Gemini wordlessly led Mena, Ashlan, the Tessellations and a select group of people he called the “staff and witness brigade” to a towering, arched set of doors. Jet black and sinister, they were a direct contrast to the dreamy, pale-blue walls of the rest of the castle.

“Welcome,” Gemini said in a surprisingly deep and ominous voice. “To a room where no light shines but the truth.”

His green eyes gleamed. “There is much darkness inside, but trust me when I tell you, the guilty party have nowhere to hide. Caligari, get the doors!”

“Yes, headmaster,” Caligari said quickly and lifted her hands. With a loud shriek, the doors opened, and a wind exhaled, sounding like an opera of banshees. It buffeted Mena, Ashlan and the Tesselations, leaving their eyes wide, their faces chilled and their hair standing on ends.

“Aiee!” Laetitia howled. “I had just conditioned my ‘air.”

“Get used to it, honey,” Gemini exclaimed. “The winds of judgement blow the hardest on those who scorn it.”

As Mena entered the chamber, she realized Gemini was right. There was no light but two tiny, pale green lights hovering over small witness podiums. The rest of the room was overlooked by an enormous purple and black checkered perch fit for a judge, an equally highchair with dark moldings resembling bat wings and dusty wood pews for the audience, jury and witnesses to reside in.

“Gloomarvelous,” Janus exclaimed, her eyes dazzled by the abhorrent décor. “What I wouldn’t do for the whole castle to look like this.”

Mena swallowed hard, and pressed her hands together, hoping she wouldn’t be prosecuted for the duck bill incident. Hopefully, the law was just and not nearly as ominous as it appeared.

Caligari guided the Tessellations and Ashlan to one podium, packing them together like a jar of tense insects, and Mena to the opposite end. The pale green light hovering over Mena made her feel strangely lightheaded and faint.

Gemini clapped his hands and announced, “Presenting the Lolly-Pop Labour Union Jury!” and 12 little people walked in from a side door and filed into the jury pews. They all clutched enormous lollypops that were red on one side and green on the other. Lol Pops was the last and when Gemini saw him, he gave him an affirmative and disappeared behind a tarot card. He reappeared on the judge’s podium and he was quickly followed by Caligari who vanished into the shadows and appeared in the batwing arched chair.

As Gemini crossed his arms, striking a confident pose, Caligari magnified her voice so her stern tone thundered across the chamber. “This case will be presided over by the honorable, great, respectable, morally-just, knowledgeable, thoughtful, wise, all-knowing, talented…”

Caligari, sweetheart,” Gemini said, interrupting her. “As worthy as I am of all those adjectives, perhaps it’s best we get on with this hearing.”

“Right,” Caligari said, her pale face turning bright red in the darkness. “Headmaster of the Nightdream Academy and Overseer of this trial, Gemini.”

A raspy but feminine voice interrupted her as the door creaked opened. “I certainly hope we’ve made it on time,” Toyah O’Ryan burst through the door in a purple pants suit, her large bust shaking as she made her way down the pews. She was followed by an even larger man with a massive, fiery mane, a bushy mustache, and a formal jet-black suit. His eyes were small by extremely dignified. “Relax dear,” he said in a boisterous voice worthy of his form. “If we’ve missed a second, we’ll simply pay them to start over.”

“Gemini,” he bellowed in a belligerent fashion. “Lionel O’Ryan and I will be a damned buzzards godfather if my sweet cub did anything to this Groundborn.”

Mena’s stomach tightened, and Ashlan blushed bright pink over her doting father, covering her face.

“Now now, dear,” Toyah said, her raspy but sweet voice coaxing her husband down. “The hearing hasn’t even begun. I know my Ashy wouldn’t do anything to her best friend’s daughter.”

Mena breathed out a sigh of relief. It was nice to know that Toyah cared about her in addition to Ashlan.

Lionel and Toyah crammed themselves into the pews, which could barely accommodate someone like May, let alone two enormous lion people. Mena wondered where the Tessellations’ parents were or if they even cared.

“Now,” Gemini said, “Without further interruptions—two perfectly lovely interruptions” he mentioned as Lionel glared at him. “Let us begin!”

He whipped out a mallet with a goofy white jester face with checkers for eyes and slammed it on the table.

Caligari’s voice amplified, this time its sternness directed solely at the perceived perpetrator. “Laetitia Andrea Tesselation,” she said, and Mena saw the elf retained a stiff upper lip and cold sneer.

“You stand before us today for leveling your most arcane arts at a fellow student. Much like internal overheating arts of the Solborn, inflicting moonmadness on a fellow student can result in permanent damage to their bodies. How do you answer?”

“But professor,” Laetitia’s voice wavered and carried on with false concern. “I was merely defending my poor sista Marie, oo’s been defiled twice by zat vile Rainborn.”

“But…” Mena pepped but Gemini hit his mallet on the podium, sending a chilling clown laugh through the room.

“Order! We will get to you soon, Willow.”

“As you zee,” Laetita pointed to Marie, still sporting a bright yellow duck bill where her mouth should be. “That Rainborn resorted to the lowest of ground curses: Prankster arts.”

“Miss O’Ryan,” Caligari asked. “What say you?”

“Erm…” Ashlan began, her head frantically pivoting between Caligari, Mena and her parents like it was going to spin on its shoulders. “Marie said…”

Mena gave a hopeful look at Ashlan before Laetitia silenced her with a frozen glare like a steel dagger.

“Laetitia is correct,” Ashlan said. “Mena fired a prankster art at Marie.”

Mena gritted her teeth. She could not believe Ashlan’s treachery.

“I see,” Caligari responded, her tone masking her judgement.”

“Mena Arabella Willow,” Caligari asked, at last. “How do you testify?”

Mena drew a silent breath like an arrow from her quiver. It was her time to tell the truth and she had so much to say but saying it easily and eloquently was not something that came naturally to her. She tried to ignore the prying eyes of the defense—three girls who directly perpetrated a crime against her—and the jury too, ever sizing her up with those giant lollypops in hand.

“Er…” Her teeth bit her lips and her knees trembled.

“Well, go on,” Caligari urged her.

“Marie said stuff about me that I couldn’t easily forgive. Words that not only hurt me, but people like Janus and May.”

“Like what?” Caligari asked.

Laetitia and Marie shot sinister glares at the young witch, complete with a fingernail miming a knife across the throat. Laetitia and Marie weren’t that intimidating, but they were well connected and could probably bring about pain in ways Mena couldn’t fathom. Mena opened her mouth, but no further words came out.

Everyone was silent, waiting for her words, but she drew no more. Mena wished she could slump to her knees in sadness. She had failed. On her big moment, she choked. The two elves let out sinister giggles (or quacks in Marie’s case) and they held their hands to their heads as they sneered at her.

“Well, if that’s all,” Gemini said, and he made his voice deeper. “Let us commence with the witnesses.”

One by one, May, Janus and Professor Andromeda all got up, including some more of Mena’s classmates, Lunaborns, Solborns and Groundborns. Naturally, the people more friendly to Mena, gave testimonies against the Tessellations and Ashlan, while higher class students, either fearing for their popularity or status, tended to spin tales about how Mena was a vile prankster. All Mena could do as she watched was either bite her nails or sigh in relief. Even May managed to get out that they often tormented her over her love of kumquats, adding that “it’s a remedy tested and approved by my family for skin care.”

Janus herself indited the terrible trio by saying that Mena was, “led astray by promises of popularity, as wide-eyed new girls tend to be, until they learn how truly dead and rotten it is on the inside.” Janus punctuated it by crying, “It’s so dead and rotten, not even my daddy would touch it.”

Mena smiled warmly. Her new friends were really crusading for her. At last, Professor Andromeda got up. And while she was not in the room, when Marie said such ghastly things about Mena and her friends, she was in the room when she called out Laetitia for cursing Mena with moonmadness. Unfortunately, Andromeda had to shamefully admit it was her fault that Laetitia was startled, sending Mena flying into the Dream Deposit.

At last, Mena, The Tesselations and Ashlan were called back to the podium. “And now,” Caligari said, “the honorable Gemini will commence the most pivotal section of our hearing: The Affairs of The Heart.”

The pale, tiny light above them glowed ominously, casting itself down onto the foreheads of Mena, Ashlan and the Tesselations. Faintness returned to Mena’s head as she felt such a sliver of light cut through her like a butcher’s knife.

“You may forget it,” Gemini said in his most ominous voice. “I am the master of this Dream Castle and I can see directly into a person’s heart, brain and dreams when the light of truth shines down upon them. So can each member of this jury. I hate to say it, but your own pathetic testimonies are worthless compared to what your heart tells me.”

The light siphoned out all of Mena’s feelings and thoughts regarding the case, and she could tell by the green and ultra-focused eyes of Gemini that he was studying the contents of her soul very carefully. The Tessellations both gasped, their eyes trembled, and their mouths hung open as the light punctured them. Only Ashlan sat still and emotionless as the light probed her head.

At last, the light dissipated, leaving them in complete darkness.

Gemini hit his mallet causing the jester face to snicker and the torches to brighten around them as he announced, “And now, the jury will deliberate on what they’ve heard and what the consequences should be for all of those involved.”

As the little people of the Lollypop Labour Union gathered in the backroom, Mena sat with her new friends. “Would you like another backrub, Mena?” May asked cordially but she was shot down.

“Sorry, May,” Mena said, her face green from being probed. “I don’t want to get even sicker.”

At last, the jury filed back into the room. Gemini and Caligari stood at the center of them “And without further ado,” Caligari said. “We have their pronouncements.”

“All in favor for Laetitia Andrea Tesselation’s probation for use of arcane arts?”

Mena watched as the little people held their lollypops sideways, but slowly and surely, turned them to green. It started with the one at the top row, but his compatriots followed one by one. “Ooh that’s nice,” Janus said, “Green means they’re in favor of it. Heck, maybe they’ll even get her expelled.”

Mena was too nervous to join in with Janus. She simply sat still and tense. The elves began to protest loudly as the green lollypops filled the top role and soon enough, the bottom row was following suit.

At last, it was all down to one more lollypop. Everyone beside it were all bright green, the color of fresh lime. Mena’s head perked up. Maybe things would be in her favor at last.

The lollypop was about to turn when suddenly, the doors swung open, and a bold voice cried from outside of it, “OBJECTION!”

Flanking the Tessellations’ cold hearted mother was Professor Gaia in one of his traditional dark capes. “Professor Gaia?” Caligari exclaimed. “What is the meaning of this?”

Gaia was silent, but a look of utter confidence left the crowd in total silence, everyone wondering who could possibly have an objection so late in the trial.