Masquerade Act One: Hidden Figures
The Twelfth Dance: Back to Reality
A/N: Finally the long awaited moment of if the girls will manage to escape or not! I toyed with various ways of having them finally leave but none of them seemed reasonable until I came up with this current method which is in this chapter. Even with it I'm not fully satisfied but whatever. It is what it is and I'm not going to abandon the series just because of this one scene.
Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality- Nikos Kazantzakis
Hermione and Bellatrix found themselves in a giant courtroom, the same one they had visited when they came for the second key, except this time all three judges sat before them in the high chairs, clad in their judicial garments. Ah, so that's what they meant by Chambers. Like the judicial chambers. I was worried it would be a torture chamber, Hermione let out a small sigh of relief. The two girls stood below them, anxiety coursing through their veins. Bella swallowed back the flashbacks that threatened to rise up. Last time she had been here she had been sentenced to hell and that wasn't something easy to get over. She clenched her hands so hard that her nails dug into her flesh and blood seeped out of the half crescent marks. Hermione could see how tensed up the witch was from the corner of her eye but she didn't make a move to say anything or to reassure her. She still felt embarrassed by what had happened on the dance floor and she was worried if she touched the dark haired witch she would lose herself to a spell again.
"Why have you brought us here?" Bella hissed, eager to leave. If she was a cat she would be bristling. "Will you sentence us again?"
"No, that is not our intention this time," answered Gabriel calmly and with disdain in his eyes at the fear the witch was radiating.
"So we are not going to punish them?" Dorian hissed.
"We are, but not in the way you envisioned it. Things have changed and we cannot allow that change to blossom any further. Hermione and Bellatrix, due to your antics Voldemort has risen again to life."
"He escaped? The keys worked?" Bella shouted out, interrupting the blue skinned judge who frowned at her disruption. "Of course the keys work. But they are not the only way to get out of here. They are merely the hardest way to do so. If you really had desired to leave the place then all you had to do was challenge us judges to a riddle."
"A riddle?" Hermione blurted out. "What do you mean?"
"In this world there is a rule that if you challenge all three of the judges to a riddle and solve all three riddles you will be free to depart from this world. However, you chose to steal the keys which was decidedly a more arduous task because if we had caught you we would have killed you."
"And how are we supposed to know of that rule if no one tells us anything here!" Hermione cried out indignantly. "We would have gladly done that rather than steal the keys and fight you."
"That's because you are not meant to leave this place. Why would I impart to you knowledge on that if you are meant to be contained here?" He shot her a slightly disgusted look at her stupidity. "In any case, as things stand, we need you to leave this world. We no longer wish to entertain the notion of you both here given how much trouble you have given us. Your fiendfyre spell has ravished huge portions of the hotel and continues to do so until I find a way to stop it. So thank you very much for that," Gabriel said sarcastically.
Are they going...to let us leave...Hermione tried to quell the hope that rose in her chest. Would she be free after all this time?
"But as the rules dictate we cannot simply let you leave. You must pass the three riddles before you can do so."
"And what are the three riddles?" Hermione asked, impatient. She was a bit of a brainiac, surely this would be no issue to her. Now that freedom stood within her grasp she wanted it to come to her as quickly as possible.
"I still do not like this method," Dorian grumbled out. "Why let them go, if in the end of their lives they shall come here anyways and be punished for their transgressions?"
"Because we need them to fix something they messed up and as you know we cannot leave this place so it is up to them because they can leave and have a desire to do so. It works out perfectly."
"That hardly seems fair!" Dorian snarled out all of a sudden, getting out of his seat, his hands clawing and skin darkening. "We're sending them back into the world of the living in exchange for them to solve a problem they caused!"
Gabriel merely sniffed at the outburst directed at him, not deigning to turn and look at him. "You'd have the whole world burn if you had your way."
"And what is so wrong with that?"
"What's so wrong is that we are meant to pass sound judgment from reason and facts, not from something based on our desires. We must be unerring in our ways and do what is best for our subjects."
"You say that but what you really mean is that we have to adhere to your rules and rulings! The two of us are just to swallow down our own comments and ideas and bend to your wills. You just want the last word as always, so you boss us around!" Dorian was practically spitting from where he was standing, Ibraham between him and Gabriel, serving as a temporary border. His anger was heating up the room, visible heat waves pulsating in a radius out from him, and Hermione and Bellatrix exchanged a concerned look with one another as they began to cook in their clothes. It looked like the judges were ready to kill each other. They had never seen Dorian so angry before and they wondered that if and when he did erupt if they would be caught in the crossfires. They would have to keep on their toes to avoid this, so that they could run out at the first sign of trouble.
"Someone has to given the abysmal lack of brains you two possess," Gabriel seemed unaffected by the heat, which had started to cause the wood of the judges desk to start to smolder, small puffs of smoke rising. Ibraham pulled out a handkerchief and patted at it before going to wipe his face. He was sweating profusely, his shiny forehead glistening with it.
"You two, let's not do this. We have something to attend to right now and we wouldn't want to keep these ladies waiting." Ibraham's suggestion was ignored by both parties.
"You know what, I'm so damn tired of you! Every year, it's the same thing. And-" At this Gabriel stood up, sliding his chair back gently before leveling his gaze at the other judge, his eyes black as a pit of tar. Dorian paused at this, face more wary than enraged.
"Dorian, shut up and sit down before I make you." Gabriel's voice was the opposite of Dorian's. Whereas the hot headed judges one had been filled with passion and fire, Gabriel's was brimming and prickling with ice. Whereas Dorian had used volume to get his points across, Gabriel merely lowered his voice, until it was barely louder than a breeze, a cold whisper that threatened to kill you. Cold permeated the room and the two girls shivered intensely, the sweat from the earlier heat freezing up on their backs. Their breath formed in front of their mouth. If they don't hurry up and calm down they'll kill us before we even get to the riddles. Hermione guessed.
Dorian sat down with a petulant huff, slouching in his chair like a little kid whose favorite toy had just been taken away. Gabriel eyed him for a few more moments before he too sat down.
"Apologies for that ladies," Ibraham smiled at them broadly, his double chin jiggling. "Now where were we?"
"Uh, the riddles," Hermione hastened to respond when she realized he was asking them.
"Yes, the riddles," Gabriel clicked his tongue, taking his glasses off and wiping the frost off of them that had been brought on by his powers.
"So we are to give them easy riddles?" Ibraham poised, raising his bushy brows.
"No one said this had to be easy."
"Very well then. I wish to go first," the fat judge stood up, his robes swishing around him. "Are you ladies ready for the first riddle?"
"Yes," Hermione answered resolutely.
"Hermione are we really doing this?" Bella's voice had a tinge of nervousness with it.
"It's the only other way out. Do you not want to live?"
"I do," Bellatrix responded with. "But I don't know how good I am with riddles. What happens if we fail them?"
"We won't," Hermione smiled and then focused her gaze back on the judge who had been waiting for them to finish their little pep talk. She was confident in her mental capacities. "Just leave this to me."
Clearing his throat, in a booming voice he stated, "Many have heard me, but no one has seen me, and I will not speak back until spoken too. What am I?"
Hermione's mind immediately began to whirl with possible answers. She repeated the riddle under her breath, Bellatrix merely looking at the brunette as the girl thought.
"Do you know what it is?"
"It has to be something nonliving for sure. Some abstract concept. As how can someone see something abstract such as noise, or first place in a competition? They can't and it cannot be a position since those do not give off dissonance, so it has to be something sound related...something that talks back only when I talk to it first...an echo!" Hermione said at last, the sudden epiphany bursting from her lips, and watched the judge's face for a response. His face could not stay neutral for long and it burst out into a smile. "Very good. It is an echo indeed."
He sat back down and Dorian stood up this time, frowning at his fellow judge. "You went easy on them," he spat. "But I won't." He redirected his gaze to them and both girls could see the malice gleaming in his eyes. "I don't like how we're going to let you go if you succeed but I suppose the tasks you will be given in the upper world will have to serve as your punishment for now."
What does he mean? Hermione wondered briefly before focusing on the next judges riddle.
"Alone I am 24th, with a friend I am 20. Another friend and I am unclean." Dorian smirked as he finished his riddle.
"The fuck is this riddle about?" Bella had no clue what the judge was talking about. She only hoped Hermione knew because the black haired witch had no idea and would be no help this round either.
Hermione's brows furrowed in concentration and she rubbed her chin as she thought out loud. "24th...24th...I would assume this refers to the alphabet. That means the letter x, but then how do we get 20? Maybe it's about math? Some sort of addition?"
"What-"
"Shush, not now Bella, I'm thinking." Hermione put up a hand to stop the other witch. "Hmm. Math...a math formula? No, what about Roman numerals. They look like letters but they represent numbers. X is a ten in Roman numerals and if we add another 'friend' then we would get twenty...but then what about the third X? Something dirty...something unclean..." Hermione's face flushed red at this. She knew what the three X's would stand for-something like a porn tape. Well, it looked like things added up. "The answer is X." She cleared her throat, trying to force her thoughts away from triple X rated things.
Dorian didn't look happy she had solved this but he took satisfaction from the fact he had succeeded in embarrassing her. He sat down, Gabriel rising now.
"This is your last riddle, and since Hermione has solved the past two riddles, Bellatrix this one is for you. The rules don't allow you to let one person do all the work. It's not fair."
Bella blanched at this. "For me?" Every riddle sounded hard to her, how was she going to solve one by herself. Fuck the rules and their 'fairness' she grumbled internally. She exchanged a worried glance with the brunette. "No input from Hermione or else you will face disqualification," warned Gabriel before he continued on. "I'm more powerful than God, more evil than the Devil. The poor have me, the rich need me. If you eat me, you'll die. What am I?"
"Oh shit. This is bullocks!" Bella spat out. How was she going to answer this riddle by herself?
"Come now, it is not that hard. Surely you can handle such a riddle?" Gabriel arched his brow in mockery of her.
"Shut up." She began to pace around the court room, trying hard to think of what it could be, her hands running through her thick hair. Different answers drifted into her mind but none of them seemed like the right ones...what could the answer be? She felt time was slipping by, she felt like she was flunking Hermione and it agitated her. She hated failure, and here she was failing in what could be the most important moment of her undead life. The brunette had no doubt already come up with the answer and was tapping her foot impatiently, staring at the other witch as if she could stare the answer into her brain.
"Bugger this all!" she stopped pacing and turned angrily to Hermione. "I've got nothing! Nothing will come into my head!"
Instead of being disappointed, Hermione lit up like a Christmas tree. She turned her brilliant smile to the judges, a hint of cockiness in it. "There you go. The answer to your riddle. Nothing." We solved the riddles! We are going home! Her joy was overflowing. Finally, back home to her friends. She tried to contain the smile from spreading on her face but failed.
Bella gave a confused look. She had solved the riddle? What? How? How did nothing even make sense in the context?
"Very well. She solved it. Now I suppose we best get onto the matters of importance. You two are now free to go back to your lives. But, there is something you must do for us. Since it was your fault that Voldemort escaped in the first place you must hunt him down and stop him for us."
"Kill him?" Bella whispered, not sure how she felt with the concept of killing an old friend no matter how much he corrupted her.
"Yes." Gabriel nodded his head sharply. "Kill him and he will come back here and then we can judge him for all his sins. If you do not kill him then you will have unleashed the third tide of a war that has spilt much blood and spread much death and destruction. Your friends will lose their lives and so will many innocent others. Surely you do not want that Hermione." He glanced pointedly at the brunette and she squirmed under his gaze, bothered more by the fact that he hadn't included Bella in that statement about not wanting to hurt people. Could Hermione trust her?
"As for you Bellatrix, killing a friend might not be easy but you have no other choice. Once Voldemort has been removed from the picture you are free to go about your lives as you would wish."
"Yes, drink and eat to your hearts content!" Ibraham interjected much to the displeasure of the third judge.
"Okay. I am ready for the task you have given me." Hermione nodded her head grimly. She wasn't certain if she could kill someone else, but if it meant saving hundreds of other people's lives then she would have to one way or another dredge up the resolve to do so.
Bella bit her lips in uncertainty but too nodded her head. "I will do what is asked of me, as long as I can leave this accursed place."
All three judges rose to their feet and joined hands. A wind began to blow throughout the court room, ruffling hair and clothing alike. It was a warm wind, fresh with the scent of blooming flowers, of fresh cut grass and of dirt and living things.
"Tribus iudicum a nobis partitus inter mundum vivorum et mundi est expectans aperire. Ne credas illis duabus animabus missus est in mundum ut relicto post se ut iterum respirare possunt, ut sit cor eorum iterum beat. Partem per portas et damus eis licentiam." The three chanted in unison in Latin and their eyes glowed white as bright light began to awash the court. The very building began to shake yet both girls were able to stand without being affected by the tremors. Hermione cast a gaze at Bella, squinting in the bright light. The dark haired witch gave her a barely restrained smile in return. The moment they had been fighting for was finally arriving.
"We're going to live!" Bellatrix shouted out over the increasing noise of wind blowing, barely contained joy in her voice, and then with a bright flash they were gone.
The wind in the courtroom died away and the three judges robes settled down as they separated hands and took their respective seats. "It's been a while since I've cast that spell. Remember the last time we cast one it was for a single boy. How in the bloody hell did two souls join together this time and manage to find the truth out about this place? It's unprecedented," Ibraham said joyfully, crossing his hands over his lap.
"Yes, we will have to be more careful of that in the future. We need to put stricter measures on the people here. We cannot have anymore escaping again. It looks bad on us. But, regardless, I am glad they are out of the way. They have caused far too much ruckus in the hotel. And if you excuse me, I have some fires to tame." The third judge was gone in a crack, leaving the other two judges behind.
"I wonder if we can trust the two girls to bring back Voldemort to us," Ibraham pondered, not the least bit concerned.
"I sure hope they can. I still think it was a bad idea to let them go. I wanted to see them bend and break under my hands," Dorian grimly stated, his skin turning a bit red as he remembered how much the two irked him. "But I guess that will have to wait for later. For now, I've left them with a little parting gift." He smiled evilly at this, a chuckle rumbling from his chest.
"As did I!" Ibraham exclaimed. "Although I can guess yours is a lot less wholesome than mine." He added more soberly.
Dorian merely threw back his head and laughed heartily at this, his maniacal amusement coloring the space of the court.
The fat judge watched, his face drawing more pensive with each and every laugh. "I wonder if Gabriel gave them anything too." He closed his eyes briefly before reopening them. "I suppose things will be interesting from now on for our two girls."
A/N: English translation of the Latin that the judges are speaking: We three judges ask the divide between the world of the living and of the world of waiting to open. Let these two wrongfully cast souls back into the world they left behind so that they may breathe again, so that their heart may beat again. Part the gates and let them through, we give them permission to do so.
Additionally, the three judges are based on the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. One represents uncontrolled desires and impulses mostly of the carnal and violent type. One represents sort of the common everyday man, that tries to find a middle ground between these opposing forces. And the third judge represents high moral ground with stringent and controlling beliefs. Due to such differing personas, the judges are oft in disagreement on matter's at hand, with the super ego or ego mainly getting their way. Of course, that doesn't mean the Id judge won't try to have his fun bothering the girls behind the other judges backs. (Hmmm, am I foreshadowing? Maybe I am. :P)
This chapter concludes Hidden Figures, the first act of Masquerade. But don't worry, I'll be posting up act two soon in this same story. It will be called Masquerade Act Two: When the Masks Fall, and will include more minor mysteries to solve.