Later the same day I stood in front of the table, all the committee members looking at me. My father gave me an encouraging smile. It didn’t help much. My hands were sweaty. I never had a problem talking in front of people, but right now it wasn’t any people but the most powerful citizens of the Empire.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Then started. “I.. I am standing here to report on a crime committed by a person who swore his loyalty to the Laumanian Empire. He not only severely harmed our citizens but also cooperated with another nation. The kidnappings bringing fear to the heart of the masses were orchestrated by his family. His actions not only directly harmed those who got kidnapped but also made our nation look weak. I went and investigated the kidnappings because as the ruling class we must protect our citizens.”

I let my words sink in. I still held a grudge because most in the committee didn’t care about the kidnappings but I couldn’t tell them my opinion too frankly. As I watched their faces some showed a streak of guilt most didn’t care about what I said. That was to be expected.

“What I found was a conspiracy against the nation. One of the great families was actively trying to weaken us and strengthen Anardin.”

That got a reaction. Lord Arfang and Lady Aleness who both looked bored before were now listening to my words with wrapped attention. Because of many wars, the hatred against Anardin ran deep in some people. Now I needed to use this hatred to get them on my side.

“This great family supported Anardin. Anardin, who we fought countless wars against. Anardin, who killed thousands of our brave soldiers in the Great War. Anardin, who not even a decade ago attacked us and took our territory south of the Rainwis.”

“Enough,” Lord Arfang barked and banged his fists against the table, “who is supporting these traitorous bastards.”

It worked. Were their expressions indifferent before, now they looked at me with interest. I’m not happy I have to use the conflict as bait, but I won’t let Hashot escape repercussion.

“Lord Hashot, your family was directly involved kidnapping our citizens and bringing them to Anardin, where they would be sold on the slave markets or worse.”

Before I could continue any further Lord Hashot interrupted me with a laugh. “I’m sure you have nice proof to show my alleged involvement in this case. But I’m not in the slightest bit interested in listening to your forged evidence. So, could we please skip it, and come back to important topics?”

“I’m afraid you have to listen. We have found multiple witnesses blaming the kidnappings on your children. It is…”

He interrupted me again. “You paid some peasants to make some false claims? That’s no proof. A few silvers and they will say and do anything you want. Lachester must have fallen deep if they have to rely on…”

Enough was enough. “Lord Hashot it is I who is speaking. You can argue all you want after I finished. And you are wrong, I have the mayor of Evinsgate as a witness. She and the kidnappers accused your family. They made their statement under truth potion, so there is no way they were lying.”

I inhaled, Lady Aleness used the moment of silence to voice her opinion. “Really? Hashot works together with Anardin. I hadn’t expected this and I’m deeply disturbed by the information.”

Lord Hashot answered her. It seemed like I was losing control of the conversation. “There is no hard proof to any of her accusations. Truth potions only reveal what the interviewed thinks to be true. Memories can be changed. And even if it was true, the only one kidnapped were unimportant peasants. You can hardly call that ‘supporting Anardin’.”

“Lachester is not known to perform sloppy investigations,” Lady Aleness replied. “But you may be right, the kidnappings only comprised unimportant people.”

That was what I feared. They ignoring the case because for them it wasn’t of importance. I had to stop this. There was no sense in telling them the kidnapped had family and friends. Most wouldn’t care.

“I think you should consider it from another point of view. For you they may be unimportant, but do you have any idea what Anardin wants with them? It may be just them wanting to have more slaves. But can we be certain of that? The answer is no, for all we know they may enlist the capable ones in their military and only sell those with bad magical talent as slaves. Therefore the actions of family Hashot should be considered as treason against the Empire and its people.”

With these words, I ended my speech. Lord Hashot opened his mouth to form an angry reply to my words, but Lady Aleness was faster. “Thank you very much Alicia Lachester, you can take a seat now. The committee will discuss your findings and vote on what to do with Hashot.”

Because no one protested against her words, I walked to the spectator area and took a seat so they could have their debate. I hoped I was convincing enough.

Their talk was heated. Lord Arfang appeared to be especially angry. He had lost both his parents in a war against Anardin and hated them with passion. He suggested having Lord Hashot and all suspects in his family questioned under truth potion. Sadly, his proposal got shut down. The great families were very careful about having anyone in their rows questioned with this serum since the interviewer could ask them anything and make them reveal their family’s secrets.

In the end, they decided the proof wasn’t enough to condemn one of the great families. Also, according to them, there was no damage done by the kidnapping. Some of the family heads didn’t seem to be happy about the decision. I was livid. Why aren’t they punishing him? It’s ridiculous how many more proofs do they want? I was about to storm over to them and question their state of mind, but something stopped me. It was the smile on my father’s face. He thought it went well?

Half an hour later I sat across from my father in his office. I still felt indignant and it must have shown on my face since my father told me: “This has gone perfect.”

“Perfect?” I asked, my voice almost shrill. “They got away with everything. They sold dozens of people into slavery.”

“There was never a real chance to get them sentenced. The great families can get away with almost anything. If they ever try something like this again, they will lose their status as a great family though. Also, thanks to your speech Arfang won’t ever side with Hashot again. Furthermore, they lost any standing they held with Aleness. Hashot’s position has considerably weakened. Due to this incident, they will be the next great family to lose their seat in the committee once a strong candidate arises.”

“It isn’t satisfying. You know I want to improve the masses living conditions. But if I can’t even get the one responsible for kidnapping dozens of them sentenced, how can I ever reach my goal?”

My father was silent for a moment, considering what to reply. “I can’t say I like the goal you chose but I understand why you chose it and I think it’s worthwhile to pursue. You need to build a strong powerbase, in particular, if you want to push for reforms. By weakening the Hashot you strengthened us. Moreover, you presented yourself well and made your opinions known. I think people will start to approach you with alliances and other deals.”

“And what should I tell them?”

“That’s up to you. Your path will be different than mine because our goals are different. The only advice I can give you is to consider all your options and then act decisively. But enough about politics. Take the day off, you deserve it.”

I decided to use my free time to visit Ari. I had to wait until late evening so she was home. When I arrived at her doorstep the sun had already sunken and a bright full moon illuminated Gloomchester.

The difference between my living conditions and those of most others always surprised me. The rooms comprising my private quarters were larger than Ari’s whole house and her parents were considered to be doing well. I couldn’t imagine living in such small houses.

I knocked. Senna opened the door and asked me in. The whole family plus Myra were sitting at the table in the center of the dining room and eating. Even though I didn’t like the tightness of the room it was decorated cozily and made one feel at home. That is Senna's specialty after all. Everyone greeted me.

“Please sit down, Alicia. Do you want anything to eat?” She asked me.

“No thanks I had eaten before coming here. I’m sorry to disturb your meal.”

I sat down on the only free chair at the table. The prepared food smelled nice and I considered asking for a plate anyway. The only one still eating was Ronald, but he seemed to be almost finished.

“Ari, Myra, thank you for your help in catching the kidnappers. Also, Christoph told me you were fine, but I wanted to ask myself.”

Ari answered. “We are doing well. They didn’t hurt us.”

“That’s a relief to hear. I wonder, how did you manage to escape? None of the others kidnapped was able to.”

These words made everyone at the table look uncomfortable, even Ari looked unsure of what to say. I wondered why. Ari threw a glance at her father and he nodded.

Then she told me: “Well you see, they installed a small runic system in the room they trapped us in, which prevented me from using magic or any other means to escape. The runic system was also protected against tampering. I couldn’t read runes well enough to find out which to disable to destroy the protection, but Myra could. This way we disabled them, I fought against our assailants, won and then we escaped.”

“Myra, you can read runes? I didn’t believe someone in your position to be taught about runes.” I meant someone who was magicless and an orphan.

Myra looked at me unsure. “I had never been taught about runes.”

“Then how could you…” Then realization hit me. “You are a scribe?” I asked incredulously. “But then, why are you working as a maid?”

Ronald took over. “We only got the idea about Myra being a scribe because of the kidnapping and we aren’t sure yet. It seems plausible though. I planned to find a way to ascertain it, without revealing her but I wasn’t able to. We decided on Senna asking your mother about it tomorrow, but maybe you know a way?”

“There is an easy way to check, but it might take some time. We can do it now if you want?”

Myra appeared to be unsure, Ari wasn’t. She put a hand on Myra’s shoulder and told her: “Let’s find out.” And towards me: “So, how do we do it?”

“It’s easy we only need a piece of paper and a pen.”

After Senna brought the items over to me, I painted a small fireball rune onto it. It took me a few minutes. I did a crappy job drawing it, my hands were shaking in excitement. A scribe. It’s too good to be true. After finishing I walked over to Myra and placed the piece of paper in front of her. Ari and her parents were watching us with rapt attention.

“Now, place both of your hand on top of the paper, right over the rune.”

She did as I told her. Her hands shacked almost as bad as my own, but in her case, I believed it to be hope mixed with trepidation instead of excitement.

“Like this?” She asked in a small voice.

“Very good,” I said hoping to sound soothing. “Now close your eyes and imagine an empty space.” Doing this was just like my grandfather had taught me to form my first spell. Imagination was an important part of spellcasting. It decided the shape the spell would take and it had to be trained just like anything else.

I continued: “There is a flame, a small one. It is flickering and illuminating the whole space in soft yellow light. Feel the warmth radiating off of it. Try to enlarge the flame. Make it bigger, let it take the shape of a fireball. Now the fire is not warm but hot."

Until now it was the way how young mages were taught to cast a fireball. Starting from here, I had to improvise. I didn’t know exactly what scribes needed to do to use their special magic.

“With your imaginary hands reach out until your fingertips touch the fireball.” Myra flinched. She seemed to be pretty deep in the imaginary world if she was afraid of the fire burning her.

“Now focus on everything you feel, the warmth, the light, the burning and push it through your hands. Push it into the paper. Focus on it as strong as possible.”

Suddenly the paper glowed in a brilliant orange light. I smiled, it worked, she was a scribe. I had to stop myself from jumping up and down in excitement like a kid. Myra still focused on the paper not seeming to notice that something had happened. Ari, Senna, and Ronald stared at the paper, none of them sure of what it meant.

I said a smile clearly showing on my face: “It’s done Myra, you can stop.”

She opened her eyes and looked around. She appeared to have awoken from a dream. With everyone staring at her a questioning expression showed on her face. I took the paper. It had stopped glowing one or two seconds after it started.

“Well, let’s get outside and test it, just to be sure beyond any reasonable doubt.”

Everyone looked at me in surprise. Ari was the first to find her voice: “So it’s true, she’s a scribe?”

I gave her a short nod and walked outside. The streets were empty. I channeled mana into the rune and concentrated on setting specific variables for the spell. It burst out of the paper and flew straight up into the sky. She is a scribe. There is no doubt about it.

I have to get her to join my family. Scribes are invaluable and if she supports me, I can reach my goals so much faster. But what if she declines? My last thought brought me crashing down from my happiness induced state. Can I force her to join me?

No, I can’t. It would go against anything I want to achieve. I want to give the people a life worth living and not to force them to work for me, even if it is for the best of all. Not seeming to notice my inner conflict Myra asked me a question.

“I have wondered for some time now, how can I see this fireball, but most other spells are invisible to me?”

Did she ask that? Now? She was a scribe, and the only thing she wondered about was that? Didn’t she know how amazing her being a scribe was? Probably not… Knowledge about scribes isn’t widespread.

To answer her question, I told her: “A fireball is the result of a spell and is therefore as visible as any other flame. The actual spell is summoning the fireball and pushing it into the desired direction. Everyone who isn’t blind can see the results of any spell, magic vision is only needed to see the spell itself. Also, a mage’s magic shield can only block spells, not their results.

“But this is unimportant. You are a scribe. Do you know what that means?” Myra, Ari, and her parents, who also followed outside, shook their heads.

“Being a scribe has multiple implications. At first scribes have a natural talent in drawing and reading runes. Furthermore, they can feel the effects of runes when close, like others, feel heat or cold. Becaus of this you were able to understand the effects of the runes of the kidnappers. Both make scribes the perfect candidates for designing large and complex runic systems and finding out the effects of unknown runes.

“Also, and this is the most important, scribes can bless runes making them stronger and flexible. Stronger means, the caster needs less mana to cast the blessed rune. Flexible implies that the casters can set the variables of the written runes themselves when activating it. This is a major advantage to unblessed runes, for which you can’t change the variables once the rune is drawn.

“For example, if I buy a fireball rune, like the one I draw on the paper before you blessed it, the creator of the rune has set at which temperature the fire will burn. But maybe I need a hotter flame. That’s where a blessed rune comes in handy. They let the caster choose the heat, the fly speed, the denseness or any other variable at their will.” I rattled everything off at top speed and had to take a deep breath before I continued: “These are the reasons why everyone wants a scribe.”

I caught Ari looking at me, her face didn’t show joy, as it normally did, but calculation. “Does everyone mean even you and your family?” Ari asked.

“Yes, especially us. Please come to my family’s mansion, Myra, and bring Ari if you want. There we can talk about it in more detail. I won’t force you to work for me. Even if you don’t want to join my family, there are certain things you need to know. I hope I see you tomorrow, as early as possible.”

With these words, I left. I wanted to make sure they did understand I wouldn’t force anyone, but I dearly hoped she would come.