The guards escorted Fia, Viliant, and Diwa into Malakow to stand trial for what Viliant had done to an innocent man. They soared over the lake and descended toward a large platform, just to the side of the central island. In the middle of this broad pier, they landed in front of a tall building with elaborate, carved pedestals of light-colored wood from the planks below. It was the most peculiar construction that Fia had ever seen, as the building looked more like an unfinished frame with no walls. This allowed Fia to peer inside as she slid down the blue dragon's wing.

Many humans and dragons gathered inside, and though some members of the two species intermingled, each mostly kept to their own. The beady eyes of the humans and gem-like orbs of the dragons eyed each other distrustfully. The humans hunkered close to one another with their lips pressed to each other's ears, whispering. This behavior made the humans appear especially malevolent, conspiring together, while the dragons sat upright and waited for their case to be called.

The guards marched inside with Diwa, Fia, Viliant as well as the human whom Viliant had attacked. At their behest, the current crowd made room for them to sit along the far edge of the room.

"Have either of you partaken in the petty disputes court before?" the blue guard asked.

Diwa's wings and tail were suspended in a rigid line in the air. "No," she said, shooting a glare down to Viliant.

"Yeah—" the human began to say, but he quickly changed his tune. "Remind me how the process works."

"Since you are the complainant," the dragon said with narrowed eyes at the human, "you must first submit a fee for your case to be heard of five plated petals. This covers the cost of the scrolls and the orator."

The human fished out a purse and dropped several, clinking coins into the dragon's outstretched claws.

The blue guard lowered his claw with the payment and lifted his other front claw which held three scrolls, each balanced between two of his talons. "Both of you will write a testimony on how the events today unfolded. I will also document what I've witnessed. The judge will discern if any losses were the fault of the accused, and if so, how best to restore the complainant to his original position."

With his explanation finished, all three of them settled down to write. A small jar, which held an inky black liquid, was placed on the ground in front of them. Diwa and the guard dipped a singular claw into its contents. The human manipulated a feather in his hand. The tip of this feather and the point of the dragons' claws scratched lightly over the unrolled, paper scrolls.

Fia peered to watch Diwa write. What're you doing? Her curiosity was piqued by the strange squiggles that the dragoness hurriedly smeared across the page.

Hush. I'm busy talking to the guard. Diwa blocked the dragonets from her telepathic receptors so that she could focus on the link that she maintained with the guard.

Viliant did not seem to have a good grasp of it either. It's a way to record information. The humans would do this in the coliseum—keep ledgers on their profits.

Fia nodded along even though she never saw her parents do anything like this on her island. If any arguments arose between dragons, they settled the dispute themselves. Fia could always cry to her parents, and any matter of large import, her family could elevate directly with the clan elders. The far larger population of Malakow clearly needed a formalized process despites its impersonalized nature.

The blue dragon finished his record and rolled up the scroll, careful not to tear the paper with his claws. "Your case number today is fifty-six. Give your scrolls to the orator when you hear that number called." The guard placed his scroll in a designated bin and walked out with his companion.

Fia's eyes trailed after the two dragons, watching them go. At first, she expected them to come back, but she soon realized that the guards must be busy elsewhere in the city. Her head spun with the sheer number of dragons that she had seen so far today. She would probably never encounter those two dragons again, a stark change from the small community of her homeland.

"Sorry, Fia," Diwa said with a wince. "We might be here a while."

"What do you mean?"

A draconic, feminine voice called with an authoritative tone. "We are now ready to hear the case numbered thirty-three." A small, violet dragoness jumped and flapped her wings to hover above the other humans and dragons. "Number thirty-three?" she called again, projecting her voice to reach different directions of the room.

Two dragons jostled their way to the empty space in the front of the room. The purple dragoness collected a scroll from each of them to add to the third which she already held in her claws. She stood front and center between them. Across from her, at the head of the room, a dragon scribe sat at a low table. His aged, weary eyes glanced up once both dragons stood in front of him. A labored sigh left his snout. He stretched his wings and promptly resumed his slouch in a seated position.

"Now presenting case number thirty-three: Akisik accuses Nashire of thievery." The dragoness told a story on the first dragon's behalf how he had the product of a sizable hunt stolen from him. Next, she read a defense from the second dragon who revealed that he was a hunting partner who only wanted his fair share.

Overhearing these accounts, Fia tilted her head. "Does that dragon know them?" Her nose lifted to the elder dragon who seemed to listen thoughtfully. "How does he know which one's telling the truth?"

Hush, child, Diwa cooed in her mind. Let's not talk aloud during the trial.

Oops. Sorry.

We will enter a shared, telepathic space with the judge. Most dragons have a hard time lying through telepathy and controlling their emotions when they know they're guilty.

Fia nodded. Usually if she wanted to hide something from another dragon, she needed to suspend their telepathic connection altogether. Thus, this made any attempt to hide something as obvious as a whisper to keen ears. Fia doubted that she could mislead the dragon judge.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It's a good thing that we did nothing wrong, Viliant said. His nostrils flared with his snort while his eyes narrowed at the human that he had bitten.

Diwa fluttered her eyes shut. Viliant, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't done anything wrong. I'm not going to lecture you here, but after our trial, I'm going to have a word with you, young dragon. If Viliant's shameless, relentless insistence on his innocence could help them avoid a harsher punishment, then Diwa would not ruin that for them. However, the dragonet might never learn if he did not face the consequences of his actions. In the eyes of the dragoness, Viliant could still benefit from the compassionate guidance of a parental figure before he must face the harsh discipline of the law.

Although nearly two dozen cases had entered the queue before them, each one took only fifteen minutes at most. If a case proved to be too complex for the judge to decide on the spot, then he assigned them a date for a second hearing or elevated them to a higher court. Nevertheless, the sunlight began to age outside, streaming through the pillars of the court building, before Fia's group was finally called.

The purple dragoness announced, "We are now ready for case number fifty-six: Danilo accuses Viliant, represented by Diwa, of assault and attempted murder."

Fia flinched as she heard the names of her friends announced. Her wings hung low as she dreaded the more grave charge than she had first anticipated, yet she could not whole-heartedly deny that had not been Viliant's intent. The dragonette had watched her friend try to kill a human for less. Fia started to skulk after Diwa and Viliant to stand before the judge.

While Viliant took his place at the center of the open floor unabashedly, Diwa paused. Her tail flicked to the side and barred Fia's path, preventing the guilty conscious of the dragonette from bearing witness against them. "You don't have to stand with us. Wait here."

"Good luck!" With a sigh, Fia gratefully took a seat: a front row view for what was about to unfold.

Diwa joined Viliant and nestled a wing around the reluctant dragonet. The two of them discontinued telepathy with Fia in favor of a connection that they must forge with the judge. The misty eyes of the dragon judge flitted upward. His ink-stained claw ceased its scratch across the page of an open book. With a long, slow blink, he gave the signal that they were ready to begin.

"The word of the complainant," the orator announced and squinted to read the small handwriting of the human. "I was on my way to my magical practicum exam. When I ran past a group of dragons at a respectable distance, the black dragonet lashed out and chomped on my leg. He thrashed his head and nearly ripped my hip out of socket. This knocked me to the ground where the dragonet continued to attack me. His claws went for my face and would have surely killed me, but the green dragon stopped him. She pretended to heal my wounds on a surface level, but my leg still hurts and hinders my movement. Because of this incident, I was never able to make it to the magical practicum exam which has no opportunity for students to reschedule or retake."

The dragoness allowed a silence to demarcate a transition to the next part of the human's complaint. "Losses," she said, crisp and clear. "An injured leg. The cost of a professional healer. A damaged pair of pants. A missed attempt and failing grade on the magical practicum exam."

Fia looked frantically between Diwa and Viliant. Too scared to speak up during the trial, she did not even reach out to them through telepathy, That's not all our fault! Less certain, she asked the empty air around her, Is it?

The purple dragoness switched scrolls and cleared her throat. "The word of the defendant." She then began to read the account that Diwa had written. "I keep my dragonets close by my side, especially Viliant whose broken wings are still in the process of mending. A human in a careless rush hit his wings and put him in immense pain. Viliant never would have nipped at anyone if they had not assaulted him first. We have already made a good-faith effort to rectify this incident."

Lastly, the orator said, "The eye of the law." The dragoness presented the report that the dragon guards had left as evidence for their case. "As the two parties passed one another on a busy street, the human named Danilo brushed past the wings of the black dragonet named Viliant. In response, Viliant nipped at Danilo to make some space. This surprised Danilo who fell to the ground. By the time that we intervened, the dragonet's guardian, a green dragoness named Diwa, had already healed Danilo's leg and soothed Viliant's pain. The complainant wished to pursue repayment for his damages anyway."

The silent judge listened throughout the orator's presentation of the three testimonies. His eyes fell closed, appearing to mull over the details of the case. If he made any inquiries, he levied them directly to the minds of the orator or the defendants. The reports from Diwa and the guard had the strongest similarity, thanks to their telepathy earlier.

"The weight of the scale," the judge announced with a hefty sigh, "tilts slightly in favor of Danilo. It appears that the complainant still has some losses withstanding. I shall write an order for his university professor to allow a retake of the exam."

Already, Danilo's face broke into a smile. He ducked his head out of relief and rubbed his palms over his face.

"And," the judge said, "as I can see the rips in his pants, he will be awarded a sum for those damages. I order Diwa to pay three plated petals, the value of one square foot of cloth. That is my verdict."

"That concludes case number fifty-six," the orator said. "This case is not eligible for appeals. Next…."

Viliant walked out of the courthouse with his head held high and filled with a sense of vindication. Diwa whipped his shoulder with the tip of her tail, reprimanding him physically when she must not have succeeded mentally.

Fia joined them on the way out. A sense of relief surged through her that nothing worse had happened. They could finally leave the courthouse which had taken the better half of a day, but she was still concerned over both the lost time and funds. "How much is a plated petal? Do we have three of them? Will I still be able to go home?"

Diwa chuckled. "Yes, we can still afford to send you home. Don't you worry." The dragoness now seemed in higher spirits now that the last sun rays could grace her scales, unbarred by the pillared walls.

The human Danilo, whose name they had learned in the court case, limped after them. He met them on the courthouse steps. With eyes lowered, he requested, "I'd like to receive the three petals now, if you don't mind."

"Yes, I can do that." Diwa rummaged through her satchel and retrieved a coin purse. She dropped a few silver coins into the human's outstretched hand from a height that her claws would not nick him. Diwa put her foreleg back down and leaned closer to examine him. "Does your leg really hurt, still?" Diwa asked, her eyes pinched from both frustration and annoyance. "My magic hasn't been the same as it used to be…. My ley lines have been overworked for too long. I can heal your leg again if you truly need it, but if it was just an act, I would appreciate it if you'd drop it now."

Danilo waved his hand, refusing the care, in a silent admission. He hurriedly ran down the steps. The man disappeared into a city filled with other humans and a few dragons on the streets.

If I ever see that guy again— Viliant snapped back into Fia's headspace —I'm going to tear that liar's throat out.

Some smoke huffed from Fia's nostrils. However, neither Fia nor Viliant would ever see him again. Even if they happened to cross paths with the same human, they would never recognize him in the crowded city. The humans all looked the same, aside from their colorful feathers which could be changed at will unlike dragon scales.

We've had a long day, Diwa said, also rejoining the telepathic space with the dragonets. Let's go home. We're spending the night at my parents' house! In a chipper mood, Diwa took the steps in a single bound and waited for the dragonets.