Given that Doctor Marley was definitely on my side, I was pretty surprised that he was the second person that Mr Spline called.

“What is your relationship to the defendant?”

“I’ve been Kayden’s GP for about fourteen years.”

“Since he was diagnosed with the curse?”

“Yes.”

“So you see Mr James fairly regularly, in a medical context.”

“I’ve not seen him for about six months, but before then, yes.”

“And how would you describe Mr James?”

“A fairly typical teenager. A little reckless, but exceptionally careful with his curse. He was always asking about new ways to bind it or remove it, and about ways to confirm if it was bound.”

“For the jury, can you clarify what you mean by binding?”

“Of course. Some curses can be kept dormant with certain rituals or materials, but the variety of curses makes it very difficult to determine what will work for which curse. If a curse is dormant, it’s usually quite difficult to tell whether it’s been properly bound, or whether it just hasn’t reached the conditions to activate it yet.”

“Conditions?”

“Some curses will remain dormant and not fully integrate or activate until certain conditions are met. They might activate under a full moon if water is nearby, or when the right phrase is said, or when its carrier gets exceptionally angry… that sort of thing.”

“Such as a girl putting her entire neighbourhood to sleep on her sixteenth birthday, or a man wishing out loud for gold and turning everything he touches to it?”

“Most curses are not that dangerous or destructive.”

“I merely suggest examples, Dr Marley. Is that the sort of thing you mean?”

“Yes. Kayden was very careful about avoiding any common trigger conditions he could, and trying every method of binding his curse that he could. He was always very cautious, protecting the people around him.”

“Meaning he – and therefore you – weren’t sure what binding methods would work?”

“No. A curse diagnostician had a look at him after the curse was found, but because it was dormant and unfamiliar, we weren’t able to learn very much.”

“You don’t know much about the curse?”

“Unless a curse is common or familiar, it’s extremely difficult to learn much about it while it’s dormant inside a person.”

“How old was he when this diagnostician looked at him?”

“Around seven months.”

“And he’s been in your care since.”

“Until six months ago, yes.”

“So what you’re telling me, Dr Marley, is that you don’t know what this curse does?”

“Everyone knows what this curse does. There were multiple witnesses; it pushed that boy off the roof.”

“There were multiple witnesses to the assault on Mr Parker, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily meant that everybody knows what this curse does. Mr James clearly used the curse to command Mr Parker to die, but the specific mechanism matters here, especially if Mr James has inflicted his curse on so many other victims in the past.”

“In my professional opinion, Kayden’s curse was dormant until that day. We had regular checkups. I was never given any reason to believe that that curse had done anything.”

“You are a mage, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you use magic in your practice?”

“Uh, can you clarify the question?”

“Do you have a magical ability that helps you monitor curses? Or do you use the same techniques that a non-magical GP would use?”

“Just non-magical techniques. I can’t magically monitor anything.”

“Could you explain for the court what those techniques are?”

“Patient interviews, coupled with regular blood pressure, temperature and antibody tests, as well as physical inspection of the curse site. A dramatic change can indicate – ”

“So you monitor for curse activity in the same way you might monitor for, say, an infection?”

“Yes.”

“How reliable is that? I don’t imagine that every cursed individual walks around with a fever.”

“Well, no; not for curses that are active and mild. However, many curses have effects on the environment that their carriers are certain to notice, and curses that have been dormant for a long time almost always create such effects when they wake up.”

“And did you observe such effects in Mr James after he used his curse against Mr Parker?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“After Kayden’s curse got free, he showed many telltale signs – high stress hormones, high temperature, general physical weakness, and of course his own report of the incident, as well as others’.”

“The sort of symptoms that you might expect of somebody in hospital, facing the physical trauma of a long fall and criminal charges in his future?”

“I… suppose? I’m not certain what you’re asking.”

“I am asking whether you have any reason to believe that Mr James’ curse really activated for the first time that day. If the symptoms of such a thing are the same as what you’d expect from his situation without the curse, we only really have his word that he hasn’t used it in the past, yes? If you’ve been monitoring unreliable physical symptoms looking for a sudden awakening of a long-dormant curse, then would it not be easy for somebody with an active curse that they’re using regularly against their community to lie during their appointments and – ”

“Objection!” Casey stood up. “Your Honour, Mr Spline is very obviously leading with his questions.”

“Dr Marley’s specific opinion on this specific theory is important, Your Honour. I’m simply seeking information on whether there is any evidence for Mr James’ position over mine.”

“That is relevant to the case. Overruled.”

Casey looked as neutral as ever, except for their tightly clenched jaw and white knuckles.

“You okay?” I whispered.

“This is a mockery of law. Everything he’s saying is useless fluff, legally speaking.” Casey glanced at the jury, and I realised how deep in trouble we were. They didn’t know the minutae of the law. They just had to be convinced that I was dangerous. And if the judge wasn’t going to do his job and keep Mr Spline on track…

After Mr Spline had finished undermining Dr Marley’s testimony a much as he could, he graciously stood back and let Casey make the strongest defense they could from the remains. He summoned our witnesses, one by one, and questioned them about their previous relationship with me and Matt to make their testimony look like petty revenge against someone they didn’t like. Casey’s protests were silenced by the judge each time they stood up.

Then Mr Spline called up Matt’s mother. She tearfully told the court about her son’s ordeal, and about how every time things seemed to be getting better, the family could feel the weight of the curse over him until it forced something else to go wrong. Videos of Matt talking from his hospital bed was played, looking relatively chipper and smiling angelically at first, but getting weaker and weaker after every complication, until finally it was just footage of him laying in his bed sleeping behind his oxygen mask. I thought it was a bit overdone and kept expecting a heart rending soundtrack and montage of footage of him happily playing as a younger kid, but several jury members were wiping away tears.

“We will now take a on hour recess,” Judge Eagle announced, “and then return for the defense witnesses.”

We didn’t have many witnesses left. Mr Spline had called and undermined most of them.

“Is this how it’s meant to go?” I asked Casey quietly as we filed out of the room.

“A decent judge wouldn’t have let any of it go like this,” they whispered back. “Nobody here has any respect for the rules. They’re trying to sway the jury with cheap tricks.”

“Can we sway them back with cheap tricks?”

“To be honest, Kayden, I don’t know. It’s a lot easier to make somebody afraid of something, especially given the prejudiced environment we’re already in. I’m sorry. I’ll do my best, but… at this point, it’s probably most effective to focus on sentence mitigation rather than the jury ruling.”

“You want to get sympathy out of that judge?”

“I’m going to try. We have one strong point to really push for that; Matt chasing you up onto the roof and provoking your curse. If we can convince him that the victim is somewhat responsible for this display of magic, we can make a lot of headway. For witnesses, we can call on a couple of backups that Mr Spline didn’t get around to questioning, but his cross-examination will just go the same way as his initial examination of the others. Our only particularly strong witnesses left are Taine Cooper and Malas Aksoy, and of those two, I don’t think that Taine is going to have much to add to the discussion.”

“So we’re relying on kuracar Malas convincing people I’m responsible with my curse? I don’t have the… best reputation with him, when it comes to being sensible.”

“That may be so, but he’s all we’ve got. And he agreed to speak on your behalf, so I’m sure he has confidence in you.”

“Sweetheart!” As soon as we left the room, I was scooped up into my mother’s arms. “I can’t believe those awful things he was saying about you. The nerve!”

“That’s his job, Mum.”

“His job is to pursue truth and justice, not this smear campaign!”

“I don’t like any of this,” Dad added, wrinkling his nose. “It’s a witch hunt, and I don’t just mean literally. Casey, can you save my son?”

“I’ll do my best. We still have a couple of good mage witnesses. It’s not over yet.”

“Can we get lunch?” I asked. “I’m starving.”

“There’s a good cafe right across the road,” Mum said.

Dad shook his head. “If we leave this building, we’ll be swamped by reporters.”

“Why, though?” I asked. “Why do they still care? It’s been six months! Someone was pushed off a roof! There are bigger stories out there!”

“I’ll go,” Melissa piped up from behind Mum. “I’ve changed my hair since our last video, so I’m the least likely to be recognised. I’ll put a hat on and go get food from the cafe for everyone.”

“What if you do get recognised?”

“Then I’ll make up a ridiculous story about when your public execution is scheduled and how the whole case was rigged because the entire jury was members of the Spanish Inquisition, secretly kept in service this entire time.”

“See, this is why we’re friends.”

“Shut up and give me money for your sandwich.”

The food and hour with my family and friends did nothing to destress me. Casey had been so sure we had a winning case, but did that matter with a judge and jury who weren’t going to listen?

We filed back in. The judge called us back in session, and Casey stepped forward. “I call Dr Malas Aksoy to the stand.”

Kuracar Malas was, of course, not present. Instead, Instruktanto Cooper headed for the stand, eyes on his phone; as he walked past, I glimpsed Malas on his screen. He plugged a speaker into the phone, pointed the camera at Casey and, eyes not leaving his screen, pointed his wand at the stand. With a wave of the wand, a somewhat transparent green Malas sat before us.

I assumed it would be complicated to swear Malas in, since he couldn’t touch the holly water, but apparently there was protocol for this; the bailiff sprinkled a few drops of the water through the illusion while Malas recited the vow. This seemed like some pretty contradictory symbolism to me, but whatever.

“Mr Malas,” Casey began, “can you tell the court who you are, please?”

“I am Malas Aksoy, kuracar of Refujeyo,” he said. “I’m a healer and diagnostician, and one of the world’s leading experts in how magic interferes and interrelates with the body.”

“Including curses?”

“Yes.”

“And how do you know Mr James?”

“He’s attended my school for the past six months. I’ve analysed Kayden’s body and curse on multiple occasions.”

“What can you tell us about how the curse operates?”

“Very little, I’m afraid. There are many things that can make a curse difficult or impossible to analyse, such as if it’s a young curse, or has uncommon features.”

“Right. So with that in mind – ”

“In Kayden’s case, the primary confounding factor is probably that the curse has been dormant for so long.”

Everyone, including Casey, froze. Even Instruktanto Cooper fumbled the phone, and the illusion of Malas wavered while he steadied his grip.

They had to have rehearsed this interview ahead of time; Casey was too prepared not to. But whatever Casey had been expecting Malas to say, that clearly wasn’t it. They stared for several seconds, mouth open, before scrambling to continue, “I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand. Could you clarify that?”

“I’m not sure how much clearer I can be. One of the few things I can tell you for certain about that curse is that it’s dormant. It has been for a long time.” The illusion of Malas paused, and seemed to scan the crowd, before continuing.

“That curse hasn’t done anything, to anybody, for years.”