Grievar's Blood (The Combat Codes Saga Book 2) by Alexander Darwin

Author:Alexander Darwin [Darwin, Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Insight Forge Press
Published: 2020-01-28T10:00:00+00:00

XI

The Trial

Justice shall not be considered by a Grievar. A Grievar fights and dies to serve the greater purpose of society but does not consider why. Examination of the complexities of justice will only render a Grievar ineffective on their true path towards combat mastery.

Passage Three, Thirty-Third Precept of the Combat Codes

Though the courtroom was certainly unique, unlike any room Cego had ever stood in, one thing captured his attention immediately. Not the small crowd sitting within a glass box behind him, nor the three additional armed Enforcers stationed at all sides of the room. Those sights did not turn Cego’s head.

It was the translucent tube, spanning from floor to ceiling and set at the center of the courtroom, that drew his gaze. Within the tube floated a creature that Cego had only heard spoken of in hushed whispers, in the manner that Abel spoke of his old gods.

A Bit-Minder.

Cego had thought Daimyo were strange-looking creatures, but the Bit-Minder made those blue-veined people seem ordinary. Male or female, Cego couldn’t distinguish. The thing was the size of a small child but with arms and legs barely formed, as if the growth of such limbs were unimportant to its existence. The Bit-Minder’s head took up most of its body mass, a bulbous, wrinkled organ with a squished face and two tiny black eyes, staring out from the tube directly at Cego.

Cego felt a shiver run through his body as the Enforcer pushed him into a seat directly in front of the Bit-Minder, locking his manacles to the chair. He had no idea what do; in the Circle it was obvious, no matter the opponent that stood in front of him. But here in this foreign courtroom, with this even stranger creature observing him, Cego was lost.

“Do not be lost, Grievar-child,” the Bit-Minder somehow said without moving its mouth, a voice that sounded soft yet seemed everywhere at the same time.

“Everything that has led you to this point; your entire path before this moment here in my courtroom, has already passed. You look at the stream of time behind you to gain perspective, but you can never swim it again. And everything that will happen in the future, the evidence we will hear, the upcoming Arguments of the defense and prosecution, the verdict that I bestow on you, your success or defeat in Trial by Combat; those moments are set in time as well. You cannot do anything to change the future, what I know will come to pass.”

The Bit-Minder paused for a moment, staring at Cego again as if it could see through him. Spectrals wafted down the tube and began to spiral around the creature.

“So, Grievar-child, set your mind at rest. For you, like all your kind, are feeble in this way. This is a blessing. You should not preoccupy yourself with such things as the past and future, for there are minds far greater than yours to occupy those realms.”

Cego realized he’d forgotten to breathe. He sucked in air.

“Now let us begin.

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