“That is the decision that has been made, there is nothing I can do about it this time,” Mother Dalia’s words echoed in my head over and over again.

This time they had decided I would face a court trial for my insubordination. If I win, I just have to serve a six-month suspension and everything is fine. If I lose, I’ll be excommunicated for six years. That’s just the way things work around here. They’ve been doing this for centuries, do there’s nothing I didn’t already know. It isn’t even the first court trial that I’ve ever faced. This one however, feels a little different. It seems that someone besides Elser wants me gone and has decided to go for the kill with this one.

In the past Mother Dalia would always defend me and everything would be great. The problem is after my fifth trial they banned her from defending me. With the sixth trial, I chose trial by combat. That might have been the hardest fight of my life until the vampire that started all of this. It’s certainly one I’ll probably never forget.

They took me to the underground arena, something I had no idea existed until it was time for me to fight. Only the eremites residing over my challenge and two medics were there to watch. They wanted me to lose, to suffer, just as long as I didn’t die at the end of it all. A ring of stone awaited looking as if it had been stained by blood over the years. Dark rust colored permanently embedded into the stones that made up the circle I stood on. They all took their seats in elaborate stone chairs and I stood in the arena awaiting my opponent. I had expected one of the upper Eremites to step forward, maybe one of our best warriors. I had studied all their fighting styles, prepared counters to their magic and brought weapons perfect for countering them. I had spent days preparing for whatever they might throw at me, and in the end, it was all for nothing. A stone door opened from the opposite end we entered and my opponent slowly staggered towards me.

A basilisk, I had only read about them. I had no idea they were real, or hadn’t gone extinct in the past. Large magical beasts like that should have been wiped out long ago. If not by humans and the loss of their habitats, then just no longer being optimal for survival. Yet one stood in front of me, more fearsome than any depictions I had seen in books.

I attempted to avoid eye contact with the beast. In all the texts I studied during class making eye contact with it could either kill you immediately, or turn you to stone. Sometimes there were any number of other horrible options available, including stealing your soul. From a bowed down head, I managed to get somewhat of an idea of the creature. For the most part it looked like a snake, a large cobra of some sort. The similarities ended there. While a regular snake would have a mouth and forked tongue this one instead had a mouth and teeth resembling that of a crocodile. It was covered in a mixture of scales, what appeared to be crumbling stone, and the occasional blister leaking some purplish liquid. A fearsome monster by any standards, one I could never have prepared for. Still, I needed to win and I attempted to put some plan together to tackle this monster almost three times my height and surely ten times my weight.

After what seemed like hours of dodging attacks and avoiding being ended by the gaze I had a plan. I was much faster. If I could cut at the body until it could no longer move, I could get in a killing blow. I focused all of my energy on that, slashing, no piercing. The purple liquid burned my flesh every so often as it would splatter on me. Eventually the creature stopped chasing after me and lunging, only trying to bite when I got near, not wanting to drag the wounds across the ground. I slowly climbed onto the back of the beast, stabbing at the eyes until it stopped moving. One of the eremites clapped, impressed by what she had just witnessed. The others were visibly upset. Still, I managed to come out on top of it all.

I attempted to arrange for trial by combat this time around. However, I was told that you can only have trial by combat on one occasion. Instead I would need to find someone to defend me during the trial. On the surface, that shouldn’t be hard to do. I’ve asked a dozen people and they’ve all wished me luck but none of them will actually defend me. The worst-case scenario, and the most likely is that I will need to defend myself. Unfortunately, this is my seventh trial and I have the stench of excommunication on me already. People aren’t eager to be my friend or even be seen associating with me.

I’ve seen Dalia do it enough that I should have some idea on how to defend myself, but I don’t. Perhaps I should do some research on the world outside the temple. If I can’t come up with a good defense, I’m fucked. Since Elser levied the charges of insubordination he’ll be the one I’m arguing with. The man knows how to argue. His entire life he’s been trying to get people to argue with him. Perhaps I should look into getting some information about the cities nearby.