A late happy thanksgiving to all readers in the United States. As I mentioned, I managed to work in 1 chapter during the crazy end-of-term nonsense. My final is going to be on the 9th, so I am going right back into another hiatus now. You could say I was never officially off of it, but just decided to post a chapter during the hiatus if you want to look at it that way.

 

Next chapter will likely not be for a couple weeks, a week and a half minimum.

 

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Aerien’s POV

 

‘Welcome your highness. Now that you have arrived, we can begin.’ A dragon with an important air to him said. It is strange. I do not see any distinguishing features to show him apart from any of the other dragons, but I get the distinct sense that this is that Lord Faranti who seemed to be in charge of the legal side of the fey court. I am not sure how I was able to tell, but my guess is that it must have something to do with a subtle difference in the feel of his mind that my subconscious was able to pick up on.

 

Before I could say anything, I was picked up telekinetically from the spot I had teleported in on. In the next moment, I was placed on a portion of the queen’s large snaking body that had wrapped around several branches of the titanic tree. I’m quite certain being allowed to stand on her back was a privilege only I was allowed here.

 

‘Now, I present my subordinate Viscount Gailben to testify as to his discoveries in regards to the legal system of the princess’ former home world.’ The dragon announced.

 

‘Thank you, my lord.’ The man in question responded. It was strange hearing his voice in my head. From the distance I was standing, I could barely even see him at all. He was only a tiny speck in my vision moving at the lower region of the ground level. Once again, it became plainly obvious to me why it was that they insisted on the use of this spirit speech. At some point, I lost track of his movement. I think that must be because my brain tricked me into thinking he was still moving when he had actually stopped, because shortly after I lost him, he began speaking again.

 

‘The legal system of the princess’ former world is indeed incredibly complex, but I was able to find some reason for almost every policy and procedure that made it clear why it is there, and most of the reasons are to mitigate bias in some fashion or another. Of course, one of these policies has already been expressed by the princess. Someone who can, in some way, act as a factual witness to the event or character witness to the accused may not act as a judge or prosecution for a criminal case, and must recuse themself should such a circumstance come up. As her majesty has already forbidden the princess’ recusal as judge, this policy will of course not be applied for this case.’

 

‘Otherwise, indeed, the jury trial that the princess has described is a policy in the legal proceedings. However, there are actually a minimum of two trials that come up in a criminal proceeding, and the number may extend indefinitely unless and until the accused dies of natural causes or is executed. This jury trial takes place on what would normally be the second trial, but there is another trial that occurs before this. The first is called an arraignment, which determines in what manner the accused is to be confined before the remaining trials are brought forward. In cases where the accused is trusted to appear at their trial, they may be allowed to walk free until the trial begins. This is called “on their own recognizance.” The judge may also demand a bail be paid, which is some surrendering of wealth to the court which will be held and then returned to the accused when they appear at their trial. It is only those who are judged to be a flight risk who are held in confinement without a bail option before a trial has occurred.’

 

‘How are these arraignment trials handled?’ One of the dragons asks. At this point, I see my option to speak up.

 

‘It does not matter.’ I said. ‘That portion of the procedure has already been handled improperly. As I see it, the only effective way to leave the capital unassisted is to possess the actual ability to fly, an ability Ether… the accused does not have. I am ordering that he be released on his own recognizance as soon as this meeting has ended.’

 

‘Yes your highness.’ Gailben said. ‘For the rest of the process, it seems as though there are several more things that were done out of order. In fact, it is to the extent that, while the case can still proceed, the accused would have had to be released even without the order the princess just gave. The reason for that is that his arrest was not done in the proper manner. We only have enough evidence against him to consider him a suspect at this point, an investigation must be conducted and clear and convincing evidence must be presented to the court for a warrant to be issued for his arrest and detainment. Therefore, the prosecution is, for the time being, by the rules these proceedings are now going to be operating under the accused magus Eirlathion is no longer charged and is only considered a suspect. I would like to request that my fellow members of the justice party participate in this investigation while I begin the process of putting the procedures into writing so that all relevant members can become accustomed with them on their own time.’

 

‘I will grant this request.’ Faranti, the dragon who seemed to be the likely leader of this “justice party,” responded. ‘I will assign two great fairies and a dragon to go to the village that has taken in the refugees of Cundo to collect testimony. They will be under orders to avoid the territory of the new dryad in order to avoid any negative reactions.’

 

‘This is all I have to present for now.’ Gailben said from his imperceptibly distant location on the floor level of these upper branches. ‘By her majesty’s leave, I will retire to my study.’ I felt a slight ripple of muscle below my feet as the great head of my adoptive dragon mother gave a “slight” nod. Even that small motion though seemed quite impressive with such a large head, especially at the distance I was viewing it from.

 

‘This is a far shorter meeting than I had been expecting.’ She said. ‘I will expect that the first copy of these written papers will be delivered to my daughter by the end of the day. The magus Eirlathion will need to be given some appropriate boarding. However, in order to minimize further bias developing, I forbid any contact between him and the princess.’

 

‘I trust you understand Aerien.’ I heard her voice change somewhat as she directed this comment toward me. It took me a moment, but, was that the same private form of the spirit speech Gaerien and Sagel use? How did she do that without broadcasting it everywhere?

 

‘This meeting of the court is concluded.’ She announced. The other dragons began flying about, some of them flying straight out from the upper branches into the open air. Well, at least I managed to accomplish one thing. Ether guy was no longer going to be in some prison cell. He would actually be sleeping on a real bed and eating right tonight. I do not know what prison food is like in this world, but I imagine it is not up to the humane standards of first world countries back on Earth.

 

Well, I suppose I can take that victory for today. I guess now it is time for me to go over the things I had forgotten about yesterday. I ran up the serpentine body of the massive queen dragon toward her head until I was as close as I could approach. The distance seemed considerably shorter than I had expected to look at it, because it did not take me long to get inside of a head’s with (her head width) of where her ear should be.

 

“I am not so good with that private spirit speech, but I have something I need to talk about!” I told her. Soon after this, I felt myself get picked up and placed on the side of her nose in view of her good eye. It was incredibly disconcerting to be always handled like a small pet by her, but I suppose it was really no different from the dynamic between a real infant at my actual age and their mother. I was somehow able to deal with it if I thought of it like that.

 

The air seemed to somehow change around me. I do not know how to describe it. It felt lighter, but somehow stagnant. A little like going indoors, except in a spirit sense.

 

‘I have put up a barrier. None of your spirit energy will leak out. Simply speak normally with your spirit.’ My mother said. Oh dear, I really was starting to think of her more as my mother now with her acting like this.

 

‘I had a little bit of a problem last night.’ I told her. ‘I accidentally injured one of the fairy ladies who were taking care of me because I was not able to control my energy. My sister said that you might be the best person to ask about how to better control it. Sagel says my threatening energy is strong enough to kill a low-level human.’

 

‘I see.’ She responded. ‘That is quite significant indeed, even most dragons do not have their aura to the point it can become deadly to beings other than the fey. Normally, a dragon learns to control their aura over the centuries as they grow, and their aura grows with them. Hmm…’

 

She breathed a sigh that, and as I stood on her muzzle I could feel the turbulent currents of air in her sinuses through my feet as they reverberated through her skull. It made me actually feel almost like it was going to disturb my footing for a moment, a very scary thought when I was this far off the ground.

 

‘I suppose the best way would just be for you to practice.’ She said. ‘Living targets will be necessary, ones for which it will not matter if they are killed accidentally. Very well, I will order that some demons be captured alive and brought here for you. I heard from Isanil that you had ordered Sagel to begin construction of a training room for your combat-type meditation. They will be brought to a room adjacent to that.’

 

That was… slightly disturbing, but I suppose it made sense. I do not know what else I was expecting, I have grown used to the idea of endless practice and training being the only way to learn control and precision. This was really no different at all. Perhaps more disturbing though was that she was able to track my movements and actions with this tree spirit, Isanil, as her spy.

 

-

 

Eirlathion’s POV

 

The inner most chamber of the iron heart. In this space, everything was made of iron, including even the bed which was a slab of metal raised up somewhat from the ground. It wasn’t just the cells that were wrought from nothing but iron, the walls of the corridors were as well. There was not even a single place that a single living thing was present.

 

With iron permeating everything to this extent, there was not even a single trace of spirit energy to leak through in this place. It was a prison completely devoid of all life except that of the elven prisoners held here.

 

Eirlathion was feeling quite weak after only a single night in here. He had been given a bowl of nuts for food, the only thing he had to sustain his life in here. This posed quite a challenge. As he cracked the nuts between his trembling fingers, the flesh inside would often squish and go everywhere, and he would have to delicately pick it from the fragments of shells in this dim, barely even lit cell just to eat. This was a task that only seemed to become more difficult every time he did it. The muscles of his fingers would become fatigued, and the fragments of the shells would dig into the soft padding of his flesh, and the more this went on the more of his food wound up on the floor.

 

A horrible screech of metal caused him to shake and throw pieces of a freshly cracked nut everywhere as he scrambled to cover his ears. He looked off resentfully at nothing in particular as he mourned the loss of that entire nut. Having nothing much else he could do, he stood and went to the bars of his cell. Trying to see what the jailer was coming in for was about all he could do at this point. He was rather surprised when the massive goat man walked straight up to his own cell.

 

For a moment, Eirlathion didn’t know quite what was going on. In the next, he realized the goat man was reaching for the handle on the door to his cell, and quickly clamped his hands back over his ears in order to block out the sound he knew was about to assail him once again.

 

“You are being released.” The goat man said. “I have been told to not handle you roughly.”

 

Eirlathion did not register what he had just been told. His mind was blank. He did not even have the ability to wonder why the jailer had come to him. The grinding of iron against iron had been like an attack directly on his spirit, and it dulled his ability to think. 

 

The jailer gave an irritated sounding snort and stepped back. In his dazed state, Eirlathion was able to realize that he was expected to step out of the cell at the very least.

 

“This way.” The jailer said, and then turned to walk off ahead of him. Eirlathion obeyed and followed, feeling there was nothing else really for him to do. This was when his mind began to catch up with what was going on, and what was said before, but he was certain he must have misheard. He could only conclude it was time for his trial. However, if that was the case, why was he being lead so freely like this instead of being held and restrained by that giant hand?

 

Unlike when he was brought in, all of the rust-covered doors were open this time. This, thankfully, made it so he was not repeatedly assailed by the high-pitched screech of metal against metal every time they exited a layer of the iron heart. When he got out to the interrogation room, the same lord Gailben who had ordered him to be locked up in here was standing and waiting for him.

 

“Magus Eirlathion, it’s good to see you are still well. Has Gworon told you why you were being brought out?”

 

“Uhh… well, he did, but…” Eirlathion still could not believe what he had thought he heard. He could not make himself a fool by saying it.

 

“The princess has ordered you be tried according to the laws of “Earth.” By these laws, we did not follow the proper procedures in even launching accusations against you in the first place. Therefore, we must release you. You are still under investigation for the crime of inciting a dryad. However, until we can bring you to trial you may roam about freely.”

 

Eirlathion was stunned at what he was hearing. Princess? Earth? Hardly any of it made sense. He had never heard of a kingdom called Earth. Wait! Unless… “Princess? There is a princess now?” He asked, hoping the other party would offer the information without him having to inquire further.

 

“Yes, the child you brought to be healed by the queen. Her adoption was announced immediately upon waking up.”

 

Yes. That made sense then. In that case, was “Earth” the name of the world she was from originally? Or was it the name of a specific nation of her world? Also, did these laws she’s told them to function under really exist? He couldn’t help the feeling she may be tricking them somehow in order to have him released.

 

“I will remove your chain now.” Gailben said, holding out a handkerchief clearly meant to allow him to touch the chain as he removed it. Eirlathion numbly offered his wrist and felt an instant sense of relief as the lock popped off and the chain slid from his wrist. “A baron from the green committee will bring you to a room. Also, by the queen’s order, you may not have any contact with the princess before your trial. She is to act as the judge over the case, should it move forward. Her majesty does not want what bias already exists to grow any stronger by having you interact with her now that she is capable of holding a proper two way conversation.”

 

What!? Aerien’s going to be the judge? Not the queen? Eirlathion was sure this had to be by her majesty’s decision, but… why? It has to be some kind of test for Aerien, and it seems he’s been thrown right into the middle of it. Well, such is the way and the right of the queen. “I understand.” Eirlathion replied. Really, in this case, it was all he actually could say.

 

-

 

Aerien’s POV.

 

Damn it! That sweet talking slime ball! I really felt like hitting something right now! I had not even caught onto it while I was up there in the court meeting. It wasn’t until I was walking through the halls back to my room that it finally clicked for me.

 

That skeezy slimy snake-minded bastard! He had a reason for dropping the charges against Ether guy! I’m certain of it now! If Ether guy was still being charged, he would need to have a lawyer assigned to him. Now that he’s no longer being charged, there is no longer such an obligation! He doesn’t want Ether guy getting legal advice while they’re trying to dig up dirt on him now!

 

Well, it may not be the judge’s place to do this, but I’m not going to let him play any silly little games like that.

 

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"that ending rofl"

                          -Roy

 

"They have to follow earth law, exposing the trial to all the problems that goes with them, not only the good point. They're sharp enough to find and use them, it won't be easy!

                         -Asekhan

"Don't piss off the princess..."

                        -meowingLexi