Damn Loganna that underhanded bitch!

Nannade gritted her teeth and suppressed many curses. Curses at Loganna for bringing in a witness without notifying the defence. Curses at Bronislaw for having the gall to play victim after he tried to kill her. But also curses at herself for not staying to make sure that bastard died.

Bronislaw was just done introducing himself and stating his significance to the trial when Loganna addressed him again. “Brother Bronislaw, if you feel able to, please tell us the circumstances and events during your encounter with the accused.”

Before Bronislaw could answer, one of Loganna's trusted judges spoke up. “High-sister Loganna, it is highly discouraged to introduce a witnessed at such short notice into the trial.”

Loganna had little time for that remark and brushed it aside before asking Bronislaw to start his witness report.

All Nannade could do was listen and grit her teeth while Bronislaw told his lies. That she had threatened him when he had refused to tell her the location of the forest for dreams, for her own protection. That she had hissed at him. That she had made threatening gestures. That he only bound her to calm her down. That he tried to tell her the location after all. The entire time, Nannade could have pulverised stones between her teeth, and her teachers noticed. Elissa was trying to calm her by stroking Nannade’s clenched fist while Garetas seemed to join in on the teeth-gritting.

He was lying with a silver tongue and Loganna was happy he did, Nannade could smell her inner smirk all the way to where she sat while having to listen to that bastard.

“... then she continued her assault with bare fists. Let’s get that blood pumping! She said. She used pain and poison like tools. This demon she has, it is cruelty!”

His voice was weak and hoarse, surely the venom had rampaged in his body quite a lot and he had sustained permanent afflictions, not just blindness. Still Nannade saw the play in his demeanour, his fake fear. He had come to get a second chance at killing her.

Nannade wanted to spring into action, but Garetas had already put his hand on her shoulder, he knew what force was tensed up inside of her.

“...if it hadn’t been for a fellow caretaker of the land finding me out of mere luck and circumstance, I would have slowly died in pain and agony.” His testimony was finally done. Loganna turned to Nannade, to try to batter her down with her judgement. But Nannade wouldn’t be the one to squirm beneath her eyes.

“Nannade, how do you answer these accusations?”

“He’s a bloody liar! He attacked me and he did NOT want to untie me. He kept going despite knowing I was crolachan! He never even asked for confirmation that I stood under the protection of the Lodge!”

Loganna smirked. “It is weird that this is not mentioned in Aaka's reports, merely that you somehow “got away from him” and nothing more.” She turned to Black Surgeon. “Why was this not included in the report, Black Surgeon. We trusted you.”

Murmuring rose in the crowd, in these closed walls much more suffocating than on the clearing in the forest.

Black Surgeon adjusted his pose. He had apparently managed to prepare a statement this time. “Because Aaka saw Nannade’s behaviour as completely adequate and reasonable, not out of the ordinary, just like her venom; Aaka is a spider after all. Nannade is a young girl, tricked and lured to be killed by someone she had trusted. It was not cruelty; it was merely a valve to vent pent up frustration he had put her through.”

“You had been hired as a neutral observer and advisor. It’s now all too obvious that you’ve been compromised by your ties to our sister Elissa, that should have been obvious. You have failed your task. These entire past months had been nothing but a waste!” Loganna slammed her hand on the desk in front of her. “You tricked and deceived us!”

The room grew restless. Black Surgeon raised his hand. “Do I still have the floor? Hello?” he tried to calm them down. “To accuse me of manipulating data is preposterous. Was it not the accused herself that demanded we prove her dangerous? Even if all was as brother Bronislawdescribed it, it seems that Nannade is not any more dangerous for it. She was attacked in both versions of the story. If brother Bronislaw had not attacked her, he would have not suffered her defence.”

The anger and spite on Loganna's face could have dried up an entire oak tree. “You lied to us, we cannot trust a single word you say, all of this was pointless! You wasted our time and allowed this highly dangerous individual to gather more experience in killing!”

The fire in Nannade’s legs roared and before her teachers could react, she sprung up, half over to table with an outstretched finger. “What do you mean, highly dangerous? I defended myself! This guy comes in here-“ Elissa and Garetas tried to put a calming hand on her shoulder, but she slapped them away. “-comes in here and tells these lies that would allow you to execute me, but you question Black Surgeon instead of the stranger? Have you forgotten where you stand and what for?”

Nannade's voice resounded from the walls and sherealized that she might have underestimated her volume. The room was a bit silent, until Loganna leaned forward on her elbows.

“Nannade, you would be wise to remember your peculiar situation here. We cannot trust anything these people say. So, watch what you say when you’re talking to me, you brat! Purple Paw, reign in your overambitious yob of an apprentice! You two have been nothing but trouble ever since you arrived in Sturreland.”

Garetas finally pushed Nannade down back into her chair.

“You can’t seriously be giving her this satisfaction!” She snarled at him. “She just wants me in chains as long as possible!”

“Shut up, fleabag! We can wait this out, trust me. This is exactly what we talked about.”

She wanted to hiss, but held back, just for now.

“I think the balance of evidence has been established, “Loganna again put up her bulwark of arrogance before her. “with the report being nothing but lies and the letters being flimsier than the paper they were written on, we can move on to casting judgement on whether Nannade, apprentice of Purple Paw, is guilty of being a dangerous abomination.”

This time it was Garetas who jumped up. “You can’t do that, we already had that vote cast last session!”

“But it was inconclusive because no one had sufficient evidence.”

Garetas’ voice was made out ofoutrage and protest. “It WAS conclusive. Guilty by a narrow margin, too narrow to condemn an accused not of age to death, this time I came prepared, I read your convoluted laws! I call upon the trusted judges uphold the proper procedure!”

Loganna’s face deformed into a grotesque stew of hatred and arrogance. “I’ve had enough, Guardians, remove Purple Paw from the court room so we can continue this trial in proper order!”

One of the Guardian made a move towards Garetas, but immediately halted in his movement. He looked to the trusted judges, one of which had raised his hand. The room grew silent, even Loganna.

The judge raised her voice. “Arch-Druid Loganna. You cannot have the defence removed from the room after you did so much to spur them on so much. We will now take over the proceedings of the trial. You have proven to be incapable of keeping order in the courtroom. You are, in fact, one of the biggest source of unrest in this courtroom.”

Loganna wanted to protest, but saw that she had used up all her good will. She moved to the back of the podium, while whispers and murmur filledthe room. Then the judge turned to Garetas.

“And of you, Purple Paw, I have ask that you remain from commenting or bursting out when not given the floor. The same goes for your apprentice. Chastise her or we shall chastise you.”

Garetas appeared to be rather content with that. He turned to Elissa. “Do you want to do the rest?” His voice was oddly calm.

Elissa nodded. “Still kind of rude what you did.”

Nannade understood what had happened. They had taken the reigns away from Loganna on purpose. There may have been some genuine emotion in what Garetas had done, but it was not entirely incidental.

Elissa stood up, before the judge could move on with the trial.

“Does the defence have something to say?”

“Yes, your honour. We would like to question the witness, if that is permitted.”

“Go ahead.”

Elissa turned to Bronislaw, who was still sitting to the side of the podium.

“Brother Bronislaw, Why did you not believe when the accused told you she was an apprentice of the Lodge of Sturreland? We know she could have shown you the letter detailing her circumstances.”

The gaunt man took a while before answering. “She is an abomination, I was right in this regard!”

“But she was right in her regard too.”

“Why should I give the sinner benefit of the doubt?!” he seemed angry, as far as his voice allowed him to. “She was dangerous! She wanted me dead!”

“If you did not believe her, then what led you to the Lodge of Sturreland to seek justice for her supposed crime against you?”

Bronislaw took much longer than before to come up with an answer this time. Even NANNADE knew that Elissa had him with that question.

Bronislaw finally answered. “It was my only lead. What else should I have done?”

Elissa turned to the podium. “May I ask High-Sister Loganna a question?”

The high judge hesitated and looked to her peers. They seemed to be just as puzzled but agreed.

Loganna was not up for it. Her face showed genuine disgust with Elissa, but she abided by the ordeal.

“High-Sister Loganna, have you already filed charges against Brother Bronislaw with the Siblings of Northern Nisumski?”

The expression on Loganna's face showed genuine surprise. “No, why should I?”

The way Nannade saw it, Elissa had both of them by the ears, twisting and tugging like one would with a disobedient child.

“You tell Black Surgeon off for getting some things supposedly wrong, yet you completely ignore the fact that even in Brother Bronislaw's side of the story, he would be guilty of something that could be seen as a slight against the Lodge of Sturreland. You have not even considered his words to be untrue.” Agreeing murmurs could be heard from the podium and the jury. “You do not represent the interests of the members of the Lodge, as you promised when sworn in. You jumped to the occasion to accuse a member of the Lodge of a crime, without defending her.”

Loganna answered in a hurt and angry tone. “Nannade is the apprentice of a Hidden Hand, not the Lodge!”

The force with which Elissa snapped back at Loganna was frightening. “Then let THEM deal with her, but you opened the trial against her as a member of the Lodge, instead of calling upon other Hidden Hands to form a tribunal, Purple Paw had to do that himself, he had to CONVINCE the highest members to let the tribunal of five take part! They’re here now, there they are!” Elissa beckoned towards the masked figures on the side lines.

The room lay silent for a long time. With many questions lined up on her eyebrow, Nannade looked to Garetas, who only smiled back at her. Did they know Loganna would try a foul play like that? If yes, how? She looked over to Black Surgeon. He did not look at them, but rather at Loganna, as if he was drinking in her expression. Again, she found herself surrounded by invisible, silken thread of conspiracy, sure that no matter where she turned, she’d run into one of those silken threads spun disgustingly at exactly eye-level.

Loganna still had not replied to Elissa, and it didn’t look like she even intended to.

“No further questions, your honour.” With that Elissa went back to her seat, satisfied and nodding to Garetas.

The crowd hastily whispered among themselves as Elissa took place next to the other two. Garetas seemed rather content with her. Was this all planned? How much can these two plot together? Or maybe it was three? Four? Who else?

The master of ceremonies spoke up. “Unless any party has any remarks or questions left, the twelve trusted judges and the tribunal of Hidden Hands will now proceed to deliberation on an appropriate sentence.” He paused for a moment and looked around the room. Blue Wing had raised his hand.

“Blue Wing of Havnarsund, was it? You have the floor.”

Blue Wing cleared his throat. “I do not wish to decide whether what brother Bronislaw said was the truth, but regardless of that, Nannade had the chance to kill me. But instead, she decided to use the opportunity to tell me her intentions. I have hunted many people that were much more willing to fight and kill instead of going about their way. She is not dangerous. Her cooperative ways have told me as much. I think, of all the people who wrote their letters to this court, I have spent the most time with her on our travels, at least that’s what I read from the report, more than two months, not counting my pursuit across plains and mountains. That’s why I consider myself experienced enough to judge this. She's a good soul, deep and full of secrets like the ocean, but good.”

At that last sentence, Nannade felt her heart make an especially strong beat. It was different from when Black Surgeon made his stand for her during the first session. She was happy Blue Wing had spoken up.

“Please take that into consideration.”

A moment of silence.

The master of ceremonies scanned the room again, finding no one with any remarks left. The judges stood up and disappeared through the door behind the podium, the tribunal of five remained. The door fell shut with a loud CLUNK.

Nothing to do but wait.