( No Title )
Chains of the Dragon (46975 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
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October 3, 2028– 9:45 pm
“Ever slept in a palace before, Wright?” Betty asked, sizing Trucy up as much as the room they’d been stowed in.
Trucy glanced back over at her with a broad grin.
“have you, lord dracula?”
The rooms were gorgeous…bigger than anywhere she’d ever stayed before by far. It was the fulfillment of a private dream she hadn’t told anyone aside from her father.
One day I’m going to stay in a palace. And here she was…though she wasn’t going to admit it was her first time so easily to the ever competitive Betty.
Bonny had carried in her sister’s bags, peeking around from behind them at the sprawling architecture with a curious grin, even as she wobbled on her feet “It’s so pretty…”
“I asked you first, Wright,” Betty sneered. She shrugged. “Anyway, it’s pretty decent digs.Shame about the country of course.”
She watched as her sister wobbled her way across the floor. With a sigh, she grabbed one of the bags.
Bonny sighed with relief.
“Thank you Betty…” she smiled tiredly at her before dropping the bags on the bed.
“To answer your question, no, not yet.” Trucy stuck her tongue out. “…but it’s just what I’d always hoped. Shame about the whole ‘inner turmoil’ thing, though. Seems I can’t go five feet without stumbling into international incidents!”
“Seems like,” Betty nodded. She unzipped the suitcase she’d taken and started going through it. “How’d the reunion with your brother go, anyway? You never exactly said.”
“Oh, you know.” Trucy chirped. “lots of hugging, lots of crying. Lots of telling him that everything we knew was a lie perpetrated by my family legacy’s allergy to telling the truth and being normal about anything.”
“That…that doesn’t exactly sound like it went great, Miss Trucy.” Bonny turned with genuine concern in her voice.
“I mean it doesn’t sound like anyone got shot or stabbed so I actually agree with Wright,” Betty snorted. “What’s the plan from here, boss?”
“Boss. I love the sound of that.” Trucy grinned as she slung an arm around Betty “the plan’s simple…I can’t convince Apollo to just up and leave, sadly…but we might be able to jury rig a way to get all this crap tying him here out of the way faster. A little magic trick to speed up this whole retrial business.”
Bonny nodded seriously, twisting her finger in her hair “make…the paperwork disappear?”
“Didn’t you hear her the first time, Bonny?” Betty grinned mischievously. She bopped her sister gently on the back of the head as she leaned against Trucy. “We’re gonna rig the jury.”
“Oop!!” Bonny squeaked with a rabbit like startle, before she fell against Trucy’s other side. “Oooh…that makes sense.”
Trucy laughed, both at their antics and everything else. She had to admit– she’d been glad when she actually dragged the De Fammes into her troupe. When she convinced them to join the Wright Anything Agency despite her struggles, her cynicism, after the Retinz trial.
They had a fantastic rapport.
“It’s kinda the general plan – at the same time I don’t think they have a jury here. They used to just have a big pool that everyone would look into and point to go ‘yeah obviously the defendant’s the killer, that puddle looks like ‘em.’ you know?.”
“Great, so trial by magic 8 ball. You’d think that would go pretty fast,” Betty grumbled. “So what is the plan exactly? Or are we going to improvise?”
“I think it went too fast, Betty. That was kinda the problem they’re cleanin’ up after now.” Trucy bopped her lightly atop the head.
“I don’t have a plan…yet….no…wait.”
She put her hand to her chin “..Bonny, Betty. Babes. My brother’s only going so slow because he’s literally the only defense attorney here, right?”
“Wait, like..literally the only one?” Bonny asked “I thought that was an exaggeration… that’s…gosh.”
Betty tapped her foot. “So what are we gonna do– pull an attorney out of our hats?”
Trucy tipped her hat with a playful grin, her smile from ear to ear “That’s right, Betty! A wave of the magic wand and just call me Trucy Wright….Ace Attorney at Law~”
October 4, 2028– 6:15 am
Klavier was not exactly up bright and early, but he was up early, and carefully doing his makeup in the mirror sitting on his suitcase while he let Ema sleep in for a little while. He brushed his hair, checking the sides where the shaved parts were starting to grow in again. It was getting to be the time where he’d have to make a decision about whether to keep cutting it or not.
While he was doing his lipstick there was a sharp knock at the door and he winced as it roused Ema.
“GAHHhhurggh…” Elegant as always, Ema rose from the sheets with her hair splayed around her face in a hectic tangle, her bleary eyes glaring at the door. “what’s a woman gotta do to …to fucking sleep in around here?”
“One wonders, Fraulein,” he said, getting up and hurrying over to the door. “Go ahead and stay in bed for the moment, ja?”
He stepped outside for a moment and was surprised by a guard waiting there, who passed him ‘a request on behalf of the lord regent’.
When he stepped back inside, Ema was roughly running a brush through her hair by his mirror, bleary and glaring at her own reflection as she sat in her underwear.
“Please tell me it was room service with some coffee.”
“Nein, liebchen, nothing so mundane,” he chuckled, playing with the long strands of his hair. “But we are being issued a royal invitation– to a strategy meeting and breakfast.”
Ema brushed furiously at a tangle in her hair for a moment, wincing as it snagged on the brush.
“Oh! Yeah I shoulda e–ugh…ouch…shoulda expected that. We used to have a lot of those when there was that rash of trials.” She looked over her shoulder at him “…you’re really gonna do this huh? I’m glad.”
“Let it never be said that I’m not a man who does what is needed,” Klavier smiled slightly. He went to Ema’s suitcase– and then remembered it was her own room they were in. He went to her wardrobe and started pulling out clothing for her. “And it is clear that herr horn head and the prince and you are in a desperate time of need, ja?”
Emma bit her lip as she finally tamed her hair enough to tie part of it up behind her, letting the rest of it fall in waves around her shoulders.
“…I’d say. I knew it was bad but it’s worse than I even thought.” She sighed and leaned back in the chair “…we really gotta fix this.”
“Ja, it’s pretty clear.” He pulled out some clothes and laid them out on the bed for her. A pair of her favorite chocolate colored pants, a cream button down shirt, maroon vest, and a tie. He hesitated before he spoke again, but admitted. “Fraulein, I have read fantasy novels that begin this way.”
Ema stood and walked over to the bed with a stretch, glancing over at him as she started to shimmy into her pants, hiking them up over her hips. “….you have, huh? I think I’ve read the same ones.”
“Ja, and they don’t usually end well for the royals, eh, liebchen?” He had already dressed, and tugged at the hems of his amethyst tone suit jacket. “I would like to try to avert that, since you’ve gotten to know them so well. A beheading here seems tragic, wouldn’t you say?”
Ema winced, and she sucked in sharp breath as she buttoned up her shirt.
“…yeah, look. The last thing I want is for Nahyuta or Rayfa to be fucking executed. I’m not exactly Ms. Pro-Monarchy, you know? I just don’t want them to be hurt.” SHe smoothed out her shirt with a frown, and reached for her vest “…so we’ve gotta do something before this turns into a classic RPG sad backstory.”
“For herr horn head? He certainly doesn’t need another one.” Klavier shook his head. “I am worried about her highness Rayfa as well. She’s really the queen now? A child queen? With Nahyuta as her advisor?”
Ema hissed through her teeth.
“…I mean yeah, she’s basically the queen. It’ll be official the exact moment she manages to summon a spirit into herself, and until then she’s the queen with Nahyuta as her regent and advisor.” She didn’t look happy about it as she worked at her tie. “The poor kid was overworked before…having to do the dance of devotion for every trial this country ever had, but now she’s got no time at all…and Yuta’s been slowly coming apart at the seams.”
“Not a good state to be running a state in,” Klavier said darkly as the thought settled on him. “Summon a spirit— fraulein, is this country’s monarchy decided by some kind of magical and spiritual means?”
It wasn’t that Klavier didn’t believe in magic. It was more that he wanted to believe in it, but hadn’t seen anything that convinced him. If magic was real, surely things would have been different.
And magic was no kind of lie to run a monarchy on. Divine right of kings… unacceptable.
“Yeah– that was actually how they got Ga’ran deposed…especially since it led to us all figuring out she killed Apollo’s dad and ‘fake killed’ her sister and blamed Nahyuta and Rayfa’s father. She didn’t have…have any of the magic talent her sister did, she she got passed over for the crown.”
Her brow furrowed “…only a spirit medium can rule as Queen, one who has proven themselves able to summon the spirits of the dead and channel them. Rayfa can see their last moments…she can’t channel them yet.”
“Oh naturally,” Klavier drawled. “Wunderbar, this gets better and better.”
He took a deep, steadying breath and put his hands on Ema’s shoulders, straightening the lines and hems of her clothing for her.
There was not an obvious way forward in this. Well. There was, but somehow he didn’t think the little queen and her advisor would be keen to ‘abdicate while the abdication’s good.’
“Trust me, Klav.” Ema said in a quiet voice, a voice he realized was heavy with worry as she continued “I don’t like it either. The whole Ga’ran thing may not have been such a shitshow if this magical right of queens shit wasn’t real…and everyone’s working themselves to death, for what? The people ain’t happy. They’re not happy. It’s a mess.”
She finished tying her tie and tucked it under her vest with a sad laugh.
“But I’m not gonna be able to do shit to convince anyone to leave and go back to doing what they love when the weight of responsibility’s out there pushing them down. I’m hardly a great example.”
“Ja, I understand that. Even if I have lived the opposite in the past.” He shook his head, rubbing her shoulders again as he stood behind her. “Alright, you said the former queen is still alive. Presumably she knows the spirit summoning trick, ja? If Rayfa performs it, will the people of the country be pacified for a while?”
“Amara?” Ema scoffed, and venom dripped into her voice as she sharply tightened her tie. “good luck getting her to teach Rayfa it. I mean…I think she is but her teaching methods leave much to be fucking desired. The answer’s ‘probably, but’.”
“Alright, forget Amara then,” Klavier nodded. He scooped his arms under her armpits and around her waist. “We have three magicians with us. Between Trucy and the De Fammes we can put on a more convincing show than the country has ever seen. I ask again– will the trick pacify the yokels?”
Ema leaned back into him with a frown. “Maybe. Most of them. But the dragons who apparently decided they weren’t happy with their old boss’ standard MO and leanings might not be.”
Klavier sighed. “Well, I hate to fall back on tyranny, liebchen. But it sounds like these ‘dragons’ are probably in violation of the law? Are we not about to discuss a crime being committed? It hurts my rebel spirit to say it but do they not perhaps belong in jail after conviction for their crimes?”
Ema groaned and thumped her head back against his chest.
“…why’d I have to fall in love with a fucking prince.” she muttered under her breath “I hate politics.”
Klavier kissed her on the neck and sighed, holding her close. “There there, liebchen. He is very pretty, so I can’t blame you. But we need to rescue this prince or he’s going to very quickly become an ex-prince. Unless he is much more tyrannically inclined than he seemed last night. It takes a… firm hand to rule a country that is troubled, ja?”
Certainly Klavier could imagine it– did imagine it for a moment. An icier take on the man he had met last night. Black gloved and quietly mad with power.
A man like that would know what to do about a few rebels.
But he wouldn’t be a good man.
“I mean, not anymore at least.” Ema leaned back to look up at Klavier “…he could be pretty ruthless, admittedly. Back when he was a prosecutor. Quietly giving everyone their last rites before they’d be thrown behind bars. But that was Ga’ran’s will. Nahyuta…”
She shook her head “you’re right. We’ve gotta save him.”
“Pretty and ruthless, you say?” Klavier smiled a little fondly, and shook himself out of the daydream. “Ja, we’ll save him. I don’t know how yet, but maybe we’ll get a brainwave at this meeting. And we shouldn’t keep your prince waiting.”
He released her from his arms, and offered her his hand.
Ema squeezed his hand with a huff and a flush.
“…doesn’t have to be only my prince, if you play your cards right, piano man.”
“Unfortunately, skill with cards doesn’t run in my blood,” he chuckled.leading her to the door. “But maybe I can play the right notes instead, ja?.”
October 4, 2028– 6:25 am
Apollo and Nahyuta made their way to the garden only shortly after the servants and guards had set up the light breakfast– out of the way of any potential clues to the graffiti crime that might have been missed.
Apollo scowled at it as they passed it, skirting the police line that Ema had set up.
“I really can’t believe it.”
“Unfortunately..” Nahyuta sighed. “I can. It was perhaps naive to imagine they might accept us right away. Father was beloved as a dragon…Mother was beloved as a queen…but we’re a little more… controversial. I suppose.”
“I still don’t understand why she didn’t take the throne back, but. it is what it is,” Apollo murmured. There were footsteps from down the way they’d just come, and Apollo saw Trucy and the De Fammes coming along the way.
He waved them over, cutting off wherever else they might have chased that thought.
Trucy’s smile went ear to ear the moment she saw Apollo, and she came running up with a cheerful wave that died only a second later when she happened to glance on Nahyuta.
Her eyes narrowed over her faux-cheerful smile.
“….good morning, big brother. Good morning Mr. Last Rites Prosecutor.”
“You can call me Nahyuta, Miss Wright.” Nahyuta gave her a smile.
“Morning, Trucy. Heh– little sis.” Apollo reached out and teasingly grabbed the brim of her hat. It was so strange to think about. He actually had family. It was… a lot to think about. He’d hardly had time to process it.
The De Famme twins stood behind like backup dancers– though Apollo noticed at least one of them looking Nahyuta over curiously.
Nahyuta turned his long lashed stare towards the three of them, bowing his head.
“thank you for joining us so early.”
One of the bunnies…Bonny, Apollo could recognize, put her finger to her chin with a smile as she looked them over curiously “never a problem with nice company…right sis?”
Trucy laughed with her hand on her hip, “Not a problem at all, Mr. Nahyuta, sir~”
Apollo could feel his bracelet tighten a bit at his sister’s big grin and cheerful declaration.
He glanced her way– but there was nothing wrong with a polite lie when you didn’t want to get up early.
“Eh, it’s probably worth getting up for at least,” the other bunny shrugged, tapping her cane on the ground. “At least there’s tea. Wanna get me a cup, Bon?”
As they started toward the table, Ema and Klavier turned the corner.
“Looks like the meeting’s going to get started,” Apollo said with a nervous smile. “So… definitely a good time for that tea.”
The tea was poured in short order, and the conversation grew from there. Ema had murmured about her desperation for coffee at first, but quickly melted out of her grumpy mood to chatter pleasantly and give her greetings to Apollo, Nahyuta and Trucy’s troupe. For some reason..she really seemed to be trying to get Klavier to talk to Nahyuta.
Trucy sipped her tea, excitedly trying to get Apollo’s attention as she sat almost cuddled between the flanking assistant…though her eyes kept straying with a curious expression towards Nahyuta while they spoke.
“So,” Klavier said as the idle chatter died and drifted toward business. “As I understand it there are two big topics that we must address today, ja? Firstly, the state of the court and these legal proceedings on you and herr horn head’s shoulders, and secondly the ah…. political unrest that has led to the unsolved crime in this garden.”
Nahyuta sighed, running his hand through his hair with a smile “yes…I know we did some preliminary investigation yesterday…Miss Skye, anything to report?”
Ema looked up from her tea with a grin “not yet, sir, still waiting on the results from my support team. But it’s my hope we can get some kinda lead from it.”
“Why don’t we discuss the court situation first then?” Apollo suggested rubbing the back of his neck. “If Klavier’s willing to stay for a while and take some of the case load off of Nahyuta, that would free him up to at least handle some of the political things that have been falling to Rayfa, right?”
He glanced at Nahyuta, to see how he reacted to the suggestion.
Nahyuta looked over at Klavier with a thoughtful expression before he nodded with approval. “Honestly…that would be a tremendous help to us both. Thank you, Klavier. I’ll want to talk to you about that some time in private so I can give you a rundown of Khura’in law.”
Trucy suddenly sat up and slapped her hands on the table “Troupe Wright has a plan too!!” she suddenly announced.
“I’ll need the rundown, mein prinz, but I’m at your service,” Klavier said with one of his melodramatic little flourishes. He turned to Trucy. “Let’s hear what the magician has to say, ja?”
Apollo had startled at Trucy’s sudden movement and she immediately had his full attention. What the heck was she going to suggest?
Knowing Trucy, it could be anything.
Trucy snapped her fingers, and Bonny leapt into motion…her umbrella snapped open to cover Trucy for a moment, and when it closed she was gone.
A moment later she popped out behind Apollo with a broad smile and her magic panties in hand , counting a cheerful
“One, two , three!!” and pulling something small and glistening in the morning sun from within…
Apollo’s defense badge.
“Defense Attorney Trucy Wright, at your majesty’s service~~”
Apollo squealed and groped at his chest where the badge should have been– then stared at her. “Again, Trucy?”
Klavier meanwhile laughed and clapped. “A good trick, fraulein, marvelous!”
“Thank you, thank you!” Trucy dipped into a low bow as she pinned the badge on her lapel “…I hereby offer my services as counsel to the accused to alleviate the burden on my big brother!”
Apollo kept staring at her. She was being serious, despite the act.
“Trucy, that’s a wonderful, generous offer. There’s only one problem,” he pointed out. “You’re not a lawyer. You haven’t even graduated highschool. You don’t even go to the lawyer high school.”
“But I’ve been working as co-counsel for you for like…years now, Polly!” she puffed her cheeks with her hands on her hips “I mean…I know law just as good as anyone else! Daddy taught me, you’ve taught me…I..”
She pointed at him “I usually figured things out even before YOU did! And you’re buddy buddy with the prince here, aren’t you? I’m doing this to help you, so I’m SURE they can make some kind of exception!”
Apollo looked helplessly at Nahyuta. “Well– what do you think? I mean, she has helped me out in court plenty before, but… I mean this is serious. Could we really…?”
Ema leaned on her hand “…Trucy Wright, Ace Attorney?” she snickered “has a ring to it…but she’s kinda young?”
Nahyuta looked at Trucy with a thoughtful hum.
“…I remember the Gramaryeland trial.” he said slowly “you proved yourself a young lady of good heart and firm conviction against the accusations of an impure and hateful soul.”
“Y-yeah.” Trucy huffed “I mean, yeah, I sure had to!”
“How does it work legally here, herr engel?” Klavier asked. “Who is allowed to defend another in court?”
“While it’s customary to attend legal training at the temple, the strict requirement is the approval of the Justice Department and the signing of your license.”
“Trucy Wright doesn’t need to pass the bar.” Trucy rubbed her hands together.
“And I imagine, mein prinz, that you are in charge of the Justice Department?” Klavier asked.
Apollo was getting more and more uncomfortable. He was glad that Trucy wanted to help him but…
Is this really okay?
Most of the trials that we’re looking at aren’t even that serious, Apollo. Its not like she’ll have to defend murders. She could just do the paperwork, essentially.
I suppose… it would take a lot of pressure off.
Nahyuta answered thoughtfully.
“Normally I would deny a request like this …trials are not to be taken lightly after all. The training one typically receives is for good reason.” He looked up at Trucy as she started to frown, “but these retrials …they’re predominantly paperwork and evidence review. If she’s interested in law, then it can serve as a sort of…” he thought for a moment “training. As head of the department of Justice, I’ll allow it. Tentatively.“
Trucy crossed her arms with a nod “Thanks…this is all to help Polly, after all.”
"As long as it’s just the excess paperwork, and kind of a training thing,” Apollo nodded. “That should be fine– and it really would take a lot of the weight off our shoulders.”
Klavier grinned. “Wunderbar! I was actually going to bring up something of the same myself, but it seems Trucy had the idea as well..”
Ema nodded with a chuckle.
“yeah…it looks like she did.” She looked at Trucy with a curious look in her eyes, perhaps wondering just how much of it was ‘just to help’ and how much was some hidden excitement.
Trucy put her hands on her hips with a laugh “Wunderbar!! Now you’re not gonna have a heart attack while defending a hundred guys a day, Polly!”
Apollo laughed– but it was hardly even a joke, was it. “Thanks, Trucy. You’re the best.”
Klavier clapped. “Fantastisch! Then perhaps we should move to the other topic, and leave the details for now?”
“Ja~” Trucy said with a big grin at Klavier.
Somehow, she’d started picking up the German.
Somehow, Apollo felt just a little more exhausted. But hopeful.
–
October 4, 2028– 7:15 am
The group split after breakfast, Ema and Apollo to get the results of the investigation and carry it forward, leaving Klavier, Trucy and Nahyuta headed to the palace’s judicial offices to make the new arrangement legal. The De Fammes had said something about ‘seeing the sights’.
“So how do you feel to be working as an attorney, fraulein?” Klavier asked as they headed down the palace hall.
Trucy grinned with her hands folded behind her back. It felt good, honestly…ever since the idea came to her she’d felt a tingly sort of excitement at the idea. Attorney Trucy Wright, just like her daddy…just like Apollo. Someone who fought for a client to the bitter end, who— who solved mysteries and actually helped people..
“Honestly, kinda excited? Daddy always made it look so interesting…and I always loved standing on the bench with Apollo, ya know?”
Nahyuta hummed softly. “Surrounded by law as you are, I’m surprised you haven’t begun studies for it already, Miss Wright.”
Trucy puffed out her cheeks with a huff. “I mean, I’m a magician. A Gramarye magician… magic’s what I was pretty much born to do.”
“Well, liebchen, if you like magic, you should stick with magic, ja? But you’re the only one who decides what you were born to do. Did you know my father was a defense attorney?”
“Just like mine.” Nahyuta chuckled with his arms crossed delicately over his chest. “interesting…”
Trucy gasped, her hand going to her mouth. She hadn’t expected it…she knew Klavier’s brother was a defense attorney, but his father too? He’d come from a long line…and yet he didn’t follow in their footsteps. The same, it seemed went for Nahyuta. She felt a sting of frustration, remembering the Gramarye trial, and the accusations of her ‘impure soul’ and the expectation that he and Retinz seemed to have that she’d follow in the dark legacy her family name had sown. That she was just as bad, or would be soon enough.
“For real? He was? But you became a prosecutor, Klavvy! And you too, Last Rites Prosecu–”
“Please…” Nahyuta said with a quiet, almost desperate huff “Nahyuta is fine.”
Klavier chuckled, though Trucy wasn’t quite sure what elicited it.
“Poor Nahyuta– everyone makes you sound so big and scary. But your father was a defense attorney as well? Funny thing to have in common.” He nodded to Trucy. “Ja, he was a very famous one in fact, but not one whose footsteps I would like to follow.”
Famous…but not the one who’s footsteps he wanted to follow. She knew better than most exactly who he meant…her daddy had been very close with Mr. Kristoph for a long time, and it’d always been clear how much Klavier idolized him.
She couldn’t say it out loud, she knew it’d be a knife to Klavier’s heart.
“I suppose it’s my own doing.” he chuckled. “I made myself out to be rather frightful for a long while, and now I’m reaping what I’ve sown…but it is, isn’t it? Yes…Dhurke was a defense attorney until the revolution happened. That office Apollo works out of used to be his. Funny thing to have in common..”
Trucy bit her lip, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as they walked. It was the both of them, both men choosing paths of their own in the wake of famous fathers. “…so he was famous…but you wanted to follow other footsteps? For the both of you, i guess.”
“I don’t know Nahyuta’s story of course,” Klavier said, perhaps making the effort to use his name, since he’d been asked. “But my father was not a man I wanted to emulate, ja? And my brother was already following in his footsteps besides– I was going to rival him, instead of mirror him. Well, then music happened anyway.”
He shook his head, and toyed with the shaggy ends of his hair again.
Trucy winced slightly at the mention of Klavier’s brother, a sore subject for everyone, her fingers clasping the corner of her cape as she looked down with a smile. “that makes sense…I remember some of that now that I think about it.”
Kristoph had always been so nice to her when she was younger…and yet. The wounds he left on Klavier and everyone else went deep.
Nahyuta put his hand to his chin. “to become a rival to your brother…instead of the path laid out for you. It’s admirable, Klavier. I…respected my father, but his methods weren’t mine. I wanted to change Khura’in in my own way instead of merely being a copy of my father.”
“That seems more admirable than my own selfish little path, Nahyuta,” Klavier grinned casually, his hands in his pockets. “But I get it. Who wants to be a copy, ja? Even of someone you admire.”
“You strike me as a man of contradictions, Klavier.” Nahyuta said with his eyes closed and a half smile. “both too humble and yet the opposite at the same time.”
“Ough.” Trucy laughed, and rubbed her neck.
Who wants to be a copy, even of someone you admire. Trucy flashed back to her father, big smile and hands on his hips as he laughed heartily and told her that they’d never hand down the verdict on him…
That it would be the last day she ever saw him.
She thought of herself, forcing the same big smile every day as she fought to protect the family secrets from people hurt and slighted by her own grandfather and deliver a show that’d make everyone smile…
Almost everyone. Sometimes she didn’t feel like smiling at all.
“I wouldn’t wanna be anyone’s copy!” She chirped “nobody wants to pay attention to someone who’s not bringing anything new to the table, you know?”
“Exactly, fraulein, exactly!” Klavier grinned widely as they arrived at Nahyuta’s office. “And Nahyuta, I promise you I can never be too humble, ja?”
He lingered by the door, waiting for Nahyuta to lead them in.
Nahyuta put his hand to his chin “you may be perfect for the temple with an attitude like that.” he purred. “ever think of becoming a monk?”
He opened the door and waved them inside.
“Nein, I don’t think being a monk would suit me,” Klavier said, shaking his head as he entered. Trucy watched him give Nahyuta a coy look. “I have never had a chaste day in my life.”
“There’s no vow of chastity in Khura’inism, Klavier Gavin.” Nahyuta stepped out of the way and waved her inside too.
She followed and looked around curiously. It was a handsome office, sure…flowering plants by the window, a low table with settings for tea and a bunch of paperwork in the corner…there was even some kind of shrine to a woman without a face right behind it…
The holy mother, she reminded herself as the memory of the big trial against Ga’ran came back to her.
She couldn’t believe Klavier and the Sad Monk were flirting right in front of her.
But she totally could.
“Is that so?” Klavier grinned. “Well, if I were a man who believed in holy things, then I’d consider it. But right now we are already engaged in the only religion that my family has ever practiced. Shall we sign over young Trucy’s soul to it, ja?”
He waved at the legal books and the documents on the desk.
Nahyuta laughed, and Trucy was a little frustrated that it was so pretty. “Sign over her soul…what a way to put it. But not entirely untrue, in it’s way.”
He walked over and began pulling sheets from the drawers beside the shrine.
“You make it sound like a devil’s bargain.” Trucy pursed her lips with a huff. “…not that I mind that. “
Klavier grinned that showstopping, stage-light grin of his and pulled his sunglasses down over his nose from where they’d been perched in his hair.
“Who’s to say it isn’t, fraulein? They say the devil is in the details, and the devil’s advocate was a defense attorney, ja? Law is a tool of justice, fraulein. Much like a knife is a tool for whatever you cut. Nahyuta and I are handing you a knife, and asking you to make a pledge.”
Nahyuta raised his eyebrow, and his smile turned a touch amused as he turned to offer the page.
“A knife and a pledge. My fellow prosecutor speaks true…the knife of justice calls to those who yearn to wield it, just as Lady Kee’ra once learned when she took up the dagger in the Holy Mother’s name.”
He produced the documents with his angelic smile “Here you are, Miss Wright. We shall see just where this will lead your mitamah.”
She looked between them. They were a couple of hams. Absolute drama queens trying to out drama one another.
But she wasn’t any better. Maybe it was her magician’s blood…or maybe something deep inside her sense of fun. She couldn’t help but play along.
She dipped into a sweeping bow, and snatched the papers “I’ll take the pledge, alright. Magical Girl Trucy Wright is going to be the best dang defense attorney you’ve ever seen. You two’d better get ready to see what happens when a tool’s used by a real master.”
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