Before the Suyon lawyer could begin, Onirioago flagged him down, waving him over to her. Kaldalis tensed, knowing that this was her move. In the context of what he’d seen of the trial so far, he felt only slightly more prepared for what her options were. Since he wasn’t sure if the defense would - or could - call him up to talk again, his biggest fear was being on the stand while Onirioago was in charge of the questioning.

He’d managed to avoid getting too gross in his testimony, but if Onirioago’s lawyer could get him talking about that part of her confession, it might make him look like the real monster. Without knowing how thin the ice was under him just for being a PC, it might be the last touch needed to sink him. Despite that, it wouldn’t change the facts of the case. Even if the judge was easily swayed by prejudice, Bangen’s repetition of his story had him covered, even if the retelling would make him intensely uncomfortable.

It could be worse, though. If she could call Gavinkim back up and question him about how he’d treated her while she was in custody, it might make her look more like a victim. He had been a little too draconian for even Kaldalis’s tastes. It might make her appear sympathetic, and while that wouldn’t convince anyone of her innocence, it might earn her some leniency in sentencing if the judge could be convinced that she had suffered enough already. The prosecution had that covered, though. Establishing Gavinkim’s background with Geas Venom meant that drawing attention to his behavior would only serve to reiterate the life-destroying nature of the drug in question.

As Onirioago cast a glance towards the three of them, it wasn’t Gavinkim nor Kaldalis her eyes set on.

Bangen shivered with tangible discomfort as Onirioago flicked her eyes at the researcher.

Kaldalis didn’t know what she could want from Bangen, but a quiver of fear ran down his spine as well. What if Onirioago could use Bangen to discredit Kaldalis? What if she could turn him into the mastermind? He was the one who showed up to her office with a Deacon Tetra and immediately hatched a plan to get Onirioago arrested. Onirioago could turn him into a mastermind in turn. Bring Dalgaard back into the equation. Talk about the hold he has over Garyung. Make him appear to be a charismatic asshole who decided to remove her from his path. Turn the whole Geas Venom thing into a setup from him instead of a genuine plan from her.

Fear began to set in then. What if she turned this around on him? What if she walked free and he was arrested? It sounded exactly like something Onirioago would attempt. Was he going to need to book it for the boat? He’d put the whole building on high alert on his way in, though. What if he couldn’t escape?

There was a more terrifying option on the table, though. Onirioago seemed to win the argument with her defense, whose shoulders sagged in defeat.

“Defense calls Onirioago,” the lawyer said, with very little enthusiasm.

There was some muttering from other people in the room. Kaldalis realized that the defense must have arranged for some number of people to be here to testify on her behalf, but they were now being passed over in favor of Onirioago herself.

Despite the uncertainty from her would-be supporters, and the resignation in the body language of the lawyer, Kaldalis could not be more frightened. His fight-or-flight response went into immediate overdrive and he felt his heart racing. He thought he had figured out the worst she could do, but when faced with the unknown, he had to admit that nothing was more terrifying than her potential. She was an evil mastermind and he was her captive audience. All he could do was sit here and hope that he could physically outrun whatever she was about to say.

She stepped up before the judge with an impossibly smug look on her face. The defense lawyer was visibly struggling to formulate a question, and Kaldalis wondered if that was good news or bad. Eventually, he sagged in defeat again.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” he asked.

“Many things,” Onirioago began with the fakest smile Kaldalis had ever seen. “But first, let me put your minds at ease. I’m guilty of this crime. I was using adventurers to collect Deacon Tetra. I was going to personally process and produce more Geas Venom than any one person has ever possessed. And then I was going to use it to take control of the Ulun region.”

The entire room was stunned by her admission. Her defense lawyer trudged back to his seat and put his head down on the table in front of him.

Even the seemingly unflappable judge was visibly shaken.

“My crimes range beyond that,” Onirioago continued, her smile unbroken, but slowly turning into a smirk, “but their number and nature are beyond the scope of this trial. And they’re not what I’m here to discuss.” Her gaze settled on the scribe. “There is no easier way in Baimer to get sensitive information into the public record than shouting it in a courtroom. Every word I’m saying is being recorded, and no person or group of persons may infringe upon the public’s right to access this record.”

She recited that last bit like she was directly quoting a law - and he supposed she probably was. Kaldalis had no idea where she was going with this.

His instincts screamed at him to tackle her to the ground and stop her from doing whatever she was about to do, but he didn’t think that would be very smart. While this wasn’t an earth court, it seemed like that was probably something frowned upon here, too.

It seemed whatever she had to say, she was going to be able to say it.

“The expedition to the islands had two goals,” Onirioago said, now speaking directly to the scribe, as if the judge was inconsequential. “The foothold offered by establishing a town was the first goal, but only because every expedition that didn’t develop a strong base camp was pushed back out to sea before they could do what we were truly sent there for: investigating the island ruins.

“We know the islands of Ulun were densely populated by the now-extinct Lataxinan race,” she continued. “Their advancements in technology existed before the Systems we all know came to be, and so were - and are - beyond our ability to fathom. Abilities tied to no skills. Constructions made of metal that no armorer nor weaponcrafter can duplicate. A whole culture built around learning and education, with no sign of adventurers or military forces.” She gestured with her hands, trying to emphasize the impossible things the Lataxinans had been capable of.

Onirioago was making even less sense now. What was she driving at? Kaldalis found it difficult to believe that she had accepted guilt for her crimes in exchange for blurting out all their discoveries into the public record. She didn’t seem like that much of a ‘information wants to be free’ purist.

“The Lataxinans were wiped out by the calamity,” Onirioago said, speaking faster and faster, as if afraid of being interrupted. “An explosion that blasted the systems into our world destroyed their cities and buried their civilization. But as we unearthed their technology, so too did we unearth their knowledge. Their information. Shockingly, they had information about the Calamity, even as it wiped them out.”

If it hadn’t been Onirioago talking, he might have been excited to learn what she was about to say.

He didn’t know the Lataxinans had known about the calamity before it happened. That was probably going to be relevant for a plot point later.

Kaldalis looked over at Bangen, and was surprised that she looked as confused as he did. She was one of the key researchers for the expedition. How did Onirioago know anything she didn’t?

“The Calamity was accompanied by numerous phenomena,” Onirioago went on, “and the Lataxinans extrapolated from what they knew, and had accurate predictions for many of them. The exact nature of the Systems that followed were beyond their reach, but one thing they predicted perfectly was the Infernal Horde. Contrary to conventional belief, though, they were merely a byproduct. A side effect. The Infernal Horde, terrible though they may be, did not cause the calamity. They were merely birthed from it..”

Bangen nodded, indicating that she knew that part. But she leaned forward with obvious curiosity. Kaldalis hoped that when this was over, she would be able to tell him more. Perhaps he’d been looking too far afield for his answers about the Lataxinans and the Jormongumo. Perhaps his answers were-

A black circle roughly the size of a full-doubloon coin appeared in the bottom left of his vision, just large enough to be startling by its unexpected appearance. But it wasn’t a giant bug or other physical object; it was a part of his UI.

There was a small pop-up shortly after with a simple message:

Gameplay Recording paused because you have entered a Blocked Scene.

Ok?

Kaldalis didn’t have any option but to focus on the little “Ok?” to make the box go away. He would have to figure out how to turn his stream back on when it was over.

But why would any scene be blocked? In other games, blocked scenes usually meant copywritten music, or else a huge spoiler. The latter seemed more likely, but why would Monsoon want to or need to hide spoilers for an invite-only stream-only game? It wasn’t like the technology to play this game wasn’t available at a consumer level, right?

Spoilers weren’t going to hurt the game’s sales. And blocking major story events for a streamed game was going to really hurt the streamers who received them.

It made it all the more ominous that Onirioago looked over her shoulder and looked at Kaldalis when she spoke again.

All anxiety was gone.

Her confidence was back, though the come-hither look he’d grown to associate with her had been replaced. She wasn’t looking at him like a dog staring down a piece of meat she wanted to slobber all over.

Onirioago was looking at him like a cat staring down a wounded bird, enjoying the anticipation before the killing blow.

“It took a lot of work, putting together the different translations, and uncovering the truth,” she said, as if speaking directly to Kaldalis. “It wasn’t easy, but I’ve learned of something more disturbing than I ever thought possible. The Lataxinans made contact with another plane, from which the Calamity originated. They called it Terra. They spoke with a Terran man named Jordan Carver, and warned him of the consequences of their actions.” Her smirk turned slowly into a scowl, though victory still danced in her eyes. “He and his leader, Aaron Stevenson, cared not for our world, except for how they could use it to profit their own.”

She pointed her hand squarely at Kaldalis.

“They did this,” she announced. “The undying adventurers are not of this world, no matter how they may look and act. They are Terrans. Invaders from another world! For profit, they destroyed the Lataxinans and forced the Systems upon us.” She looked back to the scribe. “And now the truth can’t be hidden.”