It was several hours later when the hood finally came off his head. Alain blinked, wincing as the sun hit his eyes and they began to adjust to the sudden light. When they did, he looked around, and saw his three friends gathered around. He only had a moment to enjoy the silence before Lawrence came up to him.

"Your weapons," he said. "Hand them over."

Alain's eyes narrowed. "You couldn't have just taken them before we got in the carriage?"

"We had no idea if we would come under attack or not, and keeping you both armed was conducive to our safety at the time. Now that we are here, however, you will need to be disarmed. I say again: hand them over."

"You can have my long gun," Alain insisted. "But the Colt revolver stays with me."

Lawrence glared at him. "You have no authority-"

"It has a lot of sentimental value," Alain explained. "And besides, do you really mean to tell me that you all can't handle one man with a six-shooter?"

Lawrence scowled, but ultimately acquiesced with a nod. "Fine. You both may keep your sidearms, but your long arms are coming with us. You will get them back at the conclusion of the trial."

This time, neither Alain nor Felix offered any resistance as their shotguns were taken from them. Several of the Tribunal members broke them open and unloaded them, then took possession of the guns.

"Follow me," Lawrence said without looking back as he began to walk.

Alain exchanged a glance with the others, but did as he was told, following after Lawrence. As they went, he looked around. They were in a mountain range of some kind; given how long it had taken them to get here, he could only guess that it was some part of the Sierra Nevada range.

"Guess that explains the bumpy roads earlier…" he muttered. Casting a glance back at Sable, he said, "So what's this about?"

Sable shook her head. "I don't know. I've never been involved with the Tribunal before. At least, not directly."

"You are all being hauled before the Tribunal to answer some basic questions and assist with our investigation into what happened at Los Banos," Lawrence suddenly answered without looking back. "It is standard procedure given an incident of this magnitude."

"But why us?" Felix asked. "There were dozens of other people in that town, too."

"But none that were as directly involved with the incident as you four," Lawrence explained. "The others are being sworn to silence as we speak. They will not mention the true events of what happened in the town to anyone, or there will be severe penalties for breaking the Veil. But this will all be explained further once you have had a chance to meet with the Adjudicators and speak with them."

"Sounds ominous…" Alain said. "Where are we, anyway? If you don't mind me asking. I'm guessing the Sierra Nevada mountain range, but-"

"The true location of the Tribunal's headquarters is supposed to be secret, hence why you were all blindfolded during the trip here. If you were wise, you would stop asking us questions and instead prepare to be asked them yourselves."

Alain quieted down at that, instead continuing to follow Lawrence along with the others. The rest of Lawrence's squad of Tribunal members brought up the rear, no doubt to keep watch over them all as they traveled. Frankly, at this point, Alain's only real concern was how long the trip was going to take – he was still exhausted from the fight, and his legs were about to collapse out from beneath him.

Thankfully, though, they soon arrived at their destination – a large cave opening in the side of one of the mountains. Alain blinked, then looked around, searching for anything of importance, but from what he could find, it was just a cave. He was about to ask Lawrence what was going on when he suddenly stepped forward and bit into his thumb hard enough to draw blood. Lawrence then smeared it across the stone wall at the back of the cave. For a moment, nothing happened, but then, the stone began to steadily slide backwards, revealing a large passageway deeper into the mountains. Lawrence motioned for them all to follow him once more, and they did, stepping into the darkness directly behind him as the stone slid back into place, sealing them off from their earlier path.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

It only stayed pitch-black for a moment before the room was suddenly lit by some kind of bright yellow stones embedded in the wall, however. Alain stared at them in amazement as he walked.

"Wow…" he breathed. "What is all this?"

"Magic," Lawrence answered. "Or did you truly believe there was no such thing, even after all you've seen these past few days?"

"Shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder…" Felix muttered softly.

The path soon gave way to a large chamber, and as they stepped inside, Alain was absolutely blown away. The interior was arranged almost like a government building – it reminded him of a town hall or courthouse, but bigger. The room they were in was very obviously some kind of reception area, complete with a desk and a large, dark green-skinned woman with tusks sitting at it, filing her nails. As Lawrence stepped in, she stopped what she was doing and turned towards him.

"Lawrence," she greeted. She peered past him to stare at the four of them. "Wasn't aware you'd be bringing anyone back from that town."

"Neither was I," Lawrence replied.

"That bad, huh? I'll let the Adjudicators know you're requesting their presence. In the meantime, put those four in a room somewhere and get them to wait. Hopefully they don't do anything stupid."

"They won't," Lawrence said. "That is, provided they're smart enough not to."

The green woman nodded, then stepped aside, allowing Lawrence entry. He moved past her, leading the four of them down the hall. They passed by several other strange-looking people, Alain flinching whenever one of them cast a glance his way.

He'd come to trust Sable and Az in the time they'd spent together, but these people greatly unnerved him. Several of them were eyeing him up like he was going to be their next meal, which probably wasn't that outrageous an assumption given that many of them appeared to be vampires.

Lawrence eventually led them to a room, then ushered them all inside and shut the door behind them before leaving without a word. Alain blinked, then looked around. The room was small and devoid of anything save for a single bed, a few chairs, and a single lit oil lantern hanging from the ceiling. Alain hesitated for a moment, then sat down on the bed with a sigh.

"You're not going to sleep, are you?" Felix asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hell no," Alain retorted. "I'm way too on-edge to sleep right now."

"The Tribunal is… harsh," Az offered. "They don't take kindly to anyone meddling in the affairs of the supernatural or threatening to destroy the Veil, particularly if that person is a mortal like you two."

"Truly?" Felix asked. "Why is that?"

"Because for people like us – the magical creatures, that is – skirting around the Veil is often part of our nature," Az explained. "Vampires, for example – they need to drink human blood in order to survive. They're expected to be discrete about it, but accidents happen from time to time. The Tribunal tends to give incidents such as that a bit more of a pass, at least from what I've heard, if only because the alternative is the vampire wasting away."

"Meanwhile, mortals are supposed to be very firmly on the other side of the Veil," Sable added. "Your kind isn't supposed to even be aware of our existence. Should you somehow happen to learn of it, you're expected to keep your mouth shut and carry on with your life as if nothing has changed."

"This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the Tribunal apparently being made up mostly of vampires, would it?" Alain asked. "At least, that's what it seemed like to me, just wandering the halls. It looked like we passed more vampires than anything else."

"You aren't wrong," Az admitted. "That's owing more to the nature of the vampires than anything, though – as far as the mystical creature hierarchy goes, they've always thought of themselves as making up the nobility; something about it being able to better conceal themselves in human society."

"That's not to say they're the only ones," Sable cut in. "The were-creatures tend to make up a large part of it, too."

"And the green-skinned woman at the desk?" Felix asked. "Where does she fit in?"

"She's an orc," Az explained. "Not many of them left; I'm surprised one is even here, to be honest."

"That so?" Alain asked. "Were they hunted down or something?"

Sable shook her head. "From what I recall, orcs were always naturally drawn to conflict and war, both among themselves and in the mortal world. Combined with their naturally low birth rates, and what happened to them was unfortunately inevitable. Such is the case for many of the magical species throughout history, assuming they weren't hunted down by humans first."

Alain frowned. "I'm surprised you all never got together to try and fight against us, in that case."

"How do you think the Tribunal began?" Sable questioned. She shook her head. "Fact is, as powerful as some of us are, we can't compete against humanity's birth rate or natural technological advantages. Eventually, when it became clear we had no chance of victory, the Tribunal threw in the towel and decided to try and work with humanity instead. That was several hundred years ago, and despite the desires of some to go back to the old ways, it's stayed that way ever since."

"No offense, but we're getting off-track," Felix pointed out. "What I want to know is what to expect when they finally come fetch us from this room. Either of you have any idea about that?"

Sable shook her head again. "None. Like I said, I have no experience with the Tribunal, at least nothing first-hand. I can't speak for Az, but I assume he's the same way."

"You assume correctly, my lady," Az confirmed with a nod. "Truthfully, this is uncharted territory for us as much as it is for you two, as well."

Alain scowled and crossed his arms. "Then I guess we've got nothing to do but wait and see what happens," he said grimly. "Hopefully it's nothing too bad."

The others didn't respond, and a heavy silence filled the room as they awaited their judgment.