A bright light woke Illyxa. Blinking, she wondered where she was for a few moments. It proved to be a bed, with thin sheets in a small and unfamiliar room, though it took her a few moments to piece it together, her mind utterly exhausted. The decoration was all weirdly white and minimalistic. She could say it was sized for tall folks, but beyond that… it didn’t look quite like any cultural style she knew.

She wanted to get up, to explore the weird room, but her entire body ached. Even just sitting up felt exhausting. 

Slowly, her memories moved into place. She’d been outside the Moon Palace. And—well, she was alive. So the last magical blast she’d tried to hit that Red Dragon with must have worked. Probably?

Honestly, she was amazed she’d succeeded at controlling that spell enough not to explode. It was impressive what one was capable of during moments of extreme stress. Clearly a confidence boost that would benefit her in future, but right now she was paying for it.

Thinking about how close the blast must have been, she hoped Gragya had also survived. Her cousin did have an impressive knack for escaping unharmed from deadly situations, so…

So Illyxa tried to hold on to hope as she looked out the window. There wasn’t much to see, they seemed to be higher than the surrounding buildings. Which meant she could only see the sky.

“You are awake. Good,” a voice said. It was a soft yet commanding voice, the enunciation perfect and the accent elegant.

Turning, Illyxa felt a chill run down her spine as she stared at the woman before her. She looked like an Elf, but was much taller, just barely fitting in the doorway. Half her body was a dark grey while the other half was a pale off-white or ivory colour. Her hair and dress were both flowing and ethereal. 

“Luvra,” Illyxa gasped, scarcely believing she was in the presence of a deity for the second time in her life.

And this time the deity was awake.

“Indeed,” the goddess of the Moon replied. “And you are in a great deal of trouble, Ms. Illyxa.”

“Am I?” Illyxa replied with a forced smile and an uncertain sort of shrug.

That did not seem to impress the goddess. “Yes. The punishment for using solar magic during my husband’s slumber is death. Any user of magic knows as much. It should be no surprise to you.”

“I—I do have an argument in my defence, but… can this wait until I have recovered a little. It’s hard to think with the pain and hunger,” Illyxa said.

Luvra did not respond at first, simply watching her in silence. Then, after Illyxa started to worry she would have to argue while feeling like she’d been trampled by a horse the goddess nodded.

“Very well. I shall show some kindness as you did aid in our defenses,” Luvra said. “You may speak to your friends and have a meal. There are matters more pressing than your sentencing that I would rather be attending to as well.”

With that, the goddess slipped silently from the room. 

Illyxa found herself alone again, and she had to wonder how far she might get trying to escape. She could feel the anti-magical warding in the room, so the normal escape plan was doomed. 

Unfortunately, just walking out of the room felt like it would probably be a struggle at the moment. Plus, she was pretty sure she had roughly zero willpower left. Commanding a light breeze would be beyond her, let alone the sort of magic needed to escape where she was.

“You are awake!” Hyi said, happiness in her voice as she hurried into the room. “I was so worried!”

“Yep. I’m awake. And facing the executioner’s ax,” Illyxa replied.

“We will find a way out of this. Do not worry!” Hyi said, taking Illyxa’s hand. “You risked your life to save the Moon Goddess. She will not let that go unrewarded.”

“Yeah. My reward is being allowed to eat,” Illyxa muttered.

“I—well, I am still sure you will manage more than that,” Hyi said.

“Moving on from that… um, where is everyone?” Illyxa asked. 

She hadn’t thought they were amazingly close, but she’d at least expected Pin and N’ratha to visit briefly.

“Ah, well… you were unconscious for long enough that Pin was able to petition for his… change,” Hyi said. “And… not knowing when you might wake up, he and N’ratha are… well…”

“Ah,” Illyxa muttered. “And… Fuan?”

“He is quite busy attempting to gather the funds he owes you. I do not think he expected you to succeed,” Hyi replied. “Even with his best efforts it will take some time for him to gather such a fortune.”

“Mhm,” Illyxa said, not sure what to say about that.

Before she could come up with anything else to add, a pale elf arrived, carrying a legged tray of food. They placed it over Illyxa’s legs and then slipped out of the room without a word.

Illyxa had been so thrown by the sight of a pale Elf that she’d not looked at the meal while the server had been present. It was very definitely Elven cooking, all the ingredients separated out to be ‘enjoyed on their own’. Which, sure, it tasted fine, but they could have made something delicious with just a bit of seasoning and some mixing and… just… cooking.

Still, she was too hungry to waste time complaining. She started shovelling into her mouth as she let her mind race through various practiced arguments. Hyi excused herself part way, realising Illyxa was a bit busy eating and there wasn’t much left for them to say to one another. She gave one last word of moral support and then left.

Moving on to the beverage included, Illyxa felt a wave of soothing energy as she drank it. While Elves weren’t great cooks they were excellent at making potions. The pain was washed from her body.

When she finished the meal, Illyxa then found she had a few minutes left to gather her thoughts, before Luvra returned.

“Have you determined your defensive argument or should I discuss matters with your cousin instead?” Luvra asked.

“She’s alive?” Illyxa replied, feeling a flush of relief.

“Yes. She has been awake longer than you, but has insisted I talk to you first the entire time,” Luvra said.

“Ah—yeah. That’s probably best. She’s… not the greatest with words,” Illyxa replied. 

“While you are confident you can change my mind regarding your punishment, despite your guilt being, quite literally, written upon your arms?”

Illyxa winced, but then gave a nod. “There’s… well, there’s a number of reasons I don’t believe the edict in question technically applies to myself in this situation. Firstly, there’s the fact that I was running from my own mana, not making prayers towards Neraph’m.”

“The drain is far less with arcane magicks, but it is not non-existent. Neraph’m is the Sun as much as I am the Moon. To drain from either with arcane rebalancing of magic and anti-magic is still a drain from the deity in question,” Luvra replied, hinting at an understanding of magic and divinity far beyond anything Illyxa had read or heard.

Which, she supposed, was logical. Luvra was a deity.

“It seems like enough of a gap that it could at least remove that ‘death penalty’ punishment? Drop it down to just a couple of years in the dungeon, maybe?” Illyxa tried, only to find no look of mercy on the goddess’ face. “Well, there’s a secondary question of jurisdiction. The Mother of Goblins had been killed near the start of the Great Draconic War. The edict banning solar magic was only signed into force by the gods towards the end of the war. No Goblin or representative of Goblinkind signed the edict.”

When Luvra said nothing, Illyxa decided to keep up that offensive. “Some laws are laws of a land, but others are laws of blood. Of peoples and their temples. The edict was, I think, meant to be both, but no temporal powers that signed the edict still exist. Too many centuries have passed. So it only holds power as a law of blood.”

“That position would hold merit,” Luvra said, “if you had not engaged in so flagrant a display of the powers on my very doorstep.”

“Well—”

“And if I did not know, without doubt, that you stole the magic from my beloved’s very resting place. Nowhere but that library held the necessary knowledge,” Luvra added. “Those are locations where divine power is the law of the land.”

“Ok, ok… but, still… can’t I do something with a plea bargain here? I was, at worst operating in a grey area and I used the solar magic to save you guys from a siege. Possibly helping you all win the war… so, can’t we do something a bit lighter than the death penalty?” Illyxa said.

Luvra stared at her quietly for long enough to make Illyxa uncomfortable. “Are those all of your arguments?”

“Um… most of them? Uh… I could tell you about some of the places I had found remaining information about solar magic? Or… uh…” she nearly offered to snitch on the Automen who had backed her, but realised that was rather too dishonourable.

So, Illyxa hoped that was enough to help balance things in her favour. Any sentence below a death sentence was a win in her books.

“Perhaps we should also discuss the matter of the… substantial payment you requested in order to come to our aid,” Luvra replied. “A mark rather strongly against the idea you deserve a reward for what was, in truth, highly mercenary behaviour.”

The words stung, even though they were said with the same neutral detachment Luvra used for everything else. They meant an increased risk that Illyxa was going to face the chopping block.

“I knew you and your lot were probably going to try to kill me after I saved you, so I needed a paycheque that was worth that risk,” Illyxa replied. “If I didn’t think you were going to want to kill me for saving you, then I’d have asked for a lot less gold.”

Again, Luvra said nothing, leaving Illyxa squirming. What else could she bring up, though? There—well, there was the sob story.

“It’s also hard to help you purely out of the goodness of my heart considering one of your priestesses was part of the adventuring group that…” she trailed off, not sure of the ‘polite’ wording that would be appropriate for a goddess’ ears. Since she was trying to be diplomatic and all that. “The adventurers that were hired to clean out my home village. Which they did a thorough job of. My cousin and I only survived because we were out gathering berries when they struck.”

Memories flittered into Illyxa’s mind as she mentioned it. Memories she’d always tried to forget. Seeing what had happened. Fleeing with a still very young Gragya. Hiding. So much hiding. Not knowing how long until it was safe to go back to the caves, and to gather what remained over the village’s valuables. Only to discover how little remained after the adventurers had cleared them out.

“So,” Luvra said, her tone unchanged, “you are admitting to having a grudge against myself? And being dangerous to release?”

Illyxa’s eye twitched and she looked up at the Goddess, horror and shock filling her heart. She was also left utterly speechless, her mouth hanging open in shock. How was that what Luvra took from what she’d said?

“I suppose I shall see if your cousin can offer better arguments as to why you two should be given a softer punishment.”

With that, the Moon Goddess left. Illyxa sat in stunned and horrified silence. She hadn’t expected the deities to really be as cold in person as they seemed from a distance…

She also didn’t like the idea of Gragya being left to try to argue for their lives. Or, just, being left alone with a deity at all. How spectacularly was her meatheaded cousin going to mess up the delicate diplomacy where Illyxa doubted that she’d managed anything to keep them alive.

Sitting there, Illyxa found herself staring blankly out the window. Logically, she knew she should be planning her escape. There was no telling how long she’d have before the Moon Goddess would declare it time for her to get the chop. Or… however they did executions here. With a goddess around they probably got creativity. 

Her mind was starting to drift over the various terrifying ways someone could be executed, especially if magic got involved, when Pin and N’ratha knocked at the doorway.

“May we come in?” N’ratha asked.

Illyxa nodded, glad to have the distraction. Only to find herself staring at Pin.

“You, uh… you look less different than I expected,” she said.

“What can I say, I like being cute,” he replied, only—

“Your voice! It’s deeper!” Illyxa said, surprised at the shift when there was no other change she’d seen. That was not to say it was massively deeper, still somewhat of a soft voice, but unquestionably masculine. “It sounds good. Like, I didn’t realise your old voice hadn’t suited you until now… but, yeah. That's very you.”

“Thank you,” Pin said, with a sort of cocky smile that he hadn’t worn before.

“Some of the other changes are also nice,” N’ratha said, with a small nod.

Illyxa was not sure how to respond to that. Usually she tried to ignore sexual topics, but… she also knew that when she did try to talk about them she apparently made things awkward by going too in depth. It really was a world that escaped her… at least Gragya was shameless enough not to mind.

Thankfully, Pin seemed to notice her hesitance regarding the topic and tried to move things along. “So, how are you?”

“Dead,” Illyxa replied in a simple tone.

“I—pardon?” Pin said.

“Luvra decided my argument for a softer sentence wasn’t strong enough. I think I maybe managed to negotiate a life sentence, but… she’s going off to talk to Gragya now. All my hard work is doomed,” Illyxa muttered.

“I’m sure Gragya is smart enough to stay quiet,” N’ratha offered.

“Around a beautiful woman? With the charisma of a deity?” Illyxa replied.

“Uhh…” N’ratha said, a look of defeat on her face.

“Maybe you can help me come up with some good last words, though?” Illyxa said, turning back to Pin. “You know poetry and all that junk.”

“I… I do,” Pin said, apparently disliking the word ‘junk’ being used. It seemed the fact she had an executioner’s ax in her future made him decide to be nicer to her, though. “Did you have any ideas what you might be going for?”

“Probably something rebellious, but… in a cultured way,” Illyxa replied.

“Hmm…”

They ended up having a few hours to spend discussing quotes to work with. Despite her misgivings about paraphrasing an Alliance Elf, Illyxa was slowly coming around to the irony of quoting the Elven hero Yishon’s last words before being executed by Dragons. She reluctantly had to admit they’d been witty and would be a good call out of the Moon Goddess. 

Her main hope was still that she’d regain her strength before it came to that. Even if she felt there was quite a lot of anti-magical warding in place around her, she was confident she could chip away at a weakness somewhere. If she just had a few days.

“You are summoned,” a pale Elf said from the doorway, their face cold and judgemental.

Illyxa felt a shiver run down her spine at the words. There was no use in delaying the inevitable, though, so she made to leave the bed. Only for her legs to nearly fail her. It seemed that her body was still far weaker than she’d realised and she needed Pin’s support to make it out of the room.

He and N’ratha helped her find the way to the grand chamber where the official sentencing would be done. A large room filled with hundreds of Birch Elves, all unsettlingly white. Like milk. Or the bark of a birch tree (hence the names).

It wasn’t hard to spot Fuan and Hyi in the ground of spectators, some of the few regular Elves sprinkled in amongst their northern cousins.

Gragya was already waiting in the prisoner’s box, her whole body somewhat flush. She had a gleam of sweat about her, making her shinier and causing some of her hair to stick to her forehead.

“Are you ok?” Illyxa whispered.

“I panicked,” Gragya replied in a hushed tone. “It was a disaster.”

“You pan—” Illyxa’s eyes then registered Luvra sitting in a throne across the room.

She looked similarly flushed and sweaty. Which meant… oh gods. Gragya had fought her, hadn’t she? Of course she had. That was Gragya’s resolution plan for every conflict. ‘Punch until there’s no longer a problem’. Well, ok, she’d also kick and use holds and all that, but…

They were beyond dead. The Moon Goddess was probably going to try to have their very spirits chopped up into little bits, so they couldn’t even reincarnate right for ten thousand years. Or… something like that.

Gods probably had secret punishments even Illyxa didn’t know about.

“In regards to the Goblin cousins, Gragya and Illyxa, the court of the Moon Palace has come to a decision, after much debate,” Luvra said, her voice as emotionless as ever. “The argument in the accused’s defence was not a claim of innocence. Instead, the claim was presented that the laws regarding the prohibition of solar magic were meant to be applied to priestly magic. A ban upon prayer, not upon the unlikely even one managed to perfect solar sorcery, a task never before managed by even the Draconic mages. It was additionally stated that the edict of prohibition was a law of blood, not of land, and that no Goblin representative signed the edict, thus the law held no jurisdiction over Goblinkind.”

A murmur of shock and outrage rippled through the assembled Elves. Numerous eyes landed upon Illyxa and Gragya, glaring at them for such heresy and hubris.

“This court weighed the arguments, and…” Luvra began, pausing to let her eyes drift across the assembled crowd. “And have found that they hold merit.”

Silence reigned. Illyxa was in utter shock, staring across at the goddess. Luvra’s eyes were not on her, but rather Gragya. And… was that a slight blush?

The Elves erupted in protests and outrage, nearly drowning out what Gragya muttered to herself. Though Illyxa was fairly certain it was something along the lines of ‘huh, so she did enjoy it’. A comment which utterly confused Illyxa.

“The court, however, cannot find the accused utterly innocent. The magicks employed could only have been found in the mausoleum of our sleeping husband, representing an act of theft and trespassing which are laws of land. As such, the accused shall be imprisoned, held until appropriate regional authorities may be contacted and offered the opportunity to hold trial,” Luvra replied.

Which meant… which meant they were going to live. Probably?

Illyxa was too stunned to resist as guards arrived to take her and Gragya off to a cell. The simple idea of getting to live was so overwhelmingly unexpected that there was nothing else she could process at first.

In fact, they spent nearly an hour, sitting quietly in a small yet well lit cell, before Illyxa realised what must have happened.

“You slept with her?” she hissed to her cousin.

“I said I panicked,” Gragya muttered, not meeting Illyxa’s eyes.