Chapter 19: The Trial (Patreon)

They spilled their guts in every way but the literal way.

The judge’s name was Mirzos Elkor, and he’d suddenly grown a give-a-shit for the sanctity of human life sometime between the night before last and now. Out of nowhere, the keegan judge had leaned on the detective’s boss, who had leaned on them to retrieve Jeb and squeeze a confession out of him.

In an era where Truthseekers existed, forced confessions were still a thing, go figure. If they made Jeb admit to reaping children, they could formally ask him in court if he’d admitted to the crime, which the Truthseeker would identify as ‘the truth’, then they would pack up and call it a day.

What kind of dystopian bullshit is that? The legal system needs to get its ass ironed out.

Jeb understood the concept that sometimes people just needed something to blame, but forcing a false confession when it would be just as easy to get the real bad guy by using a truthseeker…

According to Zlesk, this was a custom unique to Solmnath and judge Elkor in particular, but Jeb had his doubts.

Well, tick the corrupt government official box, Jeb thought to himself, trying not to move too much. Moving hurt. With how slimy this judge was looking to an outside observer, it wasn’t a stretch to think his dirty laundry would be…pretty bad.

Child trafficking/murdering bad? Time will tell.

“Send me back to the cell,” Jeb muttered through his swollen lip.

“Jeb, you need to get some rest. I already paid your bail. I can take you back to the orphanage.”

“No. These guys can smell a setup. They have to think their little tactic is working until we have a chance to meet them face-to-face.”

“What about the guy who tried to kill you?” Zlesk asked.

Jeb shrugged. “It’ll help me sleep.”

Zlesk cocked a brow at this, then turned back to the ‘detectives’. “When is the trial?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Not wasting any time, are they? That’s abnormally fast.” Zlesk said, rubbing his chin. “Well, it works well for our plans, too.”

He directed his gaze back up to Tweedle Dee and Dum.

“Do not speak of the Mark. If you do I will find out. If you are questioned about the events that transpired here, describe me as a pushy, unscrupulous lawyer hired by the reaper with the last vestiges of his money.”

“Yessir.” The detectives said, nodding vigorously.

“Make sure he makes it to solitary, and put a security detail on him to make sure he doesn’t sustain any more damage.”

“Zlesk…” Jeb groaned. He didn’t need a bunch of people standing around staring at him to make sure he didn’t stub his toe.

“I’m not budging on that one, so deal with it.”

“Bleh.”

“C’mon, I’ll help you,” Zlesk said, lifting Jeb to his foot, where Jeb stood woozily in place, unable to take a step.

“What’s wrong?” Zlesk asked, frowning.

“They took my foot,” Jeb mewled, actually mewled. Jeb’s face crumpled up and he tried not to ugly-cry from relief. The stress of getting tortured for an entire afternoon burst out in an unexpected way. “I just got it, too and it already needs to get fixed!”

“Um…there, there,” Zlesk awkwardly patted Jeb on the back, seemingly unsure of what to do.

Jeb took a shuddering breath. “I’m fine, it’s just a dopamine crash from the torture,” Jeb said, waving him off and wiping his face. “I would like my foot back, though.”

“Umm, sir, that prosthesis contained a schedule 1 improvised Annihilation Myst weapon…which are illegal.” Dee said.

“Like, really illegal.” Dum chimed in.

“Did it enter official record yet?”

The two melas glanced at each other.

“…No.”

“Then you didn’t find it. Bring my fat patsy’s foot back right now.”

“I’m not fat.” Jeb muttered.

“You are to me,” Zlesk said, patting him on the back more naturally this time. “C’mon, let’s hop your way back to your cell.”

“Ow, ow OW!” Jeb hissed as Zlesk tried to get an arm under him. Jeb’s arms had been worked over so good they didn’t want to do anything in particular but rest in a sling for a couple weeks.

“Hold on, I’ll do this myself,” Jeb muttered, hardening a pegleg out of telekinetic force, and putting it under his stump.

He gingerly put his weight on it, and was pleased when he didn’t fall on his face. He had to move it mentally rather than physically, which presented extra difficulty when his concentration lapsed, but he managed it.

Jeb split the thread of Myst in two and used the other one to grab himself by the diaphragm, steadying his balance.

It was a bit like riding a unicycle and juggling, but it worked.

Jeb walked out of that room, with one foot and no arms. Admittedly he walked very slowly and laboriously, but he walked.

Just a few more Deals and I’ll be flying again.

Jeb sat down on his bed in solitary, gladly accepting his fancy foot back. The toe was crudely glued back on, and it would probably snap off from the pressure of walking in a matter of hours, but Jeb was happy to have it. He slipped the prosthetic back into its proper place on his stump with a grateful sigh before tightening the straps and flopping down on his bed.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jebediah.” Zlesk said.

“Tomorrow,” Jeb said, waving a hand and closing his eyes.

Once Zlesk was gone, Jeb opened his eyes again, studying the cracks in the ceiling.

The sheer amount of stress he’d endured today had basically tired out his amygdala until it was numb, allowing him to look at a ceiling like any other person might. A small island in time where he simply couldn’t feel the slowly encroaching fear.

It was nice.

Jeb wanted to feel the scar on his palm to reassure himself, but his fingers were swollen, which was a good change. As long as things continued to change in a way that made sense, Jeb could convince himself he wasn’t in some kind of nightmare hell-loop. It’d been years, but echoes of that strange cyclical thinking still came back to haunt him every now and then.

But not tonight.

Tonight he had the soothing pain of broken arms and the stress of a botched assassination to lull him to sleep. To prove this wasn’t all in his head.

“I’m really messed up, aren’t I?” Jeb muttered to the ceiling.

“Yep,” Smartass said solemnly, patting him on the cheek.

****

Jeb only got about five hours of sleep before the sentinels roused him in order to make him more ‘presentable’. They put his more damaged left arm in splints and a sling, while his dislocated right arm got some tightening wraps around the joints to help them stay in place while they healed.

They gave him a mildly magical tea that brought the swelling down substantially and slipped him into a Keegan style robe to make him look more…official, maybe?

Between getting his leg back and the loaner walking stick, Jeb was able to totter his way to court without assistance, except for getting out of the carriage. He had some difficulty navigating the marble staircase under the gawking gazes of the spectators, but he managed.

All the while, Jeb kept his eyes open for the keegan assassin. The chances of the guy coming back for more immediately when he had a hole in his shoulder were slim, but Jeb didn’t intend to be off guard again.

Jeb was led to a seat in the center of the room by the firm hand of one of the sentinels, who remained standing beside him, arms clasped in front.

Jeb sat in the uncomfortable chair and waited as audience members streamed in around him, taking seats on tiered bleachers that stretched around them, like this was a roman gladiatorial match. As if this was the most entertaining thing they were gonna see all week.

They have no idea, Jeb chuckled.

Once the audience was in, he kept his eye open for anything akin to a jury, but he didn’t even see a separate spot for one. That’s not a good sign.

Once everyone was more or less settled, The guy standing next to him shouted.

“Please rise for the honorable judge Elkor.”

Jeb really wanted to stay seated to make a statement and prove how cool he was under pressure, but that didn’t really serve any purpose other than to irritate the judge and stir shit up. Jeb didn’t need the man angry to start, he needed him calm and confident.

Gotta keep an animal calm and relaxed before you slaughter it. Spoils the meat otherwise.

So he stood along with the rest of the crowd as the judge sauntered in, preening under the gaze of hundreds of citizens of Solmnath.

Jeb idly touched the supplies in his breast pocket, to make sure they were still there. Tweedle Dee had palmed the copper plate and gold earring to him when they were getting Jeb dressed.

Ron’s zombies were outside, posing as day labor and common rats. Once Jeb shook this tree, the semi-autonomous creatures would follow the audience and eavesdrop on their conversations. That should allow Ron to point Zlesk in the right direction.

Then Zlesk and Colt smash.

Thinking of Colt, Jeb was tempted to rub his eyebrows. The boy obviously had an excellent magic for crowd control, but he kept trying to 1v1 everyone. He needed to embrace the chaos.

“Thank you my friends,” Judge Elkor said, waving as he sat down at the raised dais in front of Jeb. “You may be seated.”

Jeb put his butt to wood, along with several dozen others.

“We gather today for the trial and sentencing of the Reaper responsible for the death of so many human children here in Solmnath.” The judge bowed his head in what Jeb assumed was a show of sadness.

The audience, roughly a third human, booed and hissed. A camera flash went off, and then a battery sailed down and bounced off Jeb’s wounded shoulder, drawing a hiss out of him.

Well, the crowd seems to already have their mind made up, Jeb thought scanning them. Getting humans involved in law proceedings was a great way to integrate them as a whole, but Jeb didn’t wanna be the scapegoat to make that happen.

“Silence,” Elkor rumbled, waving his hand dismissively. A pulse of sea-green Myst hit the crowd and in a matter of seconds, they quieted down, placidity recovered.

“Let’s begin.” Elkor clacked a pair of sticks together, bound by rich red rope with a golden tassel. Perhaps the offworld equivalent of a gavel?

“Bailiff, will you read the charges?”

The melas beside him held up a scroll and cleared his throat. “Ahem. Jebediah Trapper stands accused of Trafficking children with intent to Reap, Reaping, owning and operating-“

The bailiff was cut off when a baby in the stands went from fussy to literally bursting into flames, engulfing its mother in a pyre. Thankfully the woman had seated herself carefully, close to the exit and surrounded by Melas.

No damage was done except for the smoke-smudge on the stone ceiling.

“Madam, get that baby out of my court.” Judge Elkor said, pointing to the door.

The walking pillar of fire nodded and left while the surrounding melas poked fun at the baby for throwing a tantrum.

“Ahem,” The bailiff cleared his throat again. “Owning and operating an orphanage without a permit, failure to register no less than six slaves with the Office of Labor, and the abuse thereof.”

“That is all,” The bailiff said, closing the scroll

“Wow,” Jeb muttered. Way to make me look like an asshole, which I suppose is the point.

“Jebediah Trapper,” Elkor said, his gaze boring into Jeb’s skull. “You are scum. I wish I could punish you separately for each of your crimes, but we all know there is only one punishment for Reaping. So this court will decide the matter of Reaping and Trafficking first, then execute the penalty.”

“Yeah! Whoo! Punishment!” Ron shouted from the spectator stands, throwing another battery at Jeb, bouncing it off the arm in a splint.

Goddamnit, Ron. The necromancer’s acting was far too enthusiastic, but he was in the middle of an angry mob and inhumans. They weren’t looking for bad acting.

“Quiet.” Judge Elkor said, clacking his Important Sticks together.

“Bring out the confession.”

A nearby melas secretary ran up to the judge and whispered in his ear.

“What do you mean there’s none?” he growled, then looked down at Jeb’s bruised and battered form. “You’re an irritating man, Jebediah Trapper.”

So I’ve been told.

Jeb bowed his head.

“I apologize. I wanted to-“

“You do not have permission to speak!” Eklor shouted over him. A wave of sea-green rolled over Jeb, settling into his bones. Everything seemed to dim for a moment, every muscle in his body relaxing as he lost control over them. His jaw on the other hand seemed to tense up, locking into place and preventing him from speaking.

A moment later, Jeb’s core flared and shrugged off the effects of the myst. In this scenario, Jeb was the unruly cat, and the judge was the human. The man had a great deal more raw power than Jeb did, but the judge had budgeted the spell expecting a gerbil.

Judge Elkor watched with fascination as Jeb shook off the magic and flexed his jaw, rubbing out the cramp. Jeb deliberately chose not to speak, respecting the conventions of the court. Gotta keep the meat calm.

He glanced at the bailiff and tugged the man’s sleeve.

“I believe the reaper would like to speak.” The bailiff said.

Judge Elkor studied Jeb for a moment, then subtly arranged a shield of sea-green energy around himself, presumably to stop Jeb from messing with his head, if that was a thing Jeb could do.

“The court recognizes Jebediah Trapper.”

Jeb carefully arranged the words in his mind to be both entirely truthful and deceitful as all hell. It was harder than it sounded.

“I apologize for the inconvenience. I understand how bad my situation is. See, back on my home planet there were things called plea bargains. I know that without an extraordinary event, I’m definitely going to be convicted. I can see the direction this trial is going. If it would please the court, I would like to offer a Deal: I accept the onus the empire has placed on me, bring this trial to a swift end, and in return the judge will answer a question of mine. I have many people I feel deeply responsible for and would die easier knowing their fate.”

There, none of it is a lie.

“You would barter for my time?” Judge Elkor said, leaning over his dais, looking down at Jeb with a sneer.

Jeb stayed silent. He didn’t know if his turn to speak had been revoked, so he just kept his mouth shut.

Here it is, If he agrees to the Deal, I’ve already got him by the balls.

Jeb had specifically asked for the judge to answer a question. He might have alluded to inquiring about the fate of some of his friends, but that was a red herring in his speech. A true sentence, but unrelated.

Jeb’s end of the bargain, accepting the onus the empire had placed on him, was basically just doing what he was already intending to do. Vresh Takalis represented the empire at a higher level than the judge here did, so her job came first, before whatever bogus decision this kangaroo court came to.

Translation: I’ll continue to look for the Reaper, and in exchange you answer one question.

There’s a good fairy deal. Jeb thought, hiding his white knuckles under the table. This was what he’d kept his prey calm and confident for this entire time.

The slaughter.

“Hah!” the judge chuckled, leaning back in his seat. “Very well. I accept.” He glanced to the secretary. “Let the record show that Mr. Trapper had admitted to his crimes.”

Click.

“And for my part of the Deal,” Jeb said, his trembling fingers fishing into his front pocket.

“I will send a messenger to your cell after the trial is over.”

“Actually, I’d like to get my answer right now.” Jeb said, dropping the Enforcer’s Mark on the table in front of him.

“My onus is to find and kill the Reapers operating out of Solmnath, And it was given to me By the Imperial Enforcer, Vresh Tekalis.”

The copper plate clattered to a halt in front of Jeb to the sound of utter silence from all but the humans, who whispered to their melas and keegan neighbors. The whispering spread outward, surrounding Jeb with murmurs as he tried to get his fingers to grab the earring in his pocket without hurting the nail-bed.

“What is this?” Judge Elkor demanded, scowling at the plate that signified Jeb was acting on behalf of an Enforcer.

“A trap, I suppose,” Jeb said, battered fingers retrieving the Truthseeker and clipping it to his ear. There was a brief prick of pain as the gold pin slid through Jeb’s ear, but he ignored it.

“My question is this,” Jeb said, pointing to his ear. “Have you, Judge Elkor, aided or abetted the trafficking or reaping of human children?”

The judge leaned back and took a breath:

There were a few ways Jeb saw this going.

1.                   The other guy does a full court press to discredit Jeb (the most likely)

2.                   He clams up and says nothing in order to minimize damage.

3.                   He straight up bolts

4.                   He tries to kill Jeb.

“This man is a thief or a liar!” Elkor shouted, rising to his full seven-foot height and pointing at Jeb with the tasseled megachopsticks. “No human would be trusted with an Enforcer’s Mark! Confiscate it from him immediately!”

Option one, then.

The bailiff made a reachy-reach for Jeb’s copper plate, and Jeb aimed his newest invention at him from under the table. Favoring nonlethal takedowns when dealing with people, Jeb had weaponized the hopelessness lens.

The hopelessness lens looked like legal documents, past due letters, and bright red eviction notices all crumpled into a tight wad, impossible to tease out exactly who or what they were for. It gave off incredibly soft whimpers that were only audible to those with Myst.

Fueled by Jeb’s Myst, the stubby wand shot out a red-streaked beige beam that emerged from the table and caught the bailiff full in the chest.

The melas curled into a ball next to the table and started crying.

“The question. Have you, Judge Elkor, aided or abetted the trafficking or-“

“Hidden weapons!” Elkor shouted over Jeb. “He’s an assassin sent to kill me!”

Jeb felt his ear twitch.

The judge pointed the tassel-things at Jeb again, but this time they were crackling with seagreen power. A lot more than last time.

I do believe that’s more than enough to kill me. So a combination of option one and four? Jeb thought desperately spinning up his Myst to attempt to weather the effect of Elkor’s enervation.

The beam of sea green Myst travelled across the room and impacted against a similar beam of neon purple directly in front of Jeb. The two rays of magic scattered into a brilliant display of Myst fireworks only visible to three of the hundreds of spectators. In the stands, Ron blew imaginary smoke off the tip of his finger like an idiot.

The kid was the only other person from the Impossible Tutorial who full-stop dedicated himself to Myst, and that meant his magic was Stronk.

Judge Elkor stared at Jeb’s companion slack-jawed. A random human’s Myst had just wiped the floor with his own presumably third-generation Myst core. The judge’s eyes were bugging out.

Seems like a good opportunity to pose my question again.

“The question, Mr. Elkor, is have you aided or abetted the-“

“Outrageous lies and slander!” the judge shouted over Jeb again, making his ear twitch as he lied. As a tactic, talking over people was actually a pretty good way of preventing them from being heard…if crude and juvenile. Effective, though. “I’ll have none of it in my courtroom! This session is adjourned until we have a chance to search the reaper for hidden weapons and teach him some respect! This reaper is guilty of the murder of children for Vresh’na’s sake!”

“Is anybody else wondering why he doesn’t just answer the question!?” Ron asked in the middle of the slowly heating mob, his voice pitched just nasal enough to carry through the entire room, somehow finding a chink in the judge’s armor of boisterous bellowing.

“What question?” Someone asked aloud.

“Did someone ask the judge a question?”

“Why’s he yelling anyway?”

“What’s that copper thing mean, anyway?”

God fucking damnit. Of course people were oblivious. Getting everyone on the same page was like herding cats.

Jeb stood and filled his lungs.

“MIRZOS ELKOR, HAVE YOU AIDED OR ABETTED IN THE TRAFFICKING OR REAPING OF HUMAN CHILDREN!?” Jeb bellowed, with every ounce of training and clarity he could muster. One thing the army teaches you is how to scream in such a way that people can still understand you.

It rarely came in handy, but this was one such occasion, forcing the judge to lean away and shutting him up, albeit temporarily.

“The judge did?”

“Wait, so is this a sting?”

“Chris Hanson, eat your heart out.”

“Why don’t you take a seat, haha!”

The judge scanned the crowd, turning a light shade of blue, eyes wide as the scattered voices began to unify against him.

Jeb took a deep breath and cut through the chatter.

“Don’t you think someone who kills children for personal profit would have to rank among the most cowardly, spineless, pathetic excuses for a thinking creature? Worth less than the gum on my shoe? You wouldn’t want to look like that kind of Reaper in front of all these people, so just answer this one simple question for all these curious onlookers:”

Jeb motioned to the crowd.

“Did ya help kill kids? Or did ya not?”

“This slander can’t be allowed to stand!” The keegan judge said, slamming his sticks down on his dais, stalking around the stone shelf to glare directly down at Jeb, only feet apart. less than the distance it would take for the keegan to reach out and throttle him.

“I challenge Jebediah Trapper to an Honor Duel!”

“Wait, what?” Jeb frowned.