Natasha and Kain walked up the staircase that spiralled up the round kingdom hall’s wall.
“What do you think, Natasha?”
“I knew that her actions would catch up to her one day. She seems to have realized as much herself. It is fitting.”
Kain nodded to his twin. Despite looking very different, Natasha and Kain had very similar temperaments.
“How long do you suppose she will be detained for?” Natasha asked him.
“Two or three ages.”
Natasha hid her concern. Two or three years would be very emotionally taxing for Janna, with a child on the way. She would be separated from her newborn for one year at least. Kain seemed to catch her concern.
“What’s the matter?” He asked, “Worried she can’t handle it?”
“No.” Natasha said, “I will need to modify the laws fairly swiftly.”
Kain looked at him confused, and also a little suspicious. “You intent to subvert my verdict?”
“No, fool.” Natasha didn’t like it when Kain jumped to conclusions, “I cannot tell you until after the trial.”
Kain was not to know of Janna’s situation, as it might influence his judgement. As chair, such things would be unacceptable. Janna had already been given the advantage that all accused are entitled, that someone close to them was to be chair at their trial.
The law had become a very serious issue for the King. He had raised his children to follow the Solune law at all times, unless they intended to change it permanently. Thus, the royal children were not above the law, but they did have the authority to question and potentially change it for the better. Natasha had been using this privilege actively, and both the King and the citizenry agreed that her improvements were generally positive.
Despite this, Kain’s expression became even more suspicious, “Until after the trial? Very well sister, I’ll be speaking to you immediately after it is completed. I had better not be disappointed in your reasoning.”
Natasha did something she had not done since childhood, she pushed Kain. He fell up the stairs, catching himself on his hands and looking back at her. He wore an expression of both nostalgia and confusion. Natasha looked back with a slight smile edging her lips.
Kain stood up saying, “I… I’ll have to trust you I guess. Or is that vice-captain Alice finally getting to you.”
He then laughed as Natasha’s expression changed to confusion.
Gwenhime hadn’t come this time. She already knew the outcome would likely be one or two years. Murder was considered a high crime, but if it was done for a Servant, or in war things were much different. Servants were thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of years old or more, and their wisdom and values were based on a much different structure of time.
She ambled through the cool, quiet castle looking for her husband, the King. She asked the Captain of the castle guard, Vinth where the King might have gone. Vinth almost shrugged, but he caught himself and stated that the King had left the castle a few sixths ago. He wasn’t sure where the King had gone.
Gwenhime thanked him and exited. The main doors of the castle opened up to open land, with the city Mudock behind it. It was an unusual design, as having a face of the castle integrated into the city wall had inherent safety flaws. Gwenhime knew at the time that it was built that there would be little internal threat, and she wanted to see the raw wilderness of the kingdom when she exited, not the town.
Gwenhime hadn’t come from this place. Like the King, she hadn’t come from this side of the planet even. Gwenhime was a Gharal, although neither the king nor her knew that for the first few millennia of their relationship. It actually came as quite a shock to him, that she was a member of the Solune’s ancient enemy, the enemy that had tried to eat his entire kingdom like so many trapped animals.
But Gwenhime wasn’t interested in eating Solune people. Frankly, she had never eaten the flesh of an intelligent being, and she felt nervous about trying any now, especially if she was biologically inclined to crave it. She sighed. The Gharal have two inherent racial conjuration abilities. This first is flight, and the second is giant growth. Gwenhime conjured a pair of light grey feathered wings and lifted herself to the roof of the castle. She walked along its rim, searching.
She saw the King speaking to a man she knew to be Marcus. She stepped off the castle and glided downward, flicking her wings away and walking to where she had seen her husband.
“This is suspicious. I value your devotion to me and my family, thank you Marcus.” The King said, and then turned to Gwenhime.
Marcus did an outer salute and exited.
There, on the dirt path surrounded buy simple wooden houses, Gwenhime and the King looked at each other. They had been together for so long that this is how they tended to begin conversations, by reading each other’s faces.
Gwenhime could tell that the King’s information was less important, and so he spoke first.
“Gwendalyn I believe our daughter has been framed. Little Janna.” He said. All of his children were little to him.
Gwenhime nodded. They walked back toward the castle together.
“Yes, Janna is also expecting a child in ten months or so.” She replied.
The King turned to her gravely, but slowly his ancient mind processed the many facts that floated within it, and he calmed.
“I am sure that Natasha will ensure that she is taken care of.” The King said.
Gwenhime nodded, “I believe directly after the case. Although, if Janna has been framed then we mightn’t have to worry too much.”
The King shook his head, “Not all the reports are false, Gwendalyn. Just a few. Marcus is an Agent, he told me of his suspicions.”
“Then Natasha would likely take care of this too.”
As the King and his wife entered the castle, not far away in the Hall of Poets and Law, the third session of courts was beginning.
This is a side post. The second half likely won’t make it into the final project, but it happened nonetheless. And no, I did not mess up Gwenhime’s name. The King calls her Gwendalyn as an affectionate nickname.
Daniel Triumph.