Lexi had never been in a court of justice before, in the human world or back on Nekron; she'd only read about them in books. Although she was fairly sure that courts in the human world were not exactly like the one currently being held in the palace. Lyzera and Varg sat at the head of the room, presiding above all they surveyed. The Knave was in front of them, chained and without his cap. A jury of twelve guards was situated to her left, writing things down on blackboards and muttering amongst each other. Lexi herself was sitting just next to the witness box, which was currently empty. Varg had insisted that she give evidence at whatever trial was being held; she'd tried to tell him that she didn't see anything, but, coming just after his threats of execution to everyone involved, she wasn't in a hurry to start bickering with her sibling like she used to.
Jathro stood by Varg's side, blowing a tune on his trumpet-like instrument and holding a piece of parchment in his hand. After he had completed his performance, he cleared his throat and unrolled the paper, and called out, "Welcome to all!" He bowed to each person in turn. "Her excellency. Members of our jury. Loyal subjects." A growl cut him off. "...And the King." Again, no one clapped. Lexi felt that this was very unfair and rose from her seat to applaud for her brother.
"Silence in the court!" Jathro fixed his beady eyes on her, and Lexi retreated back into her seat. Hushed murmurs fell over the gathered people, until Varg barked an order at Jathro.
"Read the accusation, page!"
Jathro fumbled with the parchment. "Yes, your excellency! Queen Regent of the Unlands, Lady Lyzera, is charging the Knave of the Unlands with the thievery of three of her tarts -"
"I did no such thing!" The Knave yelled indignantly. One of the prison guards yanked his chain and shushed him.
"Are you ready for your sentence, imbecile?" Lyzera demanded.
"Hang on!" Lexi leapt up again to object. "There must be a verdict first!"
"Sentence first! Verdict later!"
"But, that isn't the way -!"
"All ways are my ways!" Lyzera screeched, pointing accusingly at Lexi. "Off with her -!"
"My love." Varg sat his wife down, trying to console her. "We have more pressing matters to be worrying about, yes? Let us deal with the girl later." He glared over at Lexi - a warning to keep her mouth shut.
"Very well," Lyzera grumbled. "But, make it quick!"
"Page! Call the first witness!"
"First witnesses!" Jathro announced. The doors to the court were opened to usher in the witnesses. Lexi twisted in her seat and craned her neck to see who it was, surprised to see that it was, in fact, Tom and Benny. Tom was still holding a cup of steaming tea, which he kept hold of as Benny and he tried to both fit inside the witness booth at the same time. He caught sight of Lexi watching him and his grin widened.
"Why, how pleasant it is to see you again, fair one!"
"Silence!" Lyzera shouted before Lexi could reply. "Remove those offending objects from my courtroom!"
Tom looked confused. "What offending items?"
"Those!"
"My tea?" Tom took a sip of the liquid. "Ah, yes. Well, y'see, when you be calling us to the trial, we had not finished our tea yet. Isn't that right, Harewood - Harewood!" He shoved Benny awake. "Rudeness!"
"Apologies," Benny said with a yawn.
"Next time you sleep in my courtroom, I'll take off your head!" Lyzera exhaled sharply, ruffling the skirt of her long gown, before taking another look at Benny. "You there!" She pointed to the nearest guard. "Get me the list of singers from the last concert at once!"
"You should have finished tea by now," Jathro commented meanwhile, frowning over the top of the parchment at the two witnesses. "When did you start?"
"The fourteenth," Tom replied.
"Fifteenth," Benny corrected. "Although, now that I think about it, it could have been the sixteenth..."
"Or the seventeenth," Tom added.
"That be true. Sixteenth or the seventeenth, I cannot recall which -"
"Get on with it!" Varg ordered.
"Yes. I definetly think 'twas the seventeenth!" Benny said in elation.
"If you do not give your evidence in the next ten seconds, I will have you executed on the spot!" This didn't seem to elicit the reaction Varg wanted; Tom and Benny simply dissolved into giggles, infuriating the King Regent even further. His cheeks were starting to become as scarlet as Jathro and his rabbit ears.
"Give evidence this instant or I will obliterate you!"
"Evidence to what, exactly?" Tom asked. Lexi bit her lip to hide the snort of amusement that threatened to escape her. Another thing that hadn't changed: Tom trying to purposely wind up her brother.
"What do you know of this horrible crime?" Jathro stepped in quickly, before Varg could turn murderous, relaying the information of the Knave's alleged theft.
Tom gave a nonchalant shrug, taking another gulp of tea. "We be knowing nothing."
"Nothing whatever?" Varg challenged.
"Nothing whatever!" Tom yelled back in the same tone.
"That's very important! Jury, write that down!" The whole thing had started to turn into a screaming match to Lexi's mind, as the jury scribbled away at their blackboards and reached a conclusion of the number twelve. "If that's all you maddening people know, you may stand down."
"I be afraid we cannot." Tom blinked at him. "To stand down, we would have to go lower. We can go no lower."
"Sit. Down." Varg hissed each word. "Or, better, yet, get out of my sight!" Someone in the jury cheered at the ruling; they were instantly silenced.
"Yes, your excellency!" Benny was watching Lyzera nervously; she was still looking through the list of singers from the last concert. Was this about murdering Time? Lexi suspected that it was.
"You are dismissed!" Jathro announced to the rest of the court.
"Behead one of them on the way out!" Lyzera called out, but Tom and Benny had already slipped to the back of the courtroom before the guards could catch them. Lexi couldn't tell whether they were still in the room or not (she hoped they weren't, for Lyzera would probably behead them when she finished with the list of singers) but Varg's voice dragged her attention back to the front of the court.
"Call the next witness!"
"Next witness!" Lexi watched as one of the guards carried in the next witness and placed them into the booth. It was the scaly orange caterpillar, the one who had rudely reprimanded her for everything she had said. She'd hoped she wouldn't see it again.
"Give your evidence," Varg repeated, just as he had done in front of Tom and Benny.
The caterpillar glared at him. "Shan't."
Varg blinked. "Excuse me? I thought I told you to give evidence, rodent!"
"And I said, I shall not." It was like watching Varg and her father arguing about a wizard-catching scheme.
"You dare defy your King Regent!?" Varg bellowed.
"You dare question me!?" It roared.
"Turn that insect out of court! Off with it's head!"
"How dare you!" The caterpillar screeched, almost as booming as Lyzera. Even the Queen Regent looked a little unnerved; clearly no one had ever talked back to her in such a manner before. "I should drain the very magic from every single one of you - every last drop!" With a sniff, he wriggled back into the palms of the guard who had brought him in. Varg made an irritated gesture and the guard quickly removed the offending caterpillar from the room.
"Next witness, page!"
"Next witness!" Jathro scanned down the list on his parchment. "Lexi!"
Lexi rose from her seat, and settled herself into the witness booth. Varg looked down at her - how very like him, she thought.
"What do you know of this crime, girl?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing at all?"
"Nothing at all."
"That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet..." Varg sounded almost thoughtful, before he turned, eyes steeled, and roared at the members of the jury. "Write. That. Down!"
"Um, unimportant, your excellency means, of course," Jathro timidly corrected, waiting for Varg to scream at him in reply.
"Unimportant," Varg repeated sulkily. "Of course. Important - unimportant - important - unimportant..."
"Aha!" Lyzera interrupted his mumblings, rising so quickly that she knocked her throne to the ground. She pointed a finger towards the back of the room, trembling violently with rage. "Him. He sang at my last concert! He murdered Time!"
Lexi's gaze followed the direction of her finger; Tom and Benny were still in the room, huddled in the shadows at the back. Benny had gone deathly pale, his face nauseated. Tom was simply drinking his tea, appearing calm; if Lexi didn't know him as well as she did, she would have missed the tense position of his shoulders and the squareness of his jaw: the only signs that he was on edge.
"Off with his head!" Benny gave a shriek at her sentence. Tom's brow furrowed.
"You cannot be doing that!" He protested.
"I shall be doing whatever I like!" Lyzera snapped.
"You shan't!" Tom gripped his tea cup. "You shall not be making us late for tea!" He hurled the cup away from him; it clipped one of the unsuspecting guards on the shoulder. Lyzera's eyes blazed.
"Kill them!" She screeched. "Both of them!"
"No!" Panic jolted through Lexi's body. She needed to do something, anything...Her fingers enclosed around something in her pocket. The mushroom pieces.
"No!?" Lyzera had fixed on her. "Off with her -" She was cut off as Lexi, chewing both slices of the mushroom, shot towards the ceiling, her head colliding with it, causing an uproar amongst the crowd. No one seemed to notice or care about Tom and Benny taking the opportunity to slip out of the room, apart from her. She sighed in relief, hoping that they could run fast enough to get away.
"Silence!" Jathro was trying to control the court.
"Rule forty two!" Varg was glowering up at her. "All persons more than a mile high must leave the court immediately!"
"I am not a mile high!" Her voice echoed off the walls.
"You are," Jathro cut in.
"Nearly two miles, I would say," Lyzera added. She didn't sound so formidable now that there was someone with a louder voice than her.
"Well, I shall not leave, anyhow." Lexi folded her arms.
"It be the oldest rule in the court!" Jathro insisted.
"Then, it should be rule one!"
"Page!" Varg's eyes didn't leave the giant form that had suddenly appeared in his court. "Make a royal decree. Rule forty two should be rule one!"
"Prepare for your sentence, Knave!"
"There still hasn't been a verdict!" Lexi cried indignantly.
"Hold your tongue!" Lyzera didn't look so confident as she had done a few minutes ago.
"I won't!" Lexi replied. "I will not be told what to do by the likes of you! I was - no, I am - a princess of Nekron, and I do not answer to bad-tempered tyrants like you...!" She trailed off. The ceiling was sliding away from her, and she was shrinking back down to her previous size. The power-hungry look returned to Lyzera's eyes by the second as Lexi shrunk inch by inch. There was a second-long pause when Lexi had reached her small size, before -
"Off with her head!"
The entire procession of guards descended upon Lexi, like a fox chasing it's prey; Lexi gave a shriek and battered her way past, kicking and shoving where it was necessary and barrelling through the court door, finding herself in amongst a maze of corridors. She set off down the hall to her left, turning down corner after corner, running around in circles, setting herself dizzy, the army of Lyzera's guards hot on her heels. She felt just as lost, just as disorientated as she had done running around the palace of Nekron as a small child. Only there was nothing funny or childlike about this situation. Her head was on the line this time.
Skidding across the marble floor, Lexi forced her way out of the palace gates and tore down the steps towards the grounds. Her dress scraped and caught on the many bushes lining the grassy path, the twigs becoming claw-like fingers that ripped and clung to the fabric of her skirt. A large hole was now embedded in the blue material, but there were more pressing matters on Lexi's mind. Such as running for her life.
Beyond the four walls that surrounded the royal palace, through a gate that was hidden under strands of ivy that clung to the rusting metal, there stretched a cavernous forest, similar to the one that she had wandered in hours before. Diving through the gate, Lexi plunged through the trees, stumbling over roots and rocks, scraping her hands and knees, falling down but scrambling back up in an instant. She could hear the sounds of the guards thundering in her ears as she ducked around a corner and paused for a moment, leaning against what appeared to be two large rocks jutting out of the ground, out of breath, her chest rising and falling unevenly. She was about to carry on her escape - the guards were mere metres behind her, after all - when a hand enclosed around her wrist and around her mouth, cutting off her yelp, dragging her backwards, through a gap in the stones, dropping her down into some sort of small chasm, hidden out of sight by the guards. Despite the burn in her muscles, Lexi tried to wrestle out of the strong grip.
"Fair one!" Tom's voice came from behind her. "Lexi! Stop! It only be us!" He dropped his hold on her.
Lexi shook her head slowly, trying to clear it, trying to slow her racing heart. "Did you...Why did you do that?"
"Well." Tom winked at her. "I couldn't let one as fair as you face a beheading, could I?"
It was so simple a statement, and yet Lexi's eyes filled with tired, weary tears that fell down her cheeks silently.
"Now, now, none of that." His fingers reached out and gently wiped the beads of moisture away. "We be having none of that. What is wrong?"
"I miss you."
"I be right here -"
"No," she interrupted, sparking more tears. "I mean, I miss him. I miss Tom. I don't care whether he left me all alone with nothing and no one to depend on. He gave me life. He gave me my freedom. I don't care how angry I am at him for not taking responsibility or not being there for me; that doesn't change how I feel about him, or any of it." She couldn't be angry at him. Not anymore. She didn't think she had it in her. She sniffled. "I need to go home." Her voice was getting towards a desperate wail. "I need to get home to my son. I need to get away from here - I need to leave this place!"
"Oh, Lexi." He leaned over and gently pressed a kiss to her temple. "That be impossible. For, you see, you cannot leave when you were never here in the first place."