"Master Jim, you cannot fight these allegations," Blinky insisted.
"I have to," Jim insisted right back. "Merlin visited me in a … sort of dream. He wants me to fight."
The Amulet glowed brighter for a moment, as though backing up his words.
"Merlin? Visited in a 'sort of dream'? … I believe you."
"Really?"
"I believe you've finally cracked!"
"So much for having you represent me."
"Unfortunately, Trollhunter," said Vendel, "troll law states that the accused may only be represented by a member of his own tribe."
The Amulet flashed again.
"But these children don't know the slightest about troll law!" Blinky argued.
"Be that as it may, the rules are quite clear on this matter." Usurna, as always, was stern and implacable. "Only a human may speak for the accused."
"That's not strictly true."
That voice came out of the Amulet. Jim couldn't help cringing when a wisp of light came out of it – the last one had sent him into that nightmare vision, and even before that, none of the Ghost Council had ever been especially supportive of him.
The light formed blue outlines in the shape of a troll woman in full armour. Her helmet had a distinct frill. Jim recognized her even before Blinky gasped her name.
"Deya the Deliverer …"
"The Trollhunter owes no allegiance to one troll tribe over another," said Deya, "save for an obligation to protect them all from Gumm-Gumms. This makes the Trollhunters a tribe unto ourselves. Therefore, it is within James Lake Junior's rights to have another Trollhunter speak on his behalf. If you wish it," she added to Jim.
"Yes," he answered, before anyone else could say anything. He didn't exactly know Deya, he usually talked to Kanjigar if he was talking to any specific past Trollhunter, but she at least knew troll law, right? That made her a better option than Toby or Claire, or trying to persuade the Tribunal to let him bring a human lawyer down here. "I – I choose Deya as my representative."
She smiled at him, and then at Toby and Claire, who were both pressed back against AAARRRGGHH.
"No offense is intended. Both of you have proven you would do your best to protect your friend, but, as Blinky says, you don't know the laws here."
She returned her gaze to the Tribunal – how could she be see-through, yet Jim couldn't see her face from behind? – and clapped her hands. Her gauntlets made a ringing metallic sound.
"Which brings me to my first point. As a human, James Lake Junior is not technically bound by troll law, and as such, this Tribunal does not have jurisdiction over him. Unfortunately, this raises the counterpoint that he submitted himself for trial, and the argument that, by accepting the Amulet's call in first summoning the armour of the Trollhunter, the boy did unwittingly agree to follow our rules."
She gave Jim an apologetic look, this time just a glance over her shoulder.
"By the letter of troll law, a contract signed in ignorance is still considered binding. Moving on to my next point. This trial itself risks the security of troll kind. James Lake Junior is considered a child by human law, and has been held in Trollmarket for over twenty-four hours at this point, meaning he has gone missing from the human world. There are likely human search parties out scouring the streets and forests of Arcadia for this missing child as we speak, risking exposure for any troll currently on a salvage run."
Jim felt his throat close up.
Mom …
She'd dropped him off Saturday morning for detention and he had never come home.
Hopefully she's just ended up with long shifts at the hospital and hadn't noticed his absence. Or maybe Toby had covered for him? Somehow? If Toby and Claire could cover up him being in another dimension for weeks, they could cover for him being in Trollmarket for a day …
"As it has been demonstrated that most trolls don't especially care for humans, so long as they aren't bothering us, I hope my third point will have greater impact. If Gunmar has escaped, it is in the interest of this Tribunal to set the Trollhunter free so that Gunmar can be defeated. Having successfully gathered and unlocked the Triumbric Stones, James Lake Junior is in a better position to do this than any of his predecessors."
Deya was pacing now. Blinky and AAARRRGGHH and Toby and Claire had fallen back behind Jim's hanging cage, and Jim didn't want to risk turning his back on the Tribunal to see them, but he wished they'd stayed in his line of sight.
"On the subject of predecessors, much of this mess has come about because Kanjigar was an idiot. In his final battle against Bular, Kanjigar chose to throw himself off a bridge into direct sunlight in an effort to keep the Amulet out of Bular's hands –"
"He jumped?!" Jim interrupted. He'd thought Kanjigar had fallen, or been thrown …
"And never mind that Bular could have called one of the Changelings or goblins infesting Arcadia to retrieve it for him, or simply wait under the bridge until nightfall. This is what led to the selection of our human Trollhunter."
Deya spun and glared at Jim – no, below and behind Jim, probably at Blinky.
"When Blinkous and Aarghaumont approached him that night, they should have taken the Amulet from him before he summoned the armour. In their defense, as humans have the capacity to move freely under sunlight and trolls do not, it is possible they were operating under the assumption the Amulet had already permanently bound itself to James Lake Junior, and did not know that he didn't summon the armour for the first time until the following evening."
There was sharp gasp from Blinky and a soft, "Oops," from AAARRRGGHH.
Deya started pacing again. The blue lines that composed her were flickering. Some of the finer lines were fading away.
"When James Lake Junior went into the Darklands to rescue one of the Changeling Familiars – which was, to be fair, a poorly-thought out plan executed on impulse in a moment of grief after Aarghaumont supposedly died – it was Kanjigar who reopened the Bridge for the current Trollhunter's team to retrieve him, and it was Kanjigar who held open the Bridge rather than letting it close for James Lake Junior to reopen from the other side, for which there is precedent."
Deya paused in a rigid stance. Jim couldn't see her face from his angle, but he got the impression she was glaring very specifically at Usurna.
"On the subject of that precedent, if Her Majesty Queen Usurna of the Krubera had not overridden Trollmarket's custody of Killahead Bridge and ordered the Bridge destroyed, James Lake Junior would have escaped the Darklands several days prior, making the rescue unnecessary."
Usurna lifted a rock as though about to throw it at Deya, who steamrollered onwards.
"As was determined during the rise of Gogun the Gentle following the demise of Tellad-Ur the Terrible, a Trollhunter cannot be held responsible for the actions of their predecessor. As such, if Gunmar has escaped, it was the fault of Kanjigar, not James Lake Junior; and in the interests of defeating Gunmar, and keeping troll kind hidden from human kind, James Lake Junior should be released immediately."
Jim cringed at how Deya kept blaming Kanjigar. How must Kanjigar be feeling right now? Not only over Deya pinning Gunmar's escape on him – and why did she keep saying 'maybe'? She had to know it had happened – but also over what was happening to Draal?
Deya's ghost collapsed on itself into a mote of light. She began drifting back towards the Amulet. On the way, she slowed and whispered to Jim.
"Do not trust the wizard. You're not the first Trollhunter he's shown visions of disaster to cow into obedience."
[Aftermath: The Tribunal agrees to release Jim; he and the Trollhunter team discuss where Gunmar might be, so they can take the fight to him, and Toby remembers the Janus Order; while they're gone, Usurna murders Vendel and lets Gunmar into Trollmarket. This is an alternate episode, not a full series-changing point of canon divergence.]
If you'd like another trial rewrite, to the tune of "troll law does not have jurisdiction over humans", you might enjoy the semi-dark fic Live to Fight, by Rachelea.