Secret Lure of a Cat Demon
Trials and Tribulations Part 1

What do you think? That was the first word to come out of Danni’s mouth in the trial. To say people were pissed off at this point was an understatement. I looked around and what I saw made me smile. Zev was resisting commenting, so was the audience. Everyone knew to stay quiet. To my left sat Millie and to my right my sister and Byrne in front of us in the very middle was a chair. It was the witness seat. Everyone could see you and nothing would go a miss. Danni was sat opposite us. Just a single chair. I realised then that Kieran wasn’t in the room. I leant over to Millie. I asked her where he was and she just smiled.

“This family loves the element of surprise” she told me. I nodded catching her meaning. I understood that they would bring Kieran in later. It would leave Danni wondering where he was, what he was doing, what he had said. I was hoping he would start worrying about it. This way I knew he would leak more information instead of holding it back when he was questioned. After the list of the things that Danni was getting trialled for had finished, Zev was called to the stand. As he led the original investigation he was needed to explain what had gone down. Who was involved and how it related to this trial.

One of the men from the panel got up and walked around Zev a couple of times before asking him questions. There was a lot of pressure in the room aimed at everyone going on the stand. I knew I wasn’t up last and this worried me. What if my story didn’t match up with anyone else? I knew that if I said something and Millie’s information didn’t match mine, who would the court believe? What if Danni told the court something and I was oblivious to the happenings? Would the jury accept that I didn’t remember everything or would they doubt it? Would Danni make something up about me and I didn’t remember. Then of course they would doubt me.

So many things were going through my head and I thought I was going to faint. My sister took my hand and smiled at me. I instantly calmed down. I knew I had friends. If something went wrong they would stick up for me, for the trial against Danni. I started to listen to the questions. I needed to know what was going on.

“Is it true that you are in love with Danni’s accomplice?” the man asked.

“Yes” Zev replied. It was simple.

“Is it true she is a witch?” the man asked.

“Yes, partly,” Zev said

“So, if she had yet again transfigured someone else into Danni, had purposefully got her self-caught just to get at you, you would still fight for her innocence.”

“Yes, I would. She is innocent and if she had tried to do the same trick again then this Danni would not know half of the things that have gone on. Katsi would also be under the magic of the Forgetless plant meaning she wouldn’t know what she was doing anyway.” Zev explained.

“So your views are bias?” the man asked. I saw Zev sigh but he had to answer.

“Yes” he said.

“But I was told that the Lord of the Guard has no emotions, doesn’t give anyone mercy, doesn’t side with anyone, they aren’t bias” the man said. Millie gripped my arm as I fought to get up and shout at them. The questions were harsh and were totally against me. I knew Danni needed someone on his side but this was against royal blood, against the future king.

“We are taught to take everything in to account, Katsi has spent a lot of time in my life, and it was inevitable that I would fall for her. We, as part of the guard, are taught to limit our emotions and sometimes we become too cold to notice anything. Katsi was forceful with her opinions and her feelings. This made her attractive as she was unavailable in so many respects. Falling in love wasn’t my wish; her coming into my life wasn’t my wish but it happened.” He explained. He didn’t mention anything about his mother. I knew it would mean bad mouthing the queen. I sat there thinking where the king was. Where was Zev’s father, I hadn’t seen him and he certainly hadn’t been mentioned.

“You mentioned a plant.” Zev nodded at the silent question. “How hard it is to find?” the man asked.

“There is one in a 1000 chance of finding it anywhere but the remotest of places. They live in harsh climates”

“And it is expansive, yes?” the man asked.

“Yes” Zev told everyone. I noticed again that these questions were getting really harsh.

“If this is so, can you explain to me how Danni got enough plant to control someone for about 4 or five years?”

“It is found on the black market and when the plant is found it is hoarded in and so there is enough to keep the supplier going for a while.” Zev told the room. I didn’t know if he was digging a hole that was getting deeper and deeper but even with the evidence there was still a good chance that Danni could get off with non-guilty in this trial. It was all up to me, and Kieran to make sure that Danni was put away. We are the ones who worked alongside Danni and we are the ones who were controlled by Danni, it is only right that we out him away.

“I have one last question.” That man said. He walked around a little bit and then looked at me. He smirked and I watched him carefully. “Is it true that the woman you love worked against you, helped this man, and then proceeded to use magic on an innocent to play the part of Danni and in process getting killed?” I looked at Zev carefully and with concern. If he said the wrong thing, this whole could be turned against us.

“I did what I had to do to get the culprit, at the time, I believed it was Danni.”

“So you are a ruthless killer?” The man asked. This was insane. I looked either side of me and everyone was resisting the urge to object. Well I wasn’t going to sit back and let Zev take the blame. I stood up before Millie could stop me and I stepped forward a few steps.

“That is irrelevant! These questions are unfair! Zev isn’t the one on trial!” Everyone went silent. I looked at the queen and glared at her. She knew I was right.

“It is relevant!” the man argued back. I looked at him.

“No it isn’t. Zev being a ruthless killer has nothing to do with Danni! You are meant to question him about the investigation, not if he is a ruthless killer or not.” I noticed the queen stood up and we fell silent.

“Please return to your seats.” The man walked back to his seat and so did I. Zev got up and walked to his seat in the audience. “I will not have my people arguing.” She said. Millie glared at me but smiled all the same. She knew my reasons. Next it was Millie and so she stood up and walked to the chair.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” a woman on the other end said. “You were banished from the guard 8 years ago and so you were not involved in the case?” she asked.

“Yes, that is correct.” Millie explained.

“Then tell me how you know about this.” The woman asked.

“I followed a few people. I had people to keep me informed about what was happening in the guard. I like to listen to the gossip you see. I was told about Danni’s plans from a friend who had encountered him when he was drunk. Apparently, he had been bragging about it. The same friend also told me that Danni was killed. I believed it but then three years ago I saw him walking down the street. I didn’t know it at the time so I didn’t think anything of it but he was heading to a secret black market that I know of because of dealing with it in the past. I followed him and I overheard him talking about his master plan to get the lord of the guard back for trying to kill him.”

“Why didn’t you inform the guard?” the woman asked.

“How could I, I was banished from guard grounds, Zev still hated me and all I knew was he wanted the plant. I ended up keeping tabs on him; I also was able to infiltrate him for a while. It was only a few weeks but in those few weeks I was able to learn a lot. He told me about Katsi and it was about a year later that I noticed she was pregnant; by this time I hadn’t seen Danni for about 10 months maybe a bit longer. This is when I noticed she was pregnant. I kept following her every now and then. I soon noticed she was happier; she had lost her bumped after 8 months of pregnancy.

“I tried to add up everything that I had seen and in the end I came to find Zev because I needed to inform him of what had happened. I was able to give him information on Katsi and give him information on her pregnancy, the plant and things like that.”

“When did you stop keeping tabs on the pair?” The woman asked.

“About a week before Katsi was brought in. I was down south, which is where Zev was staying last and so I assumed he was there, but this was just by ear. When they told me where he was I headed that way. I ended up getting attacked and a couple of shifters took me in to heal. When I realised how long I had been there I hurried to tell Zev. Of course he already knew because he had Danni in the cells.”

“Zev asked you to do some research for him yes?” the woman asked. Millie just nodded. I didn’t remember Millie from before. I didn’t remember much from that time. From what she was telling me I was happy. Was I happy now? I knew everything, I couldn’t act like the oblivious little child I was.

“Can you explain what it was?” The woman asked Millie. She nodded and thought for a little while.

“He wanted me to go to the black market and look into the plant, I needed to get a statement from the man who supplied Danni with the plant, and I needed a sample also. Everything I could gather on this I needed to get.” The woman nodded slowly at Millie’s words.

“Did he give you much authority or were you just to go under cover?” The woman asked. If Zev had given Millie guard authority even though she isn’t in the guard, it could mean big trouble. Only the queen was supposed to give the authority of the guard when doing research. She would have just needed to infiltrate under cover.

“Initially, I was meant to go as myself, just asking about, interested I guess but in the end I had to use guard authority. My questions weren’t being answered.” I realised then that Millie had already thought of her answer for this question. She knew it would have been brought up. She was totally evading the question.

“But Zev gave you the order to use guard authority?” the woman asked again. Millie was silent. She needed to tell the truth but if she did I knew Zev would be scolded later.

“Zev only hinted at using guard authority, I took it under my own wing to choose whether I should.” I glanced at Zev and he shook his head. That was lie. He must have told her to use it if she needed. In a way it was a silent order to use it. The woman looked at the queen

“I would like to call Temperance to the stand your majesty” the queen nodded at the request. My sister got up off her chair and walked to where Millie was sat. Millie also got up and the girls crossed paths. I watched Tempy like a hawk. She needed to say the right thing.

“You are sisters with Katsi?” The woman asked as soon as they were sat. My sister nodded. “So you spent a lot of time with her after she moved from your home in the mountains.”

“Yes, Katsi and I have always been close. We were always ganging up on Lilith, our older sister.” Tempy had a thing for over explaining I guess.

“After she went missing with Danni, did she say anything to you” the woman asked.

“My sister never went missing. Yes, she went out for three nights at the most, in a row but never went missing. There was a time I didn’t see her for a period of 8 months but I guess that is related to her pregnancy.”

“So she made sure to have time with you?” My sister nodded. “You didn’t see any one suspicious about?” My sister shook her head.

“When Katsi was brought in, she said you felt like you were being followed a few times. Did you ever see who it might have been?” My sister nodded.

“Yeah, sure, I got a good look at them. It was a guard member.” My sister said confidently. I frowned. Was it a guard member? Was it the guard member who lived near us, were they to blame to all this.

“Do you think you could tell us who it was?” the woman asked. My sister looked around and her eyes landed on Zev. I frowned.

“No, I’m sorry” she was protecting him, why? “How is this related to Danni, I thought I was going to be questioned about Danni, not how I was getting followed?” she was right but her mouth was going to get her in trouble.

“Yes well…anyway, you were attacked?” she woman asked.

“Yes I was.”

“This same man worked for Danni?” this woman asked way too many questions. At least they weren’t as harsh as the man.

“Yes.” My sister replied.

“The same man who raped your sister.” The woman said.

“Yes”

“When he attacked you did he say anything about Danni and how he was related to him or his work was related to him?” The woman asked. I sort of felt that the trial was getting turned around on us. It seemed that no one cared about Danni, either way they would find him guilty, they wanted to find out about us, what we had and whether it was right or not. I knew the minute I was in that seat everything would be turned on its head. I didn’t know much about happened with Danni. I didn’t know much at all.

“He didn’t say anything about Danni but he mentioned my sister and how easy she was. I guess I would have retaliated but I was helpless. I was weak as I hadn’t eaten for a while. He mentioned how easy she was even though she was under protection from the guard but he started muttering about the time he was with her for a long time. About how she used to throw herself at Danni and how he always took advantage of it. The only thing I remember hearing was that he hated himself for not being able to stop it. He was being restrained by something.” The room was silent, listening to my sisters words carefully. I started to wonder what the jury was thinking. This might be harder than we first thought.

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