"We're under arrest?" Ahmond asked, as she stood in front of Lilu's bedroom, while staring down the biggest hyena she'd ever seen before.

Jazmyn kept a stern, but graceful expression, as she said, "Indeed. You and Baynana have proven yourself to be incorrigible youths, and as of such I have no choice but to have you under arrest."

"Are you throwing us in a dungeon?" Baynana asked.

Jazmyn said, "No need, as, after all, you are just kids. Even I have my limits. Be that as it may, as I told your family, you're under arrest until I have a trial held, during which we will discuss your fates. In essence, you're grounded."

She turned, and shut the door with her back paw hard enough that Lilu's diary shook between the crevice of bed frame and wall, before falling on the floor.

Lilu said, "Well, good going, now I'm grounded." As Lilu flopped over onto the bed, Ahmond and Baynana stared at their new, rather green prison.

In fact, while they didn't notice it before, Lilu's room was borderline monochrome in situation. From walls of turquoise to a cabinet painted teal, even down to a small cup beside her bed being viridian. Ahmond and Baynana found it overwhelming.

Baynana asked, "Lilu, how much you wanna bet that I know your favorite color?"

While Ahmond felt like it was inappropriate at this moment to wager bets, Lilu went for the bait. "Sure, take a shot."

"No, I asked how much you wanna bet," Baynana said.

Lilu said, "Er, I thought that was just an expression, but, uh, maybe a Drakold?"

Ahmond said, "We've got Tower cards. Would, I dunno, a water deck be enough for you to bet with?"

"I have unlimited amounts of funds, every need I have is taken care of," Lilu said. "Palace."

"Kinda a small room for a palace," Ahmond said, for it was barely ten feet from wall to wall in either direction.

Lilu said, "I called my mom a witch a few times, and she hexed me into this tiny living space. Anyway, so, what do you think my favorite color is?"

Ahmond knew the answer, only to be caught with shock when Baynana said, "Purple!"

"How'd you know?" Lilu asked.

"Well, it was on your diary, your most personal of possessions," Baynana said, "and so I figured by reasoning if your journal has purple rhinestones you therefore are a fan of purple."

"But my entire room is green!" Lilu said, "or at least, shades of green."

"Yes, and you were hexed to this room, so green is your least favorite color."

Lilu told Ahmond, "Dude, your cousin is like, a genius or something. Has she always been this way?"

"Don't ask me, I basically just met her," Ahmond said. "Well, we still have our Towers Decks, how about we play a few games since we're stuck in here until we get executed."

"They're gonna execute us!?" Baynana asked.

Lilu said, "Not legally, we've banned that practice in the past few years. Although... My mom can do anything with impunity, so if she wants to rip someone's throat out, I'm sure she'll do it."

Baynana almost looked like she would faint, while Ahmond grabbed a few Decks.

Lilu said, "Should we triple threat it?"

"Yeah, best two out of three matches," Ahmond told her as she shuffled the decks. Only for Baynana to put a paw down on the decks.

"I like to shuffle," Baynana said firmly, as she grabbed the decks and began shuffling them.

Lilu shrugged and said, "Less work to do. So, Ahmond, I figure you're on your own for some sort of reason. Get into a fight about how you don't want to make more ice cream, but instead you want to be in musicals?"

Ahmond asked, "Did that happen with you?"

Lilu said, "Not quiet, but I did always imagine I'd be able to sing rather well."

"I wish there was a musical about fossils," Baynana said. "I'm a big fan of fossils."

"Yeah," Lilu said, giving Baynana a needed recognition. "So what's going on with you, Ahmond?"

"If I was a fossil," Baynana said, "I'd like to be a big one. One of those where they keep the entire skeleton."

"Uh, we get it," Lilu said as she cut Baynana off. "Ahmond?"

"They keep forgetting I have an opinion over there, and basically Baynana is able to do this one trick that I can stop. She has a quality too. I'm Dependability but she's, the opposite of that I guess."

"So you counter her, and she counters you?" Lilu asked.

"I don't know, maybe?" Ahmond said. "I know I counter her but we haven't tried the other way around. Then again, I can't even kick on my own power manually like Mosor can, as I haven't unlocked it all the way yet."

Lilu said, "Well Mosor is Empathy, right? All she has to do is go 'I understand you have feelings', meanwhile you're Dependability. You have to be dependable."

Ahmond said, "Maybe if they used that logic, I'd be listened to and heard. I'm dependable, and that means a lot, thank you Lilu."

Baynana said, "Can we return to fossils?"

"No!" Ahmond and Lilu shouted at her before they began playing.

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"They had them arrested," Mosor told the family, as they stood in the living room. "All of them were found to be incorrigible youths, and Jazmyn took it upon herself to arrest them."

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Mynt and Vanos nodded. Vanos said, "Specifically, she tried to make it sound like we're bad people, all because we didn't feel like disciplining them for running away."

Kyofi shouted, "This is an outrage," but Mynt put a paw on her back to keep her down.

Mosor said, "Be that as it may, we only have one choice, in that rather than sitting around, hoping the trial goes well, we should ask Empress Owlis." The Empress ruled over all the city-states of Wysdom, including Sunnyvilla and Sandrun. If Empress Owlis made a declaration then Jazmyn would have to fall in line.

Paynut said, "I doubt highly an empress cares enough about a simple kerfuffle. Perhaps we should try something else? Something a bit more, compulsive shall we say?"

Kyofi nodded, and said, "Nah, I like the idea that Paynut's laying down, the idea we should be going on, maybe breaking someone out of jail, you know, when was the last time we did a jail break? Save a damsel or damsels?"

"Violence is not the solution," Mosor said, reading the room for impulsive, angry attitudes. "The solution is we send a calm letter, to Empress Owlis, and if she won't do anything, then we will." She motioned to Vanos. "Grab some paper, and we'll start our talk."

When given the parchment, Mosor began writing. "Dear Empress Owlis, our cousins have been kidnapped. Ahmond, the spirit of Dependability, and Baynana, a spirit as well. Jazmyn has, under false pretenses, claimed them to be unruly, incorrigible children. In reality, both are sweet, kind, and caring. They ran away from us, after we were too controlling. Please, if you can overrule Jazmyn, and bring our cousins back to us, we would be grateful. Signed, N:Era."

Vanos put the letter in the mail slot, while Mosor jumped upon the couch. "It shouldn't take long. By tomorrow, we will have an answer."

Kyofi said, "I know a quicker way to get an answer." But Mosor gave her a quick slap on the nose, as a sign she needed to calm down.

Paynut said, "We insist you take the beds. Currently, the blame may be saddled with us, as after all, we should have kept an eye on Baynana."

"This is no one's fault," Mosor said. "What's going on is a series of problems, and they aren't solved by blame, but they are solved if we stop the plans of Jazmyn, and her trial."

Kyofi asked Vanos, "Are you worried?"

Vanos nodded, and he said, "Yeah."

"Me too."

Mynt said, "You two, I'm sure that they'll be fine, as I doubt they're going to be given the electric chair."

"Still," Vanos said, "Jazmyn is going on some sort of power trip, and there's no way we can let her get away with this."

"We're not letting her get away," Mosor said. "Just take a few deep breaths, and go off into sleep. We'll be fine in the morning, and Ahmond and Baynana will be back, and we'll resume just as we normally do. We've been through worse. Way worse."

But of course, not everyone found themselves sleeping that night, for during points of great fear, one individual must remain awake to absorb worry for the others.

Luckily for the others, it was Vanos who absorbed the fear. He stood up, went outside to take a walk, only for the door to creak again, as Mynt exited.

"This is all our faults," Mynt admitted.

Vanos said, "Maybe the trial won't happen, but still, Ahmond's going to be mad with us."

Mynt padded along the ground, and Vanos listened to the whispers of winds. A gale gushed past them. Mynt, with some mustered courage, said, "Best thing we can do is change our attitudes, and hope that's sufficient."

Vanos raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but the problem is is I'm afraid of what will happen with Ahmond, and if she's really smart enough to be on her own. When her last birthday came, she literally asked to stay up fifteen minutes later. That's not the actions of someone who's confident, mature, and self-assured, as much as that's the actions of someone who has no idea what freedom is. What kid understands freedom? Freedom isn't a gift where you do whatever you want, as much as it's you having to be in charge of your own life."

"Do you ever wish you weren't free?" Mynt asked. While Vanos mulled it over, Mynt asked herself the question.

"Being free is good."

"Yeah, you're right," Mynt said, her attention focused on dew drop. One little drop of dew dripped from the tip of a blade of grass, and it wetted a small gray stone, making it a shade darker.

"Vanos, do you ever wonder if you're really an adult?" Mynt asked.

Vanos said, "Who hasn't?"

Mynt said, "Kids. If you're a kid, then at least you know you're an adult."

----------------------------------------

Instead of an actual trial, Ahmond was picturing some sort of family court situation, where she'd just be talking to Jazmyn and offering reason why she and her family should be let go.

But they were in a real court room, attached to the palace. A judge stood over the case. "This is juvenile court, and we have been told you two are incorrigible youths."

Different courts meant different rules, and Ahmond was not a fan of law. Baynana sat next to her, nervous, and staring around.

Baynana asked Ahmond, "Are they going to do anything to us?"

Ahmond gave her a calm smile, and said, "We're going to be fine. We'll just explain the situation."

The judge, Judge Bittersweet, put on his best spectacles, as he read the papers. "So you were caught trespassing into the regal palace of miss Jazmyn, after having run away from your family, from a different state, is this true?"

"Yes," Ahmond said.

"Guilty," Judge Bittersweet said as he banged the gavel.

"Huh, this is a tough game," Ahmond said, as she stared at the big hyena. Apparently saying yes was a sign of confession which was not what Ahmond intended, and she figured there'd be more time to listen to the arguments. If murder could be justified in self-defence, then running away easily should be justified as well.

"We didn't even get lawyers!" Ahmond said.

Judge Bittersweet said, "You did the crime, while we decide the punishment. As of such, your sentencing hearing will be heard tomorrow, during that we will all converse as to what will happen."

"Who is we?" Ahmond said, as she made a grand, sweeping gesture to all the empty seats. "The only butt I see is you, and you're not in a seat!"

Baynana said, "Don't aggravate him!"

Ahmond said, "While we're at it, why don't we just flip some stuff over and make a whole big deal out of everything!?" Baynana shrunk back, as Ahmond rambled. "What's next? Is Jazmyn going to come out here, and say she's going to double the maximum penalty?"

"Stop!" Baynana said and sent out a dark wave. A brown wave washed over Ahmond, but the dark part went forward and entered Judge Bittersweet. The big hyena's pupils dilated, before he put his paw over his heart, and he collapsed upon the ground.

"Did you just kill him?" Ahmond asked in an almost monotone inflection.

Baynana shook her head.

Ahmond walked over to the judge, and listened to his heart beat. "Guess he's still alive, but he's frozen." She put her paw over the judge's chest, only for her brown waves to enter him, and he burst awake.

He took several deep breaths, and said, "What did you just do? Did you just assault a member of the law?"

Ahmond said, "Well, things are going from bad to worse..."

The judge went back to the stand, but Ahmond told Baynana, "Hit him again."

"We'll get in trouble," Baynana said.

Ahmond stared deep into Baynana's eyes, those fearful wide eyes she had, and Ahmond said, "Do it."

Baynana sent a pulse into Bittersweet, knocking him back down, before Ahmond ran off down the hallway. As more guards converged, Baynana used her power, but Ahmond, realizing something, sent her magic into Baynana's magic.

As the magics fused, instead of just knocking them down, these darker waves affected the entire palace and sent them all to slumber.

Ahmond said, "...I think I can amplify magic."

----------------------------------------

A delivery Twayt landed with a letter, and Vanos took it immediately. As he opened the letter up, he already had bad news to share, as the others judged by his expression.

"Owlis is apparently out for the rest of the week," Vanos said, "as she happens to be over in another kingdom, making arrangements for the Autumn Festival. What she's saying is that she'll settle the situation, as soon as she arrives."

Mosor said, "A week? We don't have a week, if Jazmyn's in a rush to order punishments."

"Well, sitting in a jail cell for a week won't traumatize anyone," Kyofi said, "even if it sounds bad."

Mosor said, "We're not talking about a jail cell for a week, no, the hyena's are pretty straightforward most of the time. What if they decide to harm them?"

A silence fell over, while Mosor said, "...Vanos. It's time we start a war."