Before you know it the festival preparations were all done and it was already the day Cockatrial would begin. The curious name of the three-day-festival originated in the fact that it was celebrated every five years to commemorate the triumph of Æscwine of Avallach, the first margrave, over a cockatrice which terrorized the area of present day Avallach. Since this historical event was called “putting the cockatrice on trial” by the locals it was only logical that the commemorative event would come to be known as the “cockatrice trial” or “Cockatrial” for short.

A merry mood could be found everywhere. Merchants from all over the kingdom and the other march had come to profit from the trade fair going hand in hand with the festivities. Even a dozen merchants from Giudena had come but Giudenians were well known for their shrewdness and good business sense after all. The Cockatrial was an opportunity they wouldn’t ignore, especially so as during this time goods from the other march were available which didn’t find their way to the market of Avallach otherwise.

With the big day having arrived, the Avallachs and their guests went to visit the festival. They split in three groups according to interests. Margrave Orderic still hadn’t returned and Parcie, although having grown up in the margraviate, would give a terrible guide because he simply had no interest in anything aside from martial arts. Since that was the case the following three groups were established:

The first group included both Mortimer and Sybil, with one of Sybil’s maids and Mortimer’s butler Andrew as company. The fiancés took the chance to spend time together like originally planned. The presence of the servants was to make sure that the two lovebirds did nothing unbecoming and to also have someone to carry all purchases. The latter was poor Andrew’s task, and Sybil bought really a lot of souvenirs for family, friends and herself.

In the second group were Prince Edric and his mother Mafalda. Their festival guide was not of noble blood but highly welcome nonetheless. Edric was overjoyed at the prospect of being guided by Avallach Castle’s librarian. Augustine was a famous scholar the second prince deeply admired. He had read the old librarian’s hand-annotated edition of “Chronicles of the History and Inhabitants of the Other March” in the palace library until it was in tatters. His main focus was of course on what little he came to know about agriculture in the other march.

Violant took the task on of guiding the third group, consisting of the third price Gervase and the eighth prince Wynknin. She assumed that Dryp was also present – which she was since she never left Wynkin’s side for long – but she couldn’t see the invisible fairy, save for some unclear tiny shadow hovering around Wynkin she could spot occasionally thanks to the sight.

At the moment, the young lady and her royal visitors traversed the trade fair. Market stalls and tents of all kinds covered a much larger space than the usual marketplace of Avallach. Humans and denizens of the other march mingled among each other in a bustling crowd moving from stall to stall. The presence of the garrison knights allowed for the preservation of order. Nonetheless, there were conflicts of course, caused by theft, scams or simply by prejudices against the trading partners different from oneself. Humans had prejudices against the otherworldly traders and visitors, the other marchers had prejudices against humans and naturally also among themselves. It was a normal thing, albeit nothing good.

Eyeing one of the vendors at a stall nearby, Prince Gervase distorted his face in disgust. He had never seen such a hideous woman. It appeared like an insult to his eyes to watch her any longer but he was unable to tear his gaze away from such unparalleled ugliness. Of course it was clear to him that the hideous crone was in no way human but she was a good reason to look for trouble with the despised Lady Avallach. Much to his chagrin she had managed to successfully counter most of his verbal attacks in the last few days. Well, he didn’t know himself why he was so obsessed with her since the debut ball of October last year but he felt the urge to disgrace her as much as possible. If he was honest to himself, he was acting quite childish but it was the first time that a young aristocratic lady had defied him so openly since most young girls gladly lay at his feet, drooling over him. It filled Gervase with pride to be the most desired bachelor in the whole kingdom and it hurt this pride immensely to find a woman who so openly defied his charm.

The third prince asked: “Lady Violant, say, what is this hide…”

More he couldn’t say because the margravial young lady had rapidly covered his mouth, thus effectively silencing him.

“Your Royal Highness, I hope you didn’t want to say anything about the woman over there being the opposite of beautiful.” she warned, her eyes sternly mustering the foolish prince. “Never call a fin wife anything but gorgeous or you will suffer the consequences. You might not know, Your Highness, but the women of the fin folk have quite the peculiar problem. They start out as really beautiful mermaids but they only get to keep their unearthly beauty if they manage to consummate marriage with a human man. If not, then they are forced to marry a fin man, rapidly lose their previous beauty and are exiled from the otherworldly undersea city of Finfolkaheem to spend the rest of their days as witches on land. Of course the fin wives will have a terrible beauty complex, and to your information, I know the fin wife over there personally and she is only 21 years old. Well, when I saw her the last time five years ago she was still a gorgeous mermaid, but still!”

Gervase was too shocked to say anything. Human or not, that was no fate you would wish anybody to experience. Thus he grudgingly admitted defeat for now and went on in silence.

Wynkin highly enjoyed the sight of his normally oh-so-perfect brother meekly shutting up. Already this experience alone made it more than worth to have travelled all the way to Avallach. Additionally, Lady Violant appeared to have a rare talent for stirring Gervase up, leading to him more often than not making a fool of himself. Nonetheless the eighth prince felt somewhat unsettled seeing the third prince so close to the red-haired and silver-eyed girl, be it on antagonistic terms or not. He was unable to say why he felt like this though.

“Begging your pardon, Your Royal Highnesses, I believe that the cockatrice trial play should start soon.” informed Violant the two princes “Since we have agreed with the others to meet up for it I believe we should now set out for the play stage.”

“Yes, we have promised that.” Prince Wynkin agreed “Please lead the way, Lady Violant.”

The young lady from the margravial house and her two royal guests moved in the direction of the stage where the play about the cockatrice trial would be shown, undoubtedly the climax of the festivities on the first day. They were stealthily followed by several men in commoner’s everyday clothing but armed with weapons. Those were no assassins though but the stealth troupe of the royal guard, tasked with protecting members of the royal family. Thus the three groups should meet up again soon.