A city guard stepped out of the circle of spectators and approached Roni and Falynn. They drew back away from him at first but then relaxed as they saw that he was holding a ring of keys in his hand, and allowed him to come closer. He wasted no time in undoing the restraints around their wrists and ankles and stood up straight. Turning back to glance at Leonov, he gave a silent nod.
“Thank you,” Leonov said solemnly. Then he turned to the Curate. “So we are cleared of any and all wrongdoing?”
There was a long pause before Curate Tanaka replied, almost as if he were trying to find a way out of the predicament that he now found himself in. But after a moment or two of silent deliberation of the man in front of him, he slowly nodded. “Yes. I cannot justify detaining you after the protection that Lord Tokugawa afforded you.”
“Good,” Leonov said, as if he expected nothing less. “Then I will speak on Taiki’s behalf.”
Another pause, then, “Yes, you certainly have that right now that you have proven yourself honest and innocent. You may speak at her trial.”
Falynn and Roni, who were closer to the crowd than their companion, heard some of the whispers that rippled between the citizens. They were surprised at the turn of events, and it couldn’t have been clearer that they’d expected Leonov to lose his trial. Falynn in particular heard one man muttering to his wife, “Lord Tokugawa protected him? But he’s Attosian…”
“Not that it matters,” his wife said, in what she thought was a subdued tone but it still reached the druid girl’s ears easily. “Now that he’s been proven innocent, he can’t be detained. What if he tries something else?”
Falynn started to turn angrily to address the couple, but Roni put a hand on her arm to stop her. She turned to the ranger with a frown, wondering what she was on about, but Roni only shook her head, telling her to be silent without words. It still frustrated her, but she saw the sense in it. They were free of trouble now, and it wouldn’t do if she threw herself into more without getting the chance to discuss their next move.
As if his mind was operating along similar lines, Leonov turned away from Curate Tanaka and was approaching them, sheathing his sword as he went. “What should we do now?”
“What do you mean?” Falynn asked, her mind still on the couples’ comments.
He gave her a quick calculating look. “We need to free Taiki.”
“Do we?” The druid girl said at once, surprising the others. “She killed someone, Leonov.”
“But she had a good reason to,” Roni interjected. “That man tried to attack Leonov and then threatened her. We all saw and heard what happened.”
“But-,” Falynn began, an argumentative tone in her voice. All life was sacred. That was what had been taught to her as a child in the druid colonies. To end a life was to disrespect Lord Longfang and The Mother. It was the highest form of crime, right behind spreading Corruption.
“Falynn,” Leonov cut her off, his voice level and soothing. “I know how you feel about this, but we cannot allow Taiki to waste away in that cell. If they try her, she’ll be found guilty. Nobody else heard what that old man said, remember?”
“I can’t accept that she killed someone,” Falynn replied. Her eyes were getting a bit misty, and she could feel the tears beginning to build. If she blinked, they would fall. So she refused to, forcing them to collect in the corner of her eyes. She wouldn’t allow herself to break down in front of the other two and this crowd. “She committed a crime, and should pay for it.”
She wouldn’t share it with them, but the actions that Taiki had taken had shocked her more than it had them because, in her mind, Taiki was slowly becoming a good source of justice. Leonov was honest, sure, but he had a pragmatic nature that edged on a darker and more selfish version of the right path. Roni was a ruthless killer, having learned the art of hunting from a young age. Of all the party, Taiki was the closest to her own sense of morals and ethics. At least, that was what she’d thought until now. Though she knew she had no right, she felt betrayed, as if Taiki had broken an important promise.
“She was defending herself,” Leonov said emphatically. “The man was threatening her and would have told his Master where she was. If she hadn’t acted, she’d be in even greater peril.”
“I would like to know what that was all about,” Roni said, voicing the thought that had been in her mind for some hours. “What secret does she carry with her if it’s forming into a plot like this?”
“That’s none of our business,” Leonov replied. When Roni gave a short snort of derision, he glowered at her. “It isn’t. We’re all entitled to have our secrets. I notice that you’ve had a pretty significant one yourself, and you’ll notice that we’re not treating you any differently.”
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Roni had opened her mouth to retort at once, but his last sentence stopped her in her tracks. She didn’t flush, but it was a close thing. “That’s different. Me being a changeling doesn’t put you all in danger. I only hide my true nature to avoid persecution.”
“And what if she’s being hunted by people from her past?” Leonov countered. “Maybe she kept it a secret to protect us from the same threat. It’s clear that it’s a big secret, and that she has some dangerous enemies.”
“Everyone’s got a past,” he continued after Roni had gone silent. “And she’s fought beside me, and I trust her. I’m not going to let her stay in that cell where her enemies can find her. We’ll prove her innocence, and figure out exactly what she’s dealing with.”
“What if she won’t tell you?” Falynn asked, speaking for the first time in some minutes. She’d absorbed the points that both of them had made and judged them against her own opinion. “I mean, she’s kept the secret this long. Why would she bother to tell you about it now?”
“For one very simple reason,” Leonov said, and the girls were shocked to see the steely light in his eyes. Something about his goal and motivation had changed without warning. “We’re going to help her put an end to it.”
“You want us to help her go find this Master and kill him?” Roni asked. Her tone was incredulously surprised which matched Falynn’s feelings on the topic, but her teeth were bared in an eager grin. “We get to hunt a powerful mage, in other words?”
Leonov gave her a small smile, returning her enthusiasm. “Indeed. If he’s evil enough to have harmed Taiki to this degree, then taking him down will do quite a lot of good.”
“So it’s still about getting fame,” Falynn said. On other days, she would have been exasperated at his continued selfishness, but right then, the plain expectation grounded her in a way that no amount of rational discussion could do. But she was still hesitant to accept the idea. She wasn’t a killer.
Sensing this, Leonov now turned his full attention to her. He understood what was causing her trepidation. Taking another life was never an easy affair, even if it was to protect one’s self. “Think of it this way, Falynn. Would you rather she be found guilty of murder and stuck deep in a cell where she can be found and killed, or free and able to put her problems behind her?”
That way of viewing it hadn’t occurred to the druid girl, and he knew that. But now Falynn thought of the situation through this new lens, and she was surprised to find that the answer came easily. “I want her free. I want to help her.”
Leonov nodded, expecting nothing less. “So we’ll argue her case at the trial, and do what we can to set her free. And when we do that, we’ll help her find this mage and put an end to him.”
After what felt like minutes of expectant silence, she nodded. “I still don’t want to kill him. If possible, we should capture him and turn him over to the Crown.”
“If that is an option, we will,” The warrior assured her. “But you must be prepared to protect and help her, whatever the outcome.”
That was the piece of advice that Falynn needed least of all. Once the sharp shock of the attack had been given enough time to fade, the only emotion that still remained, now evident and unavoidable, was the urge to be near the tall Nihon-Jan and protect her. It wasn’t quite infatuation or romantic involvement, but it was the most she’d cared about another person besides her parents. She’d just had to put the thoughts into perspective to understand what they meant.
“Alright,” she said. “But she better agree never to lie to us again. Or keep secrets.”
Roni gave a single nod of agreement on that point, but Leonov could only offer a shrug. “That’s up to her. I’m hoping she can understand that we’re going to help her and that we deserve to know everything that’s important.”
-
In her cell, Taiki was quietly meditating, her mind far away from the predicament that she found herself in. The other three hadn’t yet returned from their trial, which either meant that they were killed, or that they’d won their innocence. Curate Tanaka had come to visit her with the news that Leonov had proven victorious, and that all three had been freed, but that they were not yet permitted to come and visit her.
Taiki wasn’t surprised at that last piece of information. As she was suspected of cold murder, she had to be kept away from the public and potential collaborators. Milagre had already gone through one crisis this year, and they clearly weren’t keen on another. In fact, it would be better if Leonov and the others moved on to the rest of their lives and forgot about her.
“Can’t be harmed if you don’t know me,” she said, so quietly that the words were barely audible to her own ears. She knew they would come for her in her cell when she was convicted and sentenced. She’d kill whoever came, she was sure of that. Then, years later after she’d served her time, she’d find that bastard and kill him with her own two hands. It wasn’t a comforting thought, but it kept her mind sharp and kept her motivated to keep going.
She had no way of knowing that her recent companions hadn’t, in fact, given up on her, and were discussing plans to avoid a conviction at that very moment. She could only think of her current moment, keeping her mind and spirit in check with her meditation. The closest she came to considering their presence was the frequent interruption to her blank state of focus that came as the mental image of Falynn’s smile.
She didn’t know when she’d come to regard the small druid so highly, but now that she thought of it, the girl was a source of comfort. It had started as a mere gratitude that she could support Taiki with her magic and restrain enemies, making combat more efficient, but now she was surprised to find herself thinking of Falynn in a non-combative manner. The way she’d hum a quiet tune around the fire or absent-mindedly make small little trinkets and random shapes with wood whenever she found herself bored.
Just move on and forget about me, she thought, but now the thought was directed just at Falynn. If you know me, you’ll just get hurt. Go find a happier way of life that doesn’t involve me. She had a dangerous path ahead of her filled with evil and bloodthirsty enemies, and that was no life for the sweet druid girl that had made the past month of her life so comfortable.