With All Due Respect

Neela already knew full well that staying in Rakushou had been an idiotic (albeit unavoidable) mistake. She already knew that standing up to and provoking someone above her station was likely one of the most imbecilic things she'd ever had the nerve to do, but when it came to someone taking away her favorite food, she'd rather be a moron than a throw rug. Neela had hoped, slightly, that she would never run into that dreadful man again. Of course, running into him again wouldn't have been the absolute end of the world, except she'd made a point of pissing him off and she wouldn't put it past him to rip her tiny body to shreds if he ever saw her again.

So she'd taken precautions—she quit her temporary work at first notice and started collecting the funds she needed to leave the city by performing. One usually wouldn't expect drawing attention to oneself to be the best way to avoid the gaze of the authorities, but Neela had long since discovered that most everyone couldn't recognize her in costume. She'd hoped that the disparity would buy her invisibility, but apparently it wasn't enough, for he'd found her again.

When she caught a glimpse of him in the crowd, she almost prayed that he too wouldn't recognize her—her blood nearly ran cold as they came face to face after the show. No such luck, he'd figured her out. At least unless the crowd dispersed faster than molasses and he managed to somehow lose the royal attached to his arm, he was in no position to do physical harm. That bit was a plus.

"Um…Judal…what happened between you two…?"

Neela made a short mental note as to the man's name, figuring that if she was forced to explain her case later, it might be best not to continue referring to him as "jackass". Especially since the man's reply threatened to make her mouth run away with her again.

"This bitch stole my peach."

"If memory serves, you were the thief, and I was the victim," Neela said as she forced a smile.

"And she attacked me!"

"Also quite a stretch of the truth. I merely defended myself," Neela retorted, placing a hand on her hip and lifting her chin up slightly to give the magi a condescending glare. "And you would've walked out unscathed either way. It's hardly fair to accuse me of assault when you tried to electrocute me first."

"Judal!" the young royal he was with gasped.

"She stole from me!" Judal insisted

"Well in a manner of speaking, he isn't wrong. I did steal it back," Neela noted softly, "but considering that I paid for it in the first place, I was well within my rights to have it. And I was informed later that the high priest doesn't usually buy peaches at the market in the first place—because he has five entire trees all to himself. Tell me, is there a reason that you couldn't be bothered to walk home instead of stealing my first meal of the day?"

"You need to learn some manners, pipsqueak," the man hissed threateningly.

"And if your saying that isn't the very definition of the pot calling the kettle black…"

"Judal, please, control yourself, we're surrounded by civilians…" the young royal attempted to reason with the magi as she placed a small hand on his arm.

"What, so you want me to just forgive her, Kougyoku?" Judal spat as he turned to the girl

"Well…maybe you just got off on the wrong foot…maybe if you just apologize to—"

"I have nothing to say sorry for," Judal and Neela said simultaneously, and in an instant their eyes had fixed back on each other.

"Nothing to say sorry for? You humiliated me!"

"You asked for it."

"I did not!"

"You tried to kill me, you definitely asked for it."

"You stole from me, I had every right to try to kill you!"

"How many times do I have to remind you that you stole from me first?"

"I saw that peach first!"

"That means absolutely nothing if you didn't pay for it. And you could have gone home to your personal orchard."

Judal growled menacingly at the woman once more before breaking eye contact and turning towards a group of city guards standing nearby. "OI! USELESS WASTES OF SPACE!" he waited a moment as they turned towards him, seeming slightly irked at first but quickly lapsing into fear as they recognized the magi's livid expression. "Do you see this bitch right here?" Judal jabbed a thumb back at Neela and she did her best not to flinch. "I want you to chain her ass down and drag her to the palace dungeon." The guards hesitated a moment to glance between each other and Neela before Judal let out another forceful howl. "NOW!"

"Judal, please reconsider!" Kougyoku pleaded again as the guards scampered towards Neela and shackled her, mumbling a few apologies here and there as they did. "Try to be more civil, at least allow her a trial—"

"She doesn't deserve one!" Judal spat.

"Please," the princess insisted, "Doing otherwise might make citizens think ill of us…Judal!"

Neela followed the magi with her eyes as he stomped towards her; he grabbed her forcefully by the chin and grinned at his triumph before forcing her head down and ordering the guards to move. He was enjoying this a little too much, though she couldn't really blame him. Finding the chance to get back at her for humiliating him must have been an enticing fantasy. She would just have to hope that there were more reasonable royals willing to come to her aide.

oooOOOooo

"What is the meaning of this, Judal?"

Neela grunted as she found herself forced to her knees before another royal when the soldiers dragging her bowed. She strained to get a look at him, and found him to be an attractive, yet terrifying man, who was dressed head to toe in the country's best armor and gowns. Judal forced her head down once more before addressing him. "This peasant attacked me. And tried to steal from me."

"No one's going to get the truth out of you, are the—" Neela let out a short wail of pain as the magi threw her to the ground before she could finish her sentence. "I didn't realize that the Kou Empire's high priest was such a chil—"

"Watch your tongue," Judal hissed as he used his heel to grind the side of her head into the floor.

"Stop it, Judal!"

Neela heard Kougyoku's voice spring up next to the new royal, causing the magi to lift his foot off her cheek. "You have my gratitude, your Highness," she rasped as the weight was lifted.

"Please let her explain her side of the story, Judal," Kougyoku murmured.

"Why should I? It's all lies anyway!"

"I have it on good authority that I'm not the one lying," Neela grunted as she attempted to sit up and face the new royal. "With all due respect, your Highness, while your high priest is not telling a total lie, he is also not telling the entire truth. Might I offer a more complete version of our disagreement?" Neela bowed her head slightly at this point. "If it would please you, that is."

"…Very well. What is the exact nature of your crime then, if it is not exactly as Judal says?"

"Well…a few weeks ago, while I was on my way back to my temporary lodgings for a short break between work, I bought a peach at the local market, but before I could eat it, your high priest stole it from me. I stole it back, he tried to kill me for standing up to him, and I put him to sleep with a little magic. I then paid one of the local merchants all of the wages I'd been saving for my trip home to guarantee that he would be looked after and left before he woke up."

"So you claim that Judal stole your peach?"

"Yes. It was my first meal of the day too."

"You realize that we have several peach trees on the palace grounds, do you not?"

"I was informed of this after the incident, yes."

"Can you explain why Judal would feel the need to steal your peach when he could simply come home and retrieve one of his own?"

"That…is something that I'm sure we are equally confounded by."

"Judal, how did it happen in your eyes?"

"Pretty simple, if you ask me. I was walking through the market with a peach I brought from home, and then this bitch snatched it from me, and when I tried to get it back, she attacked me to get away."

"She attacked you first?"

"I just said that."

"I don't recall you suffering any injuries a few weeks ago."

"That's because this bitch is a Sound Magician," Judal snapped as he jabbed a finger towards her.

"Water Magician, actually," Neela corrected him, "but I do utilize my second affinity quite a bit."

"You heard her, she said she put me to sleep! Just chain her down in the dungeons already! She's been abusing her powers!"

The royal closed his eyes and sighed audibly before looking down at Neela. "I cannot confirm either of your stories as the truth without witnesses. I will summon the merchants to question, but in the meantime, send her to the dungeon, and lock her in a cell away from the other prisoners. Those men haven't seen a woman in years, and they hardly deserve the pleasure."

"Very well, sire," one of the guards mumbled as he hoisted Neela up by her arms. Neela closed her eyes and drew in a small breath of air as they began to drag her away. She tried to remind herself that there was still hope—the royal had said that he would summon the local merchants, and there was bound to be at least one who had sympathy for her situation. Still didn't make the screams trailing up from the dungeon entrance any more pleasant. She coughed a bit as the smell of blood and bile overcame her, and one of the guards forcing her down the stairs let out a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah…it does smell a bit grotesque…just don't try breathing through your mouth, it only makes it worse."

Neela managed a weak nod before they reached the landing, where she was promptly pulled to an empty cell surrounded by stone walls. By the time Neela had been chained up to the wall, she was nearly praying that at least one merchant would be willing to tell the truth, before she lost her sense of sanity.

oooOOOooo

And…next chapter we're back with Judal's pov…disclaimers, once more:

1.- I do not own Magi or any of its characters, I only own my OCs

2.- This fic begins prior to the first Balbadd arc, and will center mostly around the development of a relationship between Judal and Neela.

3.- The plot depicted here will be slightly canon divergent in later chapters, be it in the edits to time passed, actions or outcomes, some things will happen differently.

4.- While Neela was initially designed for a different world than the Magi verse, this version of her exists solely within the timeframe of the current Magi plot line. While her base personality, name, and appearance are all the same, she has no knowledge of Blackcastle or any affiliation to it.

Fave, follow and/or review if you enjoyed, and stay tuned for the next update