Sylphiel felt dazed as she walked through the house and prepared to leave to run her errands, the strange nightmares she'd had during the night clinging to her persistently. The fact that they seemed less like dreams and more like memories of a different life made them difficult to shake. Worse, there was no one that Sylphiel could talk to about them. Her parents were already worried enough about her. And considering that Sylphiel had crafted the narrative that Lina was a witch to save face about losing her husband, she couldn't very well confide these dreams to anyone. They would say she was under Lina's spell, or worse, a witch herself!
She took a deep breath and put on her kerchief. Running errands and interacting with people was low on her list of things she wanted to do. She didn't want to talk to people about Gourry or Lina. She still wanted to hide from the world until the time that some other bit of gossip displaced her fractured love life. She longed for the day when this would be old news and people would find something else to talk about. But till then, there was work to be done. And little would be accomplished by sitting at home and being miserable.
Sylphiel stepped out of the house and onto the sidewalk and forced herself to look the first person she ran into on the street in the eye. She wondered if it was just her imagination when that gave her a disapproving look. Sylphiel told herself that she was imagining things and continued to walk on. But then two middle aged women who were deep in conversation stopped when they saw her and one definitely gave her a disapproving glare. Sylphiel felt her stomach clench. Something deep inside told her that Luna had somehow exacted her revenge.
"Good morning Sylphiel."
Sylphiel nearly jumped a mile. She hadn't even noticed Alfred come up behind her! "Good morning, Alfred." She said evenly.
"You know." He said, "Give it a few months and it will all boil down. I'm sure it wouldn't raise too many eyebrows if you married me."
"What are you talking about?" Sylphiel asked as she widened the distance between them, feeling more than a little creeped out.
Alfred grinned, "That night in the stables."
Sylphiel turned red.
"I always suspected he knew about us." Alfred said as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"What 'us?'" Sylphiel snapped, causing several people to turn their heads and look at them, "I told you then that there was no 'us!'"
Alfred grinned and reached out a hand to caress her cheek. She took a step back, "You led me on. You were so nice to me."
"Yes, I'm very polite. That doesn't mean..."
"But especially to me." Alfred said. "You could never completely give your heart to Gourry because you were in love with me. It's why he left."
"That's not true!" Sylphiel said.
"I liked you a lot more when you were kissing me."
"What? I never…" Sylphiel said as she looked around to see that everyone was watching them.
"There's no use denying it."
"I'm not going to listen to this any longer." Sylphiel said as she randomly walked into the first shop she came to and shut the door behind him.
But the shopkeeper was looking at her disapprovingly from behind the counter. "We don't do business with adulteresses."
Sylphiel felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. "I'm not…"
The shopkeeper glared at her, "I always thought you were too squeaky clean. Just goes to show, the people who put the best face forward are truly rotten to the core."
Sylphiel felt panicky and briefly debated which was worse, staying there and being accused of adultery by the shopkeeper or going back outside and seeing Alfred again. She decided to risk going outside, and she cringed as she stepped out and saw a blockade of disapproving townspeople staring at her in disgust. "The priest's daughter no less!" One of them said.
Sylphiel struggled to keep from breaking down as she ran to her parents' house, enduring accusations of adultery the whole time. She felt as though she had stepped into a nightmare. Why did everyone believe Alfred? He'd never exactly endeared himself to the townspeople. But here they were, gobbling up his story as they shouted accusations at her.
She reached her parents' house and opened the door and saw her parents standing in the kitchen, looking disapproving. Sylphiel's stomach sank as she closed the door. "Please tell me you don't believe..."
"Haven't we always warned you that your behavior must be beyond reproach?" Eruk asked.
Sylphiel felt something snap within her, "I never encouraged him! He came on to me, yes, but I told him it would never happen!"
"But where did he get the idea from that he even had a shot with you?" Eruk asked harshly.
Sylphiel met his gaze. "Where does he get the idea from that he has a shot with anyone?"
"I have told you over and over again." Eruk said as he slammed his hand into his fist, "But you never listened. Always as a girl running through the creek when you should have been sewing and weaving. He must have sensed your wild spirit! He's telling everyone that you kissed him!"
"I never…" Sylphiel started.
"But how can we believe that?" her mother asked sharply, "When you never told your husband so he could defend your honor? Surely if it had been harmless, and you had been innocent, you would have said something!"
Sylphiel looked down, "I could barely talk to Gourry about breakfast. How could I have told him another man came on to me?"
"No wonder he left you for a nutcase." Eruk said, "He must have sensed your wildness. He must have known you would be unfaithful."
"I was a good wife!" Sylphiel flared.
"Yes, keep telling yourself that." Her mother said, "It's everyone's fault but yours."
Sylphiel's world felt surreal as she wondered how she had so quickly fallen from sympathetic jilted wife to fallen woman. She clutched at the wall for support. How could her own parents not stand by her in this? Pain seared her mind and drove out any rational thought from it as her parents continued to lecture her sternly.
Then someone knocked on the door. Sylphiel's heart was thudding in her chest as she stared at it, fearing who it could be. Her mother walked past her to open it, and Sylphiel's stomach seemed to dissolve as she saw Luna standing there, looking triumphant. "I have a warrant for her arrest." Luna said, "For adultery."
"It was you who set this up!" Sylphiel screeched as her hands balled into fists. "You concocted this whole thing to avoided facing the reality that your sister is a witch!"
"Still spewing that nonsense?" Luna asked, "You're sounding more and more desperate. Which is more believable? That my idiot sister is a witch, or that the poor girl was crazy and you drove your husband away because you were in love with another man?"
Sylphiel heard her parents gasp as she stared at Luna with pure hatred. The realization that she had three choices sunk in fast. She could charge at Luna and end up with an assault charge on top of the charge of adultery. She could let them arrest her. Or she could try to flee out the back door. And go where?
Sylphiel's hands balled into fists. Running seemed like her best option. She sprinted to the back door and wrenched it open, only to cry in despair as she saw a crowd gathered outside waiting for her. As Luna came up behind her with the shackles she said triumphantly, "Only the guilty run."
Zel looked up when he heard the door open, hoping against hope that it was Amelia. Instead his stomach sank as he saw Sylphiel led into the jail in chains. Considering how he had heard nothing but praise for Gourry's sainted wife, he instantly wondered what trap Luna had sprung for her in retaliation for helping him.
Sylphiel was put in the cell beside his. He could no longer see her. Luna walked by his cell and said, "The trial is tomorrow. I expect you'll hang shortly thereafter."
"You'll kill an innocent man because your sister ran off with the blacksmith?" Zel asked. "I'm not the one who should hang!"
"Amelia hates you now." Luna said, "Killing her father was the wrong way to her heart."
Zel felt his temper flare, "Let me see her and hear it from her own mouth!"
"It's not me who is preventing her." Luna said, "She refuses to see you. When she found you'd murdered her father it woke her to your true nature. Who else do you think sent the guards after you?"
"The person who actually killed Phil." Zel said.
"And how would you know who'd done it, if it wasn't you?" Luna asked. "Unless it was Amelia, and she's trying to pin this on you."
"Amelia loved her father, she would never…"
"For someone who claims that Phil was alive when you left, you sure seem to know a lot about who killed him."
"Remember," Sylphiel said hurriedly from the other side of the wall, "Anything you say can be used against you."
"Shut up!" Luna snapped as she turned to look at her, "Or were you involved in Phil's murder?"
"No." Sylphiel said firmly.
"Perhaps I should interrogate you about the matter." Luna said.
Sylphiel was quiet. Zel decided it would be best to join her in the silence. Luna looked at him distastefully, "Tomorrow you'll hang."
She finally left. Zel buried his face in his hands as he tried to fight against the despair he was feeling. He desperately wanted to believe that Amelia hadn't abandoned him. But what if she had? What if she really believed he had killed Phil?
"Have you seen Amelia?" Zel asked quietly.
"No, I've been sleeping a lot. I didn't even know Mr. Seyruun had been murdered."
"How did it come to this?" Zel asked, "God, Sylphiel, I'm sorry. If you hadn't have helped me, you never would have been targeted."
"You can't just stand by when you see someone being mistreated." She responded quietly, "I just didn't think she was so powerful. I still don't understand why everyone, why my parents even, would believe Alfred over me!"
Zel was quiet for a moment, then he whispered, "Perhaps Luna is the real witch."
He could hear Sylphiel as she cried softly. He searched for something comforting to say, but came up empty. The situation was dire, and nothing he could say would change that. He leaned his head back against the wall, and tried to keep the despair from completely overwhelming him.
Amelia stopped at the entrance to the courtroom. The only people there was Luna, the judge, and the five men of the jury. Her hands started to shake as she walked into the courtroom. "Where's Zel?" she asked.
"Shh." Luna said as she put a hand on her arm. Amelia wretched it away, "We thought being in the same room with him would be too traumatizing."
"What?" Amelia asked as what Luna said slowly filtered through the fog in her mind.
"Here's the stand." Luna said as she pointed.
Feeling rather disoriented, Amelia sat on the chair. She took a deep breath and tried not to feel sick. Ever since she'd found her father dead she had been sleeping. The grief was just too overwhelming for her to do anything more. And now, as she sat in the witness stand, she felt so groggy and discombobulated that she wasn't quite sure which way was up.
"State your name for the record." Luna said.
"Amelia Seyruun." She said. Or was that right? The feeling that her name was a lot longer rose from somewhere.
"And how do you know Zelgadis Greywards?"
"He's a friend." Amelia replied.
"And were you there the day that Zelgadis Greywards killed your father?" Luna asked.
"Yes," Amelia said, and then she realized the implications of what she'd said, "I was there I mean. But Zel didn't kill my father."
"Then who did?" Luna asked.
"I don't know." Amelia said. "I was asleep when it happened."
"So Mr. Greywards killed your father while you slept and you didn't witness it." Luna said.
"No!" Amelia said, "Zel had already left."
"Who else was at the house that day?"
Amelia's mind was fuzzy, "I don't know. I don't really remember."
"Hm. Let's see if I can jog it for you." Luna said as she pulled out Amelia's diary.
"What are you doing with that?" Amelia screeched.
"Then you recognize this." Luna said.
"It's my diary!" Amelia said, and then she stopped, and with a sinking feeling realized she had fallen into a trap.
"Let the jury note that the witness has identified this as her diary."
"Can I look at it?" Amelia asked.
"I'll read it for you." Luna said as she cleared her throat, "Zel was mad today when I refused to flee with him. He knows I'll never leave my Daddy. I've never seen someone so mad before! I was scared he would hit me!"
"I never wrote that!" Amelia protested.
"But this is your diary." Luna said. "And, you did say earlier that your memory is very bad."
Amelia felt sick as the room started to spin as Luna continued, "How can you say for sure whether you wrote this or not when you can't even say for sure how many people were at your father's house the day he died?"
"That's not fair…" Amelia said.
"Your memory is not reliable. So we have to use your diary. And here, you wrote, 'Zel threatened to kill Daddy today. It won't work. I won't go with him, no matter what he does.'"
"Lies!" Amelia said.
"Now darling, you're in shock and confused. But your diary is really clear about what happened." Luna said.
Amelia felt tears of rage boil out of her as Luna said, "No further questions. You're dismissed."
"I want to stay for the verdict!" Amelia said.
"Someone, take her home. She's too distressed to stay." Luna said.
Zel felt resigned to the inevitable as he was taken to the courthouse. Sylphiel had bought him some time and nothing more. Now Sylphiel was paying the consequences for her heroism, and he knew full well there would be nothing to stop Luna this time. He was certain they would find him guilty and that they would kill him for a crime he did not commit. Of course, one just had to look at him to deduce that he was a horrible person.
His feet felt like heavy bricks of clay, but somehow he pushed forward. He wondered if he would see Amelia again. He looked around as they entered the courtroom, but it was only Luna, the judge, and the jury.
The guards stopped walking just before the judge, who looked at him disapprovingly. "State your name."
"Zelgadis Greywards." He said.
"We are here to inform you that we have found you guilty of the murder of Philionel Seyruun."
Zel felt a rush of indignation run through him. "But what evidence do you have against me?"
"This diary." The judge said.
"What?" Zel said as it was handed to him. He opened it and saw Amelia's handwriting. "This is a fake…it has to be."
"She identified the diary as hers." The judge said, "And it's her handwriting."
Zel felt a strange sense of anxiety grip him. Was it true? Or was it a trick? Was he a fool to think that someone as beautiful as Amelia really could love someone like him? To think that if anything bad happened she wouldn't blame him? Was that why she hadn't seen him?
If she really thought him innocent, wouldn't she have done everything in her power to support him? That she wasn't there was damning.
It took Zel a moment to realize that the judge was speaking, "You shall be sentenced to death by hanging."
Amelia felt as though she was in a haze as she walked through the town with Christopher. All around people were talking. At first she tuned it out, figuring it was probably slander about Zel. Then she heard Sylphiel's name. She roused a bit, wondering why they would be talking about her.
"Well it's no wonder the blacksmith ran off then!"
"And here she was telling us some long tale about that lunatic being a witch!"
"When she was sleeping with Alfred the whole time!"
Alfred? Amelia felt her stomach twist as she thought of her manipulative cousin who was also quite the compulsive liar. She could easily see Luna talking to him and asking him to slander Sylphiel.
"She's in jail now, and all the better for it!"
"She should be stoned."
"Or burned."
Amelia shuddered, and wondered how things had turned so ugly. But what could she do about it?
"Mayor!" someone called, and Amelia recognized one of the pages as he caught up to them, "Your wife asked me to inform you that Mr. Greywards has been convicted and will hang first thing in the morning."
Amelia felt the bottom of her stomach drop. Zel was sentenced to death?
"Thank you. What a relief!" Christopher said as he continued to steer Amelia home.
Christopher started rambling about the swiftness of justice in this case, but Amelia wasn't listening. All she could think about was how she no longer had anyone left. Her sister had run off. So had Lina. Her father had died, and Zel was scheduled to die.
So she had nothing to lose.
Something steely resolved within her as her hands bunched into fists. This town had nothing left for her. It was time to stop being depressed and do something.