Chapter 104: The Bizmati Draft

There had been a flurry of congratulations and a few confused individuals asking whether Sapphire was back for good or just to show off as they made their way to the changing rooms. Sapphire thanked Moldovi for allowing her to borrow a set of shorts as she changed back into her armor. Quite a few other racers asked to see her necklace. The little bitch who had the audacity to claim it was fake before the race being forced to eat her words, much to Sapphire's delight.

Dakota and the others had met her outside the changing rooms, minus Ray and Maiko who were likely still upstairs watching. A small contingent of other racers followed Sapphire out, some wanting autographs while others were just asking questions, hoping for tips and tricks.

“I see you are right back in your element,” Balethon joked as he stood there, arms crossed with a grin on his face.

“What’s yours then? Lapwarmer?” Sapphire retorted, which managed to flatten his ears rather nicely. Canabrera apparently found it funny as hell though, which didn’t seem to help Balethon’s mood.

“Well, mind making the sales pitch then, since you are so comfortable here?” Dakota questioned, looking to Sapphire. ‘Really?’ Saph thought to herself as she turned back to the miniature fan club that had formed.

“Right people, well girls actually. Sorry guys, you aren’t cut out for this. We are looking for a few fresh recruits who might want to take up frontier life for a change. You all know the deal. Roof over your head, food on the table, and a lower risk of dying a horrible death when you miss a ring one day.”

Saph winced a little at that. It had sounded better in her head, but it got the point across either way. Most of them looked rather confused, a few of them looking at her like she had to be crazy. Sapphire could understand that. If you had lived your entire life in the city surrounded by friends, why would you leave it all to start anew. There were a few thoughtful faces among them though.

“Is it nice there?” one girl, probably around 15 or 16, asked.

“I have been there for half my life. Yeah, I would say so. Though it can get a little chaotic at times,” Sapphire replied, scoring a fair few more confused faces. That was pretty much the opposite of how frontier life was normally portrayed after all.

Sure there were challenges and danger involved, but most of the time it was a fairly serene and calm existence. Even slightly monotonous at times, unless you made your own fun of course. Something they had grown rather adept at over the years.

“Is it some sort of hole in the ground or what?”

“Careful now, that’s the Lady’s daughter,” Sapphire clarified, pointing to Dakota, who let out a light grunt and crossed her arms. “No, not really. It’s small, but we are doing rather well. In fact, we are departing in a few days if all goes well with a three dragon combat wing and a trader. It’s quite the place,” Sapphire wasn’t sure if she was overselling it at this point, but the confusion among her listeners was definitely damn near total by now.

“So it’s safe, exciting, and we get to go shoot things?” one young woman, probably around 18, asked, seemingly thoughtful.

“I don’t know about ‘safe.’ If you know how to fly and don’t act like idiots you’ll do fine,” Dakota replied, stepping forward a step. “If any of you wanna discuss this more seriously, follow me. I believe Sapphire needs to sign some things.” Dakota departed, taking a few curious individuals with her.

Sapphire got out the ballpoint pen, promoting yet further questions as she began signing different things. The pen miraculously worked at least decently on quite a few different things.

“Oh, the betrayal,” Ralex let out as he stepped forward, trying to seem serious and failing rather badly.

“I should have known why you came here. You always like to steal away our best talent with your pretty crowns and fancy armor.”

“Hey, if it was all bullshit don’t you think I would be staying?” Sapphire replied with a smirk, as she tried to sign someone's ear with the pen which actually turned out rather well.

“Ahrg, you got me there I’m afraid. But could you at least do me the favor of showing up more than once a decade in exchange for running off with the young ones?”

“Who knows what the future will hold? I’m not opposed to it.”

It would seem Sapphire’s sales speech had actually been rather successful, as they had ended up with two new applicants, which both seemed to be in rather familiar positions. One was an ex-keep dweller who had been sent to the capital three years ago due to overcrowding at home. She didn't have much family here to take care of her. She was called Bolinda, age sixteen. The other was named Phospheno, age seventeen. She had lost her home two years ago while she was visiting the capital for the first time. The two girls seemed to be friends, or at least knew each other pretty well, which was a definite plus. Fengi had felt a little lonely at times, not having other girls her age around.

‘Why do the stories of these people have to be so damn tragic?’ Sapphire thought to herself as they chatted with the two young women at a table in the arena’s cafeteria. Ralex had insisted on staying with the two to ensure they didn’t say yes to anything untowards. Sapphire knew he cared, so she had no problems with that, even if Dakota apparently thought it was slightly insulting that he believed she would try to take advantage of them.

“So then what do you say?” Dakota finished after having laid out the terms of the contract.

“It can’t be that bad if people don’t leave,” Phospheno, or Phos as she was apparently called, went.

Bolinda nodded in reply. “Sounds fun. Sorry Rex, don’t much fancy ending up on a stretcher.”

“Or worse,” Pho added, which gave Ralex a rather strained smile as he nodded at them.

“No, it's fine, just promise me you don’t get eaten or something. Though I’m fairly sure Sapphire here won’t let that happen… Well then Dakota Bizmati, I think you have managed to rob me of yet more precious talent. Though at least you didn't run off with the Champion this time. No offense to you two.” The two young women’s expressions betrayed he was not entirely forgiven for that comment.

“We won’t sign anything just yet,” Dakota interjected. “We are all gonna be spending some time together the next few days so we can get to know each other a little better. Then we make the decision. We have to do a few things in the meantime though.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

It had only taken until early afternoon the next day before Anchor spotted this ‘Tiguan’ approaching on the horizon. Tom was, of course, looking forward to meeting yet another dragon, and Jarix had called him a big softy. That resulted in a rather odd mental image for Tom. A dragon running around playing ball with a bunch of kids was fucking hilarious though.

He couldn’t help but notice that everyone else had seemed rather anxious. Even Jacky was apprehensive for once. As they stood in the greeting hall, lined up and ready to receive their guests, Tom couldn’t help but broach the subject.

“So uhm Jacky… I know you don’t like black, but isn’t this a bit extreme?”

“What? No, it’s perfectly fine. I’ve just never seen one before… Haven't heard the best stories though,” she replied, not sounding terribly convincing and standing rather stiffly.

“Jarix said he’s the nicest dragon he knows though. Even if he thinks he’s too nice,” Tom put his arm around her waist, trying to tickle her a bit, to loosen her up. He got a giggle in response as she tried to very carefully push him away.

“He is. If you tell him to kill someone he’s gonna spend the next five minutes debating with you on whether he should,” Jarix replied, turning his head to look at Tom.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Tom replied, stopping the attack on Jacky for the time being.

“Well, it is for a warrior. You don’t have five minutes in battle,” came the rather pointed reply.

Tom did have to give him that. Even if it didn’t make Tiguan much of a soldier, it did make him sound like a rather nice guy instead, and that would do just fine today. And if he was coming out here, he had clearly graduated just like Jarix, so he had to know how to fight.

As the big black shape came into view heading for the keep, the large flag trailing underneath him was visible even at this distance. A few of the dragonettes took a step back. It was a strange display, seemingly almost involuntary. Even Jacky lurched a bit. Though she did not move, Tom could feel she was tense. This looked like an awfully bad combination to him if this guy was as soft as Jarix claimed.

It didn’t take long to come up with a solution though.

“Hey Kiran. Who is the bravest person here?” Tom asked the kid laying atop his head, arms and legs dangling over the edge.

“Tom is bravest. You is best girl,” Tom had hoped he would say himself, but this still worked. At least it sort of seemed to, as Jacky swung her head around.

“Really?”

“Well you seem slightly scared of this big, soft, cuddly dragon. From what Jarix says he’s too soft to even be a soldier. Yet you slept just fine against Jarix's side?”

“I know Jarix, I don’t know this guy.”

“Well then let’s give him a proper welcome then,” Tom let out, looking around the hall, raising his free arm.

“If this is how you were greeted every time you went somewhere, wouldn’t you get a little bitter? Jarix, is this guy an angry person who hates the world?”

“No?” The dragon replied confusedly, tilting his head at Tom.

“What are you playing at?” Nunuk questioned, shaking her head a little.

“If he’s still a nice guy after years of this, then he has to be the nicest person I have ever heard of. So come on, show some spine and make him feel welcome. 'Cause he is, right?” Tom questioned, trying to make it sound as absurd as possible. “It’s not like he’s been carrying medicine all this way, or helped Saph and the others in the capital, or is going to protect people we like, right?”

“Of course he is welcome,” Nunuk protested in response.

“Then act like it,” Tom replied before she could carry on. “It’s the least you could do.”

“Well he’s not gotten any less stubborn,” Rachuck let out, ears decidedly low against his skull.

“I love you too,” Tom dismissed him, going over to where the rest of the kids were, dragging Jacky along with him. Even though it was very much her humoring him.

“Now kids, you liked the movie right?”

“We fight!” came the response, one of the Hylsdal twins even having a go at echoing the statement. “That’s good, now remember when they went to the bar with the other people that look like me?”

“Yeah, they were all mean and stupid,” came the reply from Vigon. ‘That’s the spirit,’ Tom mused, confidence in the plan increasing.

“Then what happened?”

“The nice people came over and were nice,” Turinia replied, perking up with the cutest little smile.

“And then Red Tails were happy,” Turinia’s brother Worpock added.

“Yes, that’s right. So then here is the plan. Tiguan is a Red Tail and you are gonna be the nice people, okay?”

“I can be nice,” one of the twins replied, Tom had no clue which one though.

“And make the big scary dragon happy so he doesn’t kill us,” Vigon let out excitedly, causing Tom to flinch a little.

“He’s not scary, he just looks different. Just think of him as an even friendlier Jarix.”

There were a few thoughtful faces as they looked back and forth. Holdey eventually put his hand up very politely.

“Yes Holdey?”

“Do you think he will let us climb on him?” Tom couldn’t really answer that, instead looking towards Jarix, hoping he would know. The dragon had clearly been listening to what they were doing, though the head tilt betrayed he didn’t really get it.

“I...hm…. Yeah, I think he would,” The dragon eventually replied, having pondered it for a bit.

“Perfect. So we are all gonna be nice to the big dragon, and I’m sure he will be very happy and you get to have fun too.”

The look of sheer surprise and confusion on Tiguan’s face when a gaggle of kids came running out to greet him as soon as she landed betrayed this was indeed not normal for him. At first, the dragon backed up until his tail was dangling over the side, seemingly not sure how to react to that.

“What… Hi, yes I’m Tigu… My tail isn't red?” The confused expression didn’t go away, but an infectious smile did join it, as the dragon came to terms with what was going on. The kids completely distracted his attention from the discomfort of the adults. “Yes, I’m very happy to be here… I brought you something too,” he continued as he slowly walked forward, being extremely careful with each footstep as the kids swarmed around him.

Poking fun at whether or not Jacky was braver than a bunch of kids had her on board with the plan as well, as she and Tom walked forward. Nunuk, clearly not wanting to be outdone, also went to greet the dragon. ‘I’m a fucking genius,’ Tom mused to himself, very pleased with the result.

“Had a nice flight?” Tom opened up, the dragon's attention switching to him, expression going from confused to incredulous.

“What are you?... Oh no wait, I’m sorry. Yes. Ehh hi,” the dragon replied, stumbling a bit over the words.

“Hi indeed,” Tom replied with a chuckle.

“And welcome to our little keep. I heard you did my daughter a great service back in the capital, we are most grateful” Nunuk added, with a bow.

“Oh… I just kinda went along,” Tiguan replied, looking a bit bashful, attention quickly switching back to Tom.

“You are a strange-looking wizard.” Tom could hear Jacky suppressing a snicker at that.

“Oh, you have no idea,” she replied, ruffling Tom’s hair a bit.

“He is best girl,” Kiran let out, as he stood patting Tiguan’s front left paw.

“Girl?” a male dragonette on Tiguan's back let out, clearly rather confused. He jumped down to the ground. “I could have sworn they said you were a man. My apologies, ma’am. Lieutenant Ylditz Hashaw. We have heard quite a bit about this place.”

That was seemingly enough to break Jacky, quite a few others joining her in laughing at Tom’s expense. He did his best not to look annoyed.

“Yeah… I’m a dude,” Tom clarified, trying not to sound rude. Ylditz’ face turned rather strained.

“Of course, it’s very obvious from your… physique?” The guy trailed off, clearly not sure where he was going with that.

“You are Tom, right?” Tiguan questioned, before looking back down to Kiran, tapping his claws on the ground as Kiran tried to hold them down, the dragon smiling from ear to ear.

“That he is,” Jarix interjected. “Don’t worry, only half the things you have heard are true.”

“The rest are understated,” Zarko joined in as she too came up to greet the new arrivals, exchanging a hearty handshake with Ylditz, after a quick salute.

“That’s honestly a little scary,” Ylditz replied, as Tiguan yielded to the kids' requests, laying down on his side to let them crawl up. He even helped the stragglers along with a careful paw. “We have something for you though,” Ylditz continued after looking at the stage display. He walked over to Tiguan to retrieve a nice leather satchel, handing it over to Nunuk. “There you go, delivered as promised. Medicine, a few remedies, and some letters for the keep.”

“Thank you very much, young man. Excuse me, I better get to work. Tom, I want you in the infirmary shortly. It will take a little while to prepare though,” Nunuk replied before walking off with the satchel. Apuma walked over to give a quick handshake before joining her.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Jarix stated, looking down at Tiguan who had nearly made it onto his back by now.

“And you look like you got into a fight with your mother… What happened to you?”

“I did the right thing… I think.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Order! May we have order! This court is now in session,” the judge demanded as people found their seats in the large room. Sapphire had never been in a courtroom before, and it was really a rather surreal experience.

To their front was the judge, with his clerks and lawkeepers. To the right was the accused’s tables and benches. Behind her was the Jury, which she had been told she was not allowed to look at unless instructed to do so by the judge.

Above them were the stands for anyone not directly involved, such as witnesses or personal relations. There were stairs leading down to the court floor from the stands if they were needed for testimony or other such things. Both Archeon and Baron were going to testify as well, simply craning their heads over the edge down into the courtroom.

Dakota was seated in the front row with the prosecutors. With her was Lady Hashaw, Victoria, and the Hashaw family lawyer, Sir Viantius. The defendants consisted of Ursula— aka The Bitch, and former lady of the Flaxen family— her personal lawyer— and Nevera, the one responsible for orchestrating the kidnapping.

Sapphire and Balethon sat on the second row along with Vulzan and his lawyer, whom Sapphire had only just met before entering the room. Behind The Bitch sat four former Flaxen Family guards, including the one who had the horns to stare down a ten-ton black dragon and a colonel while lying.

Sapphire almost felt a little impressed by her. They had been following orders too. Just the wrong orders, unfortunately for them. Their punishment was likely to be a lot less severe given the circumstances.

First order of business was listing the accusations on which they would be deliberating. Dakota had presented them as the representatives of Bizmati Keep, as well as listed the charges they were bringing against The Bitch, which included: attempted murder, false accusations of corruption, falsifying evidence of corruption, mistreatment of the law of hospitality, attempted kidnapping by proxy, and attempted murder by proxy.

Lady Hashaw had decided to represent her family, stating her accusations as besmirching her family's honor and attempted implication of her family in unlawful behavior.

Victoria had been representing the Royal Guard, stating her accusations as: falsifying reports to mislead Royal Guard forces, misusing the trust of the Royal Guard, besmirching the reputation of several Royal Guard members, and orchestrating an assault on the Royal Guard.

It had taken quite a while to go through all the witnesses for each of the rather long list of accusations, with delightfully few people coming in to speak on the bitch’s behalf. Ray’s testimony had been a little tense, the woman clearly struggling with the attention of everyone looking at her. They had gotten her some decent clothes to make her presentable, but she still received some grief from the defendants side of the room before the judge put a stop to it.

She had pulled it off though, even if she looked ready to bolt. Sapphire made a note to buy her a round that evening. ‘Cause she damn well deserved it.

“Next witness, one Captain Tyborg. Please come to the floor,” the Judge ordered as Ray made her way off the podium.

“Esteemed Judge, may I have your attention, please?” someone shouted out from the stands above. It sounded familiar, though Sapphire couldn't place it.

“Of course, inquisitor. To what do we owe the honor?” the Judge replied as Joelina Hashaw made her way down the stairs. She was followed by a squad of what were clearly warriors done up in full inquisitorial regalia, prayer seals and incense burners included.

“Nothing good I’m afraid,” she replied, not taking to the podium, instead standing in front of the defendant's benches. “Ursula, disgraced of your family. It has come to my attention, during a lengthy investigation of the reports of enemy action in the frontier, that certain reports were misplaced concerning enemy movements. Specifically, reports from Ikran Keep were rewritten, their seals used to lend credence to false reports which were then re-filed.”

“You have been identified as the source of this misinformation. It is believed this was done with the intent of creating believable evidence against the inhabitants of Bizmati Keep, against whom you hold grievances. The result of your action was the misallocation of Royal Guard forces as well as a failure to respond to a plea for help from Ikran Keep, which now lies in ruins, with forty-one lives lost. For this act of treason you are sentenced to death, by execution, in the name of the Holy Inquisition under the mandate of the church as constituted by the crown.”

“Not guilty!” The Bitch ordered, getting to her feet.

“Noted,” Joelina responded, raising her hand and snapping her fingers once. The warriors at her back moved to seize The Bitch, who protested loudly, squirming and screaming, demanding to be let go. “You are to be executed tomorrow at dawn, following a private interrogation with me. I will learn how deep your treason has spread and it shall be purged,” Joelina continued, utterly unfazed by The Bitch’s protests, a muzzle was finally put over her snout, shutting her up a bit.

Joelina then moved her gaze to the remaining Flaxens arrayed before her. “If any of you decide to leave the capital before my investigation is complete, your next of kin will be used as leverage to bring you back. Alternatively, you will be hunted to the ends of the world in the name of the king, with the full resources available to the Inquisition and the honored Royal Guard. Understood…? Very good. You will be notified once you are again allowed to leave the city. I advise you to make yourselves easy to find, so as to avoid misunderstandings.”

“Holy shit,” Balethon let out from next to Sapphire as Joelina turned to the judge with a polite bow, thanking him for his time, before making off with The Bitch. She gave a polite nod to Lady Hashaw as she passed them, though she utterly ignored the rest of them. Everyone made sure to give them plenty of space as they left, and they were gone as quickly as they had arrived.

“What just happened?” Sapphire questioned as an eerie silence fell over the courtroom.

“My girl did her job rather well it would seem. Though her timing was a little annoying, so much wasted effort… Oh well,” Lady Hashaw replied, as people began to discuss amongst themselves. Sapphire turned to look at the remaining Flaxens. Nevera looked ready to faint, and even the tough-skinned guard was looking at the others wide-eyed.

“This hearing is not yet over. Back to order,” the judge demanded, quickly gaining it as people shut up and looked at him. There was still the matter of the remaining Flaxen individuals. The Jury had quickly served every one of them with a guilty verdict in the face of overwhelming evidence. Sentences had been prison, if they could pay for it. All of them at least claiming to be able to do so. Would they fail to deliver the funds though, it would be indentured servitude instead. Nevera got it the hardest with forty years, the guards receiving between five and ten. Judging by how Nevera was looking at the moment, Sapphire had a suspicion that wouldn’t be the end of it for her though.

The judge seemingly agreed, requiring her to be placed under supervision by the city guard until she could begin serving her sentence.