It must have been late when Kiyu returned from her meditation. Since her arrival in the cell, she had been using her powers non-stop, trying to increase her control over them even more.
Beads of sweat ran down her forehead and dripped from her chin onto the floor between her feet. Although she had moved not an inch from the spot, she was sweating as if she had been running for hours.
Without making a sound, she turned around, catching sight of Zhèngyi and Laki already lying on the floor to sleep. Zhèngyi had lain down to rest a little away from the group on the other side of the wall. 'Maybe because of me.'
The thought saddened her, but for now she could do nothing about it. He was sad and desperate. If Kiyu could help him by being a small, brief bogeyman, or at least the target of his anger, she would take it upon herself. After all, she could endure it without breaking.
With that, she crept over to Laki, who had fallen asleep leaning back against the wall. 'Has she been watching me all this time?' Then she had been waiting for Kiyu to finish her meditation so she could spend some of what might be her last time with her.
Kiyu leaned down and over to Laki to whisper something in her ear. "You're done," Laki whispered to her in surprise, opening her eyes bright with joy while Kiyu was still in front of her.
"Uh... yeah," Kiyu whispered, surprised. Before she could even react, Laki had wrapped her hands around Kiyu's neck and pulled her closer. It was the same, warm and tingling feeling as back in the hiding place. It was way too long since she has felt this feeling!
Only after a while, which seemed like an eternity, did their lips separate and she could look into her lover's deep brown eyes.
"What do you think will happen to us?" whispered Laki.
"I don't know." Kiyu replied to her, not having given any further thought to what would await her the next day. "But whatever happens, I will be with you, I promise!"
Just as Kiyu was about to lose herself in Laki's lips again, they heard a soft, shallow breathing from the other side of the prison cell. Their eyes fell on Zhèngyi, whose shoulders were shaking, even if he tried to suppress it.
They both glanced at each other and gave each other a small kiss on the mouth before Kiyu held out her hand to Laki to stand up. It didn't take any coordination to know what they should do. They had both gone to Zhèngyi, who crouched on the floor sobbing.
Even if it meant missing the warmth of Laki this night, Kiyu knew it was the right thing to do. She had laid down in front of Zhèngyi, whom she towered over, and had taken him in her arms, lying down, pressing his head against her shoulder. If she weren't his age, she might as well have been his compassionate mother.
'Zhèngyi...' Whatever she might say could not comfort him, but that would not stop her from showing him he was not alone. As long as Kiyu was there, she would embody the security he needed.
She felt Zhèngyi crawl closer to her and curl up in her arms. She leaned her chin against his head and put an arm around his back. Laki, meanwhile, had also joined them, hugging the boy from the other side.
"Thank you..." he whispered, and the sobs subsided more and more.
Kiyu stayed awake a little longer. She didn't want to sleep until the other two had fallen asleep. Only when she heard the calmer breathing rhythm of her two friends, she could let her mind rest.
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Kiyu was the first to wake up from the group. Even though she couldn't tell how long she had slept or what time it was, she knew it couldn't be too long before the hearing. She released her embrace and straightened up, not waking Laki or Zhèngyi.
Without delay, she sat down cross-legged in front of the gate of the prison and meditated. However, she did not lock everything out of her thoughts. 'What's the point of locking out everything that's there. It is there and exists, so perceive everything that is.' Cheryu had taught her that, and since he was her friend and teacher, she had not doubted it.
How much time passed, she did not get. What Kiyu caught, however, was the squeak of the door that led from the first floor of the mansion into the dungeon. 'It's time!'
"The prisoner hearing begins!" shouted a guard who ran down the cold, stone steps and stopped in front of the prison cell. "You!" he shouted, pointing at Kiyu. "lord Xianzhu wants to see you. Only you."
"What about my friends?" asked Kiyu. "What will happen to them?"
"They stay here and wait.", the guard replied, pulling out the key. "That's all the lord said."
"Stand back," he instructed Laki and Zhèngyi, unlocking after they had moved to the back wall of the cell.
"Don't worry," Kiyu said, looking over her shoulder at the two. "It'll be fine."
The guard just shrugged and let Kiyu walk ahead of him, one hand always ready on the hilt of his sword.
Through some longer corridors, the guards led her to a larger door, in front of which they positioned two more guards.
"Lord Xianzhu is already waiting for you." With these words, the guard took his leave, heading back to his post, while Kiyu stared at the large door in front of her.
Before entering, she took a deep breath and then opened the large double door without effort. A large hall stretched out before her, transformed into some sort of judging hall. Xianzhu was behind a massive wooden table, which stood on a small pedestal and held in his hand an extensive amount of documents.
In front of the table, they set a smaller podium up for one person, but it was not as high as the lord's podium.
'He is prosecutor and judge at the same time?' Kiyu had not expected a public hearing, but that there would only be two of them had surprised her a bit. Did it even make sense to defend herself? 'I can only hope he's as pragmatic and fair as he seems.'
"Kiyu is your name, isn't it?", Xianzhu opened the conversation. "And your companions' names are Laki and Zhèngyi," he continued, putting down one document from his hand.
Kiyu's eyes snapped open, and she felt her jaw tighten when she heard him say their names without a hitch. 'Did he research all that in one day?' Granted, Laki and she had shouted each other's names in moments of danger, but those who had heard the names had been ordinary guards. Like the ones who had kidnapped Laki in the park.
'Did he question all the guards stationed in Jarifa?' Kiyu felt herself accumulating spit because she had stopped swallowing in fright. Now it felt like a big lump stuck in her throat.
"Ye... yes," she hesitated. "That's correct." 'There's no point in hiding. And lying doesn't either.'
"I've been looking over the extensive reports since you arrived," he explained, now putting the rest of the stack of papers out of his hands and turning his gaze to Kiyu instead. "But before I pass judgment, I want to hear from you what happened. From the beginning."
Assuming that there was no point in lying, Kiyu told the complete story since their arrival in Jarifa. Of Toras, who had posed as a pauper and played his minor act with the guards at the well, and of Zhèngyi, who had stolen from her. She also mentioned Tānlán, who had executed a slave without remorse and then tried to buy Laki as a slave, in minute detail.
After she had told everything that had happened up to the fight with Siwang, she kept silent. What had happened outside the dome Xianzhu had seen with his own eyes, anyway? She fought her uneasiness that was triggered by the silence.
Xianzhu glared at her without saying anything, striking his chin.
'I can't take it anymore! No matter what! Any reaction!' Kiyu sensed the gnawing impatience within her, and though only a few seconds or a few minutes passed, she felt as if she had been standing on the small podium for hours.
"I understand," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Thank you for being so open."
Still under the pressure of the situation, Kiyu waited motionless and did not produce a word. Her concentrated gaze fell on the ruler of the city, who held her fate in his hands.
"Now then," he opened, straightening up. "I pronounce sentence."