen Seren and he was afraid that despite it not being supposed to affect class assignment, it still might.
Instead, he listened to the outside.
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Mayana had been put into the drunk tank. Two men were sleeping their intoxication off on the floor. The door had an enchantment that prevented it from opening from the inside. It was crappily made and not maintained. Both the enchantment and the door. Mayana did the equivalent of a hard tap against the spellwork and it fell apart in a shower of conventional magic. The air was cold in this cellar and while the drunks didn't mind, Mayana did. She heard Kiresula and Kju talk, seemingly conspiratorially. She was okay with them being in good spirits, but she felt… not jealous, but isolated. Like when in magic school no one wanted to talk to her because of her miserable abilities. Only when she found her talent for enchanting, her social status improved. And only later, she befriended the shy [Ice Mage] in training, who barely spent any time socialising. She smiled as she remembered meeting Kiresula.
"Mayana-tsei-Nahmaya!" The door opened and a guard motioned towards her.
"Present," she said as if she was in school and followed the guard.
The room she was brought into was on the ground floor. It was quite big, one side had a large table on which several people sat: [Cleric]s of the Holy Order, the village leader, a representative of the crown, and people in local clothing. There was no chair for her to sit, but a marking on the stone floor indicating where to stand.
The village leader spoke: “Mayana-tsei-Nahmaya, you are here because you are accused of proliferation of broken magic. The Holy Order will assist in the truth finding. The representatives of the crown will carry out the conclusions that we will come to today.”
The larger one, a female with long white hair said: “We are also here to make sure that procedure is being followed. Mind magic is strictly regulated even for the Holy Order as long as it pertains to non-members. Mayana, are you a member of the Holy Order?”
Mayana responded: “I am not a member of the Holy Order.”
The woman said: “We will put you under a [Truthspeaking] spell. This will make it impossible to lie until dusk or until it is dispelled. Trying to do so will be quite painful, so please do not attempt it. Do you understand?”
Mayana nodded and then said it out loud: “I understand”
A [cleric] stepped forward and touched her with a greasy hand that smelled of chicken. He cast a spell in a slow and deliberate manner. She allowed it to settle, assuming that she could eventually weaken it with her synthic magic. He then proclaimed: “The magic has settled.”
Sakat asked: “Did you spread broken magic in the area of Jetahkalesa?”
Mayana shook her head: “I did not.”
Sakat asked: “Did you encounter the glitchlings that infest the ruin?”
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Mayana nodded: “Yes. We did.”
Sakat motioned to the others and asked: “What happened and how did you free yourself?”
Mayana responded: “We encountered two glitchlings, well, Kiresula did. As the entire community consists of Je-ashvehanu speakers, Kiresula first and then the rest of us learned some rudimentary Je-ashvehanu. We spent some time there and upon departure, met your guards.”
Sakat turned to the [Cleric]. “Is the spell still up?”
The [Cleric] gave the thumbs up sign.
Sakat asked: “You were not attacked by the glitchlings?”
Mayana nodded: “We were not. It might be related to the fact that we didn’t do any ethnic cleansing against the Je-ashvehanu minorities. Meeting the community, it was very clear that everyone there is an Island and Coast origin glitchling. I am not saying that people were exposed deliberately, but I can say that their exposure was not prevented when that seemed the case for others.”
The [Cleric] looked at Sakat. “Is that true?”
Sakat looked at the [Cleric] and Mayana could see him shudder. “We will talk about this later! This is about the transgressions of Mayana and the glitchlings that she accompanies.”
The [Cleric] looked at Sakat and responded coolly: “It will be handled. In the meantime, I have some questions for Mayana. Is there a reason as to why you accompany these glitchlings?”
“Kiresula is my wife. I swore to go to the end of the world for her, so I will of course go to Ilkshehir with her,” Mayana explained.
The [Cleric] made a sound of disapproval, then asked: “Did you marry her before or after her glitching?”
Mayana didn’t like where this was going but said: “Before.”
The [Cleric] made a sound of agreement: “I would have seriously worried if it was afterwards. You still love her, right?”
Mayana nodded: “More than anyone in this world.”
The [Cleric] asked: “You like a glitchling more than your parents?”
Mayana responded laconically: “I said ‘in this world’, didn’t I?”
The [Cleric] looked a bit confused for a moment before asking: “I see. Who is Nahmaya, then?”
Mayana explained: “My grandmother. Let’s just say that we didn’t get along. Starting long before I met my wife. If it is true that only the good die young, she will live for millennia and millennia…”
“I see that you have few ties to people, apart from Kiresula, would you agree?” he asked.
“No, I would not. Just very few familial ones,” she explained.
The [Cleric] asked: “What is your stance on broken magic?”
Mayana breathed in, looked upwards, mentally drew the response and then slowly responded: “I find it a very interesting subject, which certainly could be used in many different ways. You might have heard that I created rods to detect broken magic. If I shied away from broken magic, I would have never been able to develop this. And I hope that this helps people who are in areas with higher concentration of broken magic. Like most Je-ashvehanu people in this village, apparently.” That last sentence was her anger speaking.
Sakat screamed at Mayana more animalistic than human. He tried to cast something, but in that moment, the [Cleric] held him back. Sakat tried to settle this matter with a punch to the nose of the [Cleric] and a brawl started. While [cleric]s and [guard]s tried to separate the combatants, this plan eventually was forgotten. Mayana snuck out of the room while everyone was sufficiently distracted.
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Kju heard the commotion and all he could do was place himself between Kiresula, who was still out of it and the door. Kiresula looked as if she was still asleep, but was stirring slightly. He hoped that she would awake soon. Checking his own status, he was almost out of Magic, so he hoped that the process would end soon. The last Seren ticked away slowly. He was at 0.72 Seren. Partly because he checked Kiresula’s status occasionally and partly because the process was just quite slow.