The ways of justice

[Rhaine]

"Brother, can you please help me through the wards?" Rhaine whispered, as her hand found Vitus'. They were at the Temple entrance. Counting minutes. Too much depended on these drops of time slipping through their fingers.

The wards felt like a resonating subsound. Rhaine looked around quickly. The black stone bracelet on her left arm pulsed. This was the first time when Glaeddyv Sierthii has shown any life since she was deprived of magic. Her hand clutched the stack of blood-stained papers, which had to be placed on the altar. "Before the eye of the Lord". Deep inside her mind Rhaine grinned. She knew the proof of her innocence was already seen, now it was the time for the show. And also - the time for Ichius to get his last chance. For some reason she was sure that he would use it.

Adremalech met them with a silent salute in the worship hall filled with dim crimson light. Three cowled figures were already gathered around the altar. Ichius' voice was deep and quite toxic.

"... When judged for ineptness so close to treason she was afraid to show here and face the justice..." he seemed to finish a long speech, and other cowled figures nodded in agreement. Truly... her small shape in mentari chameleon-suit was hard to notice, hazed in the crimson twilight.

"Here I am, Ichius. Now to prove before the all-seeing eyes of the Lord that all of your accusations false and based on your own plot," she said calmly.

Using the general shock she took a few solemn marching steps to place the papers on the altar. However Ichius recovered quickly enough.

"You fabricated some evidence, quite common for you dhoineborn to use paper to protect your weakling guts. The facts are against you. Admit that, and drop your weapons in the presence of your superiors"

"This is your evidence, I assume?" Adremalech hissed, gesturing toward the logs Rhaine held, his gaze slowly passing over all those in attendance. The Triumvirate had gathered, though more to witness the outcome than to offer any actual help, their influence meant little in this trial. Rhaine nodded.
"Interrogation logs from G'fenvass, and printouts of our security system logs with portal traffic." her voice was calm, clear, confident. She watched Adremalech, her face mask-like. Adremalech reached for the logs, offering them a half-amused glance before he set his cold emotionless eyes toward Rhaine's.

"For the record, what is it you accuse Ichius of?"

[Rhaine]

"Intentional information leak, setup of a plot against of a higher-ranked officer, false accusation. Out of these intentional information leak is most hazardous as it led to a severe disruption to the plans. I shall not formulate this as treason, though could have."

Vitus stood stoically in his runed armor, his blade at his hip. He seemed to be wanting to speak, though he knew he was not a part of this trial, but cold hatred burned in his eyes as he set them upon Ichius, hatred and murderous intent. Adremalech allowed himself a slight chuckle.

"It seems convenient, that this evidence has been gathered when you have been accused of equally serious charges."

Rhaine sensed Vitus' presence even while looking at Ichius and Adremalech. But "the show must go on" - she was mortally calm, her gaze unblinking. "The charges I am accused of, are a consequence of information leak, and there is hardly a doubt that this consequence was unforseen".

Ardremalech turned his attention from Rhaine, toward Ichius. "You, restate your accusations against one of the Triumvirate, one of the founding members of this Temple, and one of the oldest active members of this order."

Ichius hissed, his eyes looking at the mortal-born. His lips curved in disgust. "Ineptness, inabillity, failure on a vitally important assignment, possibly intentional failure, and thus - betraying the interests of the Lord. I have no clue how this dhoineborn remained in His service for so long while being incapable of performing a basic diplomatic action," he added, spitting out the words. "Perhaps she has skills in fields other than intellectual or battle? The ones implied by her... nature?"

Adremalech chuckled some more. "You seem fairly sure, yet your words hint at heresy. If your claims are true, then you find the Grim Lord at fault. Do you really believe a mortal can fool our Lord?"
"A mortal can fool officers of Grim Lord, and thus gain the advantages she visibly needs." Ichius spat "Fool them, flatter them, sleep with them. What else a dhoine is good for."

Nae'Bris crimson eyes lit up, in flaming anger, but nothing more had shown his opinion on the words. While Ichius remained visibly calm, on top of rank ladder, looking down on his opponent, Rhaine seemed to notice no rank at all. Her eyes were gem-like and still, looking past the scene for a while

Adremalech's eyes narrowed."Well, obviously, a ... dhoine..."" he spat the word "Is suitable to oversee this trial. But in the interests of remaining unbiased, and since evidence can be fabricated or misinterpretted, I can see only one solution."

"... when proven incapable of performing duties that require power and responsibility, she was afraid to show here and face the justice for her ineptness, and came with fabricated evidence, what else do you need" Ichius seemed unshakeable

Adremalech gestured to a circle in the center of the room. "A trial by combat, the Grim Lord will likely not allow a favored asset to fail in such a trial, so the two of you will fight, and the Midnight Horse shall favor the one that is true to the Legion."

For a split second Ichius grinned, visibly evaluating Rhaine. "Circle of Justice. Good." he shifted to baatezu form, armed with a bastard sword of greenish steel, and stretched it in Rhaine's direction in challenge.
Vitus stirred, his faith in the Grim Lord had been shaken in the past year, and he wasn't certain that this was truly a fair trial. Rhaine was severely weakened without magic, while Ichius seemed to possess every advantage. His hand rested on the pommel of his blade, twitching almost involuntarily, though inperceptibly. Only a hint of despair could be seen in the crimson eyes of Nae'Bris. He did not dare to speak, knowing the priestess' personality. What's forgiven easily to her brother, will be hardly left unnoticed if he does it.

Adremalech turned to those gathered. "There will be no interruptions, no one will interfere, and the Grim Lord's judgement will be absolute."

Rhaine turned to look at Vitus, her smile was reassuring but only brother and sister knew how fake it could be. "Isn't the Circle a place for His justice? If I'm guilty in His eyes... I have no reason to exist, brother," the black stone bracelet turned into a long sword with blade that seemingly absorbed light

Vitus nodded slowly, then added "And neither do I."

Turning to Ichius, she lifted the blade to be parallel to Ichius' sword, pointing at him, in a circuit of Intention "One on one. Between Light and Darkness, before His eyes"

Adremalech spoke in a booming voice, one that seemed impossible for his slight frame. "Let the trial commence!" The circle lines flared and a thin barrier separated Ichius and Rhaine from the others. The twilight of the place added to mentari stealthsuit passive property, and made Rhaine look hazed

[Rhaine]

Step, step, step. She circled her opponent, quite aware that a direct approach would yield nothing but a few more scars - a few errors at the very beginning of the fight have shown that quite clearly. She stopped a whip attack with the sword turned in her hand to rest against her arm like a giant jitte, but the woven combination of leather and metal left a red strip of a burn on her bare skin where the whip coiled around half-protected arm. Only an artifically designed body could withstand this without an ugly scar and chunks of torn skin...

Ichius seemed to have ended testing his opponent, and started a series of persistent attacks. The heavy blade spun a complex of 8-shapes in the air, lunging at the priestess from least expected angles. The whip complimented this with sudden lashes. For a while Rhaine could only step back, dodge, spin off. And there also was a spiked tail to be aware of...

At least there was enough space to use in the Circle. The whip had torn into her side, ripping a piece from her simple shirt, and leaving a serious bleeding bruise, but at least she rolled under the hurricane moves of the sword. From the low position, Rhaine rolled forth, for an attack that left a trail of oozing ichor on Ichius' stomach. Opponents were almost equally fast...

...Only one of them was physically by far stronger. Spiked tail smashed into Rhaine's body in the middle of a dodge, and she flew off a few yards, slamming into the forcefield. A split second - and Ichius was already in a leap, both sword and whip ready to rend vampiress to pieces. She could only move into the circle a bit, away from the sword, but under crushing weight of landing devil.

Even artifical bones aren't infinitely strong. A wet cracking sound showed her, that she would have to deal with a fracture if... no, when she's out of the circle. Ichius wasted no time - a flurry of blows she could only try to defend against, clashing metal and whistling whip creating a unique gamma of a duel. A red stripe marred her face where she didn't dodge the whip too well. Ichius had a long slashed wound appearing on his tail.

But that could not last forever. The intensive, acrobatic style of fighting that Rhaine learned on the level of reflexes, was too taxing for a lengthy fight. She used uneven rhythm that made guessing her moves a harder task, but it was hard to keep for long - those sharp turns and direction changes seemingly ignoring gravity and inertia required inhuman agility and stamina. They could pose a problem even to a baatezu with their strength. Rhaine countered disarming lashes of whip with spinning moves that at the same time made her stop for fractions of seconds. Ichius used one of these pauses - to trip Rhaine over his tail and pin her to the ground right near the Altar of Asmodeus. "Admit it, dhoineborn bitch. You are unworthy of a rank in priesthood among those of superior species. I can crush you with one hand... and that is my truth, the only truth to believe in"

That made Nae'Bris jump up in a smooth, almost feline move, Only taking a look at Adremalech stopped him from doing anything stupid. Vitus' hand gripped the blade handle. He would assure that if the Grim Lord failed, he would not, and Ichius would die by someone's hand this day

Ichius seemed to enjoy the situation tremendously. Heavy foot pinning Rhaine to the ground, he aimed a lash of whip with metal end to rip out her throat in a well-practiced, mockingly slow move. Meanwhile, he hardly noticed that pale cyan radiance started beaming from under the stealthsuit on Rhaine's neck, and her eyes regained the glow. Her formerly serious, intense look changed to a smile, slightly euphoric, confident, as if a plan was coming together ideally. The air in the worship hall became thick, almost glassy, like amber... and crimson melded into the cyan blaze and into cyan mist covering once-again glowing eyes of priestess

[Rhaine]

... the way we take, the ones we don't ...

Time slowed down. Almost stopped. Rhaine looked straight past baatezu, gem-like eyes open wide, unblinking. Without fear.

"If I am guilty in His eyes, my existence makes no sense. The rest does not matter," the words bounced within her mind, like an ideally resilient ball in a task from elementary physics course. Marble floor was cold, but for some reason the cold was no longer numbing. Pinned and helpless, near the altar - almost like a sacrificial dhoine, but for now even the possibility of becoming a sacrifice eluded her. The altar radiated cold that refreshed her, clearing her senses, bringing them back from deadly slumber. Bringing back strength.

Without pain. The biomage looked up, her eyes piercing... glowing... coming back to life. Pale cyan mist filled them. The priestess was looking at something beyond the baatezu.

... the one we left, the one we change ...

Perhaps the Presence was obvious only to her. Or Vitus had more of self-control. She felt completely transparent, open, and there was a sensation of torrent streaming through her - like it was from the Binding. Only the torrent had different nature. Filling every quasi-cell, flooding every breath...

... the one that burns, the one that freezes ...

... The whip hit where her neck once was - she was already moving, with unnatural strength shaking off baatezu, and crusing her elbow under his ribs. the strength of blow was strange for a 5'2 shape - it was as if from a significantly larger being. She did not realize she was already up, diving under the whip, and an elbow under Ichius' ribs blew him off a few yards. Black blade of Glaeddyv Sierthii spun complex flower-like patterns, at speed hardly allowing human eye to trace it. Another turn... flipping over the tail, diving under the whip, and a wide swing, from second position up, that left Ichius chest slashed deeply open, and he was no longer moving - just struggling to hold upright. Large baatezu shape leaned over her, but now it no longer had the towering effect.

... the one we built, the one we are ...

Ichius was gasping for breath, as steel fingers clutched his throat. Pale cyan mist over Rhaine's eyes was mixed with dark crimson, and these eyes burned like hellfire, painfully and piercingly. Her usually clear and ringing voice was now deep, resonating and low.

"What did you hope to achieve, Ichius?"
"To prove your unworthiness, to cleanse the Temple of all unworthy dhoineborn scum. Power... more...for deserving" - there was something that did not allow him to lie.

"Grim Lord is the one to deserve all power He wishes," the black blade moved with the same lightning speed to slash across Ichius' chest splitting him in two uneven halves. The splash of ichor touched the barrier around the circle, canceling it. "And it is His choice of who may serve Him".

Rhaine looked at Vitus, crimson leaving the mist that swirled over her eyes, her gaze slightly unsure, and voice back to normal. "At last.." Vitus grinned at his sister, and looked down at the remains of Ichius:: "This is why I was meant to return. Not to help you, but that you could help me."

She seemed slightly dazed, as if after a trance, dropped on her knees before the altar, and bowed her head, whispering something, handing the sword to something not visible to a normal eye. looking up again, she whispered an audible "Thank you... my Lord... thank you" and kissed the ichor-stained metal before the sword turned into bracelet again. Standing up, she turned to Adremalech
"So there is no doubt now." that was half a statement. Adremalech nodded at Rhaine

"For me, there never was, but tradition is tradition."

She walked up to Vitus, and could rest her hand on her brother's shoulder in a gesture of an equal. "So is there a way your sister in blood and in faith can assist you? "
Glancing down at Rhaine, Vitus slowly shook his head. "You already have. I felt the touch of the Grim Lord, something I have not felt in a long time. By all means, you should have lost that fight, hindered as you were. My faith has been restored, and that is why He brought me back here"

"We have a lot to do, now when this trial is over with. I'm glad we're back in the Temple, brother."

There could have been a hug, but calm dignity had to be maintained, and so she just smiled, looking at her brother, and nodded to Adremalech.