On Cosmic Tides

A thud sounded from the main entrance. Lucy glanced over at the door. She listened until all of a sudden her stockings felt wet. She looked down and realized the planter was overflowing. The plant would not be happy. Maybe she should hide it in one of the unused classrooms? Now her stockings were wet and there was still someone knocking on the door. Her eyes watered and her lips trembled.

“Moooommmyyy!”

*******

Laurel swept down the main staircase, the rest of the sect trailing behind like so many ducklings. A distraught Lucy was not something anyone with a heart could withstand without trying to fix it. Glow stones lit up in their scones as they moved by, beating back the darkness of the autumn evening. The knocking continued uninterrupted.

When the door finally opened it revealed a harried looking man in a subdued suit put into disarray by the wind, the royal crest embroidered on one shoulder. Behind him were two guards looking warily at the sect, hands drifting towards weapons.

“At last! I’ll have you know, impeding a royal messenger is a serious crime.” The man attempted to pat his clothes back into some sort of order. He soon recognized the futility and gave up. Instead, he proffered a sealed envelope to Laurel, who was still standing in front of her sect. “Consider this your official notification. You are being brought up on civil charges by the Merchant’s Guild and a collection of noble houses, see list. You are required by law to halt any actions that pertain to the accusations, up to and including the recent recruitment activities. You will be notified when your hearing date is set.”

The man turned to go. Quick as a viper, Laurel’s hand shot out to grab his wrist. “Hold! Explain!”

Before she could get anything else out, the guards had each drawn and aimed a handgun.

“Unhand me at once. You have already been warned about interfering with inquisitors.”

Laurel looked from the armed men to her sect tensed behind her. She released the man and stepped back. “I apologize. I do not understand what is going on.”

“I am a messenger, not a barrister. I have delivered the message. If you require legal terms explained, find a scribe.” With that he turned on his heel and marched out the way he came in. The guards were slower to depart, keeping their guns aimed at Laurel until they were out of the doors.

“You said we were safe in here, that guns or nothing can hurt us.” Rebecca’s tremulous voice broke the heavy silence that filled the room after their guests left.

“That’s true, I still don’t want to start a fight with the royal guards if we can avoid it.” Laurel turned and looked at her tiny sect. Every pair of eyes was trained back on her. Some were angry, some afraid, all looking for direction. “Why don’t we go upstairs and discuss. Adam, I’ve been told to find a scribe so I’ll let you take a first crack at these.” She handed off the envelope as everyone trundled up to the rotunda.

******

A fire crackled merrily away, unaware of the agitation of the sect members scattered around the lounge. Annette had finished passing out the tea, while Lucy was put to bed by Esther. The rest were sitting in silence. Laurel’s face was a mask of calm, undermined by her pacing back and forth across the room. As Adam put the last page down and leaned back she twirled and marched to the central area he had commandeered. She sank into the couch opposite him and raised an eyebrow.

“It's bad,” he said. “They’re main problem with us is that we are ‘restricting access to a public resource, and monetizing it for profit’. There are a bunch of other things in there but those are mostly bullshit. Pretty common tactic for the barristers in the guild to throw a bunch of charges at the wall and see what sticks. Some stuff about hunting without a license and causing a public disturbance, but the main thing they focus on is the monopoly.”

“What, exactly, are we monopolizing?” Laurel looked around for clarification. “Have we even sold anything yet?”

Leander scuffed his feet to get attention and then tilted his head towards the crystal pedestal they were clustering around.

“The City Core? How does that even make sense, only one person can be fully bonded to it at a time, and it’s not like any of them could do it. If anything we should be paid for the service.”

“But it's unique, and we probably could profit off it. You mentioned there are a bunch of other features we haven’t touched on yet,” Adam said.

Laurel launched back out of her seat and went back to pacing. Her hair started floating on its own as lightning coursed through her body. Sectmasters were supposed to be strong, wise. But here she was, entirely at a loss. She paused to look over her sect, all of them looking to her for direction. The kids she had promised a home, the mortals simply looking for a protected place to work. Adam and Annette, her friends. It galled her but she opened her mouth and spit it out.

“I do not know how to defend against this kind of attack. If a rival Sectmaster had challenged my honor like this, I would crush him in a duel. Simple. That isn’t an option here. Instead we have these poisonous words from cowards hiding behind guns and technicalities. What should we do?”

Adam let out an undignified snort. “Glad you’ve realized the rest of us are here. I wasn’t a barrister when I was in the guild, but I was certified. I can handle the legal nonsense.”

Annette cleared her throat. “These things are never decided on the legalities. I can manage our public reputation. The crown won’t be able to punish us too harshly if the public loves us.”

Laurel looked around and saw each member slowly offer something to the cause.

Leander held his stone up last. “This is home, they can’t take.”

She smiled at her new family. “What’s the plan?”

********

Breakfast pastries in hand, the three sect officers met in Adam’s office in the back of the library. He had cleared his usual clutter off to a side table with few enough complaints, and they gathered around his desk to discuss their strategies.

“First things first. Laurel, the basics of Meristan civil justice work as follows. We go in front of the judge along with our accusers. They produce evidence, we have a chance to offer counterarguments, then the judge decides who’s right.” Adam said through a full mouth.

“Ridiculous. Who are these people to judge me?”

“The king” Annette added from where she was skimming the list of accusers. “These are high nobles, that means the king is the only one who can sit in judgment of them.”

“That’s good for us, isn’t it? We already got permission from the king.” Laurel felt her temper rising at the back and forth trivialities.

“Maybe,” Annette said.

Adam let out a huff, finished eating. “The king has to be answerable to the senate, which is half nobles. If it turns out it's better politically not to support us, it won’t matter what we’ve discussed. Plus you think he wouldn’t prefer one of his noble cronies handling the Core? No, we can't assume he’s on our side.”

“So what, by all the stars, are we actually supposed to do?” Laurel sighed and looked out the window, up towards the city and palace. “We haven’t actually broken these stupid laws, but they can just say we did, and the king will side with them?”

“It's like a game of byd. You have to prepare for each move the other side might make, and figure out your countermoves. First thing we need is our own opener.”