The bed was soft and warm, and Karen did not want to get up. The clanging in the distance was at least as stubborn, and it did not want to give up. Yet something had to give. In this case it was not her patience, it was the realization that she had most certainly not fallen asleep in a bed.

Beds had been in the little room underneath the train tube, but they were the frame and rope type that had been used by the COPWAPTDT up in the mountains, not the soft and pleasant type that were used in places that weren’t garbage.

Opening her eyes to a place she’d never been before was almost as disturbing as how she saw that new place. Everything was too sharp, more crisply in focus than it should be. The colors themselves were too vibrant. The world had gone and turned on HDR, making it too bright and disorienting. Karen had to focus in order to inspect her mystery room.

It looked a lot like the suite she’d been staying at in Rosalie. Large bed, single table, single chair, open windows looking over the lake. Barred windows looking over the lake? That’s new.

In her haste to inspect them, she nearly keeled over while trying to stand. Her equilibrium was off. Also, her sense of touch when her bare foot touched down into the carpet. The combined intensity of all these sensations was overwhelming, forcing her to stay still with her eyes closed as she tried to maintain her balance.

Where am I? What’s happening to me?

No answer. Not too surprising. The spirit had started making a habit of running off when she really needed him.

The don’t move or look at anything pose helped, and with time she was once again underwhelmed enough to shuffle over and inspect the bars on her window. While focusing on her steps, she made the most upsetting discovery yet.

She was dressed for bed like grandpa joe. Maybe she would have to steal a bottle of flying potion and belch her way out of being minced by an industrial fan. Flying potion did sound interesting. Was that a thing? It had to be. The spirit said you could do almost anything with alchemy.

The bars were, as expected, solid. Solid and designed to keep her in. Her body felt like its strength had jumped overnight the same way her senses had, yet even that new muscle couldn’t cause a wiggle in the bars. Even with her feet braced up on a bar and full on deadlifting another she might as well have been a child trying to lift the family car.

Checking the remaining doors, one was a bathroom. It was clean and spacious, and if not for the windows in that room also being barred, she’d suspect she was still back at her suite.

Hope had held out, carried by the thinnest of threads, right until the last moment. Maybe she had drunkenly checked into a nice hotel in a high crime neighborhood, or maybe she’d been invited into some kind of human zoo and could leave whenever she pleased.

That last thread of hope was snapped when the final door was opened, revealing what she had hoped not to be true and also already known. A tiny, bare room of poured concrete with two doors. One was paneled, frosted glass and opened inward to her room, the other made of bars and facing out toward the sound of that infernal clanking.

The across the hall neighbor was not a classy man, and his poorly appointment cell helped confirm that. His cell was exactly a perfect example of a jail cell stereotype. From her angle all that was visible was a concrete slab of a bed, a barred slot of a window facing into a wall, and a lone occupant.

Even ignoring the spartan cell, the occupant alone was enough to confirm his low state of refinement. Her unwanted alarm clock was the chain binding the man’s hands, particularly the slight movements that were made during each short round as he played a game of five on one. Judging by how his chains shook, the clinks should hardly be noticeable. A side effect of her improved senses then.

He looked like a homeless vagrant, and the reflex was to treat him like a homeless vagrant. A fact of modern life, if you treat a person like they’re invisible it means they don’t exist.

The vagrant was clutching hard at visibility in addition to other things. “You don’t like what you see?”

Nope, she definitely hadn’t. She especially didn’t like that he’d seen her when she wished he were too busy to notice. But she was unwilling to rise to the bait. Her door clicked shut and she retreated to the window. The comments continued, growing more and more agitated as they went ignored until finally Karen couldn’t take it.

“HEY! SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

This had the opposite effect of what was intended, with any attention acting as water thrown on the grease fire that was this man’s personality. One more comment was all it took.

“Come back out here, I have something to show you!”

He hadn’t been expecting her to come back out, yet he was excited when she did. He was less excited when she stepped into the cell next to him. Even less excited to take a fist to the head. He went face first into the wall where he collapsed, bleeding and moaning.

“Ah, fuck.”

On a good note, the limit of her quickstep had jumped from zero to one. On a sour note, she was stuck in a grimy cell with a concussed creep-ass. She should have tried to summon the spear. It was almost certainly too cramped to maneuver the thing between two cells, but maybe the threat of being shanked would have been enough to shut him up. Maybe a good toss would have done it. Just a light stabbing, nothing too deadly. A diet stabbing.

She sat on the slab, attempting to meditate and return enough energy to cross the hall. Spiritual serenity came very quickly after she stop envisioning all the possible ways to stab someone.

---

Someone was coming. Hours of meditation and she still wasn’t confident of crossing the person length gap between the two cells without hurting herself. Worse than that, the spirit still wasn’t responding. Maybe the jail had some kind of suppression built in that acted the same as The Great Wizard, Auguste’s.

Eventually her temporary cellmate heard them too, and his miserable whining picked up from where he was slumped.

“Shut up or I’ll kill you.”

That did the trick. Nothing like the threat of extreme violence, with the evidence it could be enforced at any time, to convince someone of your position. The steps grew close.

“Karen Gillespie?” A well-dressed Elf in some kind of drapey, tan formalwear announced into her erstwhile cell.

“Yes?”

He turned around looking surprised. “Apologies, you’re not where they said you would be. Oh, and I didn’t realize they’d place you with someone else. Oh.” He paused on seeing her partner’s condition. “I am Loyalty Above All. I am the provincial solicitor assigned to your case. One of your cases.”

Shit. Cat might be out of the bag in regards to teleportation. Or was it already? There had been a witness on her earlier mission, after all.

“What can I do for you, Loyalty Above All?”

Fucking elf names.

“Yes, I have the results of your judgements. I will discuss them with you if you’d like.”

“The results of my judgements? As in it’s already done? I don’t have an opportunity to defend myself?” Karen was surprised it had moved so quickly, but not at all surprised that it had happened. That kid, Jules, had basically said he would report it.

“I… yes, it’s already completed. There was no need to defend yourself, the magistrate went over the relevant facts and was present to defend you herself. I can discuss them with you now if you’d like.” The possibility it would be done any other way was foreign to him, and that fact came through in his voice.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s get this out of the way.” She stood to meet his eyes, but ended up looming over him.

He took a breath, beginning in a practiced tone. “In the jurisdiction of the Eastern province governor, Swimming In Fate’s Design, you have been charged with two counts of murder of an imperial citizen. The facts of the case are as follows: On the early morning of the eleventh Eugene’s day in the season of harvest several eyewitnesses confirmed you were approached by A Man Destined For Glory and his two companions, Under The Grace Of Her Eyes and Julian Eluevi. This meeting was confirmed by imperial soul tracing.

A disagreement occurred wherein you declined to renege on your designated job from the Coalition Of People Who Are Paid To Do Things. You parted ways with the group, making your way to the job site in question and completing your duties as they were described.

Before departing, you were once again confronted by A Man Destined For Glory, Under The Grace Of Her Eyes, and Julian Eluevi. The confrontation became violent, and the two citizens, without assistance from Julian Eluevi, were slain. This event was confirmed by imperial soul tracing.

On both counts of murder of an imperial citizen you have been found guilty.”

“Guilty? They attacked me! I defended myself!” Karen shouted.

“I am not done. I will continue. Sentencing is as follows: twenty days served in local incarceration suitable for your station for each charge, this is to be served concurrently. An aside, this… room is below someone of the second rank of power. I’ll have you moved somewhere appropriate to fulfill the conditions set by the magistrate.

Continuing, mitigating circumstances in sentencing were as follows: A witness at the confrontation confirms that both victims conspired to confront and murder the guilty party, Karen Gillespie. This was done in an attempt to prevent her from reporting the body of a previous murder they had committed, that of one Witness Me For I Sing. These movements were confirmed by imperial soul tracing. The body of Witness Me For I Sing was confirmed and recovered at the location of the slayings.”

That… actually wasn’t so bad. Better than had been expected, really. A few weeks in a gilded cage for killing two cocky bitchelves? Maybe they’d return her ring and allow her to do some alchemy. At the very least there had been some books in the cell. Elf literature was guaranteed to be atrocious, but it couldn’t be any worse than some of the serials she’d read on earth.

“So, I’m here for twenty days?” Karen asked coolly.

“Not exactly. There are two judgements against you, and that was only the first. I was not the solicitor on the other, but I have been given the information from the western province to relay to you. If you are ready?”

Karen nodded. This one didn’t seem good. If it was what she thought it was then it definitely not done in self-defense.

He continued, this time sounding less rote in his reading. “In the jurisdiction of the Western province governor, Without Fear And Through Time, you have been charged with arson resulting in damages against an Imperial resident. The facts of the case are as follows: On the early morning in the tenth Adolphe’s day in the season of harvest imperial soul tracing confirmed your position at the location of a fire in Western Region Wilderness Spatial Gate Village 17.

Investigation found the source of the fire to have been alchemical, and introduced through a breach in the building’s outer wall. Witness reports confirmed prior conflict between the accused and the victims, Conall of the pict clan Erp and Ethne of the pict clan Erp. Witness reports confirm equipment necessary to create and contain an alchemical attack to have been sold to the accused previously.

On the single count of arson resulting in damage to an Imperial resident you have been found guilty. Sentencing is as follows: thirty days served in local incarceration suitable for your station, and compensation for damages totaling seventeen thousand four hundred source. Your station has changed since sentencing, and the length of incarceration has been reduced to ten days by Eastern province magistrate, Swimming In Fate’s Design. This is to be served sequentially with other judgements.

Mitigating circumstances in the sentencing were as follows: numerous witnesses confirmed the damaged parties, Conall of the pict clan Erp and Ethne of the pict clan Erp, had boasted of an extrajudicial assault of Karen Gillespie, going so far as to present a tooth they had taken as a trophy. As a result, the guilty party’s reputation suffered damage.

That concludes the reading of the judgement, and our business. The damages may be paid at any provincial clerk’s office, the nearest being in this town. You have thirty days from the time of your release, twenty-eight days hence, to contact the clerk and arrange payment. May She walk with you.” With that, Loyalty Above All left.

She listened as his shoes clicked down the hall toward wherever he’d come from, considering what he’d said. She wasn’t even mad. By the end, listening to it all recited so clinically, she mostly felt over both of the incidents. She was not interested in them or this place, and the whole lot of them could get fucked if they thought she might work to repay those tattooed dickheads.

What she needed was a place to grow accustomed to her new body and her new senses, and this seemed as good as any. Hopefully the spirit would return before it grew too tiresome, and if he didn’t, she would zipzop through the window and jump through the nearest gate. Elu Prime had to be more interesting than a jail cell.

When one of her captors came to check why she was in the wrong cell, they found her exactly where she was supposed to be, enjoying a view of the lake from her comfortable chair.