Chapter 27

Friday Morning

Nexus Ranch

Near Harborton, Washington

“I ain’t touching that thing,” said Minhera.

“Me neither,” said Adrosia.

“What do we do then? You know when we agreed to take custody of the prisoners we said we’d take care of any wounded. We can’t just let what’s left of his wedding tackle get infected. It would reflect badly on all Fae,” said Minhera.

“All right, all right, as senior medical elf on duty, I suppose I have to do it, but you are going to take my toilet cleaning duty for the next month,” replied Adrosia as she put on an extra pair of heavy duty gloves from the medical kit.

‘Deal!” agreed a relieved Minehera. “Oh, I think he’s waking up. Better give him some more knockout stuff.”

“With pleasure! I can’t even understand what he’s saying but just listening to him whine is like sand in the crotch of my tights,” said Adrosia with a grimace.

Friday Afternoon

Nexus Ranch

Near Harborton, Washington

“Major Pieter Viktorovich is it true that you have been duly chosen as the representative of the mercenary group who participated in an armed attack on the Nexus compound?” intoned Queen Rhiannon of the Fae in front of the gathered Fae and Nexus personnel.

“Yes your majesty,” replied Pieter.

“And is it also true you have agreed to abide by our judgment in the matter of the attack?” she continued.

“Yes, your majesty, this is also true,” Pieter agreed.

It wasn’t like it had been a difficult decision to make. He and his men were gathered around their tents in the Fae encampment the day following their attempted assault when a work detail had begun bringing in what was left of the Outlaw Demons. He had been assured by a taciturn dwarf that each of the gang had been alive when they had been butchered into component parts like pigs in a slaughterhouse.

He had also been informed that the goddess guardian of the people gathered here was responsible. If you had told him 48 hours ago that he’d become a firm believer in fairies, elves, dwarves and other fantasy beings he would have bought you another shot of vodka and called ‘bullshit’ loudly. But after what he’d seen the last two days it was no longer a stretch to believe in a highly pissed off, highly vengeful goddess.

The choice had been either submit to the judgment of the Fae council or to the dubious ‘mercy’ of the Tiger Goddess, Waghoba. Choosing the Fae seemed to be an entirely reasonable decision and supported heartily by his men. There was not a thought by any of them of trying to escape or of trying to appeal to law enforcement. In spite of the flimsy pretense that Homeland Security had contracted them, they would probably all spend decades in prison if their attack came to light. That’s if the powerful people who sponsored the mercs didn’t just have them all killed to keep them quiet. He and his men didn’t have a lot of alternatives. It wasn’t like any of them had anyone who would miss them to raise an alarm when they didn’t show up. His own Raisa had passed 10 years ago or he would have never left the regular military.

So with the consent of the others, Pieter made the best of a bad situation and adhered to his instincts. For some reason he trusted this Ben Clarkson, Captain of Marines. Pieter knew that the good Captain would put a bullet in the back of his head without a second thought if it was needed, but he also believed that he was an honorable man who would keep his word.

“Then it is the judgment of this Council,” Queen Rhiannon paused to gesture to a group of four older Fae sitting on the slightly raised wooden dais in the center of the forest clearing. “That your men serve a term of one year of service to the Fae and members of the Nexus group. Those duties may include instructing us in security or other matters to help familiarize us with human culture but will not include activities whereby they may be placed in danger, unless at that time they choose to volunteer for that duty,” said Rhiannon.

Pieter could barely contain his surprise. This was not what he expected. He glanced over to see a small wry grin on Captain Clarkson’s face. Ah! Pieter discerned the pragmatic hand of a military man in the judgment. Punishment was not efficient or practical. Making best use of resources that fell into your lap was.

“Your men will be required to accept a Geas which will bind them to this agreement and prevent them from disclosing our presence, but they will not be restrained nor placed under any hardship, or do any type of work that we ourselves do not also do. Do you have any comment on these conditions?” continued Queen Rhiannon.

“No your majesty this seems more than fair,” said Pieter.

“There is one other condition. You personally are to be released on parole and are not to be placed under a Geas. You will be required to act in the interests of Nexus as to your best judgment. You are also to be available to assist Nexus and Captain Clarkson as needed in any manner deemed necessary for a period of one year,” Queen Rhiannon added.

Hmm, so he was not to be under compulsion? His respect for the wily captain rose another notch. It seems that he was looking for an ally, not just a semi -coerced employee.

“This is also acceptable, your majesty, but may I stay here long enough to ensure my men are settled into their new roles?” asked Pieter.

“Yes, of course. Do you have any further comment on the judgment of this Council?” asked Queen Rhiannon.

“Thank you august Council for your mercy and fair judgment. I pledge that I and my men will do all that we can to faithfully execute our service. We also apologize sincerely for the circumstances by which this matter occurred and hope that it caused no undue hardship on the people of the Fae or of the Nexus group,” replied Pieter formally.

“You are dismissed Major Viktorovich” finished Queen Rhiannonwith a regal nod.

Pieter bowed to the Queen and to the Council and then retreated to the periphery of the clearing where his men were gathered under a canopy to watch the remainder of the proceedings.

“Bailiff, present the prisoner known as ‘Dell’ for judgment,” said Rhiannon.

A scowling troll frog-marched a flex cuffed Dell onto the dais. Pieter tried hard to keep the smile from his face, but didn’t quite succeed. This was going to be interesting. He just wished the Fae had supplied popcorn.

“Dell Campbell, in the matter of the armed attack on the Nexus compound and upon the person of Kelly Roberts, is it true that you have chosen to accept the judgment of this council?” asked Rhiannon.

“Huh no! This is ridiculous. You freaks have no right to do any of this to me! Just wait until my dad hears about this. You’ll all be in jail and this place will be a shopping mall!” retorted Dell.

“Ah so, your questioners were mistaken and you instead wished to be judged by the Tiger Goddess or by Nexus itself?” asked Rhiannon.

At that Sarah and Ben began to walk toward the dais. As Sarah strode forward a glow began to surround her. It became difficult to look directly at her as her appearance became overlaid with fluctuating images of both a huge golden-eyed tiger and a nearly naked 7 foot tall raven haired goddess.

As Ben moved forward, clouds obscured the bright sun of what had been a beautiful spring day. Gusts of icy wind swirled the forest around them. Thunder began to sound overhead and, most strangely, Ben’s forearms and hands were covered in writhing, glowing blue veins that crackled with energy.

Even in her Queen persona, the elegant Rhiannon betrayed a touch of concern. Dell visibly paled and he would have fallen to his knees but for the solid grip of the bailiff. As his fate neared, he knew that either of the beings approaching him would gleefully tear him to pieces for his offenses.

“N ... no, I misspoke. I’ll go with the council’s judgment after all,” he stuttered.

“I thought that might be the case,” said Rhiannon as she waved Ben and Sarah off.

Disappointed, but accepting Rhiannon’s agreed upon authority, Ben and Sarah quietly returned to their places.

“Your case was difficult for us Dell Campbell. Our system of laws is simple. We have very little crime in our communities and for many hundreds of years we have found it better to allow those who break the boundaries of our society to reform themselves and to rebalance their lives for the betterment of us all. When we turned away from war we also gave up the notion of harsh punishment for violations of our laws with one single exception that we will speak of shortly.

As your questioners drew out from you the events you participated in they had to verify what they learned by looking also at your psychic imprints. The imprints they found in your mind from past events was so deeply disturbing that they could not continue. This judgment was to only apply to those incidents that we have deemed authority over, but due to the nature of your past crimes we cannot in good conscience as a peaceful and righteous people, allow someone such as yourself the possibility of future release without guarantee of rehabilitation.”

The blank look on his face indicated Dell had no clue or concern about what the Queen was nattering on about. He was just glad that neither of the two that had an ax to grind was going to have a hand in the outcome.

“Fine, whatever. Just tell me what I have to do to get out of this shit show,” smirked Dell.

Queen Rhiannon paused, obviously upset at what her next words portended.

“For your crimes and for the protection of others, the Council, with my concurrence, has sentenced you to wear the Crown of Thorns,” said Rhiannon.

An audible gasp followed by loud murmurs exploded from all the Fae present.

With a gesture the Queen attempted to placate the audience. Then resumed.

“We realize this is nearly unprecedented. It has been 300 years since this sentence has been invoked. But after much debate and soul searching this sentence has been deemed to be a fair and just resolution.”

“Okay, yada yada yada, what is this Crown of Thorns thingy?” interrupted Dell.

‘The Crown is one of our oldest artifacts, probably as old as modern humanity and even we don’t know where it came from or exactly how it works. We do know it will map the psychic reverberations of every single instance where you have significantly wronged another since the first day of your adulthood until today. It will then ensure that you feel whatever physical or emotional pain that person was feeling at that time. This will occur in random sequences for as long as you live or until you have made significant steps to atone for your wrongs. It will not stop and it will only give you rest enough to recover before it begins again,” said Rhiannon.

Dell was too dense to try and hide the cunning look that came over his face and Rhiannon caught it.

“ ... And you cannot remove the effects the crown creates. There are not only fatal, but soul destroying penalties involved with even the attempt to undo what will happen next,” she finished.

Pieter was closely watching Dell’s body language and was convinced that Dell was not giving his situation the gravity it deserved. Perhaps this was because he had never before had to pay any real consequences for his actions. Perhaps it was because Dell truly did not have the brains that God gave a gopher. In either case Pieter knew from the reaction of the Fae to hearing the sentence, that Dell was in for a rude awakening.

“Do you, Dell Campbell, have any comments you’d like to make before we begin?” asked Rhiannon.

“Naw, this hocus pocus crap is bullshit, but let’s get it over with so I can get out of here,” sneered Dell.

“Very well, Praetor, bring out the crown,” said the Queen.

At that a very old elf walked onto the dais with a sturdy, simple box of ebony wood and presented it to the Queen. Pieter had only been among the Fae a short time, but the box struck him as unusual. Every item the Fae used, even the most mundane, was intricately decorated with designs that captured the eye and the mind. Why would one of their most ancient and powerful artifacts inhabit a plain box?

Then, as the Queen lifted the lid, it struck him- decorating this box would be like putting colorful ribbons on a hangman’s noose.

Queen Rhiannon carefully withdrew an intricately spiked circlet made of what looked like dull unpolished metal. She stepped to Dell and, as the Bailiff held his head motionless, placed the crown on his head.

The collective Fae were dead silent and it seemed they had even stopped breathing. Dell at first seemed unaffected. Then the spikes came alight with multicolor sparks at their end. Dell’s face froze in a chilling rictus. Then the sparks became streaks of lights as they started moving. Slowly, then faster and faster they wove intricate patterns between different points along Dell’s skull until his entire head was encapsulated by a ball of pulsing light.