“It is the decision of this review board that the Imperial Academy of Middlerun bears no fault in the untimely demise of Cadet Donswell [No House]. As he voluntarily entered the Applicant Third Trail testing arena, in the full knowledge that combats therein are placed under no restraints, our unanimous conclusion is that he willing accepted the risks entailed and bore the full liability for preserving his own well being. 

In answer to the claim that the match in question was not sanctioned and therefor his demise should be prosecuted as a murder, the review board finds that it was not at fault for admitting Cadet Riverbond into the arena. Cadet [No House] was provided the opportunity to refuse to engage in the proposed combat, and was granted a moments reprieve before the final blow was struck. As such, and in view of House Lightstone’s official disownment of the Cadet, the review board’s consensus is that Cadet [No House]’s demise, while regrettable, was both avoidable and of his own making and no further actions will be taken at this time.

On the matter of the sum paid to House Lightstone in the amount of a full Blood Restitution by the Academy, a review has shown that the funds were the repayment for services and considerations rendered by House Lightstone and the fact that the sum equals the value assigned to a third year Cadet’s life was mere coincidence and nothing more. No further comment will be made on the subject at this point.”

– the Imperial Academy Grand Review Board, in a missive clearing itself of any wrong doing

Doxle’s claim that I was a noblewoman had about the impact I expected it. The Greyfall representative almost choked in disbelief, the Greendell rep rolled her eyes and shook her head, Lightstone didn’t react visible at all, and the fourth representative maintained her rather pleasant silence.

“You have proof of this claim?” Lightstone asked. He was angry, probably livid in fact. He wasn’t good enough at hiding his scent to cover strong emotions but none of that passed his lips.

“Please,” Doxle said somehow adding three levels of unnecessary dramatics into a single word. “Need you really ask?”

“Yes. I must,” Lightstone said. He wasn’t interested in entertaining Doxle’s foolishness, which I was beginning to suspect simply encourage Doxle to play the fool even more deeply.

“Well, I suppose your request isn’t entirely unreasonable since this is, in factm a formal statement of intent on the part of House Riverbond, ,” Doxle said.

“And the first Riverbond’s made in, what, fifty years?” Greendell said.

“Forty seven years and three months,” Doxle said. “To be fair, I couldn’t recall the date either, but I made a visit to the Grand Cathedral in Palencia, or rather the Grand Cathedral’s Undercroft. Fascinating place. So much history there. So much we let ourselves forget about much too easily. I do recommend chatting up the dead once in a while though. They have fascinating stories to tell. Greed. Murder. Betrayal. The past was such a very bloody time to live in. We are truly blessed by our present civilized age.”

I had no idea what Doxle had found in specific to support the claim he was making or how serious he was about being able to speak to speak with the dead. From what I knew bringing back the dead to any degree wasn’t possible, but I’d been wrong about a lot of things that magic could or couldn’t do and ultimately all that mattered was whether he had something to back his claim up. Whether I was the heir to Riverbond or not being far less important than whether people would choose to believe that I was.

I didn’t say anything in support of Doxle, despite knowing what his claims were likely based on (in general terms), in part because there wasn’t anything I could say that wouldn’t obviously be in my own self-interest and in part because I wasn’t Riverbond’s actual heir.

“You need more proof than some conjured whispers,” Greyfall said.

“Of course,” Doxel said. “Which is why I also arranged for this.” He pulled a sealed scroll case from thin air.

Lightstone didn’t waste time. He reached for it and finally let a scowl break across his face when Doxle yanked it away.

“I believe the only one here who is required and allowed to pass judgment on this matter is you my dear friend Jalaren,” Doxle said, handing the scroll to the proctor, who took it with another sigh.

He’d only just broken the seal and begun to glance at it when he paused, rolled the scroll up and turned to the others.

“It’s the official house seal, with her name on it,” Jalaren said. “I am bound to honor this.”

“According to both rite and custom,” Doxle said. “If the others here would like to contest it though…”

“They can take the matter up at the next High Council session. For now we’re done,” Jalaren said. “We have many more trials to get through and we’ve wasted enough time on this one.”

A fresh wave of anger rolled off Lightstone, but Greyfall and Greendell seemed more curious with the verdict than anything else. The final one, the representative for House Astrologia I later learned, smelled vaguely satisfied. That was probably more worrisome than all the rest put together, but not something I could exactly act on. 

Despite the fact that one or more of them was probably going to try to have me killed, they turned and made no more outwards fuss about my passing the trial.

I wondered where I was supposed to go next. The Cadet box seemed somewhat fraught. For the Cadets. Several of them were still glaring at me as sound returned to the arena. If I had to go sit with them, I definitely wasn’t going to be receiving the sort of congratulations they’d showered Nelphas with. Unless I missed my guess one or more of them would try to sneak in some unsanctioned violence. I would probably throw them out of the floating box and the lucky ones would be injured enough to remain on the ground. If any came back, or if they all decided to get in on the violence then there were going to be a lot more corpses joining the Imperial Cadets, probably including my own.

Doxle, having more sense than most probably grant him credit for, apparently saw that too and directed me to walk with him. 

Feeling the weight of the Cadet’s glares though I held up a hand to get him to pause for a moment before turning back to the proctor.

“A word if I may?” I asked him. 

He looked at me warily, which marked him as also being fairly sensible, and nodded, probably hoping I was going to make some innocuous request or offer my thanks.

Instead I turned to face the Cadets.

“If anyone else dies, I’m taking this trial over again,” I said, trusting the amplification spells to ensure all of them could hear me.

It seemed only fair to warn them, though in hindsight I can see that I was offering them a clear opportunity to avenge their fallen comrade. Kill and applicant and then get to fight me. That wasn’t what I wanted and fortunately the ones with the most animosity toward me understood my words for the threat they were.

The crowds were silent for a moment after that, with the usual buzz of conversation resuming as Doxle and I stepped onto a disc to float back to the spectating box.

“Congratulations on passing the trials,” he said. “And with remarkably fewer enemies than I expected.”

“It didn’t look like Lightstone or Greyfall liked me too much,” I said. “And I’m pretty sure the Cadets want to kill me too.”

“Would you have wished to have them as allies?” Doxle asked.

“No,” I said.

Having someone like the Imperial Cadet as an ally would have been unpleasant to the point of provoking me to murder him when I wasn’t in a sanctioned death battle.The representatives for the Great Houses didn’t feel like people I cared to spend time with either. Thinking about what I knew of them, and what Doxle had said, I guessed that I had even more reason to dislike them than I’d thought.

“They killed House Riverbond, didn’t they?” 

“Not this generation personally, but yes, Lightstone and Greyfall were two of the three House who decided to end Riverbond’s tenure as a Great House.”

“Did they have a reason?”

“Oh, there’s always a reason. Usually several dozen reasons,” Doxle said. “The primary one, as always though, is that Riverbond had resources others desired and made the mistake of being too successful at opposing those whose wrath it wasn’t prepared to survive.”

“Did I just make that same mistake?”

“It’s always hard to tell,” Doxle said. “As you are my pacted apprentice however, I can assure you that you will not face the consequences of your actions today alone.”

“That doesn’t seem fair. I did what I did on my own. You even tried to stop me.”

“Did I? I don’t recall preventing you from taking any actions and as your Advisor any actions I don’t prevent can be assumed to be ones which meet with, at the very least, my tacit approval.”

“So it’s okay that I killed that guy?” I asked. I didn’t feel bad about what I’d done. I didn’t really feel anything about it in fact, which probably wasn’t a good sign. 

“At this moment, you would be best served if I was not evasive in my answers,” Doxle said as we reached the viewing box. “Which is why it pains me to answer your question with one of my own; okay in what sense? If you mean will you face legal jeopardy for your actions then no, none whatsoever. This is a lethal arena. None are held accountable for fatalities which occur within it. If you mean, in the eyes of your peers then the answer is more complicated. Some will likely cheer you for your actions. Some will despise you, some will be jealous, and some will fear you. How they react is largely a reflection of who they are and has little to nothing to do with you and your actions.”

“How about in your eyes?” I asked. It wasn’t actually important if he thought of me as a beast, I just wanted to know.

“I am not a good soul and not someone you should look to in order to mark a bearing on your moral compass.”

“I just want to know if you think I did the right thing there,” I said. That wasn’t going to tell me whether I had been right. I knew I’d been. It would tell me more about Doxle though.

“It was not what I would have done,” he said, closing his eyes and drawing in a slow breath. “You were far kinder and more merciful than I would have been had our places been reversed. It makes me think I chose well, and for that you have my gratitude.”

That hit me in the gut. It shouldn’t have but I hadn’t been expecting him to share what sounded and smelled like an honest confession.

I sat down in the box and felt a cacophony of emotions swirling my innards up almost as bad at the sword blows had.

Sword blows which I still needed to fully repair.

Closing my eyes I looked inside and saw that I was a mess.

Physically, emotionally, mentally. The last few days had just sucked.

Or make that the last few weeks.

Going home to Grammy and forgetting all of this was so incredibly tempting and for a moment, a long moment, all I could imagine was walking through our front door, heading into the main room and collapsing in a ball in front of the fireplace. It wouldn’t matter if there was a fire going or not. It wouldn’t even matter if Grammy had bread cooking for the stew. Just curling up on the floor and going to sleep with all of this behind me. Nothing would have been better that that.

Nothing except finding out about Trina.

I sniffed weakly, hoping to find some trace of her, some fresh boost to shore up my resolve, but there wasn’t anything on the wind aside from the blood that clung to me.

It didn’t matter.

I wasn’t giving up.

Keeping my eyes closed I got to work making myself a new heart only to be interrupted by the announcement of a new match. I’d been ignoring the last several as they called out names I was unfamiliar with. This one though? This one I had to see.

“Next applicant, Idrina Ironbriar, report to the dueling circle.”