True Black

Headmistress Alaxa’s office hadn’t changed much from the day I’d arrived.

The Church guards shoved me into an empty seat across from her desk like a ragdoll. Leather straps were bound across my arms and legs, and with the wooden handcuffs around my wrists, I could barely move an inch.

They have no idea what they’re dealing with. Forget using orange to burn through my restraints, a few targeted blue jets would cut through all of this in seconds.

At least, as long as the Church didn’t have some trick up its sleeve.

I sat down anyway. Escaping now would just make this end exactly how Fairburrow wanted it to. If somehow the truth could do the work, then nobody would have to fight.

Worst case, I had Mary’s assurance from earlier. They’d be here… I hoped.

“I do wish we were meeting under better circumstances.” With two guards flanking her on either side, Headmistress Alaxa took the seat across from me. “But from Fairburrow’s reporting, I have no choice but to entertain the idea as serious.”

“Listening to a murderer, bold.”

“Fairburrow has an alibi. Do you have an alibi, Ms. Everbit?”

I scowled. “My maid and I were together in my dorm room the day of Isaac’s death. Val returned a few hours later, but I was asleep when she got back.”

“I see,” the Headmistress said, scribbling some notes.

It was a horrid alibi at best. Mary wasn’t a good source, they’d just consider her biased.

“Let’s start from the beginning. I have Fairburrow’s story, but your perspective on the matter may sway a few things. Please don’t lie. Any lies will only hurt your reputation.”

“Understood.” I didn’t have a reason to lie in the first place. It was Fairburrow lying through his teeth.

“You and Isaac first met on the day of your arrival, in this very office. My own interpretation and external reports all agree that the two of you seemed to get along well.”

“That sounds about right.”

“Perfect.” The Headmistress scribbled a few more notes. “The next recorded meeting we have between you two is a chance encounter in the halls with your roommate, Valentine.”

“With Val? Sounds right.”

“Details about your conversation are vague that day, but one thing witnesses did note was, again, how you continued to get along. I also see that you two met later that day as well—a spar in Professor Gregory’s class?”

“Yeah…” I thought back to that spar with Isaac. It felt a whole lot different with the knowledge that he was a Prisma. Should’ve used a bit of feminine magic, showed what you could do before you were gone.

That thought stung a little.

“You won the spar in a match that was less close than it appeared, and from all reports Isaac was a gracious loser. That’s the last recorded public meeting between you two.” The Headmistress shuffled through her notes. “After that comes Fairburrow’s accusations.”

“The fun part…” I muttered.

“Fairburrow alleges that Isaac visited you two hours after his roommate said he disappeared. Is this correct?”

“I—” Every part of me wanted to lie and deny it. But I’m innocent. Isaac visited. They can probably prove that. Denying it just makes me look worse. “That’s right.”

“Fairburrow says he went to your dorm room to discuss a love confession and to turn you down. Is this correct?”

“Gods, no.”

Alaxa raised an eyebrow at my denial. “What did you discuss, then?”

“Isaac wanted to bring the two countries together, more diplomatic trade, that kind of stuff.” Better to be generic but honest here.

“I see…” The Headmistress didn’t look convinced. What, do you want me to tell you Isaac wanted to publicly go against the Church? The truth would just get me thrown in the slammer.

“Next, Fairburrow alleges that you broke into Isaac’s dorm room. We have no internal evidence of a break-in, but Fairburrow alleges he has evidence to the contrary. Let me be blunt and ask. Did you break into Isaac Vertana’s dorm room?”

“...Yes.”

Her quill stopped scratching the paper for a second. “I see. Thank you for being honest.”

“Not to destroy evidence or whatever Fairburrow’s alleging!" I scowled.

“Then why break into his dorm room?”

“To find evidence! I want you to think about it from my perspective, Headmistress. I’d just learned that Isaac had apparently disappeared two hours before we met, and then he turned up dead! I couldn’t get any answers from anyone. Of course I’d go and investigate.”

“An awfully convenient excuse, don’t you think, Ms. Everbit?”

“It’s not an excuse if it's the truth.”

“We’ve yet to determine that.” That apparently was enough to satisfy her interest, as she flipped back to scratching her notes. “But Professor Fairburrow has another idea. Did you know that Isaac had a monochrome lock built into his desk—an empty one?”

They found that? I’d honestly thought that was locked away forever. They must have gotten so lucky. That, or Fairburrow tore apart his entire room in the process.

“Both you and Isaac are publicly known to be Varies. But either you or Isaac must have taken out whatever was inside. Am I right?”

Well, you’re not wrong. I thought back to when I’d single-handedly broken through Isaac’s lock. It made a lot more sense for him to have that now. But what a convenient excuse. Isaac clearly cared a lot about being a Prisma, using me as a crutch just buries that.

“I see you’re still not answering," the Headmistress said. “This is what Fairburrow proposed: Isaac came to you that night with the monochrome box to get help opening it. Inside was some personal object—Fairburrow said it was a wedding ring—but the details don’t matter. What does is that you got mad, argued, then eventually it ended with Isaac’s death. We all know the result of your sparring match.”

“You have to be insane to believe that.”

“I’m not insane if it’s the truth.” Headmistress Alaxa cleared her throat. “You freaked out and hid the body, but of course that wouldn’t last forever. Val could figure it out any day. So, you tossed his body in the square at night and left it be. Then, snuck into Isaac’s dorm to return the monochrome box. Not the ring though, something that precious you had to keep for yourself.”

“Gods, that's enough!” I scoffed. “This is stupider than most fairy tales. Jealousy, this mysterious ring you made up out of nowhere, all of it reads like the world’s dumbest excuse to get me locked up, which is exactly what Fairburrow wants!” I tried to slam my wrists on the table, completely forgetting about the leather straps wrapped around them. Ouch…

“Is it now…”

“Which is more likely, Headmistress? I had some stupid secret jealousy thing for Isaac and killed him for the fun of it—traits I’ve literally never shown once in my life—or that I’m telling the truth and Fairburrow’s making all this up to distract from the fact he killed Isaac?”

“I understand your point, Ms. Everbit.”

It’s like talking to a brick wall. “If you understand my point, let me out of these stupid restraints and stop with that slow, boring tone of yours! I’m sure you didn’t start using Ms. Everbit today for fun. A lot less personal that way, isn’t it?”

I scowled. She hadn’t been on my side since the beginning.

“Typically, I would be on your side here. You’re correct, in a normal world I’d have dismissed Professor Fairburrow’s story as a fairy tale.”

“See—”

“But I have to acknowledge reality, Ms. Everbit.” She dug down under her desk for a second, and pulled out a simple wooden box.

The second she pulled out a diamond ring from the box, my skin grew cold.

“One of our cleaners found this ring right outside your door, buried in the dirt. Diamond, embedded into the ring with a silver filling—”

“So a wedding ring…”

I should have known. Gods, I felt like a fool watching her hold that ring. Of course Fairburrow would’ve fabricated some stupid evidence to support his story. With the backing of the Church, what was a single expensive ring?

“You won’t believe me, but I’ve literally never seen that ring in my life.”

“Tell it to the judge. I was hoping you’d be able to prove your innocence in our meeting today, Ms. Everbit.”

“I’d hoped you’d be able to see past the words of a vindictive murderer. It looks like we’re both going to leave this conversation disappointed.”

I’ve had enough of this. As the guards began to surround my chair, I let pools of water gather around my wrists. How uncreative. There's no rule that says magic has to come from your fingertips. That includes my wrists. Dumbasses.

I didn’t want to use violence. I wanted to do this peacefully and let Vertana fix itself. That wasn’t going to work. Welp, no going back now.

“Have you ever seen a pair of handcuffs explode before?” I asked the nearest guard.

“Funny.” He spoke in the driest voice imaginable. “Don’t bother trying anything, not unless you want this to be painful."

“It’ll be painful all right.” Can’t say I didn’t warn him. “Boom.”

“What do you mean, Boo—”

My handcuffs shattered into a million pieces, and at the exact same time, so did the door.

Thick vines the size of my waist blasted through the frame and knocked two guards flat against the glass wall. A glowing dagger buzzed past my ear and slashed through my leather restraints like they were butter.

“Sorry we’re late.” Val stepped over the carnage. “Had a few issues sneaking in here.”

“S-Sneaking? You just burst down every door on the way here…”

“You’re right on time, actually.” I glanced back toward the Headmistress. “Sorry about this.”

Headmistress Alaxa was the first to recover, as she slowly rose from behind the desk. “Guards! Don’t let her escape.”

“You think they have a choice? Cute.” I snapped my fingers. A torrent of water blasted her into the giant glass panel behind her desk. “I went with you to clear my name, not because I was particularly scared of a bit of wood and leather straps.”

I flipped around on my heel as Mary pinned another guard to the floor. A third guard charged toward me while glowing bright red. Did they only bring reds? Exactly the kind of stupidity I’d expect from the Church.

“Oh right,” I flipped back around at the door. “You wanted to know what Isaac and I talked about that night? It was about his idea to free Prismas from the Church’s persecution. That’s part of the reason why Fairburrow got him killed.”

None of us bothered to look back as we left the room. Fairburrow was still out there, and he was going down.

                                                                                ☀ ☀ ☀

“Well,” Val said, leaning against a light pole. “Could’ve gone worse. Fun conversation?”

We’d lost the last of our pursuers barely five minutes after escaping. The guards around here weren’t the committed type, apparently.

“Hardly.” I rolled my eyes. “The Headmistress pretended to be neutral for maybe five minutes before gulping down every bit of Fairburrow’s propaganda as fact.”

“And you expected otherwise?”

“Nope. I figured they would’ve put a bit more effort into actually restraining me, though.”

“They did. Those handcuffs are more than enough for the average person.”

“Maybe I’m overestimating the average person…” Saying that, it wasn’t like Val would exactly have a problem breaking out of them, nor Mary. I guess someone like Arthur is average around here.

“Wait, where is Arthur anyway?” I asked.

Mary and Val glanced at each other. “Fairburrow took him along after you left.”

I scowled. “He would, right after we finally had a breakthrough.”

It’s probably time… I caught my breath. I’m wanted as a supposed murderer, getting blamed for Isaac’s death, and getting played like a fiddle by Fairburrow at every turn. Besides, Arthur promised to fight for me. It’s only right for me to have an ally’s back.

This was the strongest we’d be, and Professor Gregory did tell us to fight when the opportunity came.

“I have a feeling this is going to be it.”

“I-It, Princess?” Mary muttered.

“The final fight.” I steadied myself. “Fairburrow probably knows it too.”

“You sure?” Val raised an eyebrow.

“Absolutely. Call it a gut feeling.”

“So you have no idea,” Val sighed. “But unless we want to run around as fugitives for a murder you didn’t commit, then we gotta make this the final battle.”

“You’re on my wavelength. You in, Mary?”

“Whatever you do, I’ll follow…”

“Then what are we waiting for?” I turned toward the Grand Hall. “Fairburrow is absolutely waiting with some trap, but maybe, just maybe, if we get there fast enough, we can finally get the upper hand.”

For the first time against that coward.