Cleonora listened as Quince went off explaining things. Magic would matter, however one other question that Quince didn't address lingered in her mind. "Tell me Quince, if you are aware, why was she in the prison to begin with? What caused her to be locked away?" That was the main question, and the one that everything hung upon, even if few here knew it.
Sulvanii nods in agreement. "Wow! Now I remember why he is the ruler! You have such a way with words!"
"I can answer that one, Cleonora. Mostly it was my fault. In my hubris I made enemies when I lived in Taldor. We lived as royalty and this was even before Saren. Living gods among the mortals as they would call it. Well my daughter in her actions tipped the scale in the wrong direction. Calistra took the side of the other gods we angered. In her wrath, my entire family was lost to me. I was cursed to roam with my power stripped, to live without my family." He replies in humility. "My daughter was carefree and lived a royal's life and you know how the youth can be... she slept with the wrong person and all the mud ran down the hill at our family."
"So they hated you, but in the end it was your daughter's own actions that got you there?" Cleonora asked to ensure she had that correct. Which she was fairly sure she did. "From the sound of it I'd say you'd only be partly to blame. She chose to live recklessly, to do as she pleased with abandonment. Many nobles do it, and it is why they are often hated." Cleonora said calmly.
"Was your family aware of the hatred bore towards you?" Cleonora asked. She was going to take all factors into account it seemed.
"Yes we did know of the hatred, we caused most of it on purpose. Don't the powerful like to the weak squirm? Yes we all knew of the infighting as nobles and royals know it well. No in truth it was my pious nature and feeling invincible that brought us to that point. To blame her for it all would be to blame the weight of a waterskin that broke a camels back after several overladen chests were on the camel's back. It was my fault, well my family's. She added her fair share to the weight but we all added it together over the years." He points out.
"I understand what you say." Cleonora said as she settled back in her chair and crossed her legs. "She is part of your family. She knew how the gods felt. Yet chose to take an action that would anger them further." Cleonora pointed out. "I am not saying she is soley to blame. The rest of your family made their choices just as she did, as you did. But she does not have clean hands in this. Had she simply been a bystander of their wrath, prevoked but only you or say you and her mother, then all would be forgiven. But she made a choice, knowing the circumstances of your family as they where. She is not blameless, and as such a percentage of what happened rests upon her shoulders." Cleonora said. "Some choices weight upon us all our lives and even to the boneyard itself. The scars we cannot erase show us life's true cost. My own soul bares the weight of my choices. I willingly plunge my hands into the blood of others, the scum of this world, to ensure the safety of those innocent, yet I know when my time in the boneyard comes, my days of death and darkness will see me to the rings of Hell itself. I have accepted my fate as the cost of my own choices. So too must all who make their choice." Cleonora explained with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"As she sealed her own fate, being the catalyst to something much larger, so too do I hold her accountable for that. Her time in the prison came partly from her own making, and as such, all effects after are of her own as well." Cleonora stated. "Just as should one wish to take revenge upon me for someone I killed, it was brought on by my own making. Even if the person I killed was a murderer themselves."
"I am sorry this is likely not what you want to hear, but that is how it is." She sighed and shook her head. She honestly wondered if any would understand what she was getting at.
"I hate the way you skew things but I agree, it is how it is." He agrees.
"She was a spoiled royal brat who slept with a slew of partiers, she was frivolous with gold and possessions, ill intent well more like no intent she did what she wanted not caring who it affected, at least that is how I remember it. You could ask her. She would throw carnal balls and let all sorts of miscreants into our houses. She would open our stores and let vermin take that which is ours. Such a waste as the soldiers slew them on my command." He seems to wake from his memory and looks aghast, sobbing he stands up and runs from the room.
"So what actions would you say Elizabeth added to the pile, and were they with ill intentions?" He questions.
Quince sits quietly clearly his face shows some worry. A subtle wince from time to time crosses his face. Well that is a whole bundle of things I will have to unpack. He leans forward and looks toward Bearik moving to comfort the man but the distance and the problem at hand he returned his focus to the matter at hand.
Listening to Cleo's own statement of her actions, he looks in her direction with an edge of pity. He takes a drink from a cup of water on the table.
He looks to Cloe waiting for the answer to Sulvanii.
"She was completely negligent in her duties, and when one is a royal that is ill intent be it meaning or otherwise. She knew of dangers her family was facing and did not care. She continued on with her choices, and her family was the ones who paid the price. True, her father began the feud with his own pride, but she knew of that and instead of place a divider to protect herself in case he made it worse, or try and help the tension, she actively chose to make it worse. That cause is her own. " Cleonora explained with a roll of her shoulders. "If this was a court case for fault, she'd be at least sixty-five percent responsible. Taking everything said into consideration, that is. At the minimum, speaking to her character, it proves she should be no where near power. She cannot control herself or her own desires. So just give her some nice little cottage, away from court, but close enough Bearkin and Saren can visit as they please, and be done with it. That way we wash out hands of the whole thing." Cleonora finished.
"But the only reason I'm here is for my students." Cleonora reminded them. "My focus is to keep each and every one of them where they belong. In their classroom. It isn't their fault she couldn't control herself and got her family over the tipping point, nor their fault that fool of a maid couldn't keep her mouth shut! They are completely innocent in this, the majority are still children. I can't just let them be swapped out, like some piece on a chessboard... I know every name, I made sure to comment them to memory because we are small enough I still can. They each have the right to remain if this is where they want to be..." Cleonora made herself stop talking and sighed, there was no point. No one here cared about that, well maybe outside of Katrina and Sulvanii. But that wouldn't be enough to flip the whole council. "Thank you Baron Quince, for your generous offer to use your connection to get me replacement students, but I'm not here looking for replacements. I'm here to defend the students I am responsible for, who have come to call Scientia Academy home. You put me in this position, and I have fulfilled it to the best of my abilities. True enough I have made your decision my own. I love Scientia Academy, I love my students, my professors, and my staff even through all of their foolishness." Cleonora declared as she stood and gathered up the letters. "Baron, you may care deeply for second chances, which you know my feeling on of course, but is a second chance of one person worth this? Worth six, possibly more if those parent who come to see for themselves aren't appeased, students who are innocent in this?" Cleonora asked him pint blank, keeping eye contact. "Yeah they wrote their parents, they where scared. Still are, though we're trying to bring that down. Gao is offering to talk with every student who doesn't feel safe. I cannot tell if progress is being made, it's still too soon, but I have faith in him."
"Write your letters if you believe it will help. I need at least eighteen. I'll write my own to go with it depending on what yours say, and then I'll send them out to all the parents. I hope it will appease more than the easy six..." She said with a shake of her head. "I believe we're done yes?" Cleonora asked. The look on her face one of defeat, and sorrow. She was almost completely sure this wasn't going to work, and she'd lose her students.
Quince replied in a measured tone. "Well this isn't a court case. None here are 400 year old Taldans who would have standing to act in crimes of the past. If the indiscretions un-detailed here are even crimes. So your calculations of culpability and flawed legal opinion aren't in question." He straightens up, "We are here to help you. The Academy has a problem. Its losing students to fear and rumors. We should comfort against fear and address the rumors. That is what I proposed. Responding to the rumors in good faith with the truth. That we can see that the incident that happened here was dealt with and the fear it caused was unwarranted."
"I am glad to hear you say are here for the students. That is why we are willing to help. I was not proposing to replace students like chess pieces. No. I proposed facing the issue. Speaking with students and parents about what actually happened and what has been learned since. If that fails to quell fears then I would be willing to help address the loss of students. That you suggest that as motive shows that you are seeking to find monsters behind actions you don't fully agree. If trading lives like chess pieces is how I intended to see the Greenwatch ruled we would not be here speaking."
He grows a little stern. "But I will not persecute one person now because of crimes from far away and long past. I will not banish one here and now because others have been frightened by rumors that in hindsight are based on a flawed judgement. There was never a monster to fear. The incident was unfortunate people who were trying to help were hurt. But it was not malicious, there has been compensation and I doubt it matters but there is remorse. Though I cannot imagine remorse mattering to you if the facts don't."
"I would like to think that we are able to move forward it would help us all. I would like to think that the headmistress of the academy here is willing to teach children that unwarranted fears something that can be faced , and that our minds can be changed by evidence when new evidence arises."
Military Council
"My opinion is that this whole deal has radically gotten out of control. Like Quince said, use the truth. If you need more blunt instruments just point me in the right direction." She offers.
"Cleonora I feel that you have many valid points but they all rely that what we know now is truth. Either way the problem starts with you. How did the information get dispersed? Since this is obviously about Elizabeth, who you call creature, unless you are speaking about someone else? No, then who did you tell of the incident and exactly what did you say?" he fiercely says taking a drink once he finishes.
He just sits there waiting. He called to one of the servants early on and they returned with a chess set. Now he is playing by himself waiting.
"Except your new evidence still lays the blame at the feet of the one I laid it at originally." Cleonora pointed out. "If not for her own actions she'd never of been in the prison." And she left it at that.
She then turned to answer Stalker. "As I said when I first addressed the council. The students where told this by a maid who is seeing one of the professors. As for what I told the professors, well I told them everything. When I returned with my clothing torn and bloody they where very concerned. As I had set up for the meeting before returning I felt it important enough that the professors knew what was going on, as I was going to have them take the students out of the academy for the day of the meeting to ensure there was no doubt they where out of harms way. I was going to have two professors remain... however Atalie, my assistant and a student herself, had been hiding to hear what I was telling the professors so I choose to keep her and Gao behind so that she wouldn't let her anger cloud her and let it slip to the students while they where out." Cleonora began. "As to what I told them, well everything. I told them you all needed me to open something, how I was greatly injured during the opening of it, how when the occupant came out of what we now know as the sky prison, Saren said some sort of sacrifice was need. I told them who offered, and who didn't. That being myself and you Stalker. Then how the occupant said, and I quote, "Nope!", and forced the drain upon me any ways. They I attacked after she attacked me and a fight broke out. Who took what side, who didn't take sides, and that there would be a meeting the next day about it." Cleonora finished. "I do freely admit that I should have bound them to the silence towards the staff as well, but I must say I was far more worried about the students." She sighed.
"The maid was found, told stop spreading the rumors, and send home for two weeks in hope that it will help the rumors die down faster. As I don't want it morphing any more." She said. "Sulvanii and Jorne where greatly helpful in this. I own them both a great deal."
"Except your new evidence still lays the blame at the feet of the one I laid it at originally." Cleonora pointed out. "If not for her own actions she'd never of been in the prison." And she left it at that.
"Four centuries outside my jurisdiction. I feel no need to presume. Nor do I know the details."
"I'm not asking you to cast judgment upon her for her past actions. But to take them into account as you do the prison's effects upon her. As that too, would be four centuries outside you jurisdiction as you say." Cleonora stated. "And we may not know every detail, but even her own father agreed with what I said. So unless you do not believe a word Bearkin has said, then what he said should be held the same way as the knowledge of the prison is."
"You are asking me to judge. And to presume. And to punish again."
"No, I'm saying that the forgiveness you seek from me is bias as you are only taking into account the magic of the prison." Cleonora said. "Yet you refuse to also take into account that her being within that prison was of her own making, and therefor anything that happened after it is also her fault." She explained simply. "Simply because it happen four centuries ago. However if it wasn't for what happened four centuries ago, we would not be having this conversation."
"Okay just stop, let's boil this down to where it all started. If Elizabeth had done something other than attacking you, you would not have been hurt by her, you would not have even talked about her as a creature. So what might have you listened to or would it have been better someone else was there?" He asks. Then he creates a message and the paper bird flies off.
"Actually if she has simply asked or explained why she needed it, hells even if she begged, I would have considered it and likely given in." Cleonora said. "I can't stand begging, especially when it is a life or death situation. You only do so when you're desperate after all. It easily gets across the sense of need."
"My wishes have not been granted yet today, so shall we see what wish can be done to accomplish that? Quince? Cleonora?"
Then the caller announces, "Elizabeth Silvertail as requested!" Then the door opens up and she enters the room, the doors close behind her.
Sulvanii doesn't skip a beat and points out for Elizabeth to come stand next to him. He quickly relays what he just said, "My wishes have not been granted yet today, so shall we see what wish can be done to accomplish negating your, Elizabeth Silvertail's, attack on Cleonora Petalouda. By asking or other non-threatening actions. Or if Cleonora chooses to be excluded entirely. We didn't even knew we had a stand in."
"Can the wishes even turn back time that far? Put us back in the moment?" Cleonora asked with a raised eyebrow. "And if they're that power why not just wish she never brought her family's doom upon them? Meaning she was never in the sky prison, and as such never needed to be released. The whole issue would never of happened."
"We could use one wish that way but only once. Trust me you don't want to mess with time. It also only works if we have consent from everyone there. No, no, no, no. That would be bad for everyone! Bearik was changed for the better. Much of his influences would be stripped away and your future would be more dire for it. We can alter this one small part of time since we were all there and apart of it, though only one will remember of all that has happened and will need to act so the actions change. That would be the wisher. Quince or Saren?"
He sends out more messages and soon everyone that was not there is arriving. Katrina, Bearik is back, Selena, and
With everyone's blessing and the decision of who will be wishing decided they would start...
Quince was about to say something when Sulvanii intervened. He looked to the councilor. At the mention of wishes he mutters, "Reality altering magic sure that's simpler than a small amount of mercy and adjusting bad judgements with new facts."
At the mention of Elizabeth's name his eyes go wide. A look of fear and powerlessness washed over him. When his eyes met Elizabeth's he smiled slightly and nodded agreeing that she should stand with Sulvanii.
"Lets start with the day of the Star Fall Prison. We know that the touch would not be fatal. Something that caused some hesitation then. We know that a bond like this is perhaps a big ask. If it was a question of the manner of the original request that seems the cleanest solution." He shrugs looking to Cleo offering some of her own words or something like them back to her in an attempt to show some understanding.
"Can we simply wish that your own magic and Bearik's magic would not interfere with the bond. Then she could be anchored to me." He looks Elizabeth's way.
"Quince, you... uh...." He stops and holds up his hands and walks to the side with Bearik, they talk about it for a few minutes and points out, "To make sure she is still safe and do what you request would take no less than seven wishes. We have been building protection magics in and around our kingdom. Trust us when I say this taking a stroll in hell for a day would be safer than to strip her of those protections as she is reforming. She would be a beacon and every spirit that needed a body would be drawn to her. So no!"
"Suggestions are good, they give perspective. And then we run the numbers based on our experience." He says solemnly.
"If Cleonora wanted nothing to do with the situation we could use Selena, she is a wild card, but fulfills what we would need or we get Jorne there. But we don't have enough time to get him there. Unless we use another wish to get him out to Saren's drake. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, Cleonora do you want to be excluded or not?"
"Cleanest and safest." Cleonora said with a nodded to Quince. "Quince we need to have a talk about your willingness to be bound to random poorly chosen women, it- oh good I'm not the only one who thinks it's a bad idea." Cleonora said as she nodded to Sulvanii's words. "Also being bound in any way to the daughter of the person in your court who has way too much power to begin with, is a really poor ruler plan. Just saying." She added as she held up one hand to stop him from saying anything about it. "Don't. It's an opinion, which you'll ignore anyways, so just save us the following back and forth."
"Wait, wait." Cleonora said. "Hold on. If Selena would work, then explained to me why she didn't get bound to her when Selena willingly offered the first time. Why did she go after me when she had one who fit the needs she had?! That makes no sense." Cleonora asked as her eyes narrowed. Something wasn't adding up. If the magic forced her to find someone to be tethered to, and she already had one who would work, then the magic wouldn't be the reason she went for Cleonora.
"Dont ask me, I wasn't really involved. Bearik?" he points out and asks.
"The vision I had, said Cleo was the key. As you said Sulvanii Selena is a wild card we thought she might work but we don't know. Journe or Cleo, were the only close candidates that I can think of." he replies.
"I am the only one here who can pick a lock apparently." Cleonora said with a small roll of her eyes. "We? If only you had the vision and as Sulvanii said he wasn't involved, then whom did you speak to about this? And my point is that if she was magically controlled by the prison to find someone to make the bond with, then why didn't it work with Selena as she willingly gave. Why did it force her after me? The moment she took willingly from Selena the bond should have formed and she should have never attacked me. But that isn't want happened."
"I don't know." he simply said. "Maybe she isn't a viable candidate."
"One last time Cleonora, otherwise I will move to the next subject matter without your answer do you want to be excluded?" He says deathly calm.
"With that decided who will be making the wish, I had suggested Quince or Saren, do you agree with my nominees or have some of your own?" He asks all those that are gathered.
"I want to nominate myself, who better to know than the one at fault. I am sorry but this is my fault and I will make it right." she offers almost in a begging manner.
"That's partly my point. The wish wouldn't work if she wasn't a viable candidate." Cleonora said. "Thus we need to know."
"I'm not being excluded from something that involves me Sulvanii." She answered.
"No, the nominee should be one who is neutral. Like Stalk-" Cleonora stopped in her tracks and looked to Elizabeth. "Pardon?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. Then she looked to Quince with a look that could only be described as total satisfaction. "Even she admits it." Cleonora pointed out.
"Out of my own curiosity, just how would you phrase the wish?" Cleonora asked her.
"Uh... give me a moment to think it through." She asks as she pulls out a pen and paper, writing down her words.
Then she stands up with what she wrote, reading it confidently, "I wish for a chance to be of my present mind back when I, Elizabeth Silvertail, emerged from the sky fall prison, released by Cleonora Petalouda, to make different actions actions in that time."
"Granted!" .......
The feminine form emerges slowly and Saren puts out a hand to help steady her.
She looks to be human or elven, though the white ears make her stand out as something else. A large furry tail follows her out. Her white hair seems to hang about her shoulders as a long braid that must have not been cut sways behind her over her tail. Her sapphire blue eyes seem hazy and unfocused as she emerges. Then she whispers something that Saren and Cleonora likely only hear, "Thank you brother for your sacrifice!"
Her eyes take on a golden glow and the same energy is being sucked from Saren. Though it stops momentarily, letting Saren talk rather than scream.
"Its alright, she needs a sacrifice to recharge. If anyone else wishes to offer blessings may be upon you. As you know our father." He states before nodding his head and lets her begin to drain him again.
She steps forward, offering "I offer up sacrifice, it should lessen the drain the more that offer a sacrifice."
He nods and steps forward, "I shall share in this offering."
Stalker seems to appear to those away from the structure. He quietly says, "I will be abstaining."
"Sorry but I'm going to be abstaining as well. I'm already injured from opening that stupid prison, anything more from my likely would mean my end and to be blunt, don't know you, don't trust you, thus no. Don't take it personally, I'm that way to pretty much everyone." Cleonora said with a sigh.
"Cleonora, I know you don't believe it but my father does, you are the key. If I don't have a stable connection to this plane my essence will likely come apart and I will no longer exist." she says and kneels down. Begging you with tears streaming down her face she asks, "Please will you be my anchor?! Please! I need someone who is not influenced by wishes or godly magic, one who is still fully of this plane. If you choose not, please let me hold your hand until another can come."
"please Krazok, bring your friend Jorne Fyrestone quickly!"
"Katrina if you would, can you please come heal Cleonora. Come Saren help Cleonora over to Katrina, Katrina can't see in the bright light of the prison." She offers a hand should you want support.
She stands at Cleo's words and begins to stumble forward, spouting out, "I am coming, yes I will heal her. If you can see please direct me to come to you!"
She stands and walks beside Katrina trying to help her walk and she says, "I will make a sacrifice too."
Cleonora jumped at the woman's words and actions. "Follow my voice Katrina." Cleonora called out before she looked to the woman before her and help out her hand, the one that wasn't blackened from damage. "I just got shocked to hell and back from that prison. The hells I'll let my work go to waist." She told her. "Now come on." Cleonora said before she pulled Elizabeth up. "Let Katrina heal me up, and you'll have your anchor."
"Now, do what you must." Cleonora said. "Don't worry about it hurting, I'm accustom to pain." She stated.