By the time the judge took his place the whispering and buzz in the densely packed room had grown to almost deafening levels.
The Master turned around to survey his audience, catching The Doctor's eye he winked and gave a cheeky smile, as if he were working a party rather than on trial. As he turned back to face the front of the court room his features settled back into a more series expression, trying for guileless innocence or at the very least giving the impression of a man wrong accused.
The judge rose to read the charges against The Master, it was an impressively long list, and The Doctor silently mouthed the catalogue of crimes along with him as he went along.
Most were minor, things that by themselves would warrant nothing more than a slap on the wrist but of course they were starting with the lesser of the charges and working up the grand finale.
"Ending with," the judge continued, "the very serious crime of treason. The accused is believed to have held the Princess of Danqua against her will for the purpose of extortion and threatened her with death if the King and Queen did not pay the ransom."
There it was, The Doctor thought, the one thing on the disturbingly lengthy list that could result in The Master's execution. If he were found guilty then they would put him to death in a manner that would allow for no regeneration. The thought of that made the thin Time Lord squirm in his seat. He knew the method favoured for such an end and it was not only very painful but because of the care needed to ensure it worked, it was also a very slow death.
The prosecution went first. They went straight to the major charge as if wasting their breath on the least serious of the crimes was beneath them, "the accused kidnapped the Princess from her home, taking her to the woods..."
At that The Doctor's mind travelled back in time. Back to his first days at The Academy. Barely eight years old he was taken from his home and like all Time Lord children sent away to be taught in the ways of his race.
The dorm room was almost as scary as the row upon row of stern faces that met him as soon as he arrived in the overwhelming main hall of the school. His dorm mates were all excited about finally starting the rites of adulthood, leaving their childhood behind, and becoming valuable members of society. Whereas he had just wanted to run out of the cold stone building and hide in the dense woods just outside.
And as soon as nightfall came, he opened the window to the room, shimmied down a drainpipe and did just that. His hearts pounding in his chest, he reached the dark copse of trees, and took refuge in their shadows.
"I hope you don't expect me to share," a voice spoke from the darkness.
At first he didn't know where those words had come from, but then a figure stepped out of from behind one of the trees, a bottle of something strong smelling in his hand. Gulping in a bracing breath of the cool air he mustered all of his courage before speaking, "what are you doing out here?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing," came the amused reply. The boy holding the bottle looked to be about the same age as he was, but had so much more swagger than he could ever hope to have, "they frown upon leaving the campus you know, you could get your skinny little bum in trouble."
"I was just, ummm," he looked around fishing for a convincing lie, "taking a walk, to clear my head."
"Is that what you call it?" the other boy grinned widely, "if memory serves, climbing down a lead pipe and hauling arse away from the dorms is not the normal way of 'walking'."
At that he downed the rest of his bottle and pulled out a small white stick-like object, stuck it into his mouth and lit the end on fire. Then he closed his lips around the unlit end and inhaled, the smoke rushing into his lungs before he exhaled it back out, "want a drag?" he offered, holding out the burning roll.
"...then the accused took the Princess to Ceraz..." the barrister's voice cut into The Doctor's reminiscing and he shook his head trying to clear the images he had conjured up out of it. Refocusing his attention on the here and now he endeavoured to keep up with the proceedings.
"There he applied sedating and intoxicating substances in order to make her unable to defend herself..."
His mind went off again, the present flying away like a moth drawn the flame of the past
The still smiling boy fished another bottle out of a hiding place opened it and handed it to him. He eyed it as if it were a deadly Essdrau lizard, and would leap out of his grasp and sink sharp fangs into his arm.
"Go on," the boy laughed, "it won't bite. It's a weak brew, it would take four or five of those for me to get even a buzz."
He raised the bottle to his mouth, meaning to take just a small sip, to show the other boy he was not afraid but as he did, the liquid rushed out at him, making him choke as he tried to swallow it all in one gulp.
As he sputtered and wheezed trying to catch his breath while the searing liquid set his throat and stomach on fire. The other boy held out his hand with an amused smile on his face, "they call me Koschei, what name were you given?"
He managed to get enough air to squeak out, "Theta," before another round of coughing set in.