February 10

Courtroom No. 1

1:00 PM

Deirdre Brigit

Ms. Balanite's first response to the accusation was to real backwards, almost as if the words were giving her physical pain. "What are you talking about?!" she exclaimed with a yelp. "Of course I'm a security guard! Do you really think I would be wearing this uniform if that wasn't my job? It doesn't make any sense! I'm wearing the uniform, and I was guarding the building that day! Isn't that enough for you to realize that I have to be working for them?"

"I don't think that's enough," Mr. Morix countered. "Especially considering the fact that you engaged in a massive breach of security that day by letting someone unauthorized into the building. Mr. Devine wasn't supposed to be inside at all, but you were more than happy to let him inside the second that you heard him tell his story. It doesn't make any sense. Plus, you didn't know such a basic protocol about other people being let inside when your job is to make sure that nothing like this happens. It doesn't make any sense why you would be so lacking in information. If you ask me, the only way to explain that is the fact that you were lying to the world about your occupation and have been since the start."

"But why would I lie about something like that?" Ms. Balanite questioned. "It's not like I would have much of a reason to lie about being a security guard for a random building, right?"

"It wasn't a random building," I pointed out. "That was where the crime took place, and as far as I can tell, it all makes a lot of sense if we assume that you weren't actually supposed to be there that day either... That puts your actions with Mr. Devine into a new perspective that none of us had considered before, and I don't think it would be right for us to forget it."

"What precisely is this new perspective, defense?" Judge Frost questioned intensely. "I have to wonder what could change the case so drastically given our new light on the witness' actions."

"I believe that the reason Mr. Devine was let into the building was because the witness here was trying to establish an alibi," Mr. Morix announced. "Think about it. She was working as a security guard that day, and yet, she was on her own when she should have had someone else with her. If she was the one who killed the victim, then she would want to remedy that as soon as possible. That was why she agreed to let Mr. Devine tour the building. That way, she would at least have somebody there to corroborate when she said that she wasn't alone at the time of the body's discovery."

"That does make a lot of sense," Felicity muttered with a small hum. She paused for a moment before glancing back to Ms. Balanite. "I don't understand why she would want to do all of this though... Why not just commit the crime and get out of there as soon as she was finished? It wouldn't make much sense to linger in the area and risk getting caught later on. Wouldn't it have made more sense for her to leave right away?"

"She was alone when she would have committed the crime, and she was alone when Mr. Devine got there too..." I murmured. "If you ask me, it kind of makes sense... I believe that she was trying to get away from the scene of the crime when Mr. Devine caught her, and since she was in a bad position, she decided to agree to it just in case it gave her an alibi. Her plans to leave immediately were shattered, and just like that, she had to switch plans if she wanted to keep from being caught."

"Do you have any other evidence to assert the fact that the witness here wasn't actually a security guard?" Prosecutor Daegana asked. "I believe the court would be more than happy to hear all about it if you have anything else to back up your suspicions."

"Do we have anything like that?" Felicity questioned, her voice lowering to a hiss as she spoke with me and Mr. Morix. "Can you think of anything that would make her actions suddenly make a lot more sense?"

"If you ask me, there's one question that we should pose to the prosecution before we go any deeper into this conversation," Mr. Morix announced, and he looked up to Prosecutor Burke accordingly. "If you don't mind my asking... Do you happen to know anything of note about the uniform the guards of the building are forced to wear while on the job?"

Prosecutor Burke thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "It's a lot like what you see here... The uniform part, at the very least," she remarked.

"You know one thing that I've noticed about this case?" Mr. Morix prompted, and Prosecutor Burke tilted her head to the side to gesture for him to go on. "Throughout all of this discussion about the murder, there's one counter that we haven't heard from Prosecutor Daegana... He's said that the thread found near the body wasn't relevant and that it could have gotten there by accident, but... He never claimed that it could have been caused by another security guard. I can't help but wonder why that's the case."

"That would be because no other guard was wearing gloves quite like what the witness was wearing that day," Prosecutor Daegana announced. "All of their gloves are simply black in color. They wouldn't have produced dark purple threads like that... So they couldn't have been the ones responsible for the thread falling at the scene of the crime." He paused for a long moment as Ms. Balanite looked to him with pure fear scrawled across her face, but he was unwilling to hear her out, instead simply shaking his head. "At first, I was willing to believe that there was another explanation that would make more sense than simply believing the thread was genuine. I didn't want to think that the culprit would make a mistake like that, but I suppose I was wrong. As far as I can tell, Ms. Balanite was the one who committed the crime, and she did an incredibly poor job of it."

"You don't have any proof!" Ms. Balanite shouted, her voice continuing to slide towards desperation. "I wasn't the one who killed him! Why would I do something like that? Unless you can come up with a solid reason, then I'm not going to believe you! Every crime needs a motive behind it, right? So give me a motive that could have applied to me!"

"Do we have an idea for a motive?" I asked, turning to look at Mr. Morix and Felicity. I already had a terrible feeling I knew where this was going, and I didn't want to believe it. Still, there was no way for us to run away from what we had already narrowed in on up to this point, and that meant that we would simply have to commit to it and see what happened from there.

"As a matter of fact... We do," Mr. Morix sighed as he shifted his attention back to the court at large. "There was another crime in the Council of Six headquarters a few years ago... Another murder that very much so fell in line with what we're seeing here today. There was a man murdered in his office through a single stab to the chest, and he was a member of the Council of Six. The people who committed the crime got away with it, and the one witness to the murder was unable to testify about who could have killed the victim. However... There is one explanation that makes a striking amount of sense when you think about the crime at hand."

"What are you talking about, defense?" Judge Frost questioned. Everything about his expression was shifting towards grimness, and I could tell that he was fully aware of the weight his words were carrying. He may not have known the specific purpose of this subject being brought up, but he did know that something big was on the horizon.

"The defense is of the firm belief that the culprits from that case are the same as the ones responsible for this murder," I said, picking up where Mr. Morix had left off effortlessly. "At the very least, I believe it requires consideration... Especially considering the fact when this would finally offer a motive for the murder when we've come up short so many times when trying to examine that aspect of the case."

"In that case, go on and explain what you're talking about," Prosecutor Burke instructed. "What do you think happened that day? Who are the ones behind the two crimes at hand?"

"The Emsthorpe assassins," I declared simply, not bothering with mincing the words. Everyone in the gallery immediately began to chatter, but I didn't let myself stop there. "They've been destroying people involved with the legal system for years, and I suspect that their target this time was a high-ranking figure among the Council of Six for a reason. This was intentional and part of their method to destroy the legal system from the inside out... The one goal that they've seemingly been pursuing since long before this case began."

"The lack of a motive would make sense under that assumption," Prosecutor Daegana muttered. "In that case, it would simply be the matter of an assassin sneaking into the building to kill the victim... In all our investigating, we couldn't find a reason anybody would want to kill the victim. It didn't make any sense. But if we look at it that way..."

"Do you have any idea what you're saying?!" Ms. Balanite shouted, suddenly piercing through the conversation with a slam against the witness stand in front of her. "You're talking about all of this like I'm not here! I'm not an assassin!"

"But you seem to be the one who killed the victim," Mr. Morix countered. "You pretended to be a security guard to sneak into the building that day, and from there, you struck down the victim in cold blood. When you were trying to make your escape, you were caught, and you decided to use this opportunity to your advantage rather than letting it pass you by. This was always about you trying to establish an alibi for the crime... And before that, you were trying to kill the victim because he was your target. The fact that you know so little about your apparent profession makes it clear to me that something shifty is playing in the shadows here, and now... It seems as if the explanation at hand makes a lot of sense."

Ms. Balanite began to tear at her gloves from rage, her previous easygoing demeanor having evaporated in the blink of an eye. Small dark purple threads began to fall to the ground, and I spoke around her angry grumbling. "I believe that we would find that the threads on the ground now match what was found at the scene of the crime if we ran an analysis," I told her. "I don't think there's any way for you to get out of this now. Everyone in this courtroom knows that you're the culprit, so I would suggest simply giving up."

Ms. Balanite opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off when a gunshot echoed throughout the courtroom. Various people sank to screams immediately, but the booming of a voice was more than enough to silence them. "That's quite enough."

Nobody dared to move a muscle as the person who had spoken-a man with a voice that was much too familiar for my tastes-continued to talk. "You've let this trial drag on for long enough... And I think it's high time this finally ended," he announced. "Nobody will move a muscle for the next few minutes. If you do, then it's going to be the end of you."

I knew that he was talking about the gun immediately, and I went tense at his words. He let out a small chuckle, and I couldn't help wondering where his voice was coming from. It sounded like it was echoing throughout the entire courtroom, but I knew that wasn't possible naturally. Had he been hiding in the gallery all along waiting for his chance to do this?

"Good," the man eventually said when he realized that nobody was going to be pushing back against him. "I'm glad we understand one another. Now, a piece of advice for all of you... Don't even think about investigating matters related to the Emsthorpe assassins again. If you want to keep your lives, then the line is drawn here."

As if on cue, smoke began to flood the courtroom, and even when I began to cough, I did not move from the spot. Tears flowed freely from my eyes, and I made no effort to stop them. I already knew what we were going to find when the smoke was gone, but I didn't know what to do about it. The sudden shift of the trial had caught me off guard and then some, and I knew that everybody else in the courtroom agreed completely.

"Until we meet again," came the final echo of the man's voice before it cut off and faded to silence. Something about those words had me relaxing enough to finally begin to cough openly, though I didn't let myself move too much for the sake of safety. My heart was still screaming in my chest, and I had no idea how I was supposed to calm my rushing adrenaline and raging nerves after such a terrifying brush with death.

The smoke began to clear out after the fact, and when my vision was clear once again, I looked up to see that the witness stand was entirely empty. Just as I had suspected, we had been right. Ms. Balanite was part of the Emsthorpe ring, and it seemed as if our enemies had known that she had a chance of being caught. They wouldn't have been prepared for something like that by waiting in the courtroom if they didn't already know it was going to end this way. This had all been part of the plan. If she was exposed, then they were going to turn around and make sure that she was able to escape by interfering with the trial.

"She's gone," Prosecutor Daegana muttered. He glanced down to the floor in front of the witness stand before shaking his head. "All that's left behind of her is a single thread... Though I suppose that's going to make this rather easy. All we have to do is run a test between that thread and what was found at the scene of the crime. I believe that will more than prove the defendant's innocence."

"I believe we're all more than ready to get out of the courtroom after that ordeal," Judge Frost announced, reaching for his gavel with shaky hands. "I doubt there are any objections from the defense or prosecution given recent events."

Prosecutor Burke and Mr. Morix both looked to one another before shaking their heads. Judge Frost didn't seem to mind the fact that they hadn't spoken, instead simply hitting his gavel down a moment later. "In that case, this court hereby finds the defendant, Ophani Diaphan, not guilty. Court is adjourned."

And with that, the trial was over... But I don't think any of us felt like we should be celebrating.

February 10

Courtroom No. 1

1:30 PM

Deirdre Brigit

"That... Was certainly a thing that happened."

Anxiety still hung heavily over everyone after we left the courtroom to retreat into the defendant lobby. How could it not? The trial shouldn't have ever turned that sour even if we were up against assassins. I still couldn't seem to get it all out of my head. The voice of the man who stood in the courtroom and threatened everyone so readily... Something about it felt so familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. Whoever he was, I hadn't heard his voice any time recently, that was for sure.

Felicity was the one who had spoken after we arrived out in the lobby, and I could tell that her nerves were just as merciless as everyone else's were. She was doing her best to try and push through them, but I could still see the way her hands shook and hear how her voice was doing much the same. She was terrified, and she had no idea how to handle any of it. She glanced up at me anxiously, fear painted across her expression. Her regular casual demeanor had been replaced with something much darker, and my stomach twisted at the mere thought of it. "What do you think is going to happen now?" she asked.

"The Emsthorpes got away. I doubt much of anything is going to happen."

Judge Diaphan's voice cut through our conversation soon afterwards, and she stepped towards us with her arms crossed over her chest. "I have no doubt that they're going to start plotting their next move... To them, the Council of Six is essentially finished. There's no way we can operate without a leader, and even if we tried, having two out of six of us dead means that we won't be able to accomplish much. I'll give the Emsthorpes this much: they certainly know how to make sure their prey is destroyed before they move on."

"It still doesn't even seem real," Mr. Morix muttered, shaking his head along the way. "I don't know how Ms. Balanite could be a member of the group. She seemed so inexperienced, and I would have thought that fighting against an Emsthorpe in the courtroom would be much harder than that. How could she be so easy to catch but so difficult to actually pin down?"

"That would be because the Emsthorpes had a feeling this was going to happen. They always have some kind of backup plan ready in case their original ideas fall through," Judge Diaphan said with a loose shrug. "They know how to plan for every eventuality, and they were ready this time too. They had a feeling that you were all going to figure out that something was amiss, and they knew how to fight back against it. Of course they did. If anybody was going to be able to push back against them, it was going to be people who hadn't dealt with them extensively before."

"Given her inexperience... I have to wonder... Do you think she was the one who gave you the scar on your face?" Felicity asked carefully of Judge Diaphan. "You said before that the one who attacked you didn't know what they were doing at the time, and... I don't know. Given the way that trial turned out, I feel like she would have been a serious contender for your assailant."

Judge Diaphan shook her head. "I thought that for a brief while as well, but she's much too young. I received my scar years ago, and she would have still been a child by that point," she replied simply. "Ms. Balanite... Or whoever she truly is behind that false name... Is new to the business. If I had to guess, I would say that she's a younger child in the family. It's a shame we don't know more about the Emsthorpes as a whole, but... I guess there's not much we can do about it now."

"When we encountered the Emsthorpes before, it was through a spy they sent to our agency," Mr. Morix told Judge Diaphan. "He didn't seem to be directly linked to them, at least not through blood. We figured out who he was truly related to, and it didn't have much to do with the Emsthorpe family as a whole."

"They get help from outsiders sometimes, but most of the killings are done by the main family," Judge Diaphan clarified. "We don't know all that much about them, but I have no doubt that we're going to uncover more details as we go along. After all, if they're really trying to step back into the public spotlight, then that means that they must be planning for something. I have no idea what it could be, but everyone is going to need to be on their guard in case they decide to lash out when we least expect it."

"I already feel like that trial qualifies."

Prosecutor Burke came walking into the room soon afterward, everything about her expression pinched and exhausted. Anton was practically hanging off her, refusing to let go of her arm because of how terrified he was. Given the circumstances and how shy he normally was, I couldn't say I was exactly surprised. Even Prosecutor Daegana, known for his cool facade and general slyness in the courtroom, seemed to have been reduced to a shell of his former self because of the threats. He was doing a slightly better job of hiding it, but I could tell that there was a lot more than met the eye in this case.

"How are you all doing?" Mr. Morix questioned as he took a small step closer to them. He crouched down so he was closer to being at Anton's height before whispering his name. Anton was quick to pull away from Prosecutor Burke before practically throwing himself into Mr. Morix's arms, crying all the way. Mr. Morix didn't seem to mind, instead simply soothing Anton to the best of his ability, running a gentle hand along Anton's back. He whispered calming words into Anton's ear, but I could tell that it was still going to be a while before anybody involved truly felt calm after all that had happened."

"Terrible," Prosecutor Burke admitted with a sigh. "At the very least though, I can tell why Ghastly wanted me to be the one on that case... At first, I thought he was just being lazy again, but there's nothing that I can do about it now. The truth of the matter is that he was trying to keep the truth from getting out and influencing his daughter, though I can't say that I agree with the method he used to go about it. Putting us in danger wasn't the best way to fix the problem."

"I don't think he could have seen it coming that the Emsthorpes would be so ready for us to find out the truth," Judge Diaphan pointed out. "Nobody could have known that they were going to react that way. I had no idea that they would be prepared to do something so violent if we came close to figuring out what happened that day. I'm simply glad we were able to get out of that trial without anyone getting hurt."

"In other words, their priority was simply to get Ms. Balanite out of there, not to do any further harm... I suppose I'm glad about that much, but I don't know what to do about any of this now that we're out of it," Felicity admitted with a heavy sigh. "What are we supposed to think now? It seems like the world is crumbling down around us, and... I don't know. I have a lot to think about, but I really wish that I didn't. I just want to sleep until I feel better, but I know it's not going to be that simple."

"What's going on with you?" I asked Felicity before I could stop myself. "Ever since this case started, you've been acting strangely. If you ask me, it's like you know a lot more about this incident than you're willing to admit... But if that's the case, why not just tell us that you have extra knowledge in advance? You've been much more nervous than ever before, and... I'm getting worried. Just what about this case has you acting so out of character?"

Felicity thought about it for a long moment before she shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted softly. "I really wish I could tell you what was going on, but... I have no idea. Ever since I heard about the crime scene, something in my mind has just been... On high alert. I don't know why that would be. I knew next to nothing about the Council of Six before all of this. Why would I be so anxious at the idea of having to talk to them?"

I hesitated for a long moment, wishing that I had an easy way to respond to that. In the end though, all I could do was shake my head. "I wish I knew," I muttered under my breath. It seemed that even in its aftermath, this case insisted on being difficult. First, Ms. Balanite had escaped because of the Emsthorpes interfering. Then, I didn't know where I recognized the voice of the man who had caused all of this in the first place. Now, Felicity felt like there was more than met the eye to this case, a fact that none of us had any way of understanding.

"If anybody is going to know, then I'm sure it would be Sky," Felicity announced, a smile starting to appear on her face. Still, anyone could see just how much she was faking her enthusiasm for the sake of the others in the conversation. "I can try and talk to him when we get back to the agency. I'm sure everybody else is still going to want to hear about what happened in the trial today. It's not like this sort of thing happens everyday, you know."

I did my best to not mind how easily she was able to bounce back-or at least how easy she could make it appear that way-instead choosing to divert my attention back to the prosecution. "What are you all going to do now?" I asked even though I knew that was a question with no easy answer. How could it have a simple solution? We had all been threatened by an assassin less than half an hour prior, and it still felt like there was a lot about the case we had no way of understanding.

Prosecutor Burke thought about it for a long moment before shrugging. "I'm going to have to report all of that to Ghastly," she said simply. "I mean, it doesn't sound like much, but the least I can do is try to talk to him about what he thinks can be done now. I get why he gave me the case, but... I get the feeling he's going to want to hear about as much of this as possible now that we're out of the courtroom."

"You're right," Mr. Morix agreed. He had finally managed to stand up through his comfort of Anton, though everything about his expression was damn near impossible to read at this point. "I have no idea what we're supposed to be doing about all of this next, but we're going to figure it out sooner or later. The Emsthorpes seem to be intent on making their return, though I have no idea why they would choose now as the ideal moment... Though I suppose that doesn't matter much now."

Felicity hesitated before sighing. "When we get back to the agency, I think you should tell the story of what happened when the spy infiltrated your ranks again," she said. "I know that you've talked about it before, but if it's really going to be relevant to now, then that means that we should think about it with a fresh eye, right?"

Mr. Morix nodded. "Alright," he murmured, though I could tell that he didn't like the idea of having to return to the past in such a way. He looked down to Anton hesitantly, still doing what he could to help the crying boy in his arms. "Maybe we can do that tomorrow. For now, I think I want to go home with him and try to help him to feel better. I don't want him to push himself and make everything feel worse. I hope you understand."

"Of course we do," I assured him. "Do what you have to in order to look after your family, alright?" Mr. Morix nodded with a small smile on his face, though I could tell that he was still just as eager as the rest of us were to talk about everything that had happened. If the Emsthorpes truly were coming back into our lives, then that meant that we were going to have to discuss it sooner or later. We might as well take care of it at our earliest possible opportunity.

"We'll figure out what to do next when the time is right," Prosecutor Burke announced. "Until then, I expect all of you to stay out of trouble. We'll find out what happened today and then figure out what our next step is supposed to be... For now, try to avoid falling into their clutches. That's the best advice I could offer right now... Though I suppose that it still won't be enough."

I nodded at her words, but nobody dared to respond to them. How could we answer something like that? There was no way of saying what was going to happen, not anymore. The return of the Emsthorpe family meant that something big was on the horizon. I could feel it. Last time we found out everything about them, it was when our agency had been infiltrated by someone with the intentions of destroying everything we had come to create. This time... Well, I supposed that only time would be able to tell us what came of it.

If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that we had quite the battle ahead of us. The road was still lined with mysteries, and I hoped with everything we had that we came out of it on the other side intact. When it came to the Emsthorpes, one could never say for sure.

TURNABOUT REPETITION

END

Wild way to start a book huh

-Digital