Chapter Twenty-One: Star-Crossed

Flynn was in the dining room when someone banged on his door. He'd been waiting for it ever since his discussion with Raven this morning. Leblanc gave him a look and then went to answer it while Flynn savoured the last spoonful of monkfish soup. It would be a while before he had a good meal again. The commotion from the front room caused him to set his spoon down and stand. Moments later, Cumore burst into the room with three armed guards.

Flynn put on his best surprised face. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I"m sorry, sir!" Leblanc said from behind them. "They just pushed in!"

"Flynn Scifo," Cumore said with a hungry gleam in his eye, "you are under arrest for suspicion of witchcraft. Will you come quietly or will we have to use force?"

"Witchcraft? Don't be ridiculous."

The guards rounded the table and closed in on Flynn. When they reached for him, Flynn shook them off until they used more force and grabbed his arms.

"Unhand me!" Flynn fought against their grip as they pulled his hands behind his back to cuff them. "You've already caught the witch!"

Cumore rubbed his hands together and smiled. "Another accusation has come in. It would be unprofessional of us not to investigate every allegation, just in case."

With his hands cuffed behind his back, Flynn was pushed forward by the guards. He put up a token resistance and then followed them out the room. It would be better if there was a way to do this without giving Cumore so much satisfaction, but he'd take what he could get. Outside, every resident they passed stopped to watch with curiosity. Flynn didn't meet any eyes and kept his face forward as he was marched to the courthouse. When they arrived, the door banged shut behind him and he couldn't help thinking about Yuri. The door had slammed shut on him the day he was arrested, and he hadn't set foot outside this building since. At least Flynn knew that with Cumore up here, Yuri wasn't being actively tortured at the moment.

They took Flynn to the same cuffed chair Yuri had sat in and made him sit. Flynn let them cuff his wrists to it without a fight, but still felt uneasy as they clicked into place. This was what he had planned, but he hadn't had much time to work out the details of the plan and it was too late now to back out. He just had to sit back, let it happen, and hope he hadn't made a horrible mistake.

Ragou sat at the high table, along with the scribe. Ragou folded his hands and tried to hide how excited he was to have a victim with actual wealth to steal. "Are you Flynn Scifo?"

"I am."

"Flynn Scifo, you stand accused of using witchcraft to kill residents of Zaphias via the plague and to prolong your life against the will of God. How do you respond?"

"That's preposterous. These lies are completely unfounded."

"I shall be the one to decide that. Bring out the accuser."

A door at the back opened and Raven entered. He stared at Flynn for a moment and then glanced away to hide his guilty expression. Flynn had assured Raven this was what he wanted, so he hoped Raven didn't ruin everything by retracting his accusation. Raven took his place standing next to Flynn with his hands folded behind his back.

"State your name and relationship with the accused," Ragou said.

"My proper name is Schwann Oltorain… I have no formal relationship with the accused but I've gathered information on him at the request of my lord, Alexei Dinoia."

"What sort of information?"

Raven glanced at Flynn, then began. He spilled every piece of Flynn's past that Raven had dug up during his investigation, tracing Flynn's history from Zaphias to Kemper, Rennes, and Saint-Malo. Flynn sat motionless through all of this and tried to keep his face blank. By the time Raven finished, Ragou and the scribe were looking at each other with confusion. It must be a surprise to them to come across a suspect with actual evidence of sorcery.

After Raven finished, Ragou said, "Well, Scifo? How do you explain this timeline?"

Flynn was quiet for a moment and then shrugged. "I look very good for my age."

"Why did you wait so long to bring this evidence to us?" Ragou demanded of Raven. "By your claims, you've known about his history since May."

Raven rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, well, I thought he was a witch. I figured he'd turn me inta a newt if I said anything, y'know? But after your guards so easily dealt with that other witch's escape attempt, I figured it'd be safe ta turn him in."

"Very sensible," Cumore said. "What about your accusation about the plague?"

"Oh, yeah," Raven said. "Well, I did some diggin', and it turns out that just before the plague began, Scifo was in Saint-Malo purchasing huge amounts of pennyroyal from an apothecarist over there. I figured, he's the real source of the herbs Lowelll was accused of spreadin' around."

Flynn had told Raven that detail, but assumed Cumore could investigate himself if he wanted proof.

"Do you have an explanation for this, Scifo?"

Flynn shrugged again. "I like the smell."

Ragou and Cumore stared at him. Flynn wondered if he should put more effort into trying to look innocent because they might get suspicious about how easy he was making this for them.

Luckily, the idea that someone might be getting the better of them did not seem to occur to either Ragou or Cumore, because Ragou then said, "Well, Mr. Scifo, it seems to me like there is plenty of evidence to warrant a proper investigation. Cumore, take him below."

This was all according to plan, Flynn told himself as the guards let him out of the chair and led him to the spiral staircase he'd gone down last night. He was probably the first person in the country to want to be in this position. They led him to the annex and then through the door to the long hall lined with cells. Cumore opened a door on the right and pushed Flynn into the small cell.

"I hope you manage to think of some more enjoyable excuses before the trial," he said as he slammed the door shut. "Or else you'll be looking like your friend over there soon enough." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the cell opposite, where Yuri was watching silently.

"I'll consider that, thank you."

Cumore and the guards left Flynn to get comfortable on the straw. Once the door slammed shut and they were alone, Yuri spoke. "Why are you here?" Flynn sat close to the bars, but Yuri leaned against the back wall so he was partly in shadow. It helped disguise how wretched he looked, but not by much. At least his hair had started to regrow and was now a shaggy mop. It didn't look like Yuri, but it at least looked like an intentional hairstyle.

"Because I was accused of witchcraft, of course."

"Who by?"

"Raven, technically."

Yuri started to react with shock, but Flynn held up a head to quiet him.

"Don't get mad. I told him to."

"…Huh?"

Flynn forced his cheeks into a smile, which was difficult to do while looking at Yuri. "I'm going to get you out of here. I'll take all the blame for what you've been charged with and get you found innocent."

Yuri shook his head. "They won't believe it. They're already convinced I'm a witch."

"Cumore and Ragou don't really care. They're only in it for the money. They get all the wealth of any witch they convict, so I'm sure they'll jump at the chance to take me instead of you."

"So they'll just kill both of us. Damn, Flynn, did you think this through at all?"

Flynn nodded. "Yes. That's why I'm going to convince them you were my clueless pawn in all of this and take total responsibility. It will be easy for me to convince them, considering I legitimately have magical powers."

Yuri stared at him for a long moment. "You're planning to die for me."

Flynn met Yuri's eyes and then nodded once. "Yes. I am."

"Don't. I never asked for you to go to such a length."

"I know you didn't, but I'm going to anyway. When you were sick, I wanted so badly to save you. Just those brief seconds when I thought you were dead were unbearable. I could have saved you, but I chose not to. I hated myself and wanted to turn back time and save you." Flynn got to his knees and leaned forward with his hands against the bars. "I couldn't, and luckily you managed to pull through. But now you're going to die again, and once again I have a way to save you. I will not let this opportunity slide by again. I have to save you."

"No." Yuri shifted and looked like he wanted to get closer, but didn't have the strength to leave the wall he was slumped against. "I can't let you die in my place."

Flynn had suspected this. "We don't even know if I can actually die. I probably can't, since I'm technically a ghost. You, however, can definitely die. It's better for this to happen to me."

"I won't let you."

"You can't stop me." Flynn shook his head slowly. "I'm going to confess. Either you can go along with it and pretend I manipulated you, or you can die with me. I'd prefer you didn't do the latter, because then my sacrifice will be pointless."

Yuri growled in frustration. "You are a manipulative shithead. You goddamn… you come in here and do this without consulting me…." He weakly punched the floor. "I don't want you to die for me!"

Flynn's fingers curled around the bars. "And I just as fervently don't want you to die - period. I know I do a good job of faking it, but remember, I'm already dead. I had my shot at life, but yours is still happening. One of us is going to be killed, so please, let it be me."

Yuri let out a long groan. "Well, I have to now, don't I? You said it yourself. You got yourself into this nightmare and they're guaranteed to kill you now to get your money. Either we both die or just you die. You fucker. Did you even consider what kind of life you're saving for me?"

"What do you mean?"

Yuri gestured vaguely at the leg stretched out before him. "I guess you can't see from there, but this mangled mess is a write-off. Pretty sure my joints are all permanently fucked up, too. Everyone in town hates me. I can't have Repede live with me anymore. So congratulations, you saved me from burning to death, but my life's already fucked up beyond repair."

Flynn shook his head. "Don't think like that. As long as you're alive, you have the chance to do something with your life. Leave Zaphias if you can, go to New France like you suggested, take your friends with you. I wish I was still alive and had that freedom."

"I guess…. Wish I could do it with you."

Flynn smiled sadly. "Me, too. I wish we could have met in another time or another place… I wish you'd been born when I was, so I would have met you as a kid and maybe not gone off to the army and gotten killed."

Yuri snorted. "With our luck, something else would have come up."

"Heh. True enough." Flynn sighed and shifted off his knees to sit cross-legged. "No matter what we do, we keep running into roadblocks. It seems like we just weren't meant to be. But even if the stars are against us and we only had a short chance to really be together… I'm glad I got to spend that brief time with you. I love you, Yuri."

Yuri hesitated and then glanced away, the words stuck in his throat. "Yeah… me too."

"I don't know what's on the other side of the menhir, but I hope I have a chance to meet you there."

"By your plan, you're dying in the next few days and I'll keep living for a few more decades."

"That's ok. I'll wait for you."

"Even if it takes fifty years?"

"Even if it takes a hundred years."

If Flynn's plan accomplished nothing else, at least Yuri got a few days of peace while Cumore was busy preparing the case against Flynn. Yuri spent most of it sleeping, so Flynn spent the time sitting quietly and reminiscing. He had a feeling Niren would not approve of his plan, but it was too late to worry about that. Niren had advised against getting too involved with humans, and Flynn had tried to maintain that. The first time he'd let himself get emotionally attached to a mortal, it ended with him throwing everything away to save him. This was why Niren had told him not to get involved. If it turned out that he could survive being burned at the stake, he would learn from this and not make this mistake again. He loved being with Yuri, but Yuri had led to him making all these unprofessional decisions. It was his duty to remain impartial and uninvolved, no matter what.

Flynn knew his plan was going well when they took him to search for a witch's mark. The scar on his chest that Alexei had left indicated a terrible wound that couldn't possibly be survived, and yet here he was. Cumore had been looking for a freckle he could dress up as proof of sorcery, and Flynn had enjoyed his stunned face when confronted with the real thing.

The day of the trail, Flynn didn't fight as they led him upstairs. He'd spent the preceding days rehearsing in his head what he would say and how to make sure Yuri was exonerated. At the door to the courtroom, they stopped to wait and the guard next to him spoke softly.

"Mr Scifo… I urge you to confess."

"Why?"

"Because I don't think you're an evil witch."

Flynn turned his head. "You think I'm innocent, so you want me to confess?"

He nodded. "They're going to find you guilty no matter what you do. You can either be executed now or executed after torture, and I'd rather not see you tortured. The other guy, Lowell… he's not a witch, either, and I don't want to see anyone else go through what Cumore's done to him."

Flynn clenched the fists that were cuffed behind his back. "If you know Cumore is torturing and executing innocent men, why don't you speak up and do something about it?"

"Because Cumore tortures and executes innocent men.

Flynn paused for a beat. "That's fair."

The guard shifted awkwardly. "Look, I have a wife and kids… well, kid, since the plague…. They need me. I can't risk making my wife into a widow, so the only help I can give you is the advice to please just confess and get it over with."

"Thank you for the advice." At least he wasn't the only one who recognized how bullshit the justice system was.

The door opened and the guard nudged Flynn forward. The rows of benches were filled once more, though not as full as Yuri's trial. After all, they'd seen a witch trial before so this was old news, and Flynn wasn't nearly as personally well-known in the community. After he took a seat and the guard finished cuffing him to the chair, Flynn noticed that what this trial lost in quantity of spectators, it made up for in quality. Alexei sat at the table beside Ragou, and Duke stood by the window to watch from the sidelines. Flynn looked to Alexei, who kept his face carefully blank as he surveyed the room.

Ragou banged his gavel to silence the room. "First, let us acknowledge our Lord Alexei Dinoia, who has graciously joined us today to oversee the proceedings. Now, Flynn Scifo, you are charged with using witchcraft to supernaturally extend your youth and to worsen the effects of the plague. How do you respond?"

It wasn't time yet. He had to let Cumore lay out all the evidence to make it truly believable. He noticed the guard from earlier giving him a pleading look from behind Ragou's table, but ignored him. "I deny it. I'm not a witch."

"Of course you say that. Mr. Cumore, if you would."

Cumore stepped forward looking gleeful. "Gladly. First of all, the mark we found on his body is clear proof of witchcraft. There is a scar over his left breast that appears to be the result of a gunshot wound. To have survived a injury like that is unprecedented."

Flynn glanced to Alexei again, whose eyes had widened. Alexei had invited Cumore here specifically because he suspected something about Flynn, but how ready had he been to have his impossible suspicions confirmed?

"This mark is proof enough of witchcraft, but there's more. Schwann Oltorain, the accuser, will now provide his evidence."

Raven stepped in to once again recite his findings. He watched the far wall as he spoke, clearly still uncomfortable with what Flynn had asked him to do. Flynn felt bad about dragging him into this, and even worse about the awkward conversation Raven would surely be having with Estelle, Rita, and Karol after this was over. The room was silent while Raven spoke, listening in shock to the details of Flynn's timeline. Every time Flynn's gaze turned to Alexei, he was staring intently at Flynn, silently daring him to provide a satisfactory explanation.

When Raven finished, Cumore turned on Flynn. "How do you explain this, Scifo?"

Flynn leaned casually back in the chair. "He's clearly mistaken. Just because someone else has the same name as me doesn't mean that was me."

"In what year were you born?"

"16…" Flynn hadn't anticipated this question and authentically scrambled to subtract twenty-five from 1628 to provide, "…03."

"You seem uncertain."

"It's not a date I put much thought into."

"Your birth year?"

"I like to concentrate on the present."

Cumore gave him a look that said Flynn was doing an excellent job of looking guilty. Good.

The next witness was a teenage girl who fidgeted with the apron of her skirt as she stood before the court.

"Explain what you heard, miss," Cumore told her.

"Um… yes, ok. It was when m-my mother was dying." She paused and blinked furiously to dispel sudden tears. "Right at the end… I heard her muttering to herself. But then she said, 'Aren't you Mr. Scifo?' and she looked like she was staring at something, but I didn't see anything in the room."

Cumore nodded. "So Scifo appeared in spectral form to kill your mother?"

The girl quickly bobbed her head. "I - I think so."

Flynn didn't remember that incident in particular. He had visited a lot of dying women over the summer, and it was typical to be able to see an Ankou in the final hour or so before death. He must have arrived just before she died.

The next person called was a young boy. He may have been the same boy who testified at Yuri's trial, but Flynn didn't know the children of Zaphias well enough to tell them apart. He wiped his nose on his wrist before starting his story.

"This was back on May Day. Me and the others were out playing in the ocean when Ted went too far out. I didn't really see what happened but then Flynn came running and splashing out to us. He brought Ted back to the beach but Ted wasn't breathing." He fidgeted with his hands. "I mean… we all thought Ted was gonna die. He was really still. And then Flynn did this thing where he like… looked like he was kissing Ted? And pushing on his chest. I don't know what that was all about but then he just pressed his hand against Ted and then Ted sat right up! It was like magic."

Murmurs sprang up through the courtroom and Alexei exchanged a quick glance with Ragou. A lot of spectators were going to be telling their friends they missed a better trial, because this one had a lot more real evidence.

Cumore shooed the boy away. "In addition to this and Oltorain's testimony, I did my own investigation in Scifo's business ties. Let me ask you, Scifo: what do you actually sell?"

"Hm?"

"You persist that you are a merchant." Cumore stood in front of him now. "But what do you actually do? Where does the money come from? Several people report seeing you leave on business trips, but there is no evidence of business being done on any of those trips."

Flynn shrugged. "I like to keep my business private."

"And that business is?"

"That's personal."

"So you refuse to divulge the source of your wealth or account for your whereabouts when you leave town. I don't have any further witnesses, but what I've already presented should be proof enough."

"Do you have anything to say in your defence?" Ragou asked.

All eyes turned on him, but Flynn only paid attention to Alexei, who stared at him intently. Flynn pretended to think this over with a concerned expression and then said, "No. I have nothing else to say."

Ragou couldn't hold back his triumphant smile. "Then I have no choice but to find you guilty of all you are charged with. Do you freely confess to being a witch?"

The room went silent as they listened with bated breath. The guard was giving Flynn a pleading expression, while Duke simply appeared very tired.

"No…." The guard cringed. Flynn bowed his head. "There's no point in trying to convince you I'm innocent. I'm not stupid enough to think anything I can say now will make a difference. So no, I am not a witch. I am a revenant."

This set off the murmurs once again. Alexei paled while Duke straightened up, more interested than weary now. Ragou and Cumore exchanged confused looks.

"You're… a what?" Ragou asked.

"I am a revenant," he said firmly and clearly and raised his head again. "I was born here in Zaphias in 1578. I joined the military when I was seventeen years old, and served for seven years." He looked directly at Alexei now. "Until I was returning home and Lord Alexei murdered me."

Furious whispers spread through the room while everyone's attention diverted to Alexei.

"I've come back," Flynn raised his voice over the din, "to take vengeance on him and his land."

"This is preposterous!" Alexei slammed his fist into the table.

"You killed me." Flynn straightened up in the chair. "We were friends! And then you shot me on New Year's Eve, in sight of my home!" After so many years of harbouring this fury, it was ecstasy to finally shout it at Alexei. He regretted letting himself get shackled to the chair, because it prevented him from punching the bastard. "You pushed me into the ravine and abandoned me there to bleed out in the snow!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Cumore looked between Flynn and Alexei with confusion; clearly this trial was going in directions he hadn't anticipated. "You have no proof of these allegations."

"Like that's ever stopped you," Flynn snarled. He looked to Duke, then, and said, "Look me up in the baptism records from 1578. My parents were Finath and Norein. Look me up in military records and find the proof that I left the military in 1599. Talk to the innkeeper in Lambal - maybe he remembers having the actual Lord Alexei as a patron at his tavern back in December of 1599 and can corroborate that Alexei left with another soldier."

The horror on Alexei's face brought Flynn more pleasure than he'd like to admit. Alexei, at least, was convinced of Flynn's identity.

"This is ridiculous," Ragou said. "Why would Lord Alexei kill a simple soldier?"

"Don't ask him that," Alexei said quickly. "You're only encouraging his lies."

"What's the matter?" Flynn smirked. "Don't you want them to know the truth? About how you murdered your brother during the Siege of Amiens?"

"Slander! You have no proof of any of this."

"Your brother ordered a suicide attack on Amiens. Any of the surviving members of the battalion could attest to that, if anyone cared to track them down. You killed your brother in the heat of battle, then took command and called off the raid. But I saw you do it, so you murdered me before I could make it home and tell the truth about what you'd done."

"These are just the ramblings of a witch trying to discredit me," Alexei said to the crowd. "Witches are known to have deceptive tongues."

"For twenty-eight years you lived as the lord of this land, a title stolen from your murdered brother. You think it's a coincidence I arrived in town on New Year's Day, the anniversary of my murder? I came back from the dead to tear you down and bring the plague down upon all the land in your possession."

"Impossible," Alexei said. "There is no return from the dead."

Flynn smiled evilly, or at least he tried to and hoped it was convincing. "There is with the power of Satan. I made a deal with him as I lie dying in the snow. He has given me immense power. I'm almost glad you finally caught me; it killed me to see that pathetic Yuri Lowell get credit for my work."

Ragou frowned. "Your work?"

"Do you really think that worthless peasant is strong enough or clever enough to be an agent of my dark master? It was hard enough getting him to be a simple lackey. He didn't know what he was doing, of course. When I told him the plague was spread by the fleas on rats, the idiot actually believed me and willingly spread my cursed pennyroyal leaves. He was just useful enough that I healed him when he was on his death bed, just like I did to Ted. I had hoped that boy could be a replacement out of gratitude to me, but unfortunately he died before I could use him. And then you lot stupidly gave Yuri credit for all my hard work. I seduced the Lagadeg girl to sire a child born of evil and I summoned the blizzard that would keep away more experienced birth attendants who might recognize the signs of my work. A pity the child wasn't strong enough to survive the plague after all that effort. I was the ghost in the graveyard who tormented the children; you already heard testimony from the other girl that I can turn myself invisible."

The crowd had finally stopped talking and now listened in silent terror. Flynn wondered if cackling would be overdoing it.

"I tried to get Yuri out the other night. Even though he was too stupid to realize witchcraft was happening around him, he was mine. The other night, I turned myself invisible and broke into the courthouse. I saw the guard on duty playing solitaire, and then threw a bible across the room to lure him up."

The guard at the back was looking at Cumore in shock; those details hadn't been made public.

Cumore looked back to Flynn in shock. "You… you can't possibly expect us to believe you're a vengeful spirit. You have no evidence."

Flynn lowered his head. "Oh, but your 'evidence' was enough to prove Yuri was a witch?" Flynn took a breath and closed his eyes. He hated doing this because it made his skin crawl and made him feel disturbingly inhuman. A bit of a spectacle was necessary, though. When he raised his head to face the high table, a grinning skull replaced his face with flames burning in the pits of his eyes. Ragou cried out and nearly fell off his chair, the scribe crossed himself with a gape of terror, Cumore took a few staggering steps back, and Alexei rose quickly, hands on the table. The vision faded and Flynn let his normal face reappear, but the impact had been done. "Do you believe me now?"

"Sorcery!" Ragou shouted.

"That's right. I came to bring despair to your town and I succeeded. I hope you all remember that Alexei Dinoia is to blame."

Alexei gritted his teeth while the whole room stared at him.

Ragou banged his gavel again to get everyone's attention. "Flynn Scifo - or, or, whatever you are - you have been found guilty of sorcery and for your vile crimes will be burned at the stake until dead."

"Go ahead." Flynn kept riding on the high produced by Alexei's panic. "I'm already dead - thanks to Alexei. Kill me again for all I care; I've already brought this town to its knees."

"Ragou," Cumore said, "add Scifo's testimony to Lowell's case as additional proof of witchcraft."

Flynn's heart skipped a beat and he almost broke character to cry out in panic. All of this had been to save Yuri - not testify further against him!

Thankfully, someone else stepped in. Duke cleared his throat as he left his quiet place by the wall and called the room's attention. "It would appear to me as if Scifo's testimony has just exonerated Lowell."

"Ridiculous," Ragou said. "Scifo just admitted he was involved in witchcraft."

"If you reread the transcript," Duke gestured to the scribe who had been furiously scribbling all of this down, "you will notice that Scifo's account specifically points out that Lowell had no idea he was involved in witchcraft and was only an unwitting pawn in this case."

Cumore waved his head. "We have his own trial to prove his guilt."

"A conviction proven by conclusions Scifo has just proven false. You cannot convict both Scifo and Lowell of using dark magic to sire the child of Mari Lagadeg, for example. And Scifo's confession to summoning the blizzard means Lowell could not have been guilty of that. Either Lowell is a witch and Scifo is lying about everything, or Scifo is a vengeful revenant who tricked an innocent man into doing his bidding. You cannot have both. Given the physical evidence we have just seen, I am inclined to believe Scifo is telling the truth."

Ragou and Cumore shared a look.

Alexei said, "Scifo is a liar. Everything he said about his involvement with me is baseless slander."

Duke gazed at Alexei impassively. "We have seen him demonstrate irrefutable proof that he is a supernatural entity. Perhaps he is lying about your role in his death," though Duke's face said he didn't believe it, "but I do believe he is the supernatural one in this situation."

Alexei nodded. "Yes. He is clearly an evil entity who has chosen to attempt to defame me along with kill the town. He is the enemy here. Ragou, I want him burned."

Duke said, "And so therefore, Lowell must be found innocent."

Ragou curled his lips and tried to find a way out, but in the face of the lord and the priest, he had to agree. "Yes, Father. Of course. He is, however, guilty of carrying out the witch's evil deeds, even unknowingly. For this, he will be sentenced to two months in prison with regular sessions on the pillory."

Flynn breathed out and his muscles relaxed. It had worked. Yuri was off the hook. They were going to burn him, but Yuri had been spared. Getting Yuri out of jail right away would be preferable, but as long as it had a set end date and wouldn't end in death, Flynn was content.