Fighting for Absolution

Tilly kept her head turned away from the man in front of her. With the tattered, dirty clumps of her hair hanging around her face, she had a bit of a shield against the tantalizing smell of warm chocolate, but the mild stench of soiled hair could hardly block out the decadent aroma of freshly baked cake. It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t give him the pleasure of seeing how affected she was by this act. Mind games were never a thing she’d taken interest in, so she had no idea if her act of defiance would make a difference, but she still refused to broadcast how painfully hungry she was by staring at the cake being consumed dramatically by the Arbiter.

With one last hum of delight, the man set down the nearly empty plate on the edge of his desk, leaving one bite-sized piece of cake to torment her as he finally began to speak. “Matilda Giselle Larisse Broadstone.” He spoke her name like an indictment.

Silence hung in the air between them as he stared at her, condescension radiating from him like heat from a fire. His wordless judgment coated her skin heavily, but she returned his stare with a blank one of her own as she awaited whatever would come next.

“The fire you set destroyed nearly six acres of unharvested grain.” His glaring intensified when her lips quirked slightly. Tilly sucked her lips between her teeth to stifle the expression, not wanting to anger the man who held her future in his hands, though she was highly satisfied with the destruction she’d caused.

“I’ve wanted to put away your family of,” the Arbiter paused as he sought for a word, his lips turning down in distaste as he finally spat, “miscreants for years, but all of you toed the line of the law perfectly.”

Until now. The unspoken words made Tilly’s heart drop into her stomach, chasing away the slight amusement she felt. She would receive the brunt of this man’s ire and could think of nothing to help her out of the situation. Two days locked in a prison cell had already worn down her determination to be strong. The guards only fed her once a day, a meal consisting of one disgusting chunk of old bread and soup that was mostly water, and the only light in the cell was provided by a torch that burned out regularly. Only a handful of hours in the cramped, dirty space had been enough to leave her sobbing on the floor, and she had remained trapped there until the guards delivered her to her current seat in the Arbiter’s office.

“I see your situation has become clear to you.” The Arbiter leaned back in his chair and kicked his booted feet up onto his desk as he folded his hands over his stomach. A humorless smile split his face as he said, “There’s no one left to defend your innocence. You are the last of the blight that infested my town. Your parents are long dead from the blessed disease sent by the gods to destroy your wretched kind, and your brother died recently. Imagine my surprise when I learned of that wonderful news, though I’m confused by the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death.”

Tilly flinched and dropped her eyes to the floor at the reminder. This made the Arbiter chuckle darkly before saying, “Ah, yes, so it’s true.”

“I didn’t kill him,” she said defensively, speaking for the first time since being led roughly into the room and shoved into a chair. If her hands weren’t bound by shackles covered in runes to block magic, she would’ve taken the chance to do something, though she wasn’t sure what. Violence wasn’t in her nature, but she thought she might find the motivation necessary to wipe the expression of delight from the man’s face.

“It’s your word against a trusted eyewitness who has sworn under oath that you did kill him.”

“I didn’t!” She shot to her feet, enraged by the lie. The so-called witness must’ve been bribed to take the oath because it would’ve been impossible for an outsider to see inside the room where her brother died. “I didn’t do it! It was his choice! He was trying to save me!”

Tears she thought had run dry sprang to her eyes, reminding her of the pain she’d been lost in since her brother’s death days earlier. For a single moment, she could see it all over again, hear him as he called out her name in a panicked voice. She found him in the secret room where they practiced magic, his blood spilling onto the floor as he begged her to finish the spell that would trap his lifeforce in the crystal. Her next breath was stuttered as she struggled against the overwhelming need to cry or scream or do both as she relived the moment she had chanted the words to finish the spell he’d begun, forever sealing her brother’s essence in stone. She kept telling herself he would’ve died anyway, the self-inflicted wound had been too deep, but she couldn’t stop the guilt that threatened to crush her.

A curious expression overtook the Arbiter’s cruel face as he observed the sudden shift in her demeanor. “His choice?” he asked. “What was his choice? What did you do?”

Tilly froze as the accusation in his tone struck home. The anger and pain drained from her as an icy chill spread through her body, leaving her stomach roiling and her legs weak. She sat heavily in the chair and clamped her mouth shut, knowing speaking another word would risk inadvertently confessing guilt to one of the worst crimes in the kingdom. Magic had been outlawed nearly two decades earlier, and anyone caught using it was put to death immediately.

“What did you do?” The Arbiter demanded again, emphasizing each word as his irritation grew with her continued silence.

In a whisper, she answered, “Nothing.”

“Lies,” he hissed, dropping his feet to the floor to stand leaning against the desk with his hand pressed to its surface. His eyes bore into her, piercing through her flimsy denial as if he could see the truth inside her. “I’ve received reports from the men who searched your house. They found your hidden lair covered in partially cleaned blood, full of glowing crystals, glass vials full of unknown liquids, dried herbs lining the walls. I would not describe that combination of items as nothing.”

She understood then why someone had been bribed to swear they’d witnessed the murder. Being chased out of town by the men who assumed her guilty of murder had drawn the Arbiter’s attention, and the false oath had been exactly what he needed to search her home as he'd wanted to for years. The evidence they found was damning. Once he pried a confession from her, she would certainly die.

He stood still as he waited for another outburst, his eyes narrowing when none came. The Arbiter sat in his chair more calmly than he’d stood from it. “Take comfort in the knowledge that you will live another day.”

This drew her gaze back to him from where she had been examining the floor. Her brow furrowed in confusion, having assumed she had mere hours to live. Knowing what she was thinking, the Arbiter explained, “Make no mistake. You will die, but not until I’ve found out who you two were working with. I have been ridding the world of your kind for long enough to know there is no way a teen boy and young woman could’ve created those abominable concoctions without help.”

The ice returned to her gut as she thought of the people who would suffer if she couldn’t hold out against whatever form of torture this man had planned for her. She bit her lip as a tidal wave of fear crashed through her, setting her body to quivering. Bravery was never a word she would’ve used to describe herself.

Seeing this, the Arbiter’s smile returned. “You could avoid the pain and meet the gallows tonight if you confess to your crimes with a list of the names of those who assisted you.”

She stared at him as she considered it, but then she thought of the stone filled with the essence of her brother’s life. Mathias had sacrificed himself so she could live, knowing his years would be short despite the progress they had made in discovering a cure, but her life would be extended with a supplemental source to draw from. That knowledge was the extent of their progress in researching a cure for the disease that ravaged the body of any magic user. They all died young, their lifespans only half of a non-magic user’s. The disease had started at a young age for Mathias, likely because he was so powerful, but he’d given up his remaining years to give her the gift of his lifeforce. She couldn’t give up so easily and accept death just to escape the pain planned for her by the Arbiter. She had to be strong. She had to survive to finish their work.

“No.”

Her quietly spoken answer sliced through the air like an executioner’s blade. The Arbiter didn’t seem disappointed at all. “Very well. This conversation is finished. I will be seeing you this evening.”

The trembling in her muscles returned as Tilly imagined what might happen, dread compounding her fear until she felt faint at the possibilities. She had seen the man who tortured the prisoners. He had stopped in front of her cell on his way to perform his duties, jeering at her with taunts of how he looked forward to spending time with one of “the devil’s hags”. His belt had been lined with knives that looked sharp enough to slice through stone, and she could hardly imagine what it might be like to feel the blades against her skin. The screams that began shortly after the torturer disappeared from view had haunted her for hours, echoing through her cell long after they’d stopped.

When she was returned to her cell, she didn’t resist falling to the floor as the guard shoved her inside. She curled into a ball, hugging her knees tightly as she struggled to stop the shaking in her limbs and reminding herself that she wasn’t really hearing the distant call of her brother’s voice. She wished she had the stone with her, wished she could hold it tightly and feel its slight warmth seep into her palm, but she couldn’t. Instead, the cool stone floor seemed to freeze her bones and quicken the steadily building weakness permeating her body. Without access to the stone, she would soon begin to wither away as the magic-induced sickness stole her vitality.