THE MOCK INQUISITION

[strangerpeople]

[Soon after the final clue is found, there are three more loud, unsettling tonal clangs. Those in the first floor vestibule will hear another, loud creak afterwards, coming from the set of doors.

The set of doors on the left are slowly opening, revealing a long, long corridor, with a very long flight of stairs going upwards just barely visible at the end of it.

The Intercessor's voice booms through the air and shakes the ground, sounding loud and clear no matter where the Titled might be standing at that moment.]

ENTER!

[The voice brooks no argument. As soon as everyone goes through the set of double doors, they close behind them. There is no choice. The Titled must go up the stairs at the end of the hall. They feel like they take forever, but when the stars are finally traversed, there is a single door at the top, already open to them.

Welcome to the Debate Hall, Titled. Its perhaps the best-lit place you've seen, with gas lamps on the wall bright as possible. Its also the emptiest place they've ever seen so far - its massive and yet the Titled and the Intercessor are the only individuals to be seen in the entire area.

So, Titled, don't mind the faint chanting coming from the darkness behind that stage at the other end. There's no real way to hear what's being said, no matter how close you try to get, or if there's even anyone on or behind the stage to make such chanting possible. The only person remotely close to the stage, standing on the stone steps, is the Intercessor. Maybe its in your mind. You've been paranoid the past week, after all.

Maybe this is just all insane to begin with.

So. Take your seats at your stone desks to face one another as you debate. And yes, they are stone. Yes, they have stone chairs with which to sit in. And yes, your Title is on your assigned chair, etched in with chisel and hammer. Every desk also has a copy of the Writs with Orders 7 and 8 circled, and a copy of the autopsy file of the deceased on top of it; that is all the aid you will get from whoever brought you here. The rest, it seems, is up to the Titled, with what they have found.

Once everyone has taken their seats, the strange, ominous chanting stops. Its time. Bound in blood, the death warrant has already been signed. The contract is complete. Its now just a question of finding the guilty party to fulfill the call for justice.


The Inquisition of Kanna Hijiri has begun.]

Comments

[crywiththesaints]

That's a bold claim. Especially with what she said about the world forcing you into a body once.

[coldsouls]

... No. He's not lying, Sakura. We created all the souls and bodies of humanity together... before that.

[crywiththesaints]

Then everything you said about "life" was because you made it.

[coldsouls]

... Yup. Sure did.

[ She's smiling, but it's a lot more fake than before. Plastic, almost. ]

[crywiththesaints]

Until the world punished you for some infraction or another. Maybe it's pointless to ask why. In any case, you were in one body. Singular, as he implied. A little more literally inseparable than you are now.

[coldsouls]

It's... a long story. We were stuck together. For a long time. We wanted out. Ideally, as two separate people.

But it didn't work out. So we ended up "Elluka Clockworker" instead... the guise I kept for... quite some time.

[crywiththesaints]

One identity for hundreds of years, is that it?

[coldsouls]

Yes. I had one body, at first. I used my body swap technique once, to change bodies with a woman after a specific event happened. Then we were in her body. But, we were still together. We kept that body for hundreds of years... I was rather fond of it.

I would have preferred it over this one, ideally.

[ ... If she were... being honest. She is more "Elluka" then "Levia" anymore. ]

[crywiththesaints]

Was it this place that put you the way you are now, or something external?

[coldsouls]

It was... something external. We got into a fight.

[ She sighs. ]

We got blown to the Realm of the Court--separately, I assume. I don't even know if my old body is okay anymore, if I'm being honest. I have no idea what happened. This is a form I haven't taken in quite some time.

[crywiththesaints]

Well, this place can apparently revive the dying, so I don't see why not.

[warmdolls]

It's a true one. She's the one who made the souls. Oh, we ended up incarnated into a human body once, but that was our choice.

[crywiththesaints]

..."A" body.

[warmdolls]

...Why do you think I can so easily recount the same exact events? I was dormant for... About six hundred years. But I kept all those memories.

[crywiththesaints]

Memories from life after life... I'd almost think it was funny, if we didn't have something to deal with.

[warmdolls]

Singular. That mage... Never died. We were together for so long. So why would I send her to her death unless I had good reason?

[crywiththesaints]

Because you did. An opportunity came up, the incentive taunted you with the safety of the one person you had left. Doesn't that mean that it would have ended the same either way?

[warmdolls]

...But if I did it... Then why would I have allowed her to get herself killed like this? Why not confess myself?

[crywiththesaints]

Because there was something you could do at home, wasn't there?

[warmdolls]

Not really. I'd just be killing time there.

[crywiththesaints]

[This is a ridiculous proposal, but...]

Literally?

[coldsouls]

... Killing time? ... Behemo...

[ She'll finally look over at him, eyes pleading. Please talk to her. What... was that implication earlier? ]

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna's been thinking for a while during this line of reasoning, and now she finally speaks up again.]

Sir Behemo. A few days ago, when we received the letters, whose picture did you receive?

[warmdolls]

...Why do you ask?

[ POINTEDLY. Not answering. ]

[coldsouls]

[ ...!

... She... why is she asking this? No... no, Arianna, that's a good question. She'd assumed it was her picture, but...

She's listening very closely now. ]