Pandemonium: Chapter 30
Nothing belongs to me, but you already knew that.
A/N: Since Arsenal won today I'm giving you this earlier than I expected to. I apologize for any errors in grammar or what not.
It was a cool, crisp morning when Alec was rudely awoken by a sharp knock outside his solar's door. Dressing himself haphazardly, he quickly ran to open the door. Carstairs stood out the door looking tremendously tired and frazzled.
Confused and worried, Alec asked, "What?"
Breathlessly, Carstairs responded, "Magnus has been arrested for Jessamine's murder."
The tight cold iron binding Magnus' hands made him shudder. The cold air that seeped through the mortar and slick rocks quickly made his rather thin clothes useless. The barred window high above let in only an inkling of light.
The cell was designed. It was made for the occupant to experience a cold, dark desperation. The idea was that the occupant would suffer so much that he or she would confess just to get out.
The thought of him confessing made Magnus laugh. He would never confess. Ever. Even as they beat him... even as they threatened him with death...
They came behind Magnus and lifted him off his chair. The cuffed his back in irons and forced him downward on the table.
In a low, quivering voice, Tessa said, "I, Theresa Gray, with the power vested in me by Her Majesty Queen Charlotte, First of Her Name, Queen of Idris, do so hereby place you Magnus Bane, under arrest for the murder of the Lady Jessamine Lovelace. You are to face the Queen's Justice, and in accordance to her rules, you have the right to counsel. All statements made by you henceforth are permissible to the Court of Law by which the Queen's Justice shall be preserved. Should you be found guilty, I hope the Queen has mercy on your person."
Stormy gray met golden green, and a battle, the last battle, commenced.
Seething, Magnus stared right into Tessa's eyes and said, "Tell Alec what you've done."
Tessa raised her eyebrows in surprise. Before she could respond, she was rudely interrupted by one of the guards who gruffly forced Magnus further on the table as he said, "That's His Highness Prince Alexander to you murderous scum, and I doubt he would care to deal with the likes of you personally."
With that, Magnus was dragged out of the room and down a thin windy step of stairs.
Lower, and lower, and lower they went down in the palace. Lower than anything Magnus knew existed. Back in the old history textbooks, they talked about the old Hall of Accords, which was some castle or another designed years ago where the palace sat today. It was built deep in the ground to resist attacks. This must be where he was going. Deep down.
Finally, they reached the destination. A dull dark room with a serious heating and ventilation problem, because it smelled like rat feces. The most interesting feature was the high vaulted ceiling that reached up so high; a small barred window let in small weak light, barely illuminating the room. From somewhere within Magnus heard the screech of a bat.
"Wonderful... bats and rats; now only if they had given me a mat and a nice place to shat." Magnus laughed at his clever little rhymes.
In his opinion, none of it mattered anyway; as soon as Alec found out-and knowing Carstairs that would be very soon-he would get him out and this entire issue would be over...though Tessa would have to be dealt with.
Of course all of that was five hours ago. Maybe it was shorter? Maybe it was longer? Magnus couldn't tell. Time didn't exist in this place. Or at least it wasn't linear. It was more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...stuff.
Alec stormed away from the doorway and glowered at Carstairs, who was now guiding both of them to chairs. As soon as Alec sat down, he regained a substantial portion of his composure. In doing so, he stared at Carstairs and demanded, "Explain what you mean by that. EXPLAIN!"
Gently, Carstairs explained that Tessa was forced by the law to find a suspect for the crime, and that since Magnus was the only person who wasn't accounted for that entire night, and that Magnus was the only person who had a distinct motive to commit the crime, and that finally, there were witnesses who could attest to Magnus' lack of presence and his motive.
"It is all there, Your Highness," Carstairs said, "his obvious absence, his refusal to divulge his true location, and finally the motive. Miss Gray would have had no other option but to charge Magnus with the crime."
Livid, Alec shouted, "HOW? HOW DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!?"
Ignoring Alec's obvious suddenly irate and even childish demeanor, Carstairs responded, "I, along with everyone else, was entirely unaware that Magnus was even a suspect, let alone being questioned. Had I known, I would have interjected somehow, though I doubt the Crown Prince has the ability to interject into the Queen's Justice; even the Queen can barely do something of that nature."
Alec continued to be intransigent. Rather than see reason, he responded, "Like that matters. Something can and will be done. Someone's arm can be twisted. All of this can be made to go away! Isn't that what a Prince is supposed to be able to do?"
With a little frustration Carstairs responded, "Your Highness, we live in a nation that follows Rule of Law, not Rule by Law. You, along with everyone else, are beholden to the Laws. You cannot magically make a portal into the prison cell where Magnus is being held and break him out. Nor can you yell at a few people, threaten a few others, and pay a number of others just to have this vanish. Even if you could, it would set a horrible precedent for your reign."
Alec scowled. With all the petulance he could muster, he said, "Like it matters... We all know I'm going to be a horrid King anyway. I can barely do anything as it is. Especially with Magnus trapped in some hell hole."
Carstairs could not do anything, so he simply nodded.
After a few moments of sullen silence, a light brightened Alec's eyes. He had an idea.
"What if," Alec said, "I tell the truth. I was with Magnus that night. If I tell Tessa that I was there with him that night, then maybe she'll accept my word for the truth and this will all go away."
Unbeknownst to both Alec and Carstairs, Jace had walked in with prior knowledge of the situation.
"'It will all go away,'" he asked incredulously, "Are you crazy? You think this will just disappear? Do you think they'll let either of you survive that? The country isn't ready to handle a Prince-let alone a Crown Prince-who is in a relationship with a man. You would destroy yourself. They would probably have both of you killed because of their idiot, uneducated bigotry. No. You're not telling the truth, because it's not going to make anything better. What Magnus needs now is his own barrister."
Alec stared at Jace coldly.
"That," he said, "is my decision to make. Though since it involves Magnus, I think I will consult him before. Nonetheless, your opinion is of no value what so ever. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go complain to someone about the fact that my counselor is now locked up in some dark, decrepit cell."
Magnus was dazed and confused. The overwhelming stench gave him a sense of utter confusion, while the dim light from outside only told him that it was still day-but which day, Magnus was unsure, for after all he had dozed off for some...time. Magnus remained in this delirious, half-confused state for a certain period of time, that he again, could not be aware of. The only constant that kept him from truly vanishing into the dark was the cold. That omnipresent dearth of heat which reminded him of his very existence, and motivated him to live, just to be within a specific pair of warm arms.
It was during his thoughts about those arms that Magnus heard a key enter the lock to his cell. The old door creaked open and a weak firelight showed a a little silhouetto of a man. The man, apparently a guard, seemed very Scaramouche like. He gruffly unlocked Magnus from his chains and dragged him from the cell. Slowly, but surely they climbed upwards and upwards from the dark cell, through the long winding stairs, to another room-seemingly private-where he was summarily locked in.
In the room there was a table and two chairs. The window, though still barred, showed a significant amount of light indicating that it was late afternoon. In the chair opposite Magnus sat a man. He was stern looking, though he had a clean shaven face, brown hair that was streaked with gray, and icy blue eyes.
Magnus plopped himself on the chair.
The man gazed at Magnus in a pejorative manner.
Finally he spoke.
"My name is Victor Whitelaw, and I am your barrister."
As soon as Alec had run from the room, Carstairs got up and told Jace, "Go after him and stop him right now before he does something stupid. Find his sister and Lewis and have them sit next to him. He cannot be allowed to leave the room. I will take care of everything."
With that, Carstairs left the room himself and traveled the dark winding passages within the palace that only a larcena knew. His winding steps lead him to the City of Bones, where he found the very person he was looking for.
The man looked up from his papers on his desk and smiled. Then he spoke, in a cold steely voice, "Brother Zachariah, I did not expect a visit from you."
Carstairs said nothing.
"I assume," the man continued, "you have something you need from me?"
Carstairs spoke finally. "A very long time ago, you said you owed me a favor. Now I am asking for you to fulfill your promise."
"Very well," said the man, "what do you need me to do?"
"Victor," Carstairs said, "I need you to defend an innocent man from the Queen's Justice. But more importantly, I need you to not ask any questions. Do not try to pry the truth, because the truth is more damning than the crime this man has been accused of, though the truth is not inherently bad in itself."
"I shall do as you have asked Brother Zachariah; however, you should know: your demand will hamper me greatly."
"Victor, I trust in your capabilities completely. You were always good when it came to the truth."
"And so I will do my best to protect someone from lies, even though I do not know the truth."
Alec did not get very far before Jace captured him and dragged him very forcibly back to his chambers. Luckily, Alec was too tired to really make his way down.
He glowered at Jace as he sat in the room, but didn't try to move again. Something Carstairs said must have made an impact on Alec. At least now he was acting less rashly.
It was not too long before Izzy and Simon made there way to the chamber. Each huffing and puffing from the climb up the long winding staircase. Simon was the first to speak.
"M-m-m-m-magnus," he stuttered.
"What about Magnus," Alec quickly interrupted, "is it the fact that he's trapped in a jail cell? Or is it the fact that he's been charged with a murder he so obviously did not commit?"
"Alec," Izzy interjected, "We get it; we understand that you're really angry right now, but there's nothing you can do about it. In fact, it will only make things worse if you try to defend him too zealously. People might start to suspect something, and that would be far worse for Magnus than anything that could possible come out of this trial."
"Worse!?" Alec said, enraged, "What could possibly be worse than being trapped in a dark cell somewhere beneath everyone just waiting to find out about whether or not you're going to be found guilty for a murder you did not commit. I need to see him. I need to talk to him."
"And you will," Jace intoned, "just as soon as Carstairs gives you the okay that it wont cause any issues. That means waiting to see what his barrister says about it. I think that's where Carstairs is now: finding Magnus a barrister."
Alec could not handle all the waiting around. Knowing that he was being babysat, Alec got up, moped around for a few minutes, and then ran into his room shutting the door.
"Well Mr. Bane, I think it's best you take a seat so we can begin discussing your defense." Whitelaw said as he motioned to the empty chair.
After Magnus had taken a seat, Whitelaw began to harangue Magnus pedantically in a number of legal terms about the nature of the crime and the supposed evidence against him. Eventually he noticed that Magnus was no longer paying attention to a single word that he was saying, but rather was staring intently at the barred window and the sunlight that was filtering through.
Whitelaw threw one of his books off the table.
Magnus snapped his head back to the table and said, "What?"
With a disgusted tone, Whitelaw said, "It would behoove you to listen whilst I speak. Let me make something clear to you. I normally do not go to trials. I do not defend people any more. This entire endeavor of mine is solely because I have a debt to repay. I owe my creditor much, don't make me pay him off with a terrible product. Speaking of him, he told me not to ask you any questions. He said that the truth coming out was far more dangerous than this murder. He doesn't say these things lightly. So I expect you to come up with your alibi and stick with it for the duration of this trial."
"Who do you owe a favor to?" Magnus asked.
"That's none of your business. Now that alibi."
"As I said to Prosecutor Gray; I was extremely intoxicated, so I went straight home, where I spent the remainder of the time hurling my guts out."
"Very well then. We can work with that."
"I have one request. I would like to speak to Prince Alexander."
"I will do my best to arrange that, but do not expect him to acquiesce to your request."
"You know Whitelaw, you're cold and stiff, but you're not that bad."
"Mr. Bane, do not start complimenting me now. This battle is uphill. Ms. Gray knows what she's doing, and some of her character witnesses are very powerful."
"Like who?"
"Camille Belcourt."
Eventually Alec left his room because he was hungry. In that moment, Carstairs spoke, "I have arranged for Victor Whitelaw, former Inquisitor and extremely well qualified barrister, to defend Magnus."
"W-w-w-w-whitelaw!?" Simon sputtered. "He's impossible to get to do anything. He's brilliant, but impossible!"
"I have my ways," Carstairs said with a wry smile.
"Your Highness," he continued, "you will be required to react to the news of the arrest; he is your councilor after all."
Stubbornly Alec said, "I will do nothing of the sort till I see Magnus."
"Then that will be arranged."