“Hey, don’t be nervous, okay? Just tell them the whole truth,” Mars said as Alicia was led to prepare for court.

“We’re going to see each other again, aye?” asked Alicia.

“Ye dinnae fash yerself aboot it, eh? World is pure wee for us. Just focus on your court.”

“W-what? S-stop mocking my accent!”

“Alright, alright. Regardless, I wish you good luck, my lady.”

The guards gave her a set of uniforms as a change of clothes. The clothes she was about to wear were similar to those of a scholar, keeping with Camelot’s culture to honour her status as a noble family member.

After cleaning herself and putting on the new dress, she was brought before a pair of massive doors. A warden announced the suspect had arrived and was ready to stand trial. The two wooden gates carved with vines opened wide, exposing a huge circular hall. Congregations with haute couture inundated the room. Apparently, they were eminent mages, some of them were the superiors of the Magisterium of Arcane Plane.

The wardens escorted Alicia to the centre of the hall, released her hand restraints, and left her there all alone, being swarmed by the furor, pointing at the alleged owner of the Divine Grace. In front of the girl were the four Magisterium superiors sitting in a row as court judges. By their middle were the stairs leading to a giant triumph throne. Alicia knew the throne was not meant for the Lord of the Dynasty, but as the seat of honour for the Grand Magus, leader of the Magisterium of Arcane Plane. Rendered from her eyes also, a group of the Roman agents who captured her prior to this day. They were standing at the splitting corner between the mages and their superiors—the judges.

Alicia and all the magi exchanged glances with assorted reactions. But they were amused of a sudden by the swarm of moths filling the dome ceiling. Their number was getting more and more, before flying around the dome. Such a sight gave Alicia a horripilation. She looked down for a moment but then realised none of the surrounding mages were screeching in fear, even though an insect horde flew above their heads. Before long, the moths cascaded near the corner between the jury and the suspect. The swarm formed a black circle; guess who appeared from the moth swarm?

Whistlehoff, with his annoying sad countenance, emerged from behind the moth jungle! Alicia stared at him with contempt mixed with angst. A pile of moths kept scattering around the body of David Whistlehoff as if he was a soaring lighthouse. The mages arose as David began to read aloud an open book that was being carried by hundreds of flying pests.

“The venerable judges, the Fair One Grand Magus of Magisterium of Arcane plane, along with honorable juries! rejoiceth, thee who is’t respondeth to the message of the Source of All, o Desolate Divine, to beest the scales of his justice, and hammer of his law! Hast been did summon from thee, a user of the Divine Grace beyond the blessing of the City of all Worlds, o Eternal Roma, Alicia Crimsonmane, magical mistress of House Crimsonmane, ranked novitius three! Ariseth, justice! Cometh, judgment! Bewray to us, o God of silence, through thy chosen ones, who is’t raiseth their hammer to repel darkness and lighteneth the path of enshielf sooth! Unveil to us, o Desolate divine, through thy chosen ones who is’t weigheth matters so shalt beest revealed what is right and just to the Crimsonmane mage! May the Silent Divine grant Eternal Peace to His servants!”

His voice became heavy, adding to the chamber of the tribunal’s tense atmosphere. Alicia was a little flattered to be recognised as a witch; however, she also suspected that Whistlehoff was cursing her to be thrown by the divine might, all the way to the very ends of Tartarus. But as usual, she could not guess it with accuracy from Whistlehoff’s template temperament.

All the audience, including Alicia, looked at the vacant throne, waiting for the worthy figure to sit and start the tribunal. A person presented from behind the throne, ambling then sitting on it.

‘Is he the Grand Magus?’ muttered Alicia in her heart. Judging from his stature, this man was no joke, definitely the mover of all mages in the European world. The man had a deep skin tone with dreadlocks. Several slash scars lined his face on his left eye and lips. The expression of his visage depicted a wild bison, whose tantrums were buried deep. A pair of malicious eyes gleamed as if looking at the red cloth from the matador—the girl’s own scarlet hair. His brows seemed to be in constant tension forever, implying that this man was a walking bomb that could explode whenever. His tall and mesomorph body wore a grey uniform and a long black jacket with a fur collar like the Roman agents—except the leather on the jacket was full of war stitches, and the feathers on the collar had faded corroding by time. Big stature and fierce temperament, the man who Alicia thought was a Grand Magus, glared at her and dropped her confidence even more.

The public remained stupefied, looking at the man for a few moments. Only then, an elderly judge named Sylvester Camden reprimanded him.

“Bartholomew Strongbark!” he said, “Why are you sitting on the throne? Where is the Grand Magus?”

Alicia slipped. “Wait, he’s not the Grand Magus?”

His words made all the mages turn to the presumptuous girl, not to mention the sitting Bartholomew.

“I, uh…,” Alicia was flustered in confusion, then composed a sentence, “… Apologise, I slipped up.”

Bartholomew, in his deep voice, exclaimed, “The Grand Magus is on an affair. I, Bartholomew Strongbark, will replace the Fair One, The Grand Magus of Magisterium of Arcane Plane, to oversee this trial. Please continue the trial!”

The magi again made noises in their whispers. Sylvester replied to Bartholomew’s words. “Bah! What else is he doing? He’s always absent every time a magic trial is held and instead, wanders off to do things he calls ‘affair’!”

‘The Grand Magus is on an affair.’ How paltry that sentence sounded. Alicia was a little disappointed knowing the Grand Magus was not what she expected. Instead of a great, firm, and authoritative wizard of all, this one sounded like a careless man who asked others to represent him while relaxing on an ‘affair’.

Bartholomew thought his instruction was clear. He did not like this, repeating his words. So he opened his voice with a hint of resentment. A sonorous thunder terrified everyone in the hall.

“Old man, I said… PLEASE CONTINUE THE COURT!”

Of course, his harsh accent silenced the audience. A judge with the nameplate ‘Layton’ unceremoniously cleared his throat and began the trial.

“Alicia Crimsonmane. You are summoned by the court of Magisterium of Arcane Plane for illegally possessing a magical item that contained the substance of pure Arcane.” A floor patch a few meters away from Alicia opened a hole, where a podium with Orb sealed on it emerged. “What is your defence, Alicia Crimsonmane?”

“Orb!” she muttered. She then calmed herself and gave her defence.

“Your honours judges, juries, and the r-representative of the Fair One Grand Magus. I found Orb near the tomb of Languoreth. I dare to swear I had no intention of stealing it. Orb was the one to choose me.”

The judges deliberated for a while; from their whispers, Alicia could hear them chanting Languoreth’s name several times

“How did you know this Arcane source chose you?” asked Tanner Foxbane, one of the superiors, and the youngest among them.

“That day, Orb was floating in the middle of the night sky, while emitting a glow that was so bright it replaced the moonlight. It was as if inviting me to go closer.”

“So you were hypnotised to it?”

“No, that was not the case, your honour. I’m still in full consciousness. It’s just I couldn’t ignore that view.”

Another judge, Roan Copperbolts, asked a question as well. “In that case, there should be someone else or even the entire town’s population being aware of the phenomenon, right?”

“No one was aware of the light, Your Honor, except me and my two friends.”

The court was silent for a while. The judges whispered to each other again before asking Alicia another question. This time it was Layton’s turn to ask.

“Your friends. Do they have the Arcane power as well?”

“Your honour, if you may... I don’t think it has anything to do with—”

“They were with you, miss Crimsonmane, were they not?” Layton interrupted her. “Which means they were involved, if Arcane chose them as well. We need to know to make sure they don’t possess the Divine Grace. It is for their safety, too.”

“Your honour, I swear they have absolutely no magic whatsoever. I beg you not to involve—”

“Listen to me, witch Crimsonmane!” said Bartholomew from afar. “We can do it the rough way, but for the common good, it is better that you can cooperate with us to smooth out the litigation. So for the sake of the Silent Divine… Tell us the names of that two people!”

Alicia challenged back. “I-I can’t hand them over! Only I can control Orb’s power! I swear!”

Bartholomew stretched out his hand, which was holding the magic wand. The magic circle on Alicia’s hand started to glow. The girl was shocked for the mana flow in the form of electric jolts struck from it. She screamed in pain, her body went rigid and limp the time Mister Strongbark drew the spell.

“That was not even the rough way, miss. Tell us the names immediately!”

“P-please! I—”

The electric shock was revived, and the girl writhed again. She almost collapsed. She could feel her ears ringing, the longer it went on, the more painful it was. Alicia finally gave up.

“Nadine E-Evans. G-Gilmore ... Murray,” she groaned.

Bartholomew sat quietly on his throne again.

The magic effect that had plagued Alicia vanished. With regret, she tried to stand on her own because there seemed to be no one to support her. The unconcerned judges continued their investigation.

The prisoners were brought here not a long time ago. They admitted to witnessing a fight between you and another prisoner with Protos particle, John Philo," utter Judge Roan. “What’s defence on that, miss Crimsonmane?”

Alicia held back the bitterness in her mouth. ‘Of course, they told this to everyone,’ she thought to himself.

She answered the judge’s question right away. “There is no defence, your honour. I had to fight him to prevent him from killing himself and the others. I did what I think was right.”

“So, you’ve fought against the consumer Protos particles before?”

“I have. A man called Caleb Dune, at the town hall. Unfortunately, I was not able to subdue him right away, and he was found dead several days later.

“Overdosed of Protos particles. Yes, we know that.” Roan ended his own question-and-answer session. “Any questions, anyone?”

Tanner Foxbane replaced Roan to ask. “The magic sphere appeared ‘exclusively’ to you and your friends, and until now, you have been telling the truth. My question is when you got the sphere, did you know it contains pure Arcane?”

“I didn’t know at first, your honour. It was only after I fought Caleb Dune that I found out Orb’s power isn’t just any magic.”

“When you came across a foreign object like this, you should have reported it to the local magic authority or the civil guard. Why did you decide to keep it to yourself?” asked Judge Layton.

Alicia replied in a blatant manner. “I did it on purpose because I felt I might be able to get magic power from Orb. And as you all know, I could cast energies through Orb!”

As he was hearing this, Sylvester Camden arose from his seat. “Wait! Don’t tell me... you were not a mage!”

All eyes in the room turned to the girl right away. The question that Alicia Crimsonmane hated the most, wherever and whenever a mage questioned her validity as a practitioner of mystic arts. A Curse for being born into wizard families, indeed.

“No, your honour, I was not a mage,” her reply was short. []