LMS VII: I am going to finish Loosely Lawful dangnabit

1012 words

-----

Obviously, though, Sera’s brain was ready to think about them now. Despite the jostling of the crowd and the tight grip Avon had on her arm, her mind raced. She could amend the NDA she’d cast on the translation team and ask them to send in written statements. If they could go to a notary, then all the better. And really, if the North Wilds Company decided they wanted to duke this out in the court of public opinion as well as in real court, then giving the linguists permission to go around publishing might be an effective countermeasure in certain circles.

They turned off of Adventurer’s Lane, down one of the many side streets that would take them towards the temple. And as the noise of the crowd grew duller and duller, she stared at Benvolius’s back, barely taking notice of the way his dark green vest wrinkled at his waist while he walked. He kept beaming up at Kyle, oohing and ahhing at all the right moments as Kyle recounted their siren job.

Avon twisted around and rolled their eyes. “Cerene and Savidge, you’re ridiculous. Fine, walk and talk with me! Whatever.”

Sera blinked up at them and wrinkled her nose, doubtful.

“Don’t give me that look.”

“Well,” she said, as Avon tugged her past a rickety balcony hung heavy with someone’s laundry, “I was just thinking how to argue for a physical search as part of discovery.”

Avon wasn’t looking at her, but she could see the arch of their eyebrows and consternated expression anyway. “Er. Are there requirements you have to meet? Standards, or whatever you lawyers call them?”

“Only reasonable suspicion that a party is likely to hide evidence that should be turned over in discovery,” Sera replied.

“You don’t think an NDA would physically prevent members of the Wilde family from turning over that kind of thing, do you? We could test it, even. On Ben.”

“What, like have him write something down away from the group and then try to bring it to us?”

Avon shrugged, which probably meant she’d guessed right. It wasn’t a bad idea.

“You might even be able to demonstrate that in court,” Sera muttered. She hoped Hauli and Wilbert had submitted paperwork to get a neutral third-party with magic sight into the courtroom. Kaliko might deride other wizards, but the court had mages on retainer who could fulfill such a request. Sera just wasn’t familiar with them, since it hadn’t been her focus.

Avon continued pulling her along in silence, and they eventually emerged onto the wide, open thoroughfare where the temple sat just a few more blocks away. Here, Kyle’s bellowing laugh floated away into the night instead of echoing off the tight alley walls. Sera felt suddenly exposed.

Kyle, Kali, and Benvolius were a good distance away, just far enough that she might have trouble throwing up a shield spell were something to happen. Not that anything would. Few people were idiotic enough to jump pedestrians so close to Librata’s domain.

She almost didn’t hear when Avon spoke again. “Obviously a lot’s going on, but I’ve been wondering…”

Sera snapped her gaze to Avon’s fiery red hair, tied back into a loose braid with a once-yellow ribbon. They didn’t turn to face her as they spoke.

“When are you going to be ready?” they asked. “It doesn’t have to be today, you know. But I’d like a timeline so I’m not just waiting forever.”

A part of Sera wanted to ask, “ready for what?” but she knew what Avon was asking about, and it wouldn’t do her any favors to be so facetiously ignorant. She instead said, haltingly, “I could– maybe. Say part of it?”

At this, Avon did turn back toward her, their face slack with surprise. “What, like tonight?”

They were a block from the temple now, and Sera looked helplessly at its firm, strong lines. The white columns glowed perfect white in the moonlight, straight and unyielding. Librata was silent in Sera’s chest, as if the goddess were holding her breath, waiting until Sera acted to pass divine judgement.

“Sure,” Sera said. Gods. Her voice was shaking. That was embarrassing. “We can… sit under the colonnade.”

Avon scoffed. “You and Kali and your big, fancy words. I clearly have a type when it comes to roommates.”

“She’s probably a better roommate than I was.”

The two of them turned up the steps. The other three were already at the top, and Kyle shot a questioning glance over his shoulder as Kaliko moved to lead them all inside. Sera waved him on.

“She’s a hell of a lot messier than you,” Avon laughed. “And a worse a cook! Let’s just say there are pros and cons.”

This was easy. Bantering was easy. Why couldn’t they just be like this all the time without Sera having to do the difficult, scary thing? “If Kali’s a poor cook, does that mean she gets to eat your meat pies more than I did?”

Avon smirked.

“Ugh!” As if there weren’t enough things to be jealous of Kaliko for! “I dream about those, you know.” Mostly when she was feeling a lot of self-pity, but now that she’d said it, Sera really did miss Avon’s cooking. Wherever they’d come from, they cooked with an entirely different flavor profile than the one she’d grown up with in the Kavarn mountains: sharply earthy and medicinal from all the cold-resistant plants and mushrooms.

And thinking of home, of course, brought her right back to the thing that had made her leave Avon in the first place.

Her heart, somehow, both froze and kicked into overdrive. Her legs felt leaden, and her steps slowed as she trailed Avon up the stairs. They still made it to the top, though, and Avon wandered into a dark corner of the colonnade before dropping down to sit.

They patted the stone floor next to them. Sera wanted to crawl out of her skin. Like an insect stuck in sap, she slowly, jerkily lowered herself to the ground.

----

Haha I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere again instead of being stuck in the court-preparation loop. AT LAST.

1076 words!

Maybe if I put [LMS] in front of the chapter titles for anything written during LMS, I'll feel less bad about how unpolished the pacing is haha.

-----

Then she stared for a long time at the brick building across the street. It was a stately thing, with pretty coursework and arched window lintels and perfect symmetry. Avon drummed their fingers on the ground next to her. Despite their not saying anything, she could hear the “Any day now” that probably threatened to spill from their mouth.

Why was this so hard?

Obviously, Sera knew why. Most people didn’t irrevocably hurt their best friend and then expect it to be easy to do the whole explain-apologize-make-up thing. What if Avon thought she was making excuses? She sort of was, a little. Two years too late.

Avon’s finger-drumming grew faster and louder. She sighed.

“I. Um.” She fidgeted. “I had a full scholarship. For law school.”

“Oh?” Avon said. Their tone was unreadable. Probably, if Sera was brave enough to look, their face was unreadable too. “How full, exactly?”

She gulped. “Full enough that all my adventuring money went to my parents.” And sister, she didn’t say.

Gaville was never truly quiet, but Librata’s temple stood in a neighborhood that went to bed promptly at eight, and was far enough removed from the trains and trolleys that it muffled the sounds of the city. With nothing to focus on, the silence that stretched between Sera and Avon felt like forever.

Then, carefully, Avon spoke. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of deal a university gives just for being a good student.”

“No,” Sera said, with a laugh that she thought would come out dry, but came out horribly, embarrassingly wet.

“So…”

“I attended school on the Kavarn family scholarship.” There. She’d said one small part. How much would Avon nitpick over it? Maybe, if they got mad, this would all end, and she could storm off back to her room and bury herself under her blankets and never come out.

Avon thought for a moment. “The same Kavarns that own and mine an entire mountain range?” They finally turned to look at her, then. “Didn’t you specialize in environmental law?”

Sera just pulled a face, and Avon pinched the bridge of their nose with a sigh.

“Don’t tell me you ditched me because you thought I’d… what? Be mad you were getting money from one of the founding families? That you were selling your soul to keep yourself out of mining work? We’ve all been there, you dolt.”

“No! No. I”- That hadn’t really been a concern, at the time. Mostly, Sera had just needed a way out, and she’d grabbed the only lifeline that she could think of. Obviously, she’d started this whole thing in the wrong spot. Scrubbing her hands over her face, she shot Avon a miserable look. “Can I start over?”

They just made a ‘go ahead’ gesture.

“The Kavarn family opened a new refinery in my hometown when I was… seven? Eight? I’d have to look up the official start of operations. It was under construction as long as I could remember until then.” Sera could see it in her mind’s eye, even, imagine the towering smokestacks and enormous chutes as they hemorrhaged out sludge. She’d grown up under the swinging arm of the cranes that pieced steel together far overhead. She had skirted the haphazard barriers they put up after a beam fell once, when she was six.

She gulped. She could say the thing. She was going to say the thing. “I don’t know that she was the first, necessarily? But my sister came along less than a year after operations started.”

“You have a sister?” Avon interrupted.

“Um. Well.” Sera made a constipated face, which Avon returned.

“Nevermind, go on.”

“Right, so. No one thought anything was wrong, you know, when she was born? But it was obvious by the time she turned one that something wasn’t quite right.” Sera twiddled her fingers together and stared down at them. “She was sick a lot. I thought if I could get a job like a lawyer or a doctor, then I’d make enough money that I could get her treated.”

“Sick a lot” was an understatement. Adina was never hungry and couldn’t stomach much food. She tired easily. She’d had trouble learning to walk and talk, and for the brief period she was in school, she’d had trouble with that, too. She couldn’t hear very well. She’d always been small, too, never even close to reaching the same marks as Sera on the doorframe where they measured.

And then the seizures started.

The memory came before Sera could even try to shut it down. Her baby sister had been on the upswing, able to come with her to the meadow near their house. The weather was warm, the air heavy with the smell of wildflowers. Sera picked her gloves off, one finger at a time, and traced over the inside of her palm where Adina’s hands had fit in hers. Her arm remembered the feeling of swinging back and forth. She could still feel the way her face heated when Adina had asked to hold hands. Sera had been a teenager. Of course she hadn’t wanted to hold hands with her baby sister.

Maybe Sera’s memory had tricked her, or maybe the mountains really were that idyllic, but she could see in front of her the deep, lush green of the meadow grass and the pine trees behind that. The sky was all at once jewel blue and vivid cyan. Bees buzzed through the lupines and penstemons in a happy, droning hum.

Ten steps from the meadow entrance, Adina collapsed. Sera could recall with bone-deep clarity the yank on her shoulder and the thud on the ground. Her throat tightened and her heart raced just thinking about the panic. She hadn’t known what to do. She’d shouted herself hoarse trying to call for help, too afraid to leave Adina lying on the ground, shaking and unresponsive.

“Earth to Sera!” Avon said, and she broke free of the memory with a gasp.

“Sorry! Sorry, I”-

“No, it’s fine.” Avon reached out and placed their hands on Sera’s shoulders, turning her to look straight at them. “Obviously this is hard. Do you want to stop?”

She couldn’t stop now. She had to get through this and make her big apology and then never think about the past again. “No, I can keep going. I just- Thanks for getting me back on track.”

“Sure.” And then they took their hands away.

1044 words! I am realizing now it's been like 6 years since I was in a law class... and all we covered was the law as it relates to my real job. Which is very different from actually being in a courtroom!

-----

It felt almost as bad as Kyle releasing her from a hug. Hunching back in on herself, she tried to get the rest of it out in one go.

“Anyway! That’s where all the adventuring money went. My sister. And then my parents sent word that she’d passed away, and I sort of had a big freak out.”

Avon lifted an eyebrow. “A big freak out?”
Cringing, Sera pulled her feet up so she could curl into a ball. “I guess. Yeah.”

With a sigh as heavy as an elephant, Avon rubbed their temple and looked to the heavens. “Okay. Whatever. If that’s how you want to describe it.” They pinched their eyes shut. Clearly, Sera wasn’t out of the woods yet. “I can sort of guess, I think, what you mean by ‘freak out.’ And just so you know, I still haven’t forgiven you, and you still have more you need to explain.”
Ugh. Would her torture never end?

“But I don’t think I’m getting a whole lot more out of you today, so let’s just turn in.”

It stung that Avon didn’t believe Sera could get through this tonight, but calling her crisis of faith, crisis of life plan, and abandonment of Avon a ‘freak out’ did not speak well of her ability to explain, apologize, or make-up. With a mumbled “fine,” she stood up after Avon and led them back into the temple.

-----

Harrowingly, the Wilde family pushed their first day in court to the day after the next. Sera and her senior clerics did not like this timeline, because most people didn’t get court dates so quickly.

“We are prepared,” Hauli said, straightening his robes out as the rest of the party followed behind, “but I’m worried that this means the Wildes have some undue influence.”

Wilbert peered at the paperwork with her usual stoicism. “The court has at least approved the request for a third-party mage on hand.”

At this, Kaliko wrinkled her nose and flapped her vestigial fins. She was the best-dressed of them all, in a flouncy blouse and perfectly-pressed slacks. Sera had on her temple robes, same as the other clerics. As for the other three… well. Benvolius’s few sets of clothes were looking less and less pristine–the temple laundry evidently disagreed with his fabric choices. Kyle had chosen to forgo a tie and leave the top several of his shirt buttons unbuttoned, and Avon simply did not own court-appropriate attire and refused to borrow anyone else’s, despite being able to adjust to fit any wardrobe they chose. They’d dressed in the same ratty adventuring garb as always.

Hauli popped open the plaintiff’s door to the courtroom and gestured everyone in, wincing as Avon and Kyle passed by.

Sera had been in Gaville’s civil courtrooms before, possibly in this very one, when she served her internship for the Kavarn family’s lawyers. She’d thought she might even have a little panic at being in the space again, but upon seeing the room’s dark, wooden trim and raised judicial dias, her heartrate actually slowed. Librata’s spirit pulsed in a calm, soothing rhythm, as if welcoming her home. The high, stamped ceiling was like being in the temple meditation space. The pilasters reminded her of the columns in every large temple room.

She saw Hauli and Wilbert, too, breathe easier the moment they settled at the counsellors’ table. Wilbert soothed a hand over her heart in silent prayer.

On the other side of the room, the North Wilds Company team filed in.

Sera should have expected they would look as they did: buttoned up, in three-piece suits and trim pencil skirts, their shirts so starched she could see their collars digging into their necks. Their faces were stern, eyebrows set in flat lines, and they stepped so in sync they might as well have been a military unit. When they settled in at their table, everyone waited for their lead lawyer to nod before sitting as one.

Next to her, Hauli and Wilbert took in deep breaths.

The judge, high upon the dias, began proceedings with a firm tap of the gavel before glancing down at the papers on his desk. “Ordinarily,” he started, “we would allow discovery to proceed without interference, but there is ah… Some concern from the plaintiffs that the defendants would be unable to comply due to magical interference.” He adjusted his glasses, which were tiny, end-of-nose spectacles that might have come from the last century, and peered at Sera’s party. “Plaintiffs, if you would please state your case.”

They had rehearsed this yesterday, but no amount of preparation could make Sera feel calm as Hauli stood up with a flourish of his robes and began their arguments.

She had never actually acted as co-counsel for another cleric before. Sera expected the same stern, severe act that she’d seen come out of the principals at her internship, but Hauli smiled serenely at the judge, then at the stenographer, and then at the court wizard standing awkwardly in the corner of the room. “Thank you, Honorable Judge Greave. As stated, there is cause to believe the North Wildes Company cannot adequately participate in discovery, not that they would intentionally withhold necessary information, but that magical and physical forces that long predate the current generation are a play that would prevent their compliance.”

As planned, Sera urged Benvolius to stand next to her as Hauli gestured for the court mage to step forward.

“As stated in our brief, the Wilde family, and thus the North Wilds Company under their purview, are under magical contract, a key part of which includes a broad non-disclosure agreement that prevents the Wilde family from disclosing information that may be critical to their business decisions.” He pulled Benvolius towards him and walked with him into the center of the speaking floor. Sera’s eye caught on the way her senior steadied Ben with a comforting hand over his shoulders and the cheer-up grin he offered before turning back to the judge.

Hauli probably said something important, after that. Actually, he definitely did, because Sera had been in the room with him and Wilbert as they drafted it, but it was different to be there, in the courtroom, watching him actually be a lawyer.

1067 words! I have a business trip this week so. rip me.

-----

Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, Hauli requested the court mage cast magic-sight in whatever was his standard practice. He stood with his back straight, still smiling with quiet confidence. Next to her at the plaintiff’s table, Wilbert eyed the scene critically. Then, as if noticing Sera’s staring, the other cleric turned and leaned in to whisper to her.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, no. I just. Didn’t know you could smile in court?”

Wilbert made a complicated face and subtly rolled her eyes, though when she was done with that, she shot Sera a look both pointed and amused. Her eyes sparkled, even as she kept her lips in a straight line. “That’s just Hauli. I certainly don’t smile like that.”

This, though, begged the question: what would Cleric Wilbert look like in action, instead of as co-counsel?

“There are many ways to conduct yourself in court,” Wilbert whispered, flicking her gaze back to the dias as the court mage cast the same magic-sight spell on the judge, “so long as you’re respectful.”

Sera didn’t see herself acting like Hauli–all smiles and politeness, just as she’d had trouble slotting herself into the version of “lawyer” that existed within the Kavarn’s on-retainer firm. What would happen if she went back to school and could train under the temple’s lawyers? She could watch all kinds of different trials and types of cases and courtly personalities.

The judge’s shoulders tensed as the spell took effect, and Sera knew he was seeing the same blinding, sickly green text that she’d seen. It would be too much to ask–let alone impossible due to procedure–that he be astounded and immediately slam down his gavel with a decision in their favor. Still, though, Judge Greave’s eyebrows rose high in his forehead as he took in the scrawl of magic on Benvolius.

Then his gaze shifted to Sera. She froze in her seat. Librata above, hopefully the NDA she’d put herself under wasn’t about to blow up her case. Then, after a long second, the judge also stared at the defendants’ table. Actually, Sera wondered if he stared at them longer. She itched to pull magic-sight to her own eyes and see what spellwork might be cast on the Wilde family’s team, but that would be frowned upon in this instance.

After a long silence, the judge waved a hand, motioning for the court mage to dismiss the spell. Hauli gave Benvolius an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

“That was an illuminating demonstration,” Judge Greave said, as neutral as before. “Do continue.”

They’d prepared further arguments, but Sera could see Hauli weigh his options. She hadn’t been the only one to notice the way the judge had stared at the defendants’ bench.

“At a distance, the contractual magic is impossible to read, so we will now demonstrate the effect as it pertains to our request.” Hauli put both hands on Benvolius’s shoulders now, making eye contact to check again that Ben was alright with the plan. At Benvolius’s nod, the senior cleric continued. “Benvolius Wilde has graciously agreed to help by writing something that he believes would be prohibited by this contract from being shared on a piece of paper, away from our eyes. He will then attempt to share the note.”

And so Benvolius did.

The air in the courtroom was both dead-quiet and electric with tension as Benvolius accepted a piece of paper and pen from a court runner and walked to what, in a full trial, would be the jury’s bench. He wrote still standing, bent neatly at the waist in the picture of wealthy elegance, but Sera noticed the shake of his hands and the bead of sweat that dripped from his hairline. He gulped, so nervous that she could probably see his Adam’s apple bob from a mile away, and then held the paper up at illegible distance for the court mage to make another check for magic. Not that Benvolius would write an explosive spell onto a piece of paper–his spells didn’t seem to work that way, regardless–but they didn’t want to be accused of trickery later.

Then he moved to hand the paper back to the court runner.

His NDA lit up in a spray of sparks. The paper disintegrated in his hands. The judge flinched, and Benvolius gagged on the spell’s silencing affect as it closed up his throat. Sera wanted to run to him, could see Kyle’s hands grip tight on the edge of the table as he grit his teeth watching, but they’d agreed yesterday that none of them could help until either Hauli called them up, or Benvolius made it back to the bench himself.

Ben tore himself from the court runner, hands on his knees, and coughed.

Judge Greave cleared his throat. “Yes, well. That was… also illuminating. We’ll have to have some words about that contract superceding court secrecy somehow, but the effect is clear. Trina, if you would get young Mr. Wilde a glass of water?”

The court runner scurried out, the door closing behind her with a loud, echoing slam.
Hauli waited a moment for drama before closing their argument, and then Judge Greave turned to the North Wilds Company law team. “Your counterargument, if you would.”

As their principal lawyer stood, Benvolius managed to limp his way back to their party’s bench, and Kyle pulled his chair out for him, brow wrinkled in worry. Sera wasn’t sure if she should just tune out the other side and tend to Ben or listen in, but as the question formed in her head, she felt Librata’s spirit tug somewhere in her heart.

The North Wilds Company law team faded to a blur in the background, voices echoing too much in the enormous room to be anything other than a wash of unintelligible sound, and Sera leaned into Benvolius to check him for any further physical damage.

His fingertips were singed slightly from the sparks, so she pulled a tiny thread of Librata’s magic up to cool them, pressing his fingers between the palms of her hands to let the magic flow.

“How are you feeling?” she whispered. Kyle, Kali, and Avon all pulled their chairs a bit closer to crowd around in support.

After heaving a deep breath, Benvolius let out a wry, wettish chuckle. “You know, knowing I was walking into it on purpose made it less scary.”