The Witch of Storn

Chapter 5

Rey panicked at the chimes. Too late, they seemed to be saying. Was it really? Rey took another step away from the door but stopped at the noise she heard from the door. It sounded like chairs shifting, and also like hundreds of voices saying the same thing. The door was an excellent sound barrier, since she couldn't hear what they were saying properly and the words blurred into each other incomprehensibly.

Rey began to panic even more. Is this a sort of ritual? Am I being offered up? I don't want to die like this! She wailed internally. It was too late for her to run, however, as from beyond the door a loud voice echoed past the door.

"THE ACCUSER! MISS SYLPHIA THALAR!"

Something about that name sent Rey reeling. Her head hurt for some reason, and as she brought a sweaty, weakened hand to her forehead the voice rang out again. This time it only brought dread to her.

"THE ACCUSED! LADY RHAENAR AERA, IL TSAEN!"

Finally it all came together. Walk through the door when you hear your name...it won't help your case if you don't show up in it...today's the day of the trial...I can get you out of the trial if you don't want to deal with it...it all made perfect sense now. Woodenly Rey spun around and walked towards the door. Robotically she opened it and walked through momentary darkness, ending up on a balcony high above a large hall.

There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about this. Let's see what I'm being accused of. At least if I deny it it's going to be the truth.

Rey stared down at the crowd of faces looking up at her. She could hear whispers from where she stood, some people mumbling at her dress and wondering why she didn't show up in her school uniform. She ignored their conversation to scan the hall, eyes running over the seats arranged in a circle around the center stage, where her eyes stopped. On the center stage were two tables, one higher than the other. At the middle of the higher table sat a man in a fiery red cape and a golden circlet on his head.

The King?

She recalled Helcin complaining about her lack of etiquette and decided to bend her knees in a curtsey to the King. She straightened up just in time to catch his pleased nod and the approving eyes of her father, sitting to the King's right. He smiled at her and she returned it. To the King's left sat another man, older than her father and the King too. He assessed her coldly, looking away as soon as he was done. Rey assumed they were the judges of the trial, wondering if it wasn't nepotism for a father to preside over his daughter's case. She was thankful for it though, she needed all the help she could get. What if she lost and ended up having to go to prison? The thought of ancient prisons made her shiver. Who was to say the prisons in this place were any better?

While the guard from earlier (so he isn't a guard?) asked the crowd to settle down so the trial could begin, Rey took the time to check out the rest of the room. The lower table on the stage was filled with people her age. Two of them smiled at her while the boy who looked very similar to the King above them just glared at her. If glares were lasers she was very sure there would be a hole in her head from how hard he was glaring. She glared back and looked away, finally noticing the balcony opposite hers.

It was the same as the one where she stood, with the same door in it, probably leading to the same small hallway she waited in previously. The only difference between the two was the occupants (and the chair).

Why don't I get a chair too? Rey felt oppressed. Would she have to stand for the duration of the trial? Why does she get a chair and I don't? I'm the nobility here, you know! She didn't think anyone would attend to her if she asked for one though.

Below her the crowd was already settled and quiet. The guard from before was speaking to the King, handing him a wooden gavel, and Rey quickly glanced at the girl opposite.

The girl sat in a chair, looking pale and sickly. Is she alright? Rey frowned as she took in the rest of the girl’s features. She was pretty, with blonde hair in a low bun at her neck. Her eyes looked big but Rey couldn't tell their color from that distance. She wore the uniform, which Rey visibly shuddered at. How did anyone even manage to wear that hideous creation?

Come to think of it, those guys are wearing the uniform too. She looked back to the lower table. The three girls and the other three boys wore the uniform but the other boy who had glared at her wore a grand outfit in black and red, with hints of orange. Is he special...?

The banging of the gavel on wood brought instant silence to the room. Rey found the terror creeping up her spine again.

How could I forget? We're here to try me.

The King cleared his throat and began to speak.

"The Court gathers today to judge the accusations brought against Lady Rhaenar, il Tsaen. Before we begin, does anybody have anything to say?" He looked around the hall, eyes pausing on Rey for a second. When no one spoke, he continued.

"Very well then. Let the trial begin."

He banged on the table in front of him with his gavel. On cue, the man from before stepped forward from his spot beside the high table.

"The accuser may come forward to present her case." He shouted, stepping back when he was done.

Rey and everybody else in the room turned their eyes to the balcony on the right, watching the girl stand shakily. She gave a small, clumsy bow and clasped her hands delicately in front of her as she told her story.

"It - It was on the last day of school, last week. The girls in my dorm were holding a tea party, to send us off." She paused, wringing her delicate fingers between her hands.

The King waited for a moment. "Yes?" He said gently.

The girl - Sylphia - shot a quick glance at Rey from across the room add immediately after returned her eyes to the floor.

"Oh, um, yes. Miss Rhae-"

"Lady."The Duke interrupted harshly, ignoring the sharp looks the King and the other man sent him out of the corners of their eyes. Sylphia faltered, raising a thin hand to her neck nervously.

She stammered, trying to get the words out of her mouth. The King sighed and held up a hand decorated with rings and she fell silent. He angled his body to the right, fixing stern eyes on the Duke. The Duke blinked at him with confused eyes and for the first time since the trial had started a smile perched on Rey's lips. That crafty old man, she thought, rather fondly for someone she had met only that morning.

"Please stop interfering with the accuser's testimony, Storn. The same courtesy will be extended to Lady Rhaenar, will it not?"

The Duke nodded, still keeping up his innocent facade. The King returned his gaze to Sylphia, sitting up again.

He nodded at her and she continued her story.

"Yes, well, I'm afraid there's not really much to tell. We - that is, all of the girls in the Belladonne dorm - all were present at the tea party. Lady Rhaenar was hosting, as I was saying, since she is the head of the dorm."

The man on the King's left raised a hand, and Sylphia fell quiet, a question in her eyes. The man looked up at her with the same cold eyes he had used on Rey, and the intensity in them made Sylphia shift on her feet. Rey shifted too, but in her case it was because her feet hurt. Rhaenar must not be used to standing for very long...

The quiet stretched on. Somewhere in the crowd someone murmured something; a chair scraped loudly against the floor, the noise level began to grow steadily, to the point where the King had to bang his gavel thrice before there was any quiet.

"Lord Stallis? Do you have anything to say?"

Lord Stallis nodded slowly, still looking at Sylphia.

"Miss...Sylphia, was it?"

She nodded.

"Cut to the meat of the matter, please. What exactly was the attempt made upon your life?"

Over on her balcony Rey choked, hastily coughing into her gloved hands. She noticed her father look at her, but was too preoccupied with taking in this new development.

Murder? Rhaenar allegedly tried to kill her? She appraised the girl opposite. She had absolutely nothing that Rhaenar would want. Except maybe the power of cuteness? I'm all darkness and spice and she's bunnies and the power of friendship.

Meanwhile the trial was still going on.

"Oh, um, certainly," the flustered girl said. "It was the cake, Your Highness."

All three on the high table raised their eyebrows. There was a slight rustle in the crowd. Even the accused was surprised.

"The cake?'' Rey's father repeated. The disbelief coloring his voice was so obvious it made Sylphia turn red. Unfortunately she doesn't look like a ripe tomato, Rey thought wryly. She stopped thinking, startled. Where did that come from?

She nodded meekly, answering a beat later. "Yes, Your Highness. It was one of the ingredients, you see. Tiger nuts. I'm afraid I have a very serious reaction to them, and for me they can be quite fatal in large doses."

The crowd shifted again at this latest statement. Rey looked at the stage, scoffing in relief. That's ridiculous, right? She could have just not eaten the cake, right? Her face fell.

There were only frowns on the high table. The King banged for silence again. Upon getting it, he looked at Sylphia.

He spoke very slowly. "Miss Sylphia, this is a very serious claim to make, especially in a place such as this. As you know, as we -" he waved his empty hand around the hall, “- all know, tiger nuts are allergic to practically no one."

Rey wanted to be relieved, to sigh at the words that surely proved her innocent. But why is he saying it like he's presiding at a funeral?

He carried on, seeing Sylphia nod in response.

"No one except a light elemental." The crowd began to rustle again, but this time he didn't quiet them.

"Are you claiming that you are a light elemental, Miss Thalar?"

Rey whipped her head from the King to Sylphia, along with the mass of people below her. They waited with held breaths, watching Sylphia as intently as an owl lying in wait for its prey.

Sylphia responded. "I am, Your Highness." She had a slight puff ton her chest as she said it, while Rey's stomach dropped into the bottom of her torso.

The whole hall was so silent you could snap a finger and it would echo. Then it erupted in a frenzy of excited voices, clamoring and turning to their neighbors and I knew it! and they said there was another elemental at Cardinalis this year and then Lady Rhaenar is guilty? and then that loud voice rang out again, echoing in their heads from its force.

"SILENCE!"

Rey raised a trembling hand to her ears and winced. She brought her hand down when the place was quiet again, grabbing the offending hand in her other one to steady it. Unfortunately it was in vain. Anyone who had looked closely at her would have noticed the tremble on her lips and the unsteadiness in her limbs.

Am I going to faint? It certainly looks like it. Rey squinted at the air in front of her. It rippled, twisting and curving around itself. She felt her stomach churn. Idly she wondered how the audience would react if she bent over the railing and emptied her stomach over them. The thought of it made her feel a little better and she turned back to the trial, where a ball of bright light was now hovering over one of Sylphia's palms.

Well, well, well. Rey stared in wonder. That's not something you see every day.

She watched until the ball of light popped out of existence with some sparks, and then turned back to the stage. Below her she could still hear people mumbling animatedly, and glancing at the lower table the glaring boy from before now looked smug. What's his problem, anyways? When he noticed her stare he glared and Rey rolled her eyes away from him. She noticed the others on the table didn't even react when Sylphia claimed she was a light elemental, whatever that was.

Down the gavel went again, and silence reigned again.

The King turned to Rey.

"Miss Sylphia has made her case. Now you may defend yourself, Lady Rhaenar."

Everyone in the room shifted to face her.

Oh s**t.