Chapter 40: The day of the Trial

/Cusarius: "What is a noble if not knightly, and what a knight if not noble?" He falls to the floor, pounding it with his fist.

Martor: "A fighter the second and a politician the first, dear Cusarius." He steps on the other man's fingers. "Yet while fighters are clear, politicians be not. The snakes hide in the highest grass, and snap at any who dare come close to discovering them. Their venom goes deep and kills at a touch, and they are ruthless and cruel." Martor grind his heel down on Cusarius.

Cusarius: "Then those who are knightly and noble must keep the path clean for those who see naught of the snake!" He attempts to get up.

Martor: *laughs* "Oh, but the snake lashes out when angry." He steps on Cusarius' head, pressing it onto the floor. "And those knightly ones think a sword will do against a snake. Not once do they think to bring proper equip. Who truly believes themselves to be faster than a snake? Once bitten, then dead, and yet some try to get close." He grins sinisterly.

Cusarius: "A snake from afar can only be hurt, not killed. If it runs and finds other grass to hide, a job is not done. No, to truly dispatch a snake, you must sever the head from up close and personal, Martor!"

Martor: "Oh-hoh! Then striketh at the head, Cusarius!"

Cusarius: "Oooooohhh!!" He grabs Martor's foot and drags him to the floor. Both get to their feet. Neither of them carry weapons, as they brandish their fists. Cusarius strikes at Martor, who nimbly evades.

Martor: "Too slow, too slow! Even though you should know my secret, you have willingly brought yourself here! I have already taken care of your allies, it is only you and me now, and the winner will become duke, brother mine!" He strikes at Cusarius, the strike slithering past his defences and smashing into his ribs.

Cusarius: "Ugh!" He holds his chest.

Martor: "Ha-Ha! My fists truly have always been superior to you. Farewell, brother, for I have decided to be merciless to you lot. The time for your reckoning has come!"

Cusarius: Inner monologue: 'No, there is no way I can fail here. My companions, my mother, all of them have bet their lives on me for this. I cannot fall to my brother Martor now! This is my destiny, my fate, my clash!'

Cusarius summons every bit of strength in his body as he punches towards Martor's outstretched fist. Their hands collide, and for a moment, the air is still, before a crack echoes out.

Martor: "Ahhhh! How?! I was supposed to be superior in every way!! I trained far more than you ever have brother! I have always been faster and stronger, so how?! How would you break my hand?!" His fingers are mangled.

Cusarius: "It is as you said brother, but to kill a snake, you must have some tricks up your sleeve!" He reveals a pair of brass knuckles on his hand. "Now, brother mine, perish for your sins!" He deals the final strike./

An excerpt from the final act of the play "A strange tale of Swords and Snakes" by William Stillwater. Undated, thought to be over 100 chapters old. Still occasionally played in theatre today, a true, undying classic.

- - - - - -

With a loud bang, the judge finally opened the trial. Mercury was quite unfamiliar with the workings of court, though in his old life, he had been called to be part of a jury once, and he had also once testified as a witness to a car crash, so he hoped it wouldn't be too different from those times.

For the start, he simply decided to keep his head low until he was called on.

"May the defendant step forward!" The judge spoke loudly and clearly, her voice echoing throughout the courtroom. Without hesitation, Lucia stepped forward.

"Lucia, head priestess of the Church of Order, here today to represent one and the same." She gave a small bow.

"Who will be defending your party today?"

"Said task will be taken over by ourselves, your honor."

"So it shall be," the judge nodded, quickly moving on. "May the prosecutor step forward?"

This time it was a rather corpulent man, who introduced himself as Foss. Wait, this guy was a merchant? Well, Mercury probably shouldn't judge, his guild would be represented by a scholar of law, educated at the scholarly academy of Voput, some big city somewhere.

And then, an old man, at whose entry the crowd became more silent and solemn than before. He had bushy, white eyebrows, thick enough to make his eyes seem invisible, a deeply hunched back, and a mustache that grew multiple decimeters long on either side, carefully bound together to keep it smooth. The man used a cane to walk and wore an ornate blue and gold robe.

"Councilman Gorm, from the family of the founder Gorm, at your service to represent the council of Stormbraver and the Nevarzahri Aristocracy as a whole. This council has brought up accusations against the Church of Order. The evidence has been assessed by the Merchants' Guild, and will, as such, also be presented to the court by them."

Mercury didn't even have to stifle a laugh. Okay, maybe he did. He actually had to try very, very hard when he heard Avery snicker just a tiny bit next to him.

Fucking Gorm Gorm, what a stupid name. Imagine being called fucking Short Short. Incredible shit.

Luckily, Mercury had managed to hold his laugh in, just barely, and still understand what was going on. This dude was one of the seven top dogs in the country he was in, some old guy with a cane and stupidly thick white eyebrows. It seemed a little weird, but to be entirely fair, Mercury was currently attending a trial as a cat. He wasn't exactly in a position to judge.

"Very well, Gorm Gorm." The judge then turned and looked towards Avery and his, partially feline, companions. "The overseers of today?"

"Yup, overseer Avery, that's me, this guy," Avery said, prodding his own chest with his thumb as he walked up to stand between the two parties. "Guild master Avery Beckham, leader and protector of the godseekers, here today to make sure everything runs smoothly and fairly. Any godseekers who were on the case will be called forward, and all of them will testify as the groups in which they worked. None of these mindgames, these boys will speak nothing but the truth, while everyone else in here will probably attempt to lie."

Avery seemed happy with this introduction, nodding to himself while a slight murmur ran through the public viewers. Trials were always held openly, and today there was no shortage of visitors. They coulda sold tickets to this thing and made top money.

"Order, please," the judge called, bringing her hammer down. "Master Beckham, I do have to request you keep your words less hostile from now on. Please refrain from making accusations unless you have borne witness to them."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"All clear, your honor." Avery gave her a half-hearted greeting as a gesture of understanding, bringing two fingers to the side of his forehead, and then flicking them away.

Mercury shook his head at the man. This guy really always had to walk a tightrope, huh.

The judge swiftly shot him a glare, but otherwise let him be, turning back to the two men, fat and old as Mercury had named them in his head. "Well then, will the prosecution please lay out the facts?"

"Yes, your honor," a woman spoke, hidden between the two men. "Three days ago, on Cluddan night, a trial was held by the church of order, to see if two shop owners and their child would be sentenced to death. This was done without approval of the city council, and without adhering to the proper procedures to have a trial done."

"Defence, is this true?"

"Yes, your honor." Lucia nodded.

"Hm. Would the prosecution please proceed?"

"After this, a three day investigation was launched. The city council, represented by esteemed sir Gorm Gorm, has elected the Merchants' Guild as investigators, and the Godseekers' Guild as overseers."

"All of this is still correct?" the judge asked, more to make sure than anything else.

After getting everyone's confirmation, she waved at the young lawyer lady to continue.

"In this investigation, the investigators have indeed found some evidence of faulty product being sold, yet this was not an excuse to sentence someone to death."

"Objection, your honor!" Lucia said, perhaps a little louder than intended.

"Objection granted."

"As they were tried by the Church of Order, they were tried by our laws, in which any transgression's punishment is left solely to the judge to decide. We have determined that having rules for each specific case will simply split people, and thusly have instead elected to give the full power of judgment to the judge. Therefore, the accusation that we were seeing if the death penalty applies is only partially true, and false product could indeed be punished with any measure the judge finds adequate."

"So you plead to not have acted against city law by trying the shopkeepers under your own?"

"Yes, your honor."

"Where was this trial held?"

"In the courtroom of the church."

"I suppose this is adequate."

"Objection!" Foss himself called out.

"Yes, prosecution?"

"This does still not excuse the fact that the subjects of your trial were forcefully moved from city premises to church premises, and sold wares that would have been legal in the city. They were abducted and tried for crimes they did not commit on the legislative ground of the prosecution." The young scholar explained her point very clearly, and some of the audience did seem to agree with her.

"May I, your honor?" Avery calmly asked.

"Yes, overseer Beckham."

"While it might be true that the church kidnapped people to have them tried-"

"WE DID NOT KIDNAP-"

"ORDER!"

"-for something that would have been a crime on church ground," Avery calmly continued, "the crime they were tried for would also have been a crime on city grounds. Thus, if the crime was committed, then the family would have needed to be tried. The church was thus merely taking precautions to avoid their fleeing before they could make their official accusation to the city council. Or at least, that would be an option."

For a moment, Avery paused. "In the end, it comes down to whether or not the shopkeepers actually committed the crime the church accuses them of. If they did, then they were rightfully detained, and improperly tried, calling for a re-trial in this very hall. If, however, they are innocent, then the Church of Order has kidnapped and unrightfully locked up citizens of Stormbraver, a much more dramatic crime. Perhaps these two routes should be more closely observed?"

Avery was holding his hands behind his back, one loosely open, the other gripping the open one's wrist. It was a pose he had adopted to make sure he had correct posture and seemed presentable and reliable. While Avery might not much like pencil pushing, he didn't quite mind battles of wits such as trials.

For a moment, the court went a little quiet, before some muttering resumed in the audience.

"Order, please," the judge called. "Well, master Beckham, this seems well thought out. Do the defence or prosecution have a problem with this?"

"No."

"We do not."

"Then the prosecution may present their evidence for the defendant's crimes."

"With pleasure, your honor," the scholar said. "There were a few records of faulty goods being received at the store, however there were never records of them being sold to customers, nor any complaints of customers about the quality of the product in question. The charrs at the shop had been thoroughly checked before being finally sold, and while some may have slipped though the cracks, there is no decisive evidence that supports the selling of stretched goods."

"Objection," Lucia said. "I have documents with me that were seized from the store, which document a very different story."

"Objection. We have right to believe this evidence has been fabricated, your honor. Also, we have much more documentation than a singular ledger to bring forth about quality checking procedures. Additionally, we have found faulty charrs, no older than a page as of today, at the location, bearing the fingerprints of church employees."

"This evidence has been thoroughly compiled and given to the court for review. It is all authentic, and shows clear tampering with evidence by the church." The law scholar finally finished.

Mercury was blinking heavily by this point. All this going around in circles... it was quite boring. All that kept him sane was the small amount of schadenfreude he felt as he looked at Lucia. Her constantly reddening face was quite a sight, and so was the copious amount of liquid she drank.

After a moment, the priestess raised her hand to speak an objection, when Avery actually opened his mouth before here.

"Your honor, may I intervene?"

"Yes, overseer?"

"The law scholar is bright, most certainly, yet they picked the false allies in this case. As overseers, our personal judgments matter little, and our grudges hold no value at all. All we have to do is be honest and truthful, correct?"

"That is correct, master Beckham," the judge nodded at the tall man.

"Whelp, that's good then. Merchants' Guild tampered with the evidence."

Silence for a moment, but before people could get their bearings, Avery continued, watching the smile slowly creep over Lucia's lips.

"Y'see, as overseers there have been several instances where the Merchants' Guild has put its own and my guild members in danger. They have attempted to place bags of charrs, incriminating the Church of Order at the shop, and they have tampered with ledgers, adding new procedures that were not in there before."

"For the ledgers, simply ask the shopkeepers themselves. They're far too scared to lie. The bags I've already handed in, as well as marked the falsified ledgers. Some tried to smuggle items past me and ended up with broken wrists, please check the infirmary of the Merchants' Guild for closer proof. However, there was one particularly nasty case of subterfuge. Mercury, would you please come up?"

Avery quickly shot him a glance with a wide grin. Oh god, he was doing this on purpose, just to rub it in that he won this case by himself with a somewhat exotic pet. What did he need to prove so badly???

Mercury sighed inside as he put on his softest steps and most royal face. Eventually, he arrived on the platform where Avery stood, next to his guild master's feet. From there, he leapt up and onto the podium, and after a moment of murmuring, he meowed into the microphone.

Yeah, that was cat for 'fuck you, Avery'. Heh. Get rekt.

Then, he began to actually talk.

"Mercury Starlight Rainfall, E-Rank godseeker. I worked on a team with A- master Beckham as an overseer. On the last day of the investigation, the merchants created a bomb to block one's nose for specific smells, which I noticed due to my Skill."

"Go on, godseeker Starlight Rainfall." The judge managed to keep her composure quite well, all things given.

"Yes, thank you, your honor." Mercury was really getting into this whole court speech stuff. He smiled a little at the thought. "After some investigation, master Beckham and I identified that the merchants' guild were attempting to plant the bags of false evidence at the site of investigation. As we noticed, the guild master took the traders to the guards, where the contraband to incriminate the church was found."

Oh's and Ah's in the audience.

"Furthermore," Mercury continued, "while master Beckham was gone, my Skill levelled up, which allowed me to detect one of the blocked smells. Lemon. It led me to discover a locked drawer, which I broke open. Only files, but it had a false bottom. In the second part of it, there were lightning mana bombs, whose smell would have been blocked by the chemicals used."

"I can fully attest to the claims of Mercury over here," Avery added. "When I came back from the guard station, my companion had been knocked unconscious, and his attacker was waiting for me. I chased him, and eventually delivered a few good blows, but in the end, they escaped. I do not know where they are hiding now, but they dropped a list of locations and people they have dealt with."

After a few moments of silence, the judge spoke up again. "So through investigation of this case, you have discovered a trading ring for mana bombs in Stormbraver, which may involve the Merchants' Guild? Foss, what do you say to this?"

For a moment, the scholar of law attempted to speak up, but she was immediately silenced by the judge.

"Well, Foss?" Lucia spoke up mockingly for a moment.

"I- I know none of this!" he yelled, his head flushed red.

"Hm. Perhaps not, but that is a topic for another day. With this information about sabotage, which the other overseers can confirm...?"

Nodding all around,

"Well, with this knowledge, the evidence submitted by the Merchants' Guild can no longer be considered quite as reliable. However, this means that the defendants in the trial prior to this might have been partially innocent. This has been enough evidence, it is time for the jury to come to a decision!"