Ten

SOLVEIG

But Solveig was wrong. 

Turns out... it was as simple as gathering one's thoughts.

Cain stood up straight first. So proud. So regal. He smiled like he was smiling for something to take pride in.

Cain's a... psychopath. Why would he claim responsibility so readily and without hesitation?

...He's just... he's like me! Did I teach him that?

'Atta boy!!

Isolde frowned. "What's so funny, Cain? Is this a laughing matter?"

"No."

"People could have died. I suppose you find those sorts of things funny?"

"I laugh because I know whatever I say here will not matter to you people. It will never be equivalent to what I see in Solveig."

Isolde stayed her tongue at that.

Cain cleared her throat, quickly blinking.

"What I saw in that room changed everything for me. Solveig has done more for me... and for all of you... than you'll ever fully know. Not even her. But that isn't even the focal point of my argument. Because even if you stripped that memory out of me entirely, I would still defend her. Why?" Cain let that sit. "Because she deserves a second chance."

Isolde scoffed. "A second chance to kill us all, maybe."

"She deserves a second chance because she's one of our only assets to use against the Quadrant. We are a forgiving people, are we not? Second chances. That's supposed to be our whole way of life."

A ripple went through the gallery, half agreement, half discomfort.

The Duke nodded. That makes the First. Who is to be the Second?

Rick didn't wait to be asked. He was on his feet before the murmur had even settled.

"I know what you're thinking. Who's this guy? He'd barely know her; he doesn't even hang out with her. You'd be right. I haven't. That doesn't make what I'm about to say any less true. In my limited interactions with her, I've seen qualities admirable to even the most discerning person. If any of you have got any Illustrian left in you at all, you know people deserve the opportunity to earn their honor back. No matter what." He crossed his arms. "Once bitten, twice shy? Screw that. I'm with Solveig. All the way."

Isolde's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing yet.

The sound of a chair scraping on the floor was quite violent. The girl who stood up cringed at the indignity, before pushing on.

"I will defend her."

"And why is that, Miriam Harkness?" Isolde said, tone acidic. "Solveig basically uprooted your life."

"That may be true." Miriam's voice came out slow. She didn't so much as glance at the council of the Duke and nobles beside Isolde. "But if my life had to get uprooted by somebody, I wouldn't want it to be anybody but her. She's hardworkin'. She's funny. She cares. That's that."

Isolde's jaw tightened, a muscle working at the corner of it. "Okay, then. Who else?"

"M-Me," Bobby chirped, already halfway out of his seat before he'd finished the word.

"Permission to exclude Bobby," Isolde snapped toward the Duke.

The Duke sighed without looking up. "Denied."

Bobby straightened, ears twitching, tail going stiff with nerves. "Despite knowing what I'm really supposed to be, the strongest in my whole family of famous knights… Solveig never once cared about my condition. She just cared about what was inside me. That's enough for me." He paused, gathering himself. "Also, she kicked your butt, and she isn't an asshole about it. Just saying."

A few scattered laughs broke out in the upper gallery before someone shushed them. Most definitely from Isolde’s staunch supporters.

Why why why…

Why are you guys defending me?

I don’t deserve this…!

"Who's left in this godforsaken hall? Am I the one acting crazy here? Is this not the definition of insanity to console a near-murderer?" Isolde's voice climbed. "Because you all know exactly what happens if you..."

"Intimidation," the Duke growled, finally looking up. "Isolde. This is your final warning."

"But who else will step forward?" the principal called out from beside the dais.

For a long moment, nobody moved.

Then D'Igoll stepped up.

"I shall testify."

The crowd gasped as one.

"D'Igoll?!" someone near the back managed. "Cain's your... he's your Student Council opponent."

"Does it matter?" D'Igoll's voice carried without him needing to raise it at all. "This is no longer a matter of politics. It is a matter of principle. And of honor." A pause, his eyes never leaving Isolde. "And Solveig… while lacking… certainly has more potential than a lot of us. I’m behind her, all the way."

The crowd went dead silent.

“Alright," the audible sound of a pen streaking across parchment emanated in the hall's acoustics. The Principal nodded. "That makes five. Any other students that feel they want to be part of the Ten?”

Solveig was on the verge of tears when nobody stepped up. That was because she hadn't met nobody else. Though Penelope would be the first to step out here, she wasn't a student.

There was a conflict of interest if Farhen decided to introduce his testimony.

Who else? Who else?

Isolde's mouth curled. She must have read the dawning panic on Solveig's face.

The Principal was about to say something, probably a last call or two.

But that was when the doors at the back of the hall banged open.

Solveig jumped. Huh?

What came through wasn't a person. Not in the ordinary sense.

Wings first, a rush of them, five sets beating the stale hall air into motion before the owners of them could protest. 

Companions, the winged, sworn sidekicks bonded to noble houses across Hrafen Academy, had entered the amphitheater.

Dreamwalker came flooding in first, four more right behind her, all of them still in their work clothes.

Then she spoke. "We will testify."

That sent the crowd into a frenzy.

"ORDER!" The Duke shouted immediately. "This is a trial! ORDER!"

It took a while for things to settle. And when they did...

Dreamwalker fluttered up to the stage.

"We testify for Solveig's good intentions."

Isolde... less said about what was on her face, the better.

"Elaborate," the Duke said eventually.

"Three weeks ago, I was introduced to Solveig. The way my Master talked about her was as if she was the Demon King itself. I believed her, for what else was a Companion to do? Then I met her."

Dreamwalker chuckled, finding Solveig's paling face.

"I caught Solveig at an inopportune time. Needless to say, she's exactly the kind of person Isolde told me she was."

Solveig looked at her feet.

A humiliation, then. The rug pulled out, just to grind salt into an open wound.

"But."

Solveig looked up.

"There were dimensions to Solveig. In the same vein of brutality, there was a kindness. I... I want to say it isn't so... but I cannot say the same about my Master."

Isolde stared daggers, pointed ones designed in every which way to cause the most amount of pain at Dreamwalker now.

"This will be my final decision. My friends have similar stories about their masters. One thing Solveig taught us was that we all mattered; no matter our social standing. So heAR us, and hear it well: we won't stand for our abuse any longer. We can grow stronger without the pain. We know that now. And I... I rebuke Isolde's care of me in favor of Solveig's."

The color drained out of Isolde's face all at once. "H-How... how could you...?"

Dreamwalker refused to entertain a response.

"SO THEIR TESTIMONIES SHOULDN'T COUNT!!" Isolde cried.

The audience, most of them, turned at Isolde.

The Principal turned, eyebrow raised. "How so?"

"Dreamwalker's MINE. She has a vested interest in what happens to me. Their testimony wasn't about Solveig's qualities; not at all! This is a conspiracy!"

"I truly don't see it that way," the Principal said back. "Unless... you want to say their voices don't count for anything either, Isolde?"

"Is she saying Companions aren't people?"

"Surely not."

"Maybe Dreamwalker's story is true, after all."

The Duke coughed. "Again, order!!"

The hall was more settled now, but not completely.

"We have our Ten. That is good." The Principal set down the pen. "Now let us head into the vote itself. Please line up in straight formation, grab the available pencils, and tick either 'Yay' or 'Nay' on the ballot at the front as to whether Solveig should stay... or, well... go."

Somewhere in the shuffle of chairs and footsteps, Solveig realized she couldn't feel her own hands.

\\

SOLVEIG

"Is that the last one, Mackenzie?"

"Should be... I even rounded up the ones who tried to bail..."

The Duke and the principal had been shifting through the ballots; any normal Duke would have gotten an assistant to do such administrative, menial tasks, but the Duke was extra, extra, extra pedantic about this particular activity.

Wonder why.

Solveig stood there, motionless. She had hoped the seconds felt like milli-seconds, but honestly, it was the slowest, most agonizing experience she's been subjected to in her life. And she's been tortured by the Demon King before!

Eventually, the both of them stopped, the Duke neatly stacking the last ballot on top of the stack.

The Duke gave Mackenzie a look.

In kind, Mackenzie nodded at the Duke gravely.

Solveig's fists clenched.

This was it, Solveig...

The Principal had taken it upon himself to walk to the center of the stage and address the assembly.

"Through majority vote of the student body of Hrafen Academy," the Principal began. "Solveig Walks-on-Water has failed the Trial of the Thousand by 623 to 377."