Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

If it would please the court, I would like to offer a Deal: I will accept the onus the empire has placed on me, thereby bringing this trial to a swift end, and in return the judge will answer a question of mine. I have many people I feel deeply responsible for and would die easier knowing their fate.”

There, none of it is a lie.

“You would barter for my time?” Judge Elkor said, leaning over his dais, looking down at Jeb with a sneer.

Jeb stayed silent. He didn’t know if his turn to speak had been revoked, so he just kept his mouth shut.

Here it is. If he agrees to the Deal, I’ve already got him by the balls.

Jeb had specifically asked for the judge to answer a question. He might have alluded to inquiring about the fate of some of his friends, but that was a red herring in his speech. A true sentence, but unrelated.

Jeb’s end of the bargain, accepting the onus the empire had placed on him, was basically just doing what he was already intending to do. Vresh Takalis represented the empire at a higher level than the judge here did, so the job she’d given him came first, before whatever bogus decision this kangaroo court came to.

Translation: “I’ll continue to look for the reaper, and in exchange, you answer one question.”

There’s a good fairy Deal, Jeb thought, hiding his white knuckles under the table. This was what he’d kept his prey calm and confident for this entire time.

The slaughter.

“Hah!” The judge chuckled, leaning back in his seat. “Very well. I accept.” He glanced to the secretary. “Let the record show that Mr. Trapper has admitted to his crimes.”

Click.

“And for my part of the Deal,” Jeb said, his trembling fingers fishing into his front pocket.

“I will send a messenger to your cell after the trial is over.”

“Actually, I’d like to get my answer right now,” Jeb said, dropping the Enforcer’s Mark on the table in front of him.

“My onus is to find and kill the reapers operating out of Solmnath, a task which was given to me by Imperial Enforcer Vresh Tekalis.”

The copper plate clattered to a halt in front of Jeb to the sound of utter silence from all but the humans, who whispered to their melas and keegan neighbors. The whispering spread outward, surrounding Jeb with murmurs as he tried to get his fingers to grab the earring in his pocket without hurting the nail bed.

“What is this?” Judge Elkor demanded, scowling at the plate that signified Jeb was acting on behalf of an enforcer.

“A trap, I suppose,” Jeb said, battered fingers retrieving the Truthseeker and clipping it to his ear. There was a brief prick of pain as the gold pin slid through Jeb’s ear, but he ignored it.

“My question is this,” Jeb said, pointing to his ear. “Have you, Judge Elkor, aided or abetted the trafficking or reaping of human children?”

The judge leaned back and took a breath.

There were a few possible ways Jeb saw this going:

1.                   The other guy does a full court press to discredit Jeb (the most likely).

2.                   He clams up and says nothing in order to minimize damage.

3.                   He straight up bolts.

4.                   He tries to kill Jeb.

“This man is a thief or a liar!” Elkor shouted, rising to his full seven-foot height and pointing at Jeb with the tasseled mega-chopsticks. “No human would be trusted with an Enforcer’s Mark! Confiscate it from him immediately!”

Option one, then.

The bailiff made a reachy-reach for Jeb’s copper plate, and Jeb aimed his newest invention at him from under the table. Favoring nonlethal takedowns when dealing with people, Jeb had weaponized the hopelessness lens.

The hopelessness lens looked like legal documents, past-due letters, and bright red eviction notices all crumpled into a tight wad, impossible to tease out exactly who or what they were for. It gave off incredibly soft whimpers that were only audible to those with Myst.

Fueled by Jeb’s Myst, the stubby wand shot out a red-streaked beige beam that emerged from the table and caught the bailiff full in the chest.

The melas curled into a ball next to the table and started crying.

“The question. Have you, Judge Elkor, aided or abetted the trafficking or—”

“Hidden weapons!” Elkor shouted over Jeb. “He’s an assassin sent to kill me!”

Jeb felt his ear twitch.

The judge pointed the tassel-things at Jeb again, but this time they were crackling with sea-green power. A lot more than last time.

I do believe that’s more than enough to kill me. So a combination of option one and four? Jeb thought, desperately spinning up his Myst to attempt to weather the effect of Elkor’s enervation.

The beam of sea-green Myst travelled across the room and impacted against a similar beam of neon purple directly in front of Jeb. The two rays of magic scattered into a brilliant display of Myst fireworks only visible to three of the hundreds of spectators. In the stands, Ron blew imaginary smoke off the tip of his finger like an idiot.

The kid was the only other person from the Impossible Tutorial who full-stop dedicated himself to Myst, and that meant his magic was Stronk.

Judge Elkor stared at Jeb’s companion slack-jawed. A random human’s Myst had just wiped the floor with his own presumably third-generation Myst Core. The judge’s eyes were bugging out.

Seems like a good opportunity to pose my question again.

“The question, Mr. Elkor, is have you aided or abetted the—”

“Outrageous lies and slander!” the judge shouted over Jeb again, making his ear twitch as he lied. As a tactic, talking over people was actually a pretty good way of preventing them from being heard…if crude and juvenile. Effective, though. “I’ll have none of it in my courtroom! This session is adjourned until we have