The Trail Of Tral mel'sok

The trail of a young elf who might have been framed for murdering an entire village.

“How do you plead” came a loud booming voice from above, Tral mel’sok looked up, with a hint of anger in his eyes seeing the shadows of twelve people staring back at him, they all saw a large scar on the left side of his face going from his left ear to his chin a few were wondering where he got that from. There were Magical chains held his hands and feet in place that were bound to a spell that if he struggled or lied they would get tighter.  It was common knowledge that they use it in courts all across the three kingdoms but very hard to try to get passed the magic binding it.  He gave everyone there before him a long look before speaking “I know I am innocent, but you all have already made your decisions”.  One of the men said in a softer still an authoritative voice “we have not yet judged you so do not think us a fool boy, you are here because you have been charged with a tremendous crime”. 

            He then Asked them “then what is my crime” one of them stated he is on trail for slaughtering an entire village after one of the judges said that he couldn’t help but have a disgusting look on his face.  The circle that was he was standing in was not allowing him to move even an inch the circle started to give him a tingle up his spine when he tried to move out of anger.  The circle would stop him instantly and the same booming voice once again “explain your side, if you think you are innocent”. 

            He took in a deep breath to calm down and began “I came across the town and its inhabitants slaughtered the day after it happened”.  One of the judges said in harsh but loud booming voice “we have witnesses saying that they saw you the day before the attack”.  He came back with a quick retort almost as fast as the judge stated the claim but with a more sarcastic tone “ok then, what was I doing if they saw me, I must have been doing something important enough for them to take notice on me”.  One of the female judges said in a firm and loud tone “ don’t dare mock us boy, you stand accused of slaughtering an entire village, for and we are here to find out why”.  All he could do is roll his eyes at the accusations they were throwing at him, he was wondering how long this would take, and what his future would be depending on this outcome.  The voice that first spoke, spoke again“if you believe you are innocent then tell us what happened that day”.  A soft chuckle came out of Tral as he began his tale “fine, you wish to know what happened, I’ll tell you he could tell the judges would be listening in with anticipation. 

            “I was walking through the forest of pra’val I was looking to get to na’ket before the days end so I could grab some dust. Sorry for you non-magic folk dust is used for alchemy and mages" as the last words left his mouth a familiar voice cut him off “we know what dust is, we are not simpletons” the  woman's voice said with an anger in her tone “if you think for a second we will fall for any of this, think again every lie you say we will know of it”.   He could tell that she was getting angry, maybe what he said was possibly have getting to her.  He continued his tale not letting what she said to get to him "like I was saying, I wanted to pick some dust-up for a friend, whose anniversary was coming up fast" this time what sounded like a large man interrupted  “anniversary of what”.  Tral sighed, as he did the enchanted chains clanked around “his what we like to call his rebirth, you see he was somewhat of prick until he disrespected a powerful mage and he was turned into a chicken to teach him a lesson”.  A small smile escaped his face when he spoke that, the twelve judges saw that not as someone who did that himself, but as a fond memory they laughed upon later in life,  so none spoke up they just waited for him to continue. 

            The smile lasted on his face for a good minute, he then started as the smile faded “he was turned back after a week, though after he was almost killed, eaten, and beaten too many times to count at that.  After he changed back he apologized and to the mage and he accepted then he told him “if you wish to apologize then become my apprentice, learn what I know and teach the future generations what you have learned. so he did and five years later his teacher left telling him there was little left to teach him and he should continue to learn through reading and doing”.

 The judges looked at each other with a little disbelief for a second as he continued though he could not tell they were doing that.  He then stated “after his teacher left, the town started calling it his rebirth as a little inside joke" one of the voices that he didn't recognize rose above his voice to ask "why wait to say that, why not say it in front of him".  The other judges started to murmur with agreement with little statements Tral could hear one say "he could be lying" and another "just trying to create a story" another voice said, "and a pathetic one at that, he is trying to cover up a massacre with a sad and pathetic story”said the last voice. 

The first judge spoke up again above the others “enough of this, let him finish before we pass judgment” in an irritating tone.  The room settled into silence once again before he spoke again "the reason why we waited to say that was to let him study, we are a small village, hell my father fought in the scavengers war and after he came back he became a trapper and taught me as I grew"  the gasps said it all though he couldn't see their faces due to the lights shining in his face, but that said it showed  they didn’t do their homework on him “but back to what I was saying, we waited till the teacher left out of respect we didn’t want to bother him while he was learning, when they came back to town we would find out how much he had changed and learned so after his teacher left we saw that he changed for the better and so we called it his rebirth he stayed in town to help those who couldn’t by fixing things, teaching kids and protectting the villages from all sorts of evil and soon  he became my closest friend.  So when his rebirth was coming up I decided to come here na’kat is known for its dust so I wanted to pick some up for him”.  The chains loosened up a little as he continued "after I left the forest I passed the farmers that were chatting it up, as you guys said were your ‘witnesses’, they were talking about wild animals that were destroying part of their crops, their kids growing up and other things I cared not to listen about.  I knew I wasn't going to make it to the town by days end so I was going to have to make camp somewhere and go in the morning”.  The chains loosened up even more signaling he was telling the truth which was shocking all of the judges.  They were convinced he was guilty they all started to talk amongst themselves while Tral tried to look around but the light wasn’t letting him.  His long, unwashed, and unkempt brown hair stuck to his body much like his stench he knew it sucked not being able to bathe while in jail, his clothes were just as bad nothing but a brown shirt and pants he hated that they were very itchy.  As the talking subsided he looked up from the ground ready to start again. 

            He sighed as he started “as I found a spot on the edge of the farmers land by a small forested area to set up camp I felt like someone was watching me, I set up the campfire and found some dinner close by which was a rabbit, I cooked and ate the rabbit as the night crept closer.  Soon the moon came out and I fell asleep though I should have stayed awake a while longer though it went against my instincts, morning came as soon as I fell asleep I then went to the town, got arrested soon after by the guards that came by and saw what happened and here we are.  The judges looked at each other with concern, another judge spoke up "your chains, they loosened which means you are telling the truth, but if you are innocent then help us figure how the massacre happened, tell us how you think this happened".  Tral shrugged and asked if he could get the chains off first, they obliged and one of the guards that were hiding in the dark, beyond the light came forward and unshackled him.  As the chains came off his wrists he rubbed the spots the chains chaffed him, then came the feet, then the neck.  After the guard was done he went back into the darkness he new the circle would still keep him in there, that he didn’t mind, he himself wasn't much of a mage but he knew enough to make himself knowledgeable and survive when needed.  The judges waited patiently for his answer as he finally answered“ well, considering they were the ones that put me here me, I’ll take you up on that offer considering I want to know who did this too” they nodded in unison. 

They talked for a few minutes in a low tone when a voice coming from the darkness said "we all agree that your help would benefit this problem we are having"  This new voice sounded deeper and more authoritative than the others. A few seconds passed after the new voice finished talking when the lights increased dramatically then vanished within the span of a few seconds.  After his vision came back he saw he was in the middle of a large room, the binding circle that was on the floor was still active though hr thought weaker maybe, the color of the light for the circle was different for some reason. As he started to look from left to right he saw twelve elves sitting around him.  The one that spoke before he was blinded was standing at the far right even though they all looked similar he looked different, maybe it was in the eyes but Tral knew he saw battle also he saw three female elves sitting at the table.  The rest were males, about one-third had short silver hair including one of the females.  the other two-thirds had long silver hair going down passed the desk just a few minutes ago they were judging him now as he got done looking at them, they were now asking for his help.  As he looked around at the room he saw it was a light brown room and saw one guard stood in front of each of the judges plus two guards on each side of him plus one behind him though far enough for him to have been swallowed up by the darkness and not know how many there were.  glancing up the ceiling as it came to a point with intricate designs flowing from one point to another like a simple fluid dance or telling a story that only certain people could get.  From the naked eye, it would just look like a bunch of lines going into a design that no one could get but to the focused mages eye they could see something. 

He wondered what the design was, maybe some defensive design or maybe it keeps a record of everything that happens in this room he thought.  He couldn’t stop looking at the design when a woman sitting on the far left spoke up as he found himself again from getting lost within the ceiling “that design is meant to keep violent criminals calm, when they look at that design they become calm down and compliant.  We didn’t want you to get too lost in its design because those who look at it for a long period time get lost and are never the same again”,  he shook the weird feeling he had from staring at the ceiling. It took a few seconds but he started to feel like himself again.  The old woman showed herself as a mixture of proper elegance and professionalism, she even aged well for an elf.  She had long white hair that reached passed the desk in four braids that intertwined to make one big braid.  She sat with a pose that showed even he wouldn’t admit to anyone but it kind of scared him, he thought she might eat him alive if he did or said anything wrong. 

            The look on her face was nothing but serious in her face, no laughter, no smile just all work. he stared at her for a good minute to study her or at least try to after she helped him get him out of that little funk but nothing came of it.  When another man who looked little fatter for an elf stated that they continue on with this so that he could go home, he was very tired.  As the trail went on Tral spoke his tale countless more times, they even recreated it with memory magic hoping to find something.  But they couldn’t find anything, nothing to help them  With the morning turning into night seemed to drag on, all of their fuses were getting shorter as the seconds dragged on it showed on all of their faces, even Trals.  One male judge just two seats to the left of the middle stated something to break the silence “let us go back to when you were setting up camp I want to check something”. 

One of the guards standing by the door walked over to where a sphere was passing through mirages of trees, bushes, and small animals, it was white in color and about eight cm. It was sitting on a tall stand that had three spikes that the sphere was sitting in comfortably.  The stand itself was golden with a picture wrapping around the whole stand.  The picture itself was a tree standing in the sun with the leaves falling off.  The sun was almost reaching outside of the statue, the stand stood four feet high with the spikes standing a foot more making it five feet tall and the sphere resting in the spikes.  The guard walked up to the sphere touched the sphere with his right fingertips and spun it a quarter left, then he put his index finger and moved it in a figure eight movement three times and the last time pressed his hand on it again.  After he did that, he walked back to his post seconds after he walked back to his post, a bright light flashed and then they were back at the beginning of when he was setting up camp.  The man on the far right asked the portly man what he wanted to check out.  Tral stood there wondering what he wanted to see when he lifted his hand a green glow came across his hand with a circle spinning clockwise in front of his hand.  With that, a flash of light came and they were at the beginning of when he was setting up camp again. 

The time was about four in the afternoon, he was collecting some firewood and was at the start of a small forest clearing minding himself when the time came to a stop the portly man said: “right there”.  He got up from his seat and walked around to the right, walked down a small set of stairs, he walked over to a clearing of trees studied them for a  few minutes.  When he was done studying them he motioned all of them to check out the top right corner as they all came down, when they were all done studying it they all saw the same thing he did though it took a while for them to see it.  They soon asked one of the guards to let Tral out of the circle and have him come closer after he was let out he walked through the hollow version of his campsite to the clearing of trees that were close by.  they were all standing close too.  They stepped aside and waited in silence to see if he saw the same thing, he stood there staring at tree bark, leaves, branches, moss, and shadows.  After a few seconds, a blurry figure was showing itself behind the trees in the shadows, “what is that” Tral asked

A woman stated behind Tral “apparently this is what Balth saw” all Tral could do is stare at the blurry figure and wonder what it was when all of a sudden a blast came out of the shadow and knocked him back.  He flew to the ground and the judges looked in shock at what happened, he sat up slowly from the pain shot from that mysterious attack, the pain was shooting all over his body.  Once he got back on his feet he looked around the area with the intent to hurt whatever attacked him.  He walked back to the tree clearing, slowly, holding his right hand to his left shoulder from the pain, as he walked back up to the same spot he was from when he was blasted.  This time all of the guards made it in front of the judges, weapons were drawn and pointed at the now strange incident ready to attack.  He looked around and saw a guard with an extra sword behind his back “your sword behind you, give it to me”.  The guard looked at him with a stupid look and hesitated when one of the guards said, "just give him the sword if he tries anything we have him outnumbered"  With Trals hand still out the guard gave him his sword from behind his back.  Once in Trals right hand, he could tell this blade wasn't being taken care of, it was just being taken for granted he thought.  There were scars on the blade and the dents on the plain metal hilt, he moved the sword around in a small circle to test it out.  Without looking back at the guard that gave him the sword “ sir, you have to take care of this blade or it will fail you when you need it the most”.

 A couple of guards chuckled and was cut short when one of the judges in the back yelled out in a terrified tone“what was that, that should NOT have happened” they all agreed and began to murmur about what just happened.  Tral held up his left hand to issue silence, once everyone was quiet known he began to think how this could happen. He thought maybe they did something to him when they knocked him out, maybe something else or maybe someone is a spy for this unforeseen enemy.  He didn't look around in case he somehow he would have tipped them off, and just kept his gaze at the blur, not moving an inch and waiting for something to happen.  Then there it was a flicker, a long sharp tendral came out of the shadows, shooting out at an enormously fast rate, he moved his sword in the way of his heart.  It slammed into the sword forcing him to move back a few inches, the weight of the force was hard almost impossible handle for a long period of time but he managed it somehow.  After a minute of pushing forward, it shot back into the shadows of the flickering trees which made no sense this should all be fake, just something from a memory they extracted when they were judging to see if he was innocent. 

So, it was looking like his theory might be correct.  He started to think how to stop this since his theory was starting to look correct which he hated for the fact that someone either infiltrated them or was betraying them.  After that thought started to whirl around in his head like a bad poem he couldn’t get out of his head it wasn’t letting him think of another plan else that might help them out with this problem.  When a scream came from behind everybody as they turned around they saw a guard that was behind them his lower armor crushing his legs.  He was almost five feet in the air when they saw a black shadow consuming his lower body starting at his legs and was already starting on his upper half.  His helmet was on the floor showing his eyes rolled in the back of his head and showing only his whites, arms sticking straight out of his sockets almost ripping them off, when something or someone voice gargled out of his mouth in a deep gravely almost screeching voice“We shall release the truth and set it free from its cage, none shall stop us, all shall fall before the first, the truth”.  The last screech came out before the shadow consumed the rest of the body in mere seconds and dispersed like nothing was there.  After it dispersed nothing but a skeleton in crushed armor fell to the ground, no one could say a thing and everyone was dumbfounded, shocked and scared.  Noone wanted to touch the body in case it was cursed, no one could walk towards it not being able to move an inch, they just stayed by the small group by the clearing of trees.  One of the judges in the back, was still focused on what happened when he shouted "Get the council of three, they need to know and get the cursed sorcerer he might be of assistance, go now" he yelled at all the guards.  This mysterious figure seemed like a huge threat and Tral new, being able to infiltrate a judges courtroom.  That was almost impossible to get in unless the judges would allow, somehow this thing did it no problem.