I walked out of the forest without any fanfare, headed towards Talnier’s northern gate. It was the first time in a while that I’d just been able to walk on my own, without an entourage of people who were deeply invested in where I was going. All the villages we’d passed through had been welcoming, greeting us with what I thought was excessive delight.

  On the road, I had to deal with the constant presence of our baggage train. The quillstriders were every bit as cantankerous as you might expect a misbegotten hybrid of ostrich and lizard to be, and their handlers, while less troublesome, never stopped watching me, eager to anticipate any need that I might have.

  Duit’s elven escort had managed to ignore me with some grace, content that I wasn’t a threat to her charge. Duit herself was not able to be so aloof. Every time I glanced at her, she was staring at me. Mostly, she looked away at that point, and she rarely approached me, but I could feel the ex-god’s attention on me the whole trip.

  None of those were with me right now as I approached the gate. Cloridan, Kyle and Felicia were, but they weren’t saying much.

  The guards on the walls didn’t call anything down, but they must have alerted the ones downstairs because the gate opened as I approached. Six armed guards stepped out, forming two lines of three on each side. An honour guard, one might have supposed, but I knew better.

  We all walked right down the centre of that formation, stopping when the guard sergeant stepped out, blocking the gate.

  “You’ve got some nerve, coming back here,” he said. “Take her into custody,” he barked to the other guards. “Don’t let her speak!”

  People with weapons are often way too convinced of the effectiveness of those tools. The sergeant seemed to think that a timely blow could stop me from speaking, could stop me from turning all of these men, including him, into my soldiers. Maybe he was right, but I rather imagined that my own speed and strength were sufficient to make such a blow ineffective. And the guys could probably take out this entire group without too much effort.

  As was almost always the case, when high-level adventurers were confronted by low-level functionaries, it was other considerations that held sway. None of us resisted or spoke. More guards came out, carrying crafted shackles. They were of a quality high enough to hold Kyle, they were more than enough for the likes of me.

  “Kandis Hammond,” the sergeant recited. “You are under arrest for embezzlement and fraud. Your position as a council member has been revoked and you are to be taken before the Council for your speedy trial.

  That explained the lack of a title, I supposed. Thinking back on the charter I’d pushed through, I recalled that the only way to revoke my status was an act of the King. I hadn’t felt the need for an impeachment procedure since the judiciary was independent and there was nothing in the charter protecting Councillors from being convicted of crimes.

  Presumably, that could lead to a Councillor being imprisoned while still being a member of the Council. We’d have to have meetings in the prison. Well, that was a problem for the future. Right now, I’d been kicked off the Council and charged with crimes. However, I wasn’t being handed over for a proper trial. Instead, the Council would be convicting me?

  They’re doing this wrong, I thought grumpily.

  Honestly, that bothered me more than the arrest. What was the point of writing up procedures and founding institutions if people were just going to change the rules when they felt like it? Actually… wasn’t that the sort of thing [Bureaucracy] was supposed to prevent? I hadn’t had any notifications of rules violations… perhaps there was a range issue that I wasn’t aware of.

  The guards led me through the streets, towards the new Council building. It wasn’t quite finished, but it seemed that the Councillor and officials had moved in without waiting for the final details to be completed. Even with those flourishes missing, it was an incredibly fast construction time. I guess having workers who could heft a block of granite helps with construction speed.

  Word must have been sent, because they were ready for us. They clearly weren’t going to have us stew in a cell for any amount of time, they were going to start the trial right away. That might have been wise. Holding adventurers in a cell was often an exercise in futility. I tried to remember if it was generally known that I had [Shadow Magic].

  Personally, I felt that Justice was better served with a bit more deliberation, but it was clear that Justice wasn’t on the agenda today.

  I hadn’t been resisting, but when we got to the building, the guards must have felt a show of force was necessary. I was grabbed and dragged, my hands manacled behind me, into the Council Chamber.

  Not the Hall of Justice. The guards hadn’t been mistaken. I didn’t think the Chamber was the best venue for what was to come. The chamber was set up for the presentation of reports from officials, so it had a basic layout suitable for a trial. But there were far fewer seats than the Hall of Justice. I had been insistent during the planning phase, that people needed to see judgments handed out.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Lawmaking, on the other hand, needed much less of an audience. There were seats for spectators, but far fewer.

  Then again, perhaps someone thought that the fewer witnesses, the better.

  I almost stumbled as I was dragged into the chamber. When I was able to look around, I was pleased to see that my fellow council members were all still seated. Noah Cunningham, Cheney Labelle, Delmar Balend and the former mayor André Michaud didn’t look happy to see me, but that was understandable. They were labouring under some misapprehensions.

  It would be wrong to say that the infiltrator was sitting in my seat. I’d only ever been the Secretary. It was a position with more power than people generally supposed, but it held little formal power. My seat had been on the far left-hand side and it was the mayor who had been demoted to that position.

  The most important seat was in the centre, and it was the only seat that she could let herself sit in. The Countess Marrienne Rankin grinned at me viciously as she banged her gavel for order.

  “This trial will come to order!” she demanded. “On this day, the trial of the criminal Councillor Kandis—what?”

  The grin vanished as she looked at me.

  “You… idiots!” she declared.

  “Is something wrong, ma’am?” the guard sergeant next to me asked.

  “Is something wrong? Is something wrong?” the noblewoman screeched. “You’ve been fooled! You brought me an illusion, and now she knows she’s a wanted criminal!”

  She glanced at Kyle and Cloridan behind me. “All of them!” she snarled.

  “Does this mean the trial is cancelled?” I asked brightly. “Oh, and do I get to speak now!”

  The Countess growled with frustration. “Why not, it’s not like you can use any of your damnable social skills through that thing.”

  She glared at me some more and then she barked some orders to the guards. “Well, stop wasting time here, fools! Go and search for her, this spell can’t have that much range! She must have come over the wall while you were distracted.”

  “I’m sorry,” André said. “How do you know this is an illusion?”

  Irritation flickered in the Countess’s eyes. “I am not so easily fooled,” she said. “Have you forgotten it took me to uncover the criminal’s wiles in the first place?”

  “Oh, yes,” I supposed you did, André agreed. I wasn’t sure how much of that was mind control and how much was his spinelessness. “So the trial is cancelled?”

  “Yes,” the Countess ground out. “So sorry to have troubled you all. You’d better go.”

  They filed out. Since the gig was up, I cancelled the three [Phantasmal Entitys] that were Cloridan, Kyle and Felicia.

  Lady Rankin glared at the [Phantasmal Emissary] that remained.

  “What are you still here for?” she demanded. “You’ve got your information, and I know as well as anyone that your illusions can’t harm anyone.”

  I chose not to let her know that I’d already known about her takeover.

  “I just want to know why,” I said.

  “Why what?”

  “Why risk exposure as a mind mage over a small town like Talnier? Do you have some sort of personal vendetta against me?”

  Her eyes flashed with anger. “A personal vendetta? Why would I have such a thing?”

  “You might say that, but you do seem pretty angry,” I argued.

  She drew a dagger and started walking around the table. “It’s my understanding that this shell will pop if I prick it enough times.”

  “Seriously, I barely know you, lady,” I said, slowly backing away. “Some of that is because you erased my memory of you, but there was barely anything there to get back.”

  “I might carry a few grudges,” she admitted and lunged. I tried to dodge but she had a skill advantage over me, it seemed. The dagger skittered off my Phantasmal skin, pushing me back.

  She made a disappointed noise and tried again. “Just how tough are your spells?” she muttered.

  She landed another blow. “You didn’t need to know who I was to expose my investment in Anchorbury.”

  “Are you talking about the bribes you paid to Reynard?” I asked, jumping back over the table. That gave me a bit of room, but she was just as agile as I was.

  “I spent more than just money on that man,” she claimed, jumping up on the table to pursue me. “Just the accusation of suborning a Guild official got my dungeon taken away from me, and I still haven’t gotten it back!”

  She launched herself at me. It would have been a risk, if this body could harm her, but as it was she landed another blow. I slipped out from under her, trying to gain distance.

  “And then,” she snarled. “Just when I persuaded the Duke to make his own play for the throne, who should turn up again?”

  “You were behind that?” I asked. “You were going to put a puppet on the throne?”

  “Duke Arryen was no one’s puppet, but he would have given me what I wanted. And if that didn’t work, with the King’s protectors dragged away, I might have been able to risk a spell on him… but you were there for that as well. You and that over-sexed cat Chosen.”

  “I didn’t know about any of this, but I can’t say I’m unhappy,” I said.

  “You wouldn’t. You were just pawns, weren’t you? My real opposition came from the gods.

  “If you thought that, why continue? I’ve heard that it’s futile to go against the gods.”

  She started pressing me again, slashing with the dagger. My spell couldn’t hold up to much more of this.

  “Oh, the gods can be defeated,” she said. “If you’re subtle enough, if you’re clever and determined enough. And there’s always a god to oppose whoever has set themselves against you.”

  If she only knew, I thought. Not that I had any intention of telling her. I wasn’t going to be able to keep it a secret, word was already slipping out of the Tribal nations. Duit’s appearance in Latora should seal the deal.

  “You’re holding a lot of anger against someone who was a pawn,” I said, taking another blow on my forearm.

  “It just makes… sense to eliminate the enemy's footsoldiers,” she said, swiping at me again. “But really, I’m here to replace the dungeon I lost.”

  “With what dungeon?” I asked uneasily.

  Her vicious grin was back. “All of them. That laboratory dungeon you’ve been playing with, the Ogre temple, and yours. Once you’re dead, I’ll be able to claim it, and Oakway will be returned to its rightful owner.

  She lifted her dagger. “This isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as the real thing, but it will have to do… for now.”

  She brought the dagger down and the spell broke.