Steven’s POV

 

Upon being told the situation by this fairy, Gailben, Steven eagerly divulged everything he knew about criminal law to him. He made extra sure to emphasis the part about appealing a former ruling. He had a personal stake in this one. If he could appeal his friends’ case and get it heard by this princess from Earth, there was a real chance he could rescue them from their situation. She was already showing a preference for proper due process, surely she will agree that their case should be overturned on appeal.

 

And so, he continued to relay all that he knew about the legal process to Gailben. All the while, there was one thing bothering him. That small demon who was in the jail cells with the fairies, Gailben had sealed it’s arms and legs in the wall of the room they were in. This entire time that creature was there in the wall. Gailben said not to worry about it, that it was an issue to be taken care of later. That was something concerning to him. It screamed and made noises early on, but as it seemed to discover there was nothing it could do and they were not going anywhere, it started to quiet down. It would occasionally make some noise in response to Steven any time he turned to look at it, so Gailben had told him to simply stop looking at the creature so it would stay quiet.

 

‘Well, is there anything else?’ Gailben asked after Steven had just finished explaining the concept of a mistrial, which occurs when there is some misconduct during the case that would bias a jury, requiring the entire case to be re-tried before an entirely new jury.

 

‘I think that should cover most of the basics, as well as a few of the more common eventualities that tend to come up.’ Steven told him.

 

‘I see… Well, I must say, Earth’s trial laws are incredibly complex. To hear it properly explained though, it seems every single rule has a logical reason for it to be there.’

 

‘Well, it is all to protect against a miscarriage of justice. The justice system has the power to decide the life and death of someone, so we must be sure that power is not used against the innocent.’ Steven informed him.

 

‘That sounds like an admirable outlook. Although, I must say, there are people who say we members of the justice council are obsessed with legal process. You people from Earth put us to absolute shame. It is no wonder your laws demand a representative for the defense, no normal person could possibly understand all of those rules. And you say that’s just the basics?’

 

‘Ah, yes, well… those are the rules of our country. There are different, although somewhat similar procedures in most developed nations. There are also some differences from one state to another.’

 

‘So, minor political differences. Of course, I am familiar with that kind of nonsense.’

 

‘Uhh… yeah. I guess that’s about right.’ Steven said. It felt a bit uncomfortable to hear what was presumably this world’s equivalent of a prosecutor using such reductive language about the ins and outs of the law, but yes, the political situations that lead to even trial proceedings being different from state to state were a little nonsensical. ‘Umm… anyway.’ Steven continued. ‘Now that we are done with that, is now a good time to tell me what you have planned for that, uhh… demon there? And, why was it in the same set of cages at the small fairies anyway?’

 

‘Hmm… so, you actually don’t know, do you?’ Gailben replied. His tone seemed to be full of pity, a fact that made Steven feel a little bit uncomfortable. It gave him a gnawing sense he was about to hear something that would be rather life altering. ‘I guess I will have to explain it to you then. You see, demons are usually not born. They are tainted versions of humans, animals, or fey. Their bodies and minds are warped by the strong corrupted energies that are left behind after magic is used. So, that being the case, I suppose you can probably reason out why it was that imp behind you was in the same collection of cells as the lower fairies.’

 

Yeah, that was pretty easy to figure out, and Steven could feel the blood draining from his face as he pictured a perfectly normal little pixy being mutated and warped by something akin to radiation into the little monster behind him at this moment.

 

“Aaag!” The imp shouted. Perhaps it picked up they were being talked about.

 

‘Becoming a demon is a rather terrible fate.’ Gailben continued. ‘Once you become one, your mind immediately becomes obsessed with killing members of whatever your race used to be before you were mutated. You will be hostile toward anything else that’s not a demon as well, but you will have a particular murderous urge toward your own former kind. This means if you see someone who was a friend or family member, you will be overcome by an uncontrollable urge to kill them. There is really nothing that can be done once the mutation into a demon is complete. About the only thing that can be done for them is to kill them before they can harm someone else, perhaps someone they loved.’

 

‘So, now that you know this much,’ Gailben continued, ‘don’t think I didn’t notice how much emphasis you placed on the appeals process in your description of your legal system. You are quite welcome to try an appeal, but the reason behind your friends’ punishment is the exact thing you see behind you right now. Moving the capital here was a bold if not effective suggestion, and has it’s merits. However, a battle front like this is always going to have a lot of spells cast. Magic is being used right now in abundance just to suspend the great tree as they are still trying to work their root network into place to suspend themself. The only reason you and I have not succumbed to these tainting influences yet is because of the fact we are just more powerful.’

 

‘Your friends took away our ability to calmly deliberate and decide on this matter which had a lot of serious consideration to it, involving people’s lives. Again, you are welcome to try an appeal, but even if the princess is from your world I am not certain you should expect leniency once she properly understands the context.’

 

No, she definitely would change their sentence at the very least. Put them here in this prison instead of out where it’s dangerous. Steven still needed to process this bit of a bombshell revelation, but even if he could understand their reasoning he was sure that leaving them out in the elements and with the wild animals would qualify as cruel and unusual punishment, something someone from Earth would not tolerate.

 

‘Well, thank you for the warning. I will use this information in order to try and make my case as rock solid as possible.’ Steven said with plenty of determination.

 

‘I see, I suppose that is a good spirit at least.’ Gailben replied. ‘In that case, I suppose you can think of this like that disclosure part of Earth’s rules. I presume her highness will want to use Earth’s rules for your case as well. Now then, I believe there is only one more order of business to attend to.’ With those words, Gailben placed his hand on the table between them. The wood of the table began warping at his touch, and a part of it formed into an object he held in his hand. As he lifted this object up from the table, it became immediately obvious it was a knife, a knife made completely out of wood.

 

‘Wooden blades are not as strong as metal blades, but that doesn’t mean they cannot cut just as well. The difference in the strength of the material the blade is made of only means a difference in the number of good cuts you can get out of it before it becomes useless. This blade I am holding in my hand was just made. That means right now it is every single bit as sharp and lethal as if it were made of metal.’ After saying this, Gailben casually laid the wooden blade in front of Steven on the table. ‘I think it is probably clear what I want you to do.’ He said.

 

“What!? Uhh….” ‘What!?’ Steven corrected himself to using the telepathic speech after having just said that out loud due to his surprise. He cast a quick glance back over his shoulder at the imp, and then a look of denial as he turned back to Gailben.

 

‘I told you already, once they have become a demon, death is the best thing for them. He would want that too.’ He said, jerking his head in the direction of the imp. ‘All he knows how to do right now is kill his own kind, the fairy from before would never want to live in such a state. It is for the sake of protecting all those he would harm, and to release him from this state that it is best for everyone if he dies by our hand.’

 

Steven looked down at the knife and found it strangely compelling to grasp the weapon. But, at the same time, it was also repulsive. It is a strange thing about the human mind. For some reason, it is just hard to resist picking up a tool, especially a well balanced small knife. Even a piece of silverware can feel somehow pleasing to hold in the hand. However, when he knew it was meant to be used to kill and be put to immediate use, the repulsion he felt at the very idea greatly overwhelmed his human urge to grasp such small tools. In the meantime, all his thoughts were swirling around just one question.

 

‘Uhhh… yeah, I can understand that, but… why do you want me to do it?’

 

‘It is really simple. You want to get involved in our legal system. It is very clear you lack some understanding in the weight of the decisions we have to weigh in our world. Well, it can be said that fairy became an imp because of your friends, the very ones you made your outburst in the court over while we were having them held accountable for their actions. So, I have a simple deal for you. I will support you in the court as you try to appeal your friends’ case, if you can take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. I will even go so far as to appeal your own case immediately so that you can get out of your sentence early. We ARE going to need a representative for the defendant in the more immediate trial the princess is to preside over after all.’

 

 

-

 

Aerien’s POV

 

That was exhausting. I really did not do much, but just the mental pressure of appearing in front of all the important people of the kingdom was very taxing. This was one fortunate thing about having two minds in the same body though. I had my two minds merged during the meeting, I needed my older side in order to speak and act the right way so nothing went wrong, and I needed my younger side to just experience this so I could get used to it. Both became stressed and mentally taxed as a result, but it was in different ways. The older side knew the gravity of the situation, and so there was just a lot of mental stress. My younger side just knew second hand what the old man knew, but did not have the pressure to have to behave correctly.

 

Because of this, it was a matter of course what I did in order to recover from this exhaustion quickly. After I stood in the mushroom circle and asked for the treasure hall, I took a deep breath and felt the old man fading into the back of my mind. By the time the fairy lady noticed I had arrived, I could already feel the old man fading into the back of my mind, and I suddenly felt only a little tired form groggy from the boring experience of all that talking.

 

[Your highness, are you finished?] She asked.

 

[umm… yeah.] I said, and then I realized something. I forgot to ask my dragon mother about the controlling energy thing. The entire reason I told her to leave was in case I had to demonstrate my problems with it, and by the time I had thought of it she called a bunch of other fairy people in to listen to what I had to say.

 

[Is something wrong your highness?]

 

[I forgot to ask mother something.]

 

[Would you like to go back?]

 

That’s a good question. Should I? The fairies were still talking and arguing about something when I left, so I don’t think I can really ask about it right now anyway. [Umm… I will ask her later. I want to go back and see Levin and Rolwen.]

 

[Of course your highness. Right this way.] The fairy lady, Esgal, bowed to me and then began walking ahead of me. I quickly followed behind. The hallway was really long and full of all kinds of strange looking items. This was called the treasure hall, so did that mean all of the strange things here were really valuable? Well, these were probably not the best treasures in the castle, or tree or whatever. I don’t know why, but something in the old man’s knowledge told me that the real stuff would be hidden away in a separate treasure vault.

 

‘It is because these ones are the things they want to show off, your room was an important guest room before they gave it to you. They want to impress important guests. These will be valuable, but yes, the most important national treasures will be in a vault somewhere.’ The old man explained it in a more complete way than I could pull from our shared memories. He still sounded a little groggy and tired, as though he just rolled over from a nap when he noticed me struggling with this question. ‘They are nice though.’ He said. ‘I didn’t really get a good look the first time we came through here since I was so worried about Gaerien and the boys.’

 

‘Yeah.’ I said back, feeling a little uncomfortable with the subject.

 

 

‘Maybe we should sleep.’ I suggested.

 

Yeah, that sounded good. I can’t always really understand what the old man does, even if I know the same things. I can remember how the meditation feels though, and earth really is very relaxing. The others are a little harder though, and wind is one that almost makes you choke on your own breath if you do it wrong. Earth is the first and the easiest though, it is very relaxing. Maybe I should just do that Earth meditation while the rest of them are sleeping.

 

I got so lost in that thought, or maybe it was because I was tired, that I did not even notice we had gotten back to my room already. When we went in, both of the boys were groaning in pain. When I had left, they were swinging some swords around. Now they were just sitting on the couch and Sagel was holding all three of the practice swords.

 

“Hey look! Aerien’s back!” Rolwen said in an exhausted voice. “Haha! Look Aerien! It hurts just to raise my arms!”

 

Well, I guess that means they got a good workout, right? I guess that’s impressive. For some reason though, the old man did not seem all that impressed.

 

 

On the subject of Sagel, he had turned himself into a small 2 year old child as well. He seemed to look rather pleased as he looked at the children. “Welcome back your highness.” He said in a voice that was smooth despite the high sharpness that came with his reduced size. “Those friends of yours performed quite admirably. I did not really mean it when I told them one hundred swings, but they managed to accomplish that objective despite their exhaustion.”

 

‘So, that’s how it is, is it?’ The old man responded before I could. ‘Sagel, please be more careful in the future. They should not push themselves like that until they are at least 10 years old. This is supposed to be purely about balance and coordination.’

‘I am not certain I understand the reason for your objection your highness, but I will take note of it.’ He responds through his mental link. It is really weird and freaky, he sounds like his adult self when he talks with his mind, it’s completely different from his voice when he speaks out loud and it is coming out of this little kid!

 

‘Umm…’ I cut into the mental conversation since this seemed like something I could answer. ‘They said there was someone else from my world, and he was a lawyer. He’s going to make sure we are following the real laws, I am supposed to go back to the fey court tomorrow morning to learn what he says.’

‘And this is perfect too.’ The old man adds. ‘I really need some time to rest, so I will be having my younger self practice some meditations that ought to be restorative in the same way sleep is for a human. Also, considering the state the boys are in, I think it might be appropriate for all of us to turn in early. It has been a long and difficult day.’

 

 2nd Arc: Capital

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

"Yay!"

           -meowingLexi

 

"Aerien dryad took Steven friend away no ? so will they become fugitives ?"

           -Remigius

 

"yep the dryad took them in the side story."

           -Roy

---

 

So, yes indeed, a single day took 2 entire arcs. Before that, a single arc covered 3 or 4 days. (The end mostly being covered by a time skip.) Yeah, that's the pace of this story, and it's been that way for a while. I guess most of you here are used to that by now.