"Now raise, the Judge Kristam Graveblood in rule over the courts today."

At this, the man from before enters the room now in a black robe, I should have seen this coming when he was talking to me.

"All be seated, due to the nature of the evidence, I will allow each side one witness as I believe we know the charges, but they will be stated. In the count of action leading to death of another, there is one count. In the count of action taking the life or liberty from a member of the higher class, this is also one count. Before we continue, I am required to inform you that this room has been enchanted and will require the truth when speaking, I will activate this now, as well We will start with the stacks, who do you call to your witness." After saying this, the worlds across the top of the room began to give off a faint blue light.

"Hobart Nigel Northstar sir, as character witness, witness of the crime, and father of the deceased."

"Defence first, ask you questions"

"No questions your honor."

"Understandable, and the stacks? Proceed."

"Mr Northstart, with the history that the defendant shared with the victim, do you believe this was done in malice?"

"I do believe so, with this boy never showing the respected that derak required he was pestering my son for years."

"Respect must be ear........" At this I was shocked, a mild shock which stopped me talking, but nothing to bad.

"Mr Faedon, I must request you to not speak unless spoken to, Stacks, continue."

"We are actually done as well for questions as the evidence speaks volumes your honor."

"Mr Northstar, you may return to the seats. Defence, who do you call?"

"No other then the defendant himself sir."

I stood up and sat in the box for questioning

"The stacks, you may start."

"Mr Faedon, when in the arena, why did you feel there was need for such a spell, and at that power as well?"

"When in the fight, I felt ... Derak, was holding back. So after he deployed his magic shield..." And I was cut off

"Do not speak of such things, you do not have the authority to speak about secrets of the higher ranks!" Derak's Father was yelling, nearly purple in the face.

"Mr Northstar, I will have to ask that you refrain from another outburst Regardless of what is said, or you will be in the next trail for disrupting the proceedings."

I received a deathly glare from Hobart Northstar at that. 

With no one talking, I continued "Well, after he deployed his Magic Shield, I felt a week magic use would just bounce off of it, so I used a bit more power to try and disable it, I never expected that the shield was so weak and wouldn't stand up to that kind of attack."

"Regardless, from the reports showing of the Autopsy, it shows there was major damage done to Derak before then, on his chest from the mid level spell used at the start of the fight."

I must have looked confused as the rep for the stacks tried to clarify "The condensed Ice Shot is a Mid level Spell, if not for the armor Derak was wearing, this would have likely killed him, yet this wasn't enough, and you used an even more powerful spell."

"I had no idea that had done anything more than stunning him for but a moment so I could get closer, there wasn't nearly enough mana in that to do much else I believe."

"Regardless, I am done with my questions your honor."

"Defence, do you have questions to ask?"

"Yes honor, I would like to set a statement before we proceed. Danial, who have you shown this magical spells to?"

"No one, I train myself to have as an ace up my sleeve if I ever needed them."

"Thank you, and what is your expected rank if you were to join the mages section?"

"I don't know, never really looked into them, the contract really made me look hope in learning spells for a while."

"Considering you seemed to expect your spells to deal little if any damage, and the fact you unleash what appeared to be a beam spell, and condensed spell, you are at least of the Rank 6 Mage, where as the standard citizen is rank 2-3, and derak was a 4 due to exposure to learning materials. Do you understand the different in power now mister faedon?"

I was at a loss for words, people are really that weak when it came to magic?

I guess this would explain why they seemed so bad at fighting again or with magic.

"I understand now, since this was never taught in school I thought everyone was more or less around the same level since no one really shows off their magical talent, and to join a school for it, I had to sign a contact and work for someone."

"With this honor, I can conclude the incident was truly an accident as the defendant didn't know the power scale of magic, and does appear was never included in the learning curriculum, so I would advise we also push to have that added."

"Agreed on those accounts, For the rulling in both counts against the defendant, In the count of action leading to death of another, defendant is Guilty. In the count of action taking the life or liberty from a member of the higher class, the defendant is guilty. Due to both counts, normally the Defendant would be Branded and Marked, but due to the age of the defendent I am willing to be lieniant due to them cooperating and whole heartedly convincing me it was not with malice, but an accident. The defendant will be branded and due 1 year mandatory time in the mines, with this it will allow time to think over the mistakes that have happened and to come to terms with what has happened."

"You can't be serious, the boy killed my son and you want him to do hard labor? Take a hand, or leg at least, I will never see my son and he is left to live, even if it may be a little hard?"

"I really hate to do it, But I had warned you. You will be held in contempt of Court Hobart Northstar, you are hereby remanded to your floor where you will serve as night guard for a time that I feel is enough, you are dismissed." 

At this, Derak's father was grabbed and dragged out of the court room, where I was cuffed and led to the elevator as well.

Me and the guards took the elevator down for a long time before the door finally opened and I saw I was now on floor 140, only 10 more level below was the bottom of the stacks.

We stepped out of the elevator and talking with someone there, my guard started leading up to a little apartment out of the way.

"This is to be your location while you are assigned to the mines, you will remain here when not working and a stippend of food and resources will be brought to you. Are there any questions?"

"Where do I find out where and when I will work?" I was curious as I wasn't provided anything yet.

When the day has ended one of the Senior miners will likely bring you the information. For now, just wait here."

I nodded and the gaurds left. I gave it a moment and tried the door just to make sure and can confirm it was locked, had to try anyway.

With this, I busied myself to exploring this little area, there wasn't much to the room, the TV was on an extendable arm so at least this was fine.

Well with no tablet, I can't hook into the TV, I may be able to have a Receiving and Transmitter to build for my watch, this way I can use it to watch things on the tv, but that will be later.

I say reading books from my watch for close to 4 hours before I head the click of the lock turning on my door.

A man and a women came in and I stood up to greet them.

"Well newbie I have some bad news, they didn't take care of your schedule for down here and we only have 1 section open currently. The unexplored Tunnels, so I hope you like not breathing deeply and the firm sense of the cold. But before we start discussing anything, we need to take care of something. Em, bring it in."

The lady left the apartment for a moment before coming in with a small box, and a Brand in the shape of the mark of the Stacks.

Th actually image was a large circle with words on the edge Reading "The stacks of Knowledge Branded member" with the picture of an open book at the center.

The man placed a batter on the side of the small box and set the brand in the box as he explained, "This insulated box allows for near -200 degree temperatures, and there is a freezen stone set into the box the get it to this temp, when the brand comes out, it will Cold brand you when it is pressed to you."

I had nearly forgot I had to be branded, this was gonna suck.

The man handed me a leather strap and told me to grip the back of the couch while he did the brand as it made it easy.

He pulled the brand out of the box and it felt like the warmth from my body was being leeched from the air around it, but I gripped the sofa and braced myself.

The feeling of the brand touching the back of my hand was pretty bad but it only lasted a moment but the horrible pain came after.

Apparently it was the pain of dying cells around where the brand touched, but I was able to get over it not to long after.

I had been told I was setting there, seething for nearly 2 hours, but normally people would be at it for a few more.

"Well now that this is out of the way, you are likely to be very tired. So we will make this quick. This is Emil, and I am Boldt, work will depend on when tunnels are available but right now, we have 3 completely unexplored tunnels, so you will be working doubles to make up for time in the future. We will leave soon and you day will start at 6:00am, so do try to be ready."

They talked me through some of the things I will need to be doing, but explained I will always have 1 day of shadowing someone before starting a new position, as it seemed that I would be a fill for where I am needing most of the time.

After explaining this, they left, I had around 8 hour until I would get up at 5, so I sat there and thought.

I looked down at the brand and just felt all the emotions that had been building up.

I was sniffling and just flopped down on my cot built into the wall.

It wasn't a lot but I had my watch to read things, and watch things.

I will make it through this and be stronger for it!