Chapter 7: The Wheel of Fortune Turns

3 days of pleading on Miaka's behalf failed. There was no way that Yui could convince Keisuke to spare her without revealing her own guilt. The morning of Miaka's execution dawned. She had almost finished the final blanket and was determined to work on it to the last.

She was loaded into a cart and paraded through the streets to the square in the center of the city. People jeered and threw mud and rotten fruit and vegetables at her, threatening to take the cursed blankets from the witch and tear them to pieces. Resolute to her vow of silence, Miaka did not respond, but kept working on her last blanket. Just as they reached the stake that had been constructed, she had finished the blanket.

As the executioner reached for Miaka's wrist to drag her out of the cart, a great cry went up from the crowd and all stood still. Seven scarlet and gold phoenixes soared overheard before swooping down and circling about Miaka, as if trying to shield her. "It's a sign from Suzaku! The Princess must be innocent!" some in the crowd began exclaiming, bowing low in reverence. Yui, watching from where she sat on a small platform by the emperor, was near dizzy with relief; this may just convince Keisuke to spare Miaka where all else had failed.

Seizing the opportunity, Miaka wrenched her hands away from the executioner, grabbed her blankets, and threw them over the birds. They began to glow with a strange red light, the same as the light that had emanated from Miaka when Yui had tried to curse her years earlier.

The birds and the blankets vanished as the light became blinding. When the light was gone, in their place stood Miaka's seven loyal guards, restored to human form. Miaka stepped forward and addressed the crowd. "Now at last I may speak! I declare before you all that I am innocent!" she cried, and began explaining everything in response to the questions of the eager citizens. It was with much reluctance and a look of deepest pain and regret that she revealed who had been the one to curse the guards in the first place.

Barely able to contain his anger, Keisuke pulled away from Yui, who had turned to him in desperation as Miaka began her tale, and ordered his guards to seize her and take her to the dungeons to await trial. Head hung low and eyes gleaming with tears, Yui submitted without a struggle, but Nakago and Tomo had to restrain Amiboshi and Suboshi and keep them from going to her.

Later that night, Miaka, accompanied by the twins and her own guards, went to see Yui in her cell. Chichiri and Tamahome had to keep Nuriko and Hotohori form going in and trying to harm her. Miaka's guards had learned what had befallen the friends and family they'd been separated from, and for the most part none of it had been good news.

"How could you… you… you wicked, ugly, evil witch! Do you have any idea what you did to us all? You took us away from all our loved ones, everyone thought that we were dead, the emperor's grief made him neglect Konan to the point it's gone to ruin, and we lost years of our lives thanks to you!" Nuriko raged. Yui hung her head, staring at the floor. But Nuriko would not be moved; he would give that wretched excuse of a princess a piece of his mind if it was the last thing he ever did.

"My sister, Tamahome's family, Mitsukake's fiancée, Miaka's mother… they all died while we were under your curse! We never got to be at their funerals, to mourn them properly, or even say goodbye! Chichiri's fiancée gave him up for dead and married his best friend! Hotohori's son has grown up without him; his wife nearly wasted away and died of grief, and it's only pure luck she lived to see him return!" he continued, listing all that had happened to their loved ones in their absence.

"Nuriko, that's enough!" Miaka shouted, getting everyone's attention. "You know what Taiitsukun said about why Yui did what she did, and how she's regretted her actions ever since; I'd say the guilt she's suffered all these years is punishment enough. And lest any of you forget, Yui was the one who made sure that I had my weaving supplies in the jail; I'd never have been able to finish the blankets and undo the curse if it weren't for her."

"But Princess… if it weren't for her, there wouldn't have been a curse to undo in the first place!" Hotohori snapped.

Yui sighed. "I know… I know there's no way that I can ever make amends for what I did to you all, but I swear… I will never stop trying to," she declared, dropping to her knees before Miaka and her guards, prostrating herself in humility and submission. They all seemed to relent at this show of humility and repentance. It was so unlike the proud, cold princess they had seen her as all these years that they were completely taken aback.

"But what happens now?" Chiriko asked, turning everyone's thoughts towards Yui's trial.

Miaka sighed. "I don't know," she said finally. "Yui… Amiboshi… Suboshi… I don't want to get your hopes up, but I promise I'll talk to my brother, try to make him understand. There has to be some room for leniency once he knows the truth about everything, but I can't make any promises," she told them. The twins nodded; Yui's response was a choked sob of gratitude.

Early the next morning, the trial began. Miaka and her guards had to give testimony about Yui's curse and what had happened to them all. Even Soi and Tomo testified. At Nakago's behest, they painted Yui as not only the one responsible for the curse on the guards, but also made it seem as if she was behind the plot to frame Miaka as a witch. Soi even told about the time Yui had tried to curse Miaka with the toads the day she became High Priestess.

In spite of Yui's impassioned pleas for mercy, and those of Miaka on her behalf, all the evidence was enough to convict her. A verdict of guilty was returned. Given Yui's status as a princess, and still being officially betrothed to the emperor, Keisuke and his council would decide her fate.

Miaka, by virtue of being High Priestess, sat on the emperor's council and would have a say in deciding the sentence. Resolute in her determination and fully understanding Yui's motivations, she was intent on pushing for as lenient a sentence as possible.

*End Chapter*