—found myself in a bit of a predicament. While these dwarves and humans had been enough for minor tests, I really need to find someone I can convince to act as a recurring fount of Resource for my greater goals. I’ve considered using my apprentice, but his particular biology would be a poor fit for my research. I need to find someone with a greater mass who uses sorcery regularly. There’s no shortage of large travelers, but they’re hardly sorcerers. The sorcerers that I meet are less developed than I’d like. I can only hope that I’ll someday meet an orcish sorcerer and find a way to convince them—
“Somebody confessed?” Brex asked. “But…who would confess? I already said it was Wallach!”
Brex and Karna sat in a corner of the Defender’s lobby in a room adjacent to the main courts, speaking barely above a whisper to each other as Karna relayed the judge’s information to him.
“I don’t know a damn thing about him, other than the fact that he confessed to all seven incidents. Can you remember anyone involved that might do this?”
Brex ran his fingers through his hair. “One of the innkeepers in Ziqondi, maybe? I met a few of them when I was there.”
“The only male innkeeper was traveling at the time, so that seems unlikely,” Karna said.
“How are you so sure it’s a man?”
“I’m not. The judge seemed confident in his gender, though.”
“Can’t we all just…take a break for a day? This is a lot to process all at once.”
“Apparently not,” Karna said. “Normally, we’d have time to gather a dossier for the witness, but this embassy loves moving things forward as quickly as possible. The journal was one thing, but to have a confession from a third party this suddenly…Brex, I think something’s up.”
“What do you mean?”
“The journal was submitted anonymously, less than a day ago, even. We have a surprise confession…I’m starting to think this could be a trap. Is there anything you could have left out of your original testimony?”
Brex shook his head confidently. “I’m sure that everything I told you is true.”
“Even if this confessor’s testimony contradicts yours?”
“If he says something I think is right, I’ll signal it to you somehow. I’ll, uh, tap my right tusk. Is that subtle enough?” Brex said.
“It’ll do,” Karna sighed.
A soft, low tone from a bell rang three times, indicating the recess was over and the trial would resume in moments. Karna and Brex steeled themselves and made their way back to the courtroom.
The air felt electric, charged by the whispers passed back and forth between the gathered civilians, who appeared to have doubled in number since the previous day. Word of the confession must have spread quickly outside the embassy. Anyone who could get past the entrance was looking to witness this undoubtedly momentous trial.
Karna curled her hands into fists. She hated the idea that this was entertainment to them—but she could at least appreciate those who wanted to be present. If this all went south somehow, at least there would be people to witness it. And if by some miracle, she pulled this off…
No, better not to think about it like that.
There was still one person left between her and the truth.
A clerk hastily jogged up to her, handing her a small note before giving an identical copy to Iricha and leaving once more.
Karna opened it, reading over the confessor’s details:
Name: Alizarin Aurata
Age: Unknown
Affiliation: Felarin Pride-Tribes
Wait, Karna thought. The Felarin Pride-Tribes?
The judge entered the room and everyone stood up, following his lead to sit before he wracked his gavel.
“The trial of Brexothuruk, son of Grotuk, versus Harramschall and its Outerlying Territories will now resume. For those of you who have not yet been informed, there has been a development in this case: A new witness has come forward and confessed to each of the seven killings in this incident. Rather than accept the confessor’s testimony and agree to have the charges against the accused dropped, the Defenders have chosen to give a direct examination of the confessor’s testimony themselves. Defender, when you are ready, please proceed.”
He didn’t have to put it like that, Karna grumbled to herself.
She heaved a sigh and read the name from the note she was given.
“The Defenders will now call Alizarin Aurata of the Felarin Pride-Tribes to testify.”
A scant few gasps emerged from the gallery as heads turned toward the courtroom’s doors. Emerging from behind them was a tall, broad male felarin. Golden-brown fur, a bright red mane, wearing white, red, and gold on his somewhat ill-fitting clothes. He was flanked by the same three felarin that Karna and Tiv had run into a few days before. The ones who were kicking that poor dwarf woman while she cried for help.
She already hated him on principle. A part of her wanted to believe he was responsible for the murders just by associating with those assholes.
But Alizarin carried himself with a kind of calm confidence that disarmed those around him. As he passed the Defenders’ desk on the way to the podium, he glanced at Brex and winked before whispering “Galud dhok yong wak—soorg galak dhok, rutag.”
Karna knew it as an Orcish idiom: You saved my ass, and now I’m saving yours.
“Root’s sake,” she mumbled, turning to Brex, who went from confused to shocked before starting to break down.
“Ancestors,” Brex said in a low voice. “It’s Red.” He covered his nose and mouth in his hands, pinning his elbows to the desk.
The whispers of the gallery finally died down as the judge wracked his gavel again.
Karna stepped forward, in front of the podium to address Alizarin directly.
She knew exactly what was happening. Red, or whatever he called himself now, was trying to take the fall for Brex and save him from being convicted.
The only question left for Karna was why.
“Witness, would you please state your name and any other relevant details for the court record?”
“Certainly,” he said, his voice booming through the courtroom without much effort to raise it. “I am Alizarin Aurata, son of Crim Carnelian Aurata, Prince and Heir to the Throne of the United Felarin Pride-Tribes.”
More gasps echoed from the gallery.
“Will that suffice?” he asked in perfect Harrish.
“Sure,” Karna said, trying to hide her annoyance. “Alizarin—”
“Al is fine. I know it’s a mouthful.”
“Prince Alizarin,” Karna said. “I understand that you came forward to the embassy during the session earlier today to give a complete confession of the murder of each victim in this case. Is that correct?”
“It is.”
Whispers flew around the courtroom again, silenced the moment that the judge wracked his gavel.
“Would you be so kind as to share this testimony with the court? Please include as many details as you can, we’ll be transcribing this for your written confession later.”
Unless you screw up, Karna thought. Then I’ll pick you apart piece by piece.
“Very well. You may want to sit down for this. It’s a long story.”
Iricha stayed in her seat, glancing over at Karna, who leaned herself against the Defenders’ desk and crossed her arms, gesturing for him to begin.
“You will have to forgive me for the lack of detail in these early moments, Defender. It has been a long time since I’ve had access to my full mental faculties, and many of these memories are finally coming together after being wrung out of me like a wet sponge.
“Some time ago, several years perhaps, I lived peacefully with my friends and family at Castle Carmine. But I must have angered someone powerful with my antics as a youth, because the last thing I remember when living there was feeling tired after a particularly filling meal with my family. When I awoke, I was caged in the cargo compartment of a ship—in the shape of a wild lion.”
“This isn’t a typical experience for a felarin, I take it?” Karna asked.
“No. Especially not for royalty.”
“Stars and skies,” Brex swore, shifting his hands to cover his eyes as he sunk his head lower.
So much for the tusk-tapping solution.
“It was difficult to understand my own mental state. Wild animals are so driven by instinct that my top priority at all times for the coming years was food, shelter, and rest. I could hear the humans and dwarves around me speaking, but not understand them. They sounded more like the braying of donkeys and cattle than language to me.
“At some point, after feeding me scraps of meat from their leftovers aboard the ship, the crew of the ship transported me in a carriage along a road that traveled through long, flat plains. After reaching their destination, I was fed another scrap with what must have been a sedative, and awoke alone under the shade of a tree in a savannah unfamiliar to me.”
Iricha stood up. “Ob—” she caught herself. “Defender, may I…”
“By all means,” Karna said, gesturing toward Alizarin.
“Prince Alizarin,” Iricha said. “Is there any way you can corroborate this claim that you took the form of a wild animal with evidence?”
Alizarin nodded calmly. “If the court will not be so prudish as to bar me from disrobing, I’ll share exactly how I was forced to take that shape.” He pulled at his red cloak, grabbing it by the white fur collar before unbuttoning his vest, slipping it all off and turning around.
Whispers of astonishment echoed throughout the courtroom.
Pliable metal had fused with his flesh along his spine, spreading out from the middle like a pair of skeletal wings. “This is sorcerous metal, your honor. While I was poisoned or sedated in Castle Carmine, someone worked very deliberately to bind this catalyst to me, intending to keep my body and mind convinced that I was simply another wild lion on the savannah.”
Karna pursed her lips. Brex mumbled unintelligibly, head hung so low that his hands were cradling the top of his skull.
“I lived there for many years,” Alizarin continued. “My mind was so convinced that I belonged as a wild lion that it took me months to realize that I had this metal fused to my body. I fed on fresh kills, both my own and that of other predators. I slept in the shade of the trees and the nearby mesa. I tried and failed to mate with the lionesses of other prides. I defended myself against the nearby clans of orcs who tried to kill me for my hide.”
Brex made some kind of high-pitched whining noise, so quiet that only Karna could hear it.
“But something had to change,” Karna said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.“
“That’s correct. I did not thrive as a wild lion. Without the support of a pride, I could barely feed myself. By some chance, I happened upon Brex—”
“The accused,” Iricha noted.
“Yes, the accused,” he said with a smirk. “He was attempting to hunt me like any other orc, but he caught me in a moment of weakness, and in our altercation, he managed to knock me unconscious.”
“He got hit in the head by a falling tree branch,” Brex mumbled again. “Ancestors, how am I still alive?”
“When I came to, he was barely obscured by some nearby bushes, but had left a piece of dried meat on the ground near me. I was not one to refuse free food at the time, and the next thing I knew, I was able to speak with him through some sorcery that linked our minds together.”
That did, at least, align with Brex’s story. As dramatic as Alizarin’s version was, it didn’t contradict anything Brex had said. Yet.
“He promised to do what he could to take me home in exchange for my cooperation. Even in that state, I could tell that I did not belong on the savannah, so I agreed. We traveled together for a time. But I would wander off on my own when it was time to hunt. I didn’t bother him with the details of my prey, because they didn’t matter to me at the time. But sadly, after we left the mesa where his clan settled, prey was harder and harder to find.”
Karna gnawed on the inside of her cheek. This was going to be where his story diverged, for sure.
“I roamed the wilds, but the best prey was always traveling along the road. I didn’t want to betray Brex’s trust in me, so I made sure to stay out of sight when I attacked those travelers and fed upon them.”
“So you believe their deaths were simply the result of a wild animal pushed to its limits,” Karna said.
“It’s a tragic misunderstanding, certainly. But not unheard of. And I was not in my right mind when I killed the victims. I regret these actions and would like to make reparations with their families. The treasury of the United Pride-Tribes would be willing to donate funds to them to cover the damages to their livelihoods.”
“The victims were generally the last alive of their families. There are very few loved ones available to receive those funds,” Iricha said. “Something we found to be surprisingly consistent among them.”
“I see. Well, it was mere coincidence, I assure you. Perhaps it’s because they were traveling alone that I considered them easy prey.”
“And you say that the accused was completely unaware of this?”
“He looked concerned a few times when I was gone for more than an hour, but he never asked me to explain myself. After we had traveled together for a few days, we approached a town which I now understand to be Ziqondi. Brex used sorcery to disguise me as his dog as we approached.”
“Do you mind telling me how many of these travelers you killed for food before you reached Ziqondi?”
“Six, I believe,” Alizarin said.
Damn, Karna thought. He’ll slip up on details like that sooner or later…
“I see. So you traveled to Ziqondi. What happened then?”
“The town’s citizens seemed more afraid of Brex than of me, but I would chalk that up to a fear of strangers yelling in Orcish. There was one fellow who approached us.”
“Wallach Esserton.”
“Yes, that’s right. Though I didn’t interact with him much. Brex was able to take a room for the night at the town’s inn. There, he carved a sorcerer’s enchanting circle on the floor of the room and had me lay down in the middle in an attempt to change the spell on my catalyst.”
“Did he succeed?”
“Not quite. But thanks to his efforts, I was able to take a bipedal form like an orc’s and speak with more eloquence than I could as a lion. We discovered that he had changed the spell on my catalyst so that if sunlight hit the metal, I would revert to the form of a lion, but given enough time or cover, I could maintain my bipedal form. In that state, I could better restrain my wild instincts.”
“So you were able to stop hunting travelers as prey?” Iricha asked, sensing Karna’s attempts to catch him in a lie and following suit.
“I was, but unfortunately I did kill one more.“
“And how was that?”
“Wallach Esserton, as you so named him,” Alizarin said. “I caught Brex’s scent as a lion after he didn’t return to the inn for several hours and tracked it back to Wallach’s laboratory. After breaking through the door, I found Brex chained to a wall, asleep or unconscious. My instincts told me that Wallach was the source of the danger, so I attacked him until he stopped moving.”
Karna stifled a smile. Gotcha.
“I nudged Brex until he woke up and helped him get out of his chains, then fled the town with him. I believe you discovered Wallach’s body shortly after the incident as well.”
“That’s correct,” Karna said.
“Then I assume you know the rest?”
“I do, but it would benefit the court to hear it from you.”
“Very well,” Alizarin said nonchalantly. “We traveled together until we reached Harramschall, where we learned that the only appropriate place to properly change the spell on my catalyst would be the University’s grand enchanting chamber or the Loquela Grove here in Goronich.”
The loudest gasps yet from the gallery.
Do you people really find it more upsetting that they used the Loquela Grove for enchanting than someone getting murdered?
“We couldn’t get into the University, so we fled Harramschall to come here to change the spell. I believe you apprehended Brex shortly after he was able to restore my form, while I was unconscious. I awoke in the grove as my current and true self. When I went back into the city proper to get help or find Brex, I was able to meet up with a squad of special agents.”
Alizarin smiled. “You see, the pride-tribes had never given up on searching for me. I’m touched that my homeland held onto hope that I would be alive for so long. It was quite the relief to find some of my brethren so quickly—I understand that they’ve dispatched squads of talented soldiers to each of the major city-states in the area regularly.”
“You must be a valuable commodity to the Pride-Tribes,” Karna said. “Especially to keep searching for so long.”
“I’d hardly call myself a commodity, Defender.” Alizarin smirked. “Does that suffice for testimony or confession?”
“You seem pretty cavalier for someone who just admitted to murder, Prince Alizarin,” Iricha said.
“As I said before, I believe murder is the wrong word for it. I was simply following my natural instincts, lacking the mental faculties to tell the difference between right and wrong. Should the Harramschall courts really hold me accountable for these deaths?”
“You do offer an unprecedented situation for Harramschall, sir,” Karna said. “But still, the possibility of conviction exists. What makes you so sure that you’ll walk away from this unchained?”
“I doubt that Goronich or Harramschall would want to create such an uproar over this misunderstanding by attempting to keep me jailed.”
Iricha brought her hand to her chin. “So you’re expressing some sort of diplomatic immunity?”
Alizarin closed his eyes and shrugged. “I would have been happy to give testimony in private, but you forced my hand.”
Karna was barely holding back a grin. “And it would have sufficed—if you were telling the whole truth.”
The room sparked with energy. All eyes and ears focused on Karna. Even Alizarin’s smirk disappeared.
“And what do you mean by that, Defender?”
Karna turned on her foot, pacing as she spoke. “You testified that you killed Wallach Esserton as a wild lion, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“How was it, exactly, that you killed him? What methods did you use in a body like that?”
“Claws. Teeth. The sort of thing a predator uses to hunt its prey.”
“Are they sharp?”
Alizarin straightened his posture, brow furrowed. “Sharp enough to tear what they needed to.”
“Strange, then,” Karna said, stepping over to the Enforcers’ desk and picking up a leather portfolio with the incident report for Wallach’s death. “That Wallach’s body was found with no lacerations. The cause of death was repeated blunt force trauma to the head, chest, and shoulders.”
Karna could feel Brex tensing up just a few feet away, curling up as much as he could in his chair.
“Not that you would have known that at the time. After all, you came into the room after Brex had already killed Wallach in self-defense, hadn’t you?”
Alizarin remained silent, glaring at Karna.
“And you weren’t present for yesterday’s session when this information was confirmed. You were too busy catching up with your past and your—” Karna looked toward the gallery, where the other felarin sat. “—Brethren.”
“A wild lion could certainly cause that kind of harm to a human,” Alizarin said.
“Could it? A creature that primarily uses claws and teeth to hunt its prey? Could a four-legged mammal even muster up the kind of force necessary for that? It could probably propel itself with some impressive speed, but in a cramped room like Wallach’s lab, you couldn’t build the momentum for that.”
“Do not doubt the capabilities of a predator,” Alizarin said.
“Oh I’m sure given enough time, even a limitation like losing claws or teeth couldn’t stop a lion from killing what it needs to. But let me remind the court that there were zero lacerations on Wallach’s body.” She set down the report on Iricha’s desk again. “Because you didn’t kill Wallach Esserton. The accused did, by his own admission.”
Alizarin turned his eyes away from Karna, from the rest of the court, gazing directly at the floor before shutting his eyes firmly.
“I owe him so much, Defender.”
Karna stepped forward. “You didn’t kill any of the victims, did you?”
Alizarin inhaled sharply, stuttered by the sound of choking back his own tears. “Very well. You did it. You unraveled my little story.”
“What is the truth, Prince Alizarin?”
Alizarin looked at Brex, who had finally dared to lift his head and open his eyes again.
“I tried to help, green thing. I did what I thought was right.”
Brex, on the verge of tears himself, nodded, mouthing something that looked like It’s all right. Thank you.
Alizarin looked back to Karna. “The truth is that Brex didn’t kill anyone that wasn’t a danger to the rest of the world. That man was going to use him as…as livestock, harvesting something inside Brex that was never Wallach’s to begin with. I remember the smell of his laboratory. It smelled like death. Like a—a neglected graveyard. I don’t fully understand what he did, but I believe Brex when he said he was afraid of that man. That his fear sparked a desire to live, and that he had to stop that monster to save himself.
“Everything else I said was true. I met Brex on the savannah and he saved my life by staying with me until we traveled here. He never hurt anyone while we were together, and I never hunted long enough for him to murder any travelers.”
“And none of your prey were intelligent species like dwarves or humans?”
“No, I never fed on anything but natural prey for a lion. Slow herbivores and small creatures.”
“But you were willing to lie about that and falsely confess to the murder of those travelers.”
“Yes, because their true killer is already dead and the only alternative any of you will consider is destroying the life of an innocent person.”
“Unfortunately, while I understand your concern, er, Prince…I see no other option here than to punish the accused,” the judge said, speaking up for the first time in what felt like hours. “The only evidence we have to the accused’s plea of self-defense is the testimony of someone who has already admitted to lying before the court and attempting to undermine its authority.”
“Your honor,” Iricha interjected. “The Enforcers request a short recess to confer with the witness before he is excused for the day.”
The judge furrowed his brow. “Can an Enforcer confer with a witness called by the Defenders?”
“The Defenders are happy to comply with the request as well,” Karna spoke up.
The judge scratched at his chin, giving it thought.
Karna stepped ever-so-slightly closer to Iricha and whispered to her. “Have you come around?”
“I’ve heard enough. Meet me in the lobby.”
“Very well,” the judge announced. “The court will take a thirty-minute recess to allow the Enforcers to confer with the witness.”
The impact of the gavel made Karna’s ears ring.
Dozens of people lingered in the lobby outside of the courtroom, giving Karna her first honest brush with claustrophobia. Somehow in the past few days, this trial had become the hottest source of entertainment in all of Goronich.
Maybe if you had some real culture, you’d have something better to do with your afternoons, Karna thought.
Brex sat next to her, taking a deep breath and rubbing his forehead with both hands. “That was… a lot to hear at once,” Brex said.
“No kidding,” Karna mumbled.
She kept her eyes up toward the crowd, looking for—There she was.
Iricha muscled her way through the throng of people, glancing back at Alizarin. He was having a harder time catching up as his entourage refused to budge for common citizens—but he did eventually make his way over as well.
“There will be time for apologies later, but for now, we need to focus on the evidence that’s tying Brex to the incident,” Iricha said, holding out Wallach’s old journal. “I’ve been thinking about whoever submitted this: It had to be someone with close ties to Wallach.”
“Or someone close to the scene of the incident itself,” Karna said. “Brex, is there anything you can do with sorcery that could identify people who have been in contact with that book?”
Brex shook his head. “All of my tools were confiscated, it’s a miracle they let me keep my translation ring. I can’t make anything new without them.”
Iricha smiled. “I think we’ve got something better,” she said before turning to Alizarin. “You said you very clearly remember the scent of Wallach’s lab. Not just the decay, but the other incidental smells, right?”
“I was panicked,” Alizarin said. “Of course I remember, my instincts had me on full alert.”
Iricha shoved the book toward him. “Give this a whiff, see if anything else comes up that we can use. I’m willing to bet that the person who submitted this didn’t count on us having access to a feline sense of smell.”
“And how much are you betting?” Karna asked.
“Possibly my entire career,” Iricha said.
Alizarin took the journal, opening it and lifting it to his flat nose. “Hmm.”
Everyone shifted a bit, waiting for his diagnosis as more members of the crowd pressed around and against them. Karna reached out and put her hand on Brex’s thigh, unsure about why but feeling like it was the right thing to do. Brex’s hand met hers and they shared a glance at each other.
“It still smells of decay the strongest. I suspect it was in the lab for a long time. But there are others here as well. Salt, perhaps. From the sea, even. A few artificial sources, extracts from flowers. And…I believe a hint of sandalwood, though it’s subtle. Just…less subtle than it should be.”
Iricha turned to Karna again. “That salt could come from the sea near Harramschall. He did start writing this journal before leaving the University.”
Karna nodded. “The flower extracts were probably from Ambrosia production. That process would leave behind scents on porous materials like paper.”
Iricha stroked her chin. “Sandalwood, though. I’m not sure.”
Alizarin sighed and closed the book, tucking it under his arm.
Karna’s eyes widened, grasping on to her last, most desperate straw.
“Prince, that sandalwood scent. Does it come from any particular source? The middle of the book, the cover, and so on?”
Alizarin withdrew the book and gave it another shot. “Seems like…the edge of the pages, I’d say. Why?”
Karna barked a laugh, leaning back in her chair. “This is too rich.”
Everyone nearby, bystanders included, turned to watch her stifle her giggling. “I know exactly who to call as a witness. And if I’m right, I know exactly who Wallach’s old accomplice is.”
As the trial resumed with the echo of the judge’s gavel, Karna swore she felt like she was finally in place to pounce on the person that had caused all this trouble in the first place.
The world felt muffled, even as the judge repeated his same old announcement about Brexothuruk, son of Grotuk versus Harramschall and its Outerlying Territories. Like it was all coming through a pillow held to her ear.
This wasn’t about Brex or Wallach or Iricha or Alizarin anymore.
This was about the person who had betrayed her. Who had lied to her face. Who she once respected. The only person that still fit in this entire terrible puzzle.
Iricha and the judge looked toward her.
“The Defenders call Captain Barrask Herkirious to testify once more.”
Iricha, for the first time that Karna had noticed, looked nervous. She knew Karna’s plan and was willing to go along with it, but it was far from a sure thing. The rest of the court didn’t realize what Karna was going for. After all, Captain Barrask had already taken the podium and shared his insights. He could have more to say in light of new evidence.
Hopefully, much more to say, if Karna got her wish.
He stood up, heading toward the podium just like before. A little jovial, a little bit of a spring in his step. He folded his hands together and looked expectantly at Iricha.
“Defender, Enforcer.”
“Captain,” Karna said. “Since you first testified, we’ve had some interesting developments, so I thought it would be good to ask you to provide your perspective again.”
“Rightly so,” he said.
Karna picked up the journal from the Defenders’ desk. “Are you familiar with this journal, Captain?”
“Only what’s been shown in court.”
“Why is that, Captain?”
“Well, we didn’t recover it from the scene of the incident ourselves. You and I were both there, we swept the lab and nearby rooms for evidence, collecting what we could. Neither of us found anything like that.”
“Do you have any speculation as to where it could have come from, Captain?”
“Well, I suspect it was as you said, Defender. The accomplice referred to in the journal itself.”
“And why do you think the accomplice had the journal?”
Captain Barrask looked back to Iricha and the judge, as if they would have something to add.
“Is…Are you all fine with this line of questioning?”
Iricha nodded. “I have no problem with it.”
The judge just shrugged.
Barrask sighed. “I believe that the accused is the accomplice and he took the journal before he fled the scene.”
“Interesting. In that case, can you speculate why the journal was submitted anonymously on the evening of the first day of this trial?”
“How do you mean, Defender?”
“Well, if the accused had the journal, he certainly wouldn’t want to submit it as evidence, would he? Besides, his belongings were confiscated when he was arrested, and the journal wasn’t among them.”
“He could have gotten rid of them at any point, dumped in the ocean or what-have-you.”
“And yet, here it is in our hands,” Karna said. “Given willingly to the Enforcers to help point them toward the truth. Strengthen their case against the accused.”
“Defender, I’m not here to build the Enforcers’ case for you. You asked me to speculate, and I have.”
“Think a little harder for me. Consider who had access to the journal.”
Barrask groaned quietly, looking over at Iricha again. “Are you really going to allow this?” He turned back to Karna. “Are you going to treat me like some commoner off the street? We worked together, Captain.”
“I’m doing my duty as a public servant,” Karna said, feeling the venom well up within her. “Please, Captain Barrask. Who knew of this journal’s existence before last night?”
“Maybe the accused felt guilty, I-I don’t know. He could have passed it off to someone else who felt it necessary to give it to the embassy.”
“That seems unlikely,” Karna said. “After all, the journal has few specifically incriminating details. It’s more that it proves the existence of an accomplice. Even if the accused were to give it to someone else, how would they know to submit it to the embassy?”
“It mentions Alchemy, that’s a practice of sorcery that’s been banned for years.”
“Then why submit it to the embassy? Why not give it to the University of Sorcery itself?” Karna asked.
“Perhaps they thought that the embassy would send it to the University, since they share the same home city.”
“And yet,” Iricha interrupted. “This journal was delivered in a package addressed to me.”
“Meaning the person who gave the embassy the journal knew that Iricha was the Enforcer for the case.”
Barrask’s face turned cold and stoic. “What are you saying here, Defender?”
“There are few people who fit into the puzzle that this journal creates. The accomplice had to be someone present in Ziqondi as the murders took place. They had to know about the existence of the journal. And they had to know the journal well enough to find exactly which pages incriminated them. That’s very curious for someone like the accused, who doesn’t even know how to read, write, or speak Harrish without the help of a translator spell.”
Barrask remained silent, all eyes in the court trained on him.
“This accomplice held onto the journal for weeks,” Karna said. “Because this wasn’t a finely-tuned plan to make sure the accomplice was never discovered. No, the journal only appeared after that first day of the trial, after it became clear that the accused had no reasonable motive to hurt anyone but the man who threatened him: Wallach Esserton.
“Because everything that happened after that day has been a scramble to cover up evidence and distract people from the real accomplice.” Karna stepped forward, looming toward Barrask. “Admit it, Captain. It was you. You arrived in Ziqondi at exactly the right time, tracking Ambrosia through the town and discovering Wallach himself. But rather than report or arrest him, you assisted him. You helped him murder six people. You pointed the rest of the guard, myself included, toward the one person who dared to defy Wallach and sent us chasing after him. You hid the existence of that journal until it fit your needs, but not before you ripped out any mention of your name or Brex’s involvement. You can’t have the court believing there were two apprentices, because then the court might look too closely at your report.”
“This is absurd,” Barrask said, then looked to the judge. “How can you allow this in your court?”
“I admit,” the judge said. “It does fit within the boundaries of the case.”
“This is the same argument the Enforcers made on the first day of the trial, just pointed at the wrong person!” Barrask said. “You have no physical evidence tying me to the incident.”
“It would be difficult, wouldn’t it?” Karna said, barely holding back a grin. “Your hands are all over the scene of the incident itself, aren’t they? After all, you helped Tiv and me inspect the place. We swept through the whole building. Except…None of us found that journal, according to you.”
“It’s the truth!”
“You know what’s strange, Captain? In all my years of working with you, I never bothered to ask you about that terribly strong cologne you wear. In fact, you told me once that it was sandalwood. That it was a rare, expensive, one-of-a-kind cologne you bought from the Scentemporium in Harramschall.”
Barrask turned to Iricha again. “Object! This is ridiculous!”
“That cologne is unique to you. A scent that one of the felarin, with their keen sense of smell, was quick to identify on this journal.”
“You have to be kidding, there are plenty of people with sandalwood cologne.”
“Even if you picked up some bargain cologne from the apothecary, of all the people who could be the accomplice, you’re still the only one who chooses to wear a sandalwood fragrance. There’s no one left but you, Captain.”
Barrask snapped his gaze from Karna, to Iricha, to the judge, even to Brex.
“This can’t be happening,” he mumbled. “You’re really…really accusing me of this.”
The judge sighed, putting some stock into Barrask’s reaction. “Defender, we’ve entertained your antics for long enough today. I’m afraid matching scents just aren’t strong enough as evidence to tie this man to the incident. As a result, I must keep the focus on the accused and his—”
“No,” Barrask said. “She’s right.”
The courtroom heard a few gasps, then fell completely silent.
“You don’t understand, that man, he was so compelling. He gave me some coin to pay for my drinks and told me about some of his ideas. I couldn’t…I couldn’t stop myself from agreeing with him. I believed in what he had to say. I believed that the work he was doing was going to change the world for the better.
“Before I knew it, I went from tracking Ambrosia to helping create it. Helping him blackmail addicts so they would follow his instructions. But it was for a good reason. If we could just find one person to serve as a reliable fount of Resource, we could extend sorcery so much further than it can go now. But… But I know how absurd it sounds now. How can I face what I’ve done? When that man was killed, I realized how far I’d fallen. How many mistakes I’d made.
“But I couldn’t turn myself in, not when I could just bury it along with him. Yes, I took the journal. I should have burned it. But it took so much to chase after this orc, always just out of reach. If he could just get caught, or if someone else could just take over the case…Anyone but you, Karna.”
“You wanted me off this case?” Karna said.
“I used my one last good favor in Goronich to try and get you out of commission.”
Ydward, Karna thought. He bribed Ydward or someone close to him to get me injured. Or worse.
“I just wanted to put all of this behind me. Let that man stay dead and buried. But we couldn’t let it go.” He ran his fingers through his hair, his voice tinged with sorrow. “And I was ready to let this idiot who probably saved my life—let him die so I could go home and try to live with what I’ve done.”
There was only silence for a moment or two, punctuated only by Barrask’s quiet sobs.
“I still don’t understand why I believed in him. I still don’t understand…”
The judge was the first to speak after Barrask.
“This has gone on long enough. The Harramschall Embassy will drop the charges of murder against Brexothuruk. Captain Barrask, the bailiff will escort you to an interrogation room where we can take your statement. Defender, Enforcer, you may meet with your counsel and embassy representatives to determine next steps.”
He wracked his gavel one last time, sealing Brex’s fate as an innocent man. Still, even in that moment, Karna could hear Barrask muttering.
“I still don’t understand…I still don’t…”
Barrask’s confession still lingered in Karna’s ears as she and Iricha finished signing the paperwork for the case.
It didn’t feel quite real yet. That Brex was free to go. That they had found the truth, as messy and disappointing as it was. There were little threads here and there she could have followed, but she knew they wouldn’t change anything.
Wallach was a monster—but he was dead. And his legacy would end here, in Goronich, miles away from the tiny lab in Ziqondi that he set up for himself. He would be remembered as a murderer responsible for the destruction of innocent lives. A harbinger of trauma and pain.
“Most cases,” Iricha said, signing her name and initials in six different places on the page in front of her. “Most cases don’t get to me like this.”
Karna remained silent across from her.
“Most of the time, I feel right. I trust the story I put together, stringing the clues along the path that leads me to the truth.”
She signed her name again and flipped the page.
“Some cases feel off. Like it’s not quite enough. I do my best to put together enough information and present it to the judge so they can make a fair decision. Those ones…I don’t mind losing those ones.”
She shook her head.
“But this went sideways four or five times. At some point, I just gave up on trying to understand what was going on and just tried to get through it. And realizing that…felt some kind of terrible, Captain.”
Karna put down her pen. “I understand how you feel.”
“Was this how you felt on your last case, Karna?” Iricha asked.
Karna waited, searching inside for the right words. “No. I never gave up on trying to understand. I gave up on the court because I knew it would never find the truth.”
“I see,” Iricha said. “You went to the field after that, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find the truth there?”
“I thought I would,” Karna said in a somber tone. “But I learned the closer you get to something, the harder it is to see the whole picture.”
“Maybe there’s something wrong with all of this. Not just us, not just the judge. The decisions being made as a result of all this. I would have bet my life savings that Brex killed every single one of those people when I first read about the case, Karna. How much more information like this is hiding just out of sight?”
There was a moment of unspoken tension as they flipped through paperwork, scribbling signatures on each page.
“I’m going to revisit that case, Karna. The one with the ticket stub.”
Karna paused mid-stroke. “What do you hope to accomplish?”
“If going through the case leaves me with the same punch to the gut that this case left me, then I…I don’t know. Something will have to change. Maybe I’ll be the one to change it.”
Karna finished her paperwork in silence, then stood up from her chair, walking over to Iricha and extending her hand.
“I’m sorry that I put you in this position,” Karna said. “You’re a damn fine Enforcer. And if anyone is going to change things in Harramschall, it’s you.”
Iricha offered the faintest of smiles and gripped Karna’s hand.
“Harramschall and its outerlying territories,” Iricha corrected.
“Don’t push it, rookie,” Karna said with a smirk before turning toward the door.
Karna handed Brex a flat leather portfolio with copies of the paperwork she’d just finished filing.
“This is it, Brexothuruk. You’re free to go.”
She, Brex, and Tiv all stood outside the embassy, waiting for everything to be filed and finished before Prince Alizarin and his unsavory entourage could depart the city with Brex. The felarin were all drinking a few pints at the tavern near the docks, just a few blocks down from the embassy, sitting outside and telling stories to each other.
“Thank you, Captain,” Brex said, finally looking more comfortable in his normal clothes, even though the number of pockets almost made Karna feel sick.
Karna shook her head. “No, if anything, I should be thanking you for letting me push so hard on this case until it was resolved. Any normal Defender would have taken the Prince’s confession and left it at that.”
“He…tries to help,” Brex said. “But it doesn’t always work out. I think the important thing is that he tries, though.”
“If you really want to say you’re sorry, Kay,” Tiv said. “You could apologize for chasing him through Harramschall and across the sea to your old hometown.”
Karna scoffed. “I think I made up for that by defending him in court.”
Brex laughed. “You more than made up for it, Captain.”
“Please, call me Karna,” she said. “You’ve seen me in more distress than half the guards I work with every week.”
“All right, Captain Karna.”
She sighed, then pulled an object from her pocket. “I got you something, Brex. Don’t get your hopes up, I bought it at the souvenir shop down the street.”
She handed him a small, highly polished piece of wood, shaped in an oval with a concave divot worn into the middle, about the size of his thumb. “It’s a worry block. If you’re feeling worried or stressed, you just run your thumb in and out of that little groove. Should help keep you calm if you’re on trial for murder again.”
Brex smiled, holding it delicately in his hands, pushing his thumb against the divot. “Thank you,” he said with a smile before sliding it into one of his pockets. “I’m sure I’ll have a reason to use it sooner or later, and when I do, I’ll think of you.”
Karna quickly wondered if having him think of her when he was worried was a good thing after all.
“I did have a question though,” Brex said. “Why even have it all set up like this? Having regular people’s lives decided by one person who can only listen to two sides of a story. Who can’t even listen to the person who’s being accused in the first place?”
Karna and Tiv exchanged glances, unsure what to say.
“I don’t know if there’s an easy answer for that,” Karna said. “Probably because that’s the way it was set up a long time ago.”
“Then why was it set up that way?” Brex asked.
“I think…people just assumed that the less you know about something, the more impartial you are. And that’s true, ignorance makes it hard to be biased toward or against something,” Tiv said. “They thought there was a common thread between everyone, and that would be enough for someone completely disconnected from the problem to pass judgement. And maybe that was enough when it started, but it seems like the longer things go on, the more frayed that thread becomes.”
Brex pondered that. “What happens if the thread breaks?”
“Personally, I hope we don’t have to see that happen,” Tiv said.
“But if you want to change the system,” Karna said. “I know somebody who’s probably going to end up doing that, and she could use a little help.”
Brex rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Maybe another time. I still have to keep my promise to take Red home.”
He put the leather portfolio with his case information into his bag and hiked it over his shoulder. “You know, back at my old clan, we had somebody kind of like the judge.”
“Is that so?” Tiv asked.
“Yeah, she was just ‘the shaman,’” Brex said. “I hated her though. She stopped using her name so that she could be closer to the Guardians or something, but I thought she just did it to be more important than everybody else. I think your courts have it backwards from that. You took away the judge’s name because you’re making him more important than everybody else.”
“I thought you hated her because she was involved with Kotak,” Karna said.
Brex seemed taken aback. “You remember me saying that?”
“I listen sometimes,” Karna said with a smile.
“Yeah, well. I can hate her for plenty of reasons. But maybe I don’t anymore. She’s so far away now that I don’t think about her anymore.”
He reached out his hand to shake Karna’s. “Thank you, Captain.”
Karna gripped his hand. “Good luck with the felarin, Brex.” She nodded toward Alizarin’s bodyguards. “Be careful around them. While we were looking for you, we ran into those guys. They’re not afraid of hurting innocent people to get what they want.”
Brex seemed somewhat put out, but nodded. “Understood.” Then, he heaved a sigh and gave them a wave as he turned around. “So long, Captain.”
“So long, Brex,” Karna said.
The next day, as their ship pulled out of Goronich’s port, Karna couldn’t help but watch her childhood home shrink further and further into the horizon. For all the trouble it had given her, there was still a kind of nostalgia for Goronich buried deep in her heart. Not because she enjoyed it, but because it was familiar.
“And here I thought you would have dipped into the whiskey barrels by now,” Tiv said, approaching her from behind and leaning on the railing next to Karna.
“I thought I’d be happy about all this,” Karna said. “We won, didn’t we?”
“We stopped an innocent man from getting his life cut short,” Tiv said. “I don’t know if it’s good to think of the courts in terms of winning or losing.”
“That’s all Enforcers talk about,” Karna said. “Go have drinks with an Enforcer after a day in court and it’s all just ‘we’ll win tomorrow if we do this’ or ‘we could have lost it all today with that display.’”
“Did Brex’s question get to you?”
Karna sighed. “Maybe.”
“It’s probably for the best,” Tiv said.
“That his anxiety about the courts is contagious?”
“Something like that. Can you imagine how terrible the world would be if everyone was a hundred percent confident in the court’s decisions all the time? That would mean we think we have everybody in the world all figured out.”
“All right, explain this one to me, because I didn’t spend years as an Enforcer to have you tear it all down that fast.”
“Oh, I don’t know about tearing it all down,” Tiv said with a chuckle. “But if you could know with total certainty that someone was guilty or not, wouldn’t you want to know?”
“Yeah, so we could put that person behind bars and keep other people safe.”
“Right. But what made that person that way? Does that mean they’re a criminal for the rest of their lives? Will they grow out of it, if they’re left alone? What makes you sure that people are better off with this person locked up?”
Karna sighed. “Well…if the urge to hurt someone strikes again, they won’t be able to.”
“Brex killed Wallach and we chased him all the way to Goronich to make sure he didn’t kill again. But now he’s free.”
“That’s different, it was–”
“Self defense, yeah,” Tiv said. “But you didn’t know that until after you had a chance to sit down and talk to him, put it all together with what we already knew, you know? Imagine if you didn’t have to do all that. Imagine you knew Brex killed Wallach because…he just flew into an uncontrollable rage and couldn’t stop himself. Would you lock him up?”
“Well, maybe. Depends on when the rage happens.”
“Say you can’t predict that. Do you lock him up still? Or do you let him go free until that rage triggers and he can’t stop himself?”
Karna sighed, then groaned. “I’m too tired for your thought exercises, Tiv.”
“That’s the point, Kay. I think we’re better off not knowing how people work. Because as long as we’re trying, there’s a sort of comfort to it, even when we fail. If we did know it all…it’d just be a philosophy debate with people’s lives hanging in the balance. We should always try to fix the problems, but we shouldn’t start with the ‘perfect system’ and try to work backwards.
“I think that’s what bugs me about the Defender’s Oath the most,” Tiv said. “That you just have to accept the result of the trial as the truth. That you can’t publicly believe in your client. It’s why I could never be a Defender, I think.”
“Have you ever considered it?” Karna asked.
“Once or twice. But this pays better,” Tiv said. “And you’re too much fun to follow around the world.”
“It wouldn’t be worth all the trouble if you weren’t here, Tiv.”
“You flatter me,” Tiv said. “But compliments go better with a bottle in your hand.”
“Fine, fine,” Karna said, turning her back on the fading coastline of Goronich. “But if I’m buying you drinks, you better shower me in praise.”
“You are without a doubt the finest Defender I’ve ever seen in court,” Tiv said, following her back into the ship’s main cabin.
“That’s a good start,” Karna said, quietly hoping that she’d never have to pull off a trial like that ever again.
Brex looked at the stars through the porthole of his “luxury” cabin, shared with Prince Alizarin of the United Felarin Pride-Tribes, who was gently napping on their double-occupancy cot.
Castle Carmine, Brex thought to himself, repeating all the things Red had told him.
All the things the Prince had told him.
It was all starting to get so muddled. Red the lion, Red the half-orc, Red the Prince of the United Felarin Pride-Tribes. For so long, Red had been the whole reason he was pushing forward, and now finally on the way to his true home, Brex started to feel this itching sensation.
Now that Red was going to be taken care of, he could finally have a chance to sort things out for himself.
But Red’s, no, Alizarin’s attachment to him complicated that idea. “You’ll be welcomed as a hero, Brex!” He’d said, eagerly building the excitement for his return home. “You saved my life, and everyone will want to shake your hand for it. You’ll feast with me, learn your sorcery from the best sorcerers the Pride-Tribes have to offer, and you’ll be pampered every step of the way. You’ll never know true hunger, thirst, suffering, or pain ever again, I promise you that.”
It was hard not to get caught up in all of that.
But how many times could he leave everything he knew behind? If he stayed at Castle Carmine, then Elaina and Liam would think that he and Red must have died on the journey to Goronich—or worse.
He pulled the worry block that Karna had given him out of his pocket and ran his thumb over it a few times. The motion itself was a little comforting, something to do with his hands while he tried to think his way through the issue.
But no matter how much he pushed into that little piece of wood, he couldn’t escape the idea that there was something looming over him, a great decision or sacrifice that would decide the kind of orc he’d become for years.
Or, he thought to himself. You’ll have a fantastic time and Red will be entirely right. You’ll become a master sorcerer and eat delicious food for the rest of your life, never wanting for the company of another orc again.
That’s how it always snuck in, he realized. The idea of never meeting another orc, another person like him, ever again.
But if he could be with Red, that would make it all right, somehow.
It would have to.
Copyright © 2019 E. Michael Chase, All Rights Reserved
Orctober 2019 Edition
Key art by Taoren
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the reader. It is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, copied, or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes without written consent from the author.
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