Eryndors captains stood before the crowd, their faces hollow and sunk in guilt.
Then one collapsed to his knees, voice cracking as he wailed.
"lord eryndor ordered it!" The captain cried, as nobles and commoners all gasped in shock, then he continued.
"We were told to test the Heavens' Blitz. He said he would overpower Asterra, subdue the High Nobles and even the Wardens. He wanted the people to die in numbers, just as they have now, all because he wanted to send a message!" The captain says breaking into sobs.
"And what message would that be?" Lord marric asked
"That i do not know lord marric" the captain continued
"We begged him to stop! We pleaded that innocents would perish. And his answer was 'so will you, if you do not obey.' " His voice shook as he explained.
"No!" Eryndor roared, straining against his chains.
"Lies! They only speak under duress, they speak to save their own lives!" His gaze fell on captains, who could barely register eye contact with him. Sorrow filled eryndors eyes as his captains testified.
The crowd erupted in rage. Stones and wastes were hurled towards eryndor as the soldiers pushed the crowd back, shielding them from tearing eryndor alive.
"Quiet!" Judge Marric's voice boomed, his staff slamming to the ground, as the noise dimmed to a restless murmur.
"There is more," Marric declared. "Evidence from the Wardens themselves."
He held up a scroll sealed with the wardens bind. The crack of the seal echoed through the court as he unrolled it, serving it to the tribunal herald, who took it forward, placing it for all to see, as lord marric continued. "The vault of the Wardens were White lumin was stored, was breached months ago, and only two persons stand priviledged to access the wardens vault. Our sovereign lord eryndor and the wardens. This proves that we trusted our sovereign implicitly… but he betrayed that trust."
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.
Eryndor's face drained of life, his lips parted but words couldnt leave. The desperation to prove his innocence burned in his eyes, but the crowd only shouted louder, drowning his pleas in their grievances.
Marric gestured calling for the three High Nobles to approach, as they stepped toward him, their heads bent together, with their voices whispering as the crowd's fury raged on. One by one, they nodded in agreement, as they stepped back.
Marric struck his staff again. "Silence." He yells, his eyes rolling through the angry crowd.
"The tribunal is adjourned for now. The judges will withdraw behind banners to deliberate further on a verdict."
The High nobles swept from the dais, one after the other as they vanished into a smaller chamber.
The court boiled with unrest, people Shoving one another for space, curses hurtling towards eryndor who knelt in devastation.
Then a drunkard climbed a concrete slab screaming.
" off with eryndors head! He is a slippery snake!" The man screamed as people pulled hum back to the ground, while he struggled and finally tossed a beer bottle at eryndor, the bottle shatters close to his feet, as eryndor stares at the angry crowd, defeat showing within his eyes.
"He is just another corrupt leader!" Abel of Olsmere bellowed above the chaos. "Let him face the wrath! The axe is more suitable!"
"burn him alive!" someone else cried.
"Parade him around the streets! Let us show him how we truly feel!" another spat.
Arguments cracked across the crowd, each demand louder than the last.
Inside the chambers behind the banners, voices rose as well, as high nobles delibrated on eryndors verdict.
Erry O' Kael of House Drakovar slammed his fists against the table, fury twisting his face. "He is guilty! The realm cries for justice, give it to them!" His voice roared.
"The north was spared from his attacks, but the north-west and north-east of asterra all suffered, and their cries are mine as well. I speak for the north"
Marien's began speaking with calm and clarity.
"If we act rashly, we dishonor the Tribunal. The evidence weighs heavy, and the people will never forgive us if we treat him with a light sentence. However, the people in the south do not want the blood of a sovereign on their hands. I speak for the south"
Sylven leaned forward with a faint smile on his lips.
"Truth or lie, it does not matter. The people need justice for their pain and suffering," he said softly, "Strike him down, and let it be a lesson to other sovereign that will come after him. And Asterra will know order once more. I speak for the West."
Marric listened in silence, his eyes sweeping across each high noble faces. At last, he rose, with his staff in hand.
"Then it is decided."
Marric marched back into the court, stopping a measured distance from Eryndor. His expression painted without emotion, his eyes fixed on the kneeling Sovereign without a flicker of sympathy.
Behind him, the high nobles marched in slowly as. At once, the fury of the crowd died down, silence falling within the court as the crowd anticipated for the verdict.
"Lord Eryndor of House Valesse" marric begins.
"you stand accused of grievous crimes, perjury, abuse of sovereign authority, hoarding the forbidden white lumin, conspiracy against the High Houses, mass murder, and treason against your country. And evidence have shown you are guilty as charged" marric speaks with high authority.
"So therefore, By oath, by law, by the decree of the Wardens, and by the cries of the people, you are stripped off your Sovereign status" marric commanded, as the specific gasps spark from the crowd.
" Your House, house Valesse is hereby dissolved, its name stricken from the rolls of nobility. Its members branded traitors of asterra, and branded fugitives to be hunted. Rich reward shall be granted to anyone who brings any surviving memeber of your house to justice."
"By dawn, lord eryndor, together with Lady Ovelyn, Lord Dalric, Sir Joras, and all other conspirators in custody, shall face execution. Your blood shall seal the justice for those fallen in asterra"
The court erupted in cheers, their voices rising like storm. Drakovar Soldiers seized Eryndor and his loyal nobles, dragging them toward their cells, chains clanging like tolling bells.
The captains who testified, are taking away through an exit behind the dais.
Mid and low nobles began speaking to each other their faces filled with pity and disgust as they stared are eryndor being taken away.
Some Low nobles whispers continue.
"We just witnessed history " one muttered.
"A sovereign brought as low as a thief," spat another.
Keith sat among the low nobles with an unreadable expression as they muttered.
Mid-nobles shook their heads with restrained disappointment.
"A man once so proud, so perfect in image…"
"And now dread and shame is all his House will know."
The High Nobles, leaned together as they whispered amongst theirselves. Marien, Kael, marric and veynar all watched eryndor move, their countenance dressed in guilt as they watched him, marric and marien takes away their eyes from eryndor, while veynar and kael locked their gaze on him, as they all stood together still.
Drakovar Soldiers escorted eryndor as he walked sluggishly and defeated. His eyes sweeping across the tiers of nobility, the low, the mid, and high nobles.
Silence spreads through the square as his voice across the tribunal court.
"I was once as you are," he said, gazing at the commoners.
"A commoner, then a low noble with nothing but a banner torn by rain, and a hall that leaked in winter. I worked the fields beside my men for the people of asterra, I mended roads with my own hands when no coin came from the calesnport. I bled at the borders fighting in asterras name, long before i ever became sovereign."
The low and mid nobles shifted uneasily, their eyes darting between one another. The crowd, that once roared now, grew still, the weight of Eryndor's words sinking deep into them.
"I sat where you sit now," Eryndor continued, this time his focus on the nobles.
"and I remember the laughter of those who held higher chairs than mine. I remember petitions denied, the cries of the poor silenced beneath parchment and wax. I remember swearing I would be better, that the realm would be safer with me."
His gaze sharpened as it travelled across the tribunal court, looking over everyone.
"Perhaps I failed. Perhaps the gods themselves have failed me. But tell me… " his voice cracked into a roar, eyes locking on Marien, Sylven Veynar, and Erry O' Kael.
"Are your hands so clean? How many crowns did you hoard while your people starve And died in numbers?, How many whispers have you traded to topple a rival? How many of you sit clothed in silk while your country bleeds in rags?"
The High nobles stiffened. Some turned their faces aside. A heavy stillness spread like a fog. As shame crept into the marrow of every soul that heard him.
The silence deepened. Suffocating.
And then, Steel rang.
Erry O' Kael's unsheaths his aethersteel sword from its scabbard, as he stormed forward, voice cracking with fury.
"Enough of this filth! Take this wretch away before his poisonous words spreads!"
He points the blade at Eryndor's chest, his face red with rage as he speaks.
"You are no sovereign. No noble. No lord. You are carrion, fit only for the crows." Kael says every word slow, meaningful and packed with hatred.
Drakovar Soldiers immediately yanked Eryndor by his chains and dragged him forward
The crowd roared again, voices surging with cries of justice, yet many avoided each other's eyes now, haunted by the words they had heard.
Thus the Trial of Eryndor ended.
And the fate of House Valesse was sealed.