Chapter 65 — The Trial, Part II

After Lord Vorshan's command echoed through the gathering, cries of “the necromancer!” gasped out as the crowd parted to reveal Captain Bastach leading a chained and dispirited Amilee to the roped-off area followed by several helmeted guardsmen wearing armor, clubs in hand to discourage any rescue or vigilantism.

Though Captain Bastach didn’t unreasonably pull Amilee along by the chain, the freckled girl was already exhausted enough that she stumbled a few times on the way to the platform where her family was standing. Ria noticed Keira’s jaw tighten each time.

When Amilee stumbled at the steps to the platform, the red-headed older girl rushed forward to help, and Bastach didn’t prevent it. Instead, he let the family help Amilee take her position on the platform and took up his position guarding the steps, signaling the other guardsmen to take up positions surrounding the sides of the platform.

“Zoe! You came!” Amilee's face lit up with renewed life, and she received her sister's hug as best she could with her wrists bound in voidstone and chained together.

The sisters began to talk, but their voices didn't carry well enough for Ria to hear. Curious about the contents of their conversation, Ria quickly formed the Listening Winds spell to better hear.

("I’m sorry, Zoe. You gave up your scholarship, and I wasted the chance you earned for me.”)

(“You should have told me you were struggling; I would have helped you.”)

(“I know, but I wanted to prove myself—to prove that I was worthy on my own merit.”)

(“And forming a dark pact is 'on your own merit'?”)

(“It's a proper familiar contract!”)

(“That you cast without a license, right?”)

(“…”)

Ria looked around to see if anyone noticed her use of magic. Master Marlow had taught her the spell as something simpler to practice and something he said all noble ladies would find useful. The spell was designed to be discreet, so Ria was optimistic that it would go unnoticed—but for some reason the blond-haired man who had been with Lord Vorshan was staring in her direction.

Maybe he was looking at the witnesses?

Had he noticed?

Sweating nervously, Ria let the spell dissipate. A glance at Keira showed her friend giving her a judgmental expression.

Ah… Keira had definitely noticed.

“Before we begin,” Lord Vorshan spoke, pausing to wait for the crowd to quiet. “Priest Dohan will bless our gathering.”

Lord Vorshan nodded in Master Rigure's direction and Master Rigure raised his wand activating a magic that caused the rope poles to glow slightly and an image of the Elders and everything inside the ropes was projected above the assembly so everyone could see the proceedings.

While Master Rigure worked his magic, Priest Dohan rose from his chair and moved to the center of the open area, raising his hands to the sky and then spreading them wide toward the ground as if encompassing the world in his speech. “Great Caretaker, Farmer, and Devoted Husband, Hemse. We call upon your nurturing blessing for those who have gathered here in your name. Let us be reminded of your love for all living things and your admonition against the bearing of false witness as we engage in this unhappy occasion of judgement for one of your faithful. Grant us wisdom to met out reasonable punishment and forgive wrongs such that each wrong is not met in kind with further wrongs. And so we beseech.”

“And so we beseech,” the crowd echoed back in response. Ria added her own voice as well, fervently hoping for such to be so.

“Thank you, Priest Dohan.” Lord Vorshan nodded to the robed priest as he returned to his seat. “Captain Bastach, present the crimes to be judged.”

Bastach stepped forward and unrolled a scroll. “Amilee Clearwell, daughter of Marshen and Lerielle Clearwell, stands accused of unlicensed use of Spirit Magic, in particular, illegal ritual soul-binding magics that can be categorized as necromancy. The aforementioned, also stands accused of endangering Vorshan’s Hills by hiding the presence of a dangerous shapeshifting monster.”

When Captain Bastach rerolled the scroll and stepped back, Lord Vorshan continued in a formal voice, “The crimes to be judged have been heard. Present your evidence.”

“Yes, my lord. Over the last several weeks, pets have been mysteriously disappearing inside the village walls. After questioning of nearby food vendors-”

Snickers rolled through some hunter-looking men standing behind Elder Harron. A sharp look from the elder quickly silenced them.

Bastach continued, “As I was saying, after questioning the food vendors and not turning up any useful information, I commissioned an investigation with our local Adventurers Guild. In the process of investigating the missing pets, the guildmembers performing the investigation discovered the presence of a shapeshifter and a ritual circle painted in the cellar of the former Seville house that is currently unoccupied. Blood and remains of animals were also found.

“Divination magic used to locate the shapeshifter led us to the Clearwell house. The shapeshifter escaped, but in searching the house, we found two Spirt Magic grimoires hidden in the bedroom of the accused.”

Gasps and murmuring roiled through the crowd at the mention of the animal remains and culminated in a shrill call that the Clearwells be exiled from Vorshan’s Hills. Zoe hugged Amilee close, and Amilee’s parents seemed in disbelief at the anger directed their way.

Lord Vorshan motioned with his outspread hands for the crowd to settle down. “I understand that many of you have concerns. Please, allow Captain Bastach to present the evidence. There will be time allocated for addressing the council of elders later.”

The crowd grudgingly quieted down, and Bastach motioned to Master Rigure. “Master Rigure, if you could speak on what you saw in the Seville’s cellar.”

Standing from his chair, Master Rigure nodded to Bastach. “The ritual circle found in the cellar matches a spell detailed in one of the recovered grimoires and is a spell that traps the soul of the sacrifice at the moment of death and binds it to the caster.”

More gasps and shouting at the horror of Amilee’s crime sounded out, and Master Rigure had to wait for Lord Vorshan to again quiet the crowd before continuing.

“The magically conductive paint used for the ritual circle was made from a pigment and binder used for artistic painting mixed together with energy replenishment potions.”

“Have you confirmed where she purchased the needed ingredients from?” Elder Alstin asked.

“Yes. The energy replenishment potions were purchased from Kylie’s, the pigment was purchased from both Kylie’s shop and your shop, Elder Alstin—in order to hide the quantity purchased. Each are purchases confirmed to have been made by Amilee herself.”

Elder Alstin nodded and made a grim face.

“Is there any doubt that the ritual was necromancy or could have been used for other purposes?” Elder Emmer asked.

“None.”

Leon was the next witness called, and Ria gave him a supportive smile—though it may have come out as a grimace judging by how nervous he looked.

After a reminder to only tell things as he saw them, Leon talked about how Ria had used a magic scroll to lead him and Lisa to the Seville’s cellar and about the encounter with the shapeshifter and the digging up of the remains.

Elder Emmer interrupted a few times and seemed more interested in Ria’s involvement, and in particular, Ranger’s—which Ria thought was odd—but Leon handled the questions well. A vaguely familiar-looking woman standing directly behind Elder Emmer was becoming visibly upset as the questioning went on. Unfortunately, Ria couldn’t remember where she’d seen the woman before. Whoever she was, she seemed apoplectic about the direction of Leon’s answers. Eventually, Lord Vorshan rebuked Elder Emmer to keep his questions relevant to the accusations and evidence.

Elder Harron asked about the state of the remains. What sort of wounds were visible? Were there signs that parts had been directly eaten? Which parts? And so on. Where Leon was unsure of the answer, Priest Dohan was able to fill in with more detail as he had also been there at the unearthing.

After Leon was Lisa’s turn. Lisa seemed more nervous than Leon, so Ria encouraged her with a discreet thumbs-up and told her to do her best as she scooted past. With a shaky voice Lisa recounted how Stripes had gone missing, her meeting with Leon to collect Stripes’ hair, the events of the encounter with the shapeshifter in the Seville cellar, finding Stripes, and how they’d run to get Captain Bastach afterward.

Lisa ended with an emotional “H-how could y-you do such a t-terrible thing!” directed at Amilee, but Amilee wouldn’t meet the distraught girl’s eyes and kept silent.

The parade of witnesses continued. Other pet owners who noted when their pets had gone missing and Leon visiting to collect hairs. A boy noting he had seen Amilee walking together with a black cat. A young woman who thought she saw a black cat disappear into a shadow but assumed her eyes were playing tricks on her. Two Clearwell maids, who thanked the Clearwells for employing them and apologized for giving their testimony, related how Amilee had suddenly adopted a strange black cat and how afterward her personality began to change—almost as if she was struggling to control some beast that had taken possession of her. Lastly, the grandmother from the alley who said that she had often seen Amilee walking with the black cat in the alleys around the Seville house.

The nice old woman, Janice apparently, added that she had been worried that well-dressed girls were frequenting those alleys of late and now to find out about necromancy and what with the witch girl attacking the guardsmens’ boys when they confronted her—then pretending to be a distressed damsel to pin the blame…

“They attacked us!” Leon grumbled, but only loud enough for those around Ria to hear.

Thankfully, Captain Bastach politely cut-off Janice’s rambling and thanked her for her testimony, which further enraged the upset woman behind Elder Emmer, but he didn’t correct the record!

“Wait a second, Bastach. I want to hear more about this incident with Gebs,” Elder Emmer spoke up, and by the tone of the murmuring, the crowd seemed to agree.

Janice was about to return to where Ria and the other witnesses were but stopped in place to see if she would be asked to respond further.

“Emmer, please. As I’ve already asked, can we keep the questions relevant to the charges at hand?” Lord Vorshan implored. “I fail to see how a bullying incident between children has any bearing on the accusations of necromancy. Unless you have something relevant to ask, I’d like to move on to questioning Amilee directly.”

“That is what I want to determine. If the foreign witch was also spotted near the Seville house, then she might also be involved in the necromancy or maybe even the one who brought the shapeshifter into town and led the Clearwell girl astray. That would certainly be relevant,” Elder Emmer argued.

Lord Vorshan visibly sighed. “Fine. You may proceed but be brief.”

Ria took in a sharp breath. Did they really think she might have been involved? The distracting woman behind Elder Emmer, made a fist pump and appeared to be making a prayer to the gods.

Elder Emmer returned his attention to Janice who was still waiting patiently. “Janice, did you witness the incident between Ria and Gebs?”

Janice shook her head. “No, elder. I heard the boys shouting and by the time I arrived only the witch girl, her dog, and the baker’s boy, Leon, were still standing. Gebs and the others were sprawled on the dirt as if they’d been knocked out.”

“So, how did you know that Ria attacked them?”

“That’s easy. No way Leon could handle Gebs, Bester, and Jerome, if you think about it—even if he’s with the Adventurers Guild now. Also, I sent little Yarrow to fetch Priestess Brielle, and once she had revived the boys, they told me themselves what had happened. The witch girl even cut off a piece of Gebs’ shirt to curse him with.”

“You did what?!” Keira whispered to Ria, and Ria fanned her hand and shook her head to indicate that it wasn’t true. The crowd was rumbling with discontent at the assertion and a lot of wondering why something hadn’t been done about her.

“How do you know she cursed it?” Elder Emmer followed up.

“Why else would a witch want something like that?” Janice asserted.

Ria wasn’t sure but she thought Elder Emmer rolled his eyes at the answer.

“Was that the only time you witnessed the foreign witch near the Seville house?”

“Yes, Elder.”

Elder Emmer thanked Janice then projected his voice loudly toward the crowd. “Is Gebs here?”

“Ah, yes, Elder,” Gebs voice called out from by Elder Harron, and the crowd parted to let him come to the front.

Lord Vorshan looked annoyed but didn’t act to stop the elder, and the other elders seemed willing to humor the farming elder. If Ria was any judge of body language, she’d say that Elders Harron and Alstin looked interested to see what Elder Emmer might uncover.

“Gebs, tell us what you know about this incident,” Elder Emmer demanded once the muscled teen had reached the front.

Ria almost laughed when she saw Gebs dad, who was guarding near Elder Emmer, trying to discreetly motion to his son to keep his lips sealed.

“Umm… well. Oliver and Dellin saw clear as day that the witch had charmed Leon, so when she tricked old man Bessel into giving her a suspiciously-full sack of coins, Dellin came and got us while Oliver watched her buy clothes at Miss Danna’s shop. After that he followed them to Sal and Marlene’s place. So, we lay in wait and confronted her where she wouldn’t have anywhere to run and demanded that she give the money back. But she pointed her wand at us, and next thing I know, Priestess Brielle is putting something harsh under my nose.”

“So, you didn’t see her go to the Seville house?” Elder Emmer prompted.

“No elder. Just Bessel’s, Miss Danna’s, and Sal and Marlene’s,” Gebs answered then added, “It’s a terrible thing that she got all that money from Bessel and is tricking people, and no one is doing anything about it.”

“It’s good that your heart is in the right place, but I don’t think you need to worry about that so much, boy. Bessel’s not known for being cheated, and I’m sure he would be complaining somethin’ fierce were that the case,” Elder Emmer chided.

“Yes, Elder.”

A few derisive chuckles came from the crowd, and Ria heard mentions of ‘greedy goblin’.

“Speaking of Bessel, is he here?” Elder Emmer called out. When no response came, Elder Emmer turned to the merchant elder, “Alstin have you heard any complaint from Bessel?”

“Ah, no,” Elder Alstin denied with a light chuckle and dismissive wave. “If anything, last we talked, he seemed in rather good spirits, saying that Xander’s Luck had come to him again.”

“Thank you, Alstin, elders.” Elder Emmer nodded his head at his fellow elders and turned to Lord Vorshan. “Thank you for your indulgence, my lord. I have no further questions on this matter.”

The emotionally-invested woman behind Elder Emmer seemed particularly dismayed by the results of the questioning and was gripping the rope in front of her so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. Every time the questions were about Ria, the woman would get so upset, and Ria couldn’t help wondering why the woman felt so strongly.

“What a load of nonsense,” Grandma Fana quietly scoffed. “Jarrel told me why you didn’t, but you should have told us about this matter with Guardsman Errol’s son when it happened.”

Grandpa Orlen grunted his agreement.

“Then if there’s no other witnesses, we shall proceed with questioning the accused,” Lord Vorshan declared.

None of the elders objected this time.