Chapter Text
"I must say," Beldaruit commented airily as he surveyed the interior of the cramped 'meeting room' of the tower as he leaned on the arm of his sealchair. "This is quite the dreary place."
"And I must ask you to reconsider this madness, Beldaruit." The voice of a captain of the Knights Moralis rang around the old stone of the room, with a clipped tone that gave away that his words were hardly a suggestion.
He was also ignoring the empty chair in the room in favour of towering over Beldaruit, perhaps in hopes of intimidating him. Honestly, Beldaruit found the attempt rather drab. Lacklustre. If the man wanted to try intimidation, could he at least try not to be this boring about it?
"I'm afraid that it's not up to you to decide what counts as madness." Beldaruit replied, even though he was aware that at least half of their community would, in fact, instantly consider this as madness, and the other half would agree once their open mouths were done catching flies.
This in question being taking an outsider as an apprentice. Forget scandalous, he knew that in a normal situation, this was considered illegal.
And that was precisely why he had emphasised on the abnormality of this incident when he had presented his case in front of the Council. Now, he could only pray for permission while he waited.
"And I am afraid it's not up to you to just walk in and whisk the child away in the middle of an investigation."
"Oh, I won't be doing that until I receive permission. I just wondered whether I could meet him before that. Keep him company till then, perchance."
"Permission," the man hissed, flaring up with derision. "I suggest you go home straight away. Now."
"I am afraid I can't do that just yet. I'm already behind schedule, you see. A great deal of stuff to prepare for, you know how it is with a new student. Honestly, I got a little delayed. I was prepared to go to the Medical Spire instead of here. Considering that's where I should be seeing my injured apprentice."
The man's eyes narrowed at the indirect accusation. "The doctors have attended to him already, and he's not your apprentice." Yet. "The boy is in no danger, and we will move him to the Spire ourselves when the investigation ends."
"Is that truly good enough a reason to keep him locked up here? Surely there's only so many ways the child knows how to tell you that he remembers nothing."
"There is more to investigate and you know that, Beldaruit." The man grimaced, a heavy set to his jaw now. "We are dealing with forbidden magic here, you know we cannot let the boy out of our sight until we can be sure that it's truly safe, for the sake of everyone. To let him into the Medical Spire? Do you have any idea what dangers that poses to the doctors there?"
"And yet, I hear that not a single trace of ink blemishes his skin." The man's expression twitched a little at this; he knew Beldaruit had made a valid point. "He should have been shifted to the Medical Spire the moment no hidden magic glyphs were found, he can still answer any of your questions from there."
"He could still be dangerous. No magic that we know of was found. There's a vital distinction, you fool-"
"And so you keep him, an injured child, in a prison cell, because we have devised such novel ways of searching for some magic we don't know of."
He had apparently stepped on a nerve now, as the captain rapidly lost his cool. "Prison cell? I have told you this already, the boy has already been treated, and he's fine. We haven't touched a hair on his head, alright? So I've had enough of you acting like we are treating him like a criminal while you are simply concerned. Get off your high horse! All we're doing is keeping him in a room-"
"That he can't leave."
"Because. It. Is. Dangerous." The captain yelled, looming all over Beldaruit's personal space.
"You speak as though you give reasons, and yet all I hear is excuses."
"Enough of this stupidity already! We are sending him to the Spire when it is safe to, and when he heals up, we erase his memories and send him to live with an outsider family, and that's the end of it all! You don't need to concern yourself with this matter anymore, so you can put your stupid idea to rest and go home."
"It's a little too late for that now, isn't it?" Beldaruit stated, leaning back into his chair. "And about how the matter ends, we'll see that soon."
"Do you think you can just go ahead and decide to break the biggest law of witches on a little whim while the rest of us should just roll over and let it happen? Want us to become nice stepping stones for those little hooves of yours while you are at that?"
"I've left that decision to the Council, actually." Beldaruit returned, his voice ice cold. "And you should be doing the same. Let them decide what I am allowed to do, as is their job, I believe, while you go and do yours. I'll wait here until their verdict arrives."
The man opened and closed his mouth a few times, too enraged for words, but said nothing.
'Go ahead,' Beldaruit thought viciously. 'See if you argue any more without managing to demean the authority of the Council.'
But in the end the captain turned and stormed out of the room in defeat.
"Resting my pretty little hooves, for once." Beldaruit snidely added as he left, just out of sheer pettiness.
"That sure went well." A familiar and much more welcome voice called from the doorway.
"He wants to become the Wise in Principles, if you can believe it," Vinanna fake whispered as she strode into the room.
"He'll certainly be needing a cooler head for that. Shame that having one would count as forbidden magic."
Beldaruit watched as Vinanna ignored the chair completely and perched on the table instead. "Why even keep chairs if none of you ever sit on them?"
"It feels better to sit this way. Besides, you are way more theatrical, so who are you to complain?"
"Theatrical? Who, me?" he asked as he leaned over the table, spreading his arms and billowing sleeves all over it. Vinanna rolled her eyes.
But her demeanour soon turned serious.
"I understand that you sympathise with the boy. But it's not like I don't have doubts about this whole thing that you are doing either," she said, leaning on her staff.
"I figured that much."
"Look, Beldaruit," she twisted the banner between her fingers. "There's no gentle way to put this, but I'll say it anyway:
That boy was definitely buried alive for a reason.”
That was most definitely true. The Brimhat must have been in a hurry to escape, and yet they had gone out of the way to erase the memories of a half dead child and then bury him instead of just finishing the job, as morbid as that was. There had to be a reason behind it.
"That's what's making everyone paranoid. If the Brimhats target him again, he could bring a lot of trouble with him."
“I know that. But Vinanna, is that not all more the reason for him to become a witch? After all, if he's the one who could be targeted, then that means he is also the one in the midst of most danger.
“If there is a chance of him being harmed again, then in that case I'd rather prefer to have him on the side of the Knowing than not. After all, there is power in knowledge.”
That was the thing Beldaruit believed in the most, a simple truth. The knowledge you have gained will harm you not, only that which you lack will.
"That might be true, but have you considered the danger you could bring to yourself by taking him under your wing?" She questioned, staring hard at him.
"I can handle myself that much." He shot back, maintaining eye contact.
She sighed. "If you say so," she said, leaping off the table. "Just tell me you'll consider it thoroughly."
"I will."
"You do that.” Vinanna relented with another sigh. “Now, then." She glanced at the clock. "It's about time for my turn to stand guard. I gotta go.”
"Miss Vinanna?" A knight called at that very moment, ducking into the room. He looked young, a little green around the edges. Must be new. "We're supposed to switch shifts?"
"I'm on my way there, don't look so worried." She balanced the banner on her shoulder. "That aside, you saw the boy, didn't you? How is he doing? Everything fine?"
"I, well," he rubbed his neck. "He's alright, I suppose. Not really doing much of anything though. He hasn't even as much as budged from his spot.
"Kind of freaky, to be honest,” he continued to mutter, more of an afterthought, a comment meant for himself. “Won't even cry. It'd be less freaky if he did, I think.”
Beldaruit pressed his knuckles against his forehead as he sighed, trying to calm his ire and failed spectacularly. Next to him, Vinanna's eyes hardened.
"If someone bothered remembering that they are talking about a child, wouldn't that be something?" He glared at the rapidly paling knight. "Have you even considered the possibility that he could be too exhausted to even cry before passing your own opinions?”
"Don't say stuff like that again." Vinanna added as she left with a warning pat on the knight's shoulder. He practically collapsed into the empty chair from their combined scrutiny, looking green around the neck, quite literally this time.
Well, that was not Beldaruit's problem to deal with.
At least someone was using that damned chair.