Kira's Quest

It felt like forever, but finally she heard somebody at the door. A jailer entered with a tray with some food.

"Why am I here? How long will I have to stay?"

"Your trial begins in an hour. Shut up and eat your lunch." He left.

Her trial? What was she charged with? Would she even be told? Would she be allowed to attend the trial? She had no answers, and was close to despair when the door opened again. Three jailers had come to escort her to the trial.

She emerged from the prison in the small square in front of the town hall, and was quickly taken inside, and let to a large room. In the middle there was a large metal cage. At one end benches were put up, obviously for the audience. She saw Jeyne sitting there, very conspicuous as she was the only naked person in the room. Liam and his sister were also there, but she recognized nobody else. The other men that had fucked her obviously did not care enough to show up. She felt relieved that the old man was not here, had it really been Lorin?

She was led into the cage. In the other end of the room was a small dais, with three middle-aged people sitting at a table, two women and a man. Probably they were the judges. As soon as the cage was closed, the woman in the middle rose. Perhaps she was the chief judge.

"May the Accuser come forth!" she intoned in a clear voice.

Kira raised her hand.

The chief judge looked at her. "Yes?"

"Will I be assigned a defense lawyer?" Kira asked.

"Assigned? What do you mean? You will be allowed a defense, of course, in due time. Now please be silent."

Great, Kira thought. She would have to defend herself with absolutely no knowledge of the law. If the prosecution was even halfway competent, she would be toast!

The chief judge spoke to the room again, "May the Accuser come forth, and state his accusation."

A man moved forward. Kira recognized him as Lorin's servant. Perhaps there was hope after all.

The Accuser began speaking. "This woman approached my master's house yesterday, but was denied entry. Nevertheless she returned at nightfall, and attempted to break into Master Lorin's house with the intend to steal from him. I accuse her of theft, and of burglary."

The judge looked at Kira, "Do you acknowledge theft and burglary?"

"No," Kira said with desperation in her voice, "I did not take anything from Master Lorin's house, and did not intend to do so. I only wanted to speak to Master Lorin, and to learn about his magic."

The judge looked at the Accuser. "Have you any evidence that she took something from your master's house, or that she intended to do so?"

"We stopped her before she could take anything. But you heard her confession. She wanted to steal Master Lorin's secrets. They are the most valuable thing he has. Therefore, she is a thief."

The judge did not look convinced. She asked Kira, "Do you acknowledge breaking into Master Lorin's house with the intend to take his secrets?"

"No. I did not enter his house. And I did not steal anything."

"But you did attempt to enter his house. An attempted crime is still a crime. Although by law burglary is not a crime in itself, but only an aggravating circumstance to theft. This is complicated. We will withdraw and reach a sentence."

This was fast. Kira felt that she had not presented her case very well. On the other hand, the Accuser had not exactly been eloquent either. Perhaps there was still hope.

It took half an hour before the judges came back. The chief judge remained standing, the others took their seats.

"Kira the Traveler," she said, "You have been accused of attempted theft against Lorin the Mage, and of burglary as an aggravating circumstance. While the Accuser has proposed that learning Master Lorin's secrets against his will is theft, we are not convinced that this is the case as nothing would have been taken. Yet it is clearly a wrongdoing, though perhaps not one covered by law. A crime, then, but one to which no penalty can be assigned under our laws. As for burglary, that is but an aggravating circumstance to theft, and no theft was committed. But yet a crime was committed, albeit an unpunishable one, and we find that burglary may aggravate this crime. The traditional punishment is increasing the punishment of the original crime by a year, yet there is no punishment to increase. But a wrong was done, and although there is no punishment it may still be increased!"

Kira was confused. She did not understand what the judge was saying, it sounded very unclear. Had she been acquitted or convicted? And of what. She was about to rise her hand and ask for clarification, when the chief judge gave a sign to the two other judges. They rose.

The chief judge announced in a loud voice, "Thus It Shall Be Known As Justice: Kira the Traveler is convicted to one year of nudity. For one year she may wear no clothes and no footwear, nor any other thing intended to hide her shame. This is so that all who see her shall know of her dishonor, and to teach her humility and respect for the law. The punishment shall begin at dawn."

She then turned to the jailers, "Bring Kira back to her cell, but present her in the square outside this building at first light."

*****

Back in her cell, Kira sat in thoughts. Her situation was bad, but far from hopeless. Presumably, they would want to keep her in town to prevent her from escaping her punishment. But after a few weeks their vigilance would probably lessen, and she should be able to steal some clothes and run away. Or run away without clothes. She only needed to reach the forest a few kilometers away. No-one here was able to even imagine traveling further away, so no real pursuit would be possible. She tried to sleep, but sleep took a long time coming.

DAY 6

At dawn, Kira was led out into the small square in front of the town hall. The three judges were there, as were a large number of spectators. Her public stripping was clearly going to be the local entertainment today. Well, after her experiences at the temple, she could handle that. Jeyne was in the audience, but Liam and his sister were not, perhaps they were not keen on seeing her humiliated in public.

Everybody seemed to be waiting for somebody. Finally, the old man from the temple approached. Lorin. He looked at her.

"I hear you are interested in my magic," he said in a mocking voice. "How fortunate then that you are going to experience it first hand. My best spell, even!"

Lorin smiled, but his smile did not reach his eyes. Then he raised his hands in a gesture of invocation. He spoke words that Kira did not recognize, and his voice changed to become harsh and resonant, like Christina's had on that fateful day. He made a swift motion with his hands, and Kira felt a wave of energy sweep over her.

Then nothing happened. Kira was confused. Magic had clearly been worked before her eyes, and Lorin seemed very pleased with himself. Yet nothing had changed, nothing happened. Everybody waited in silence.

Then Kira felt her left sleeve detach. She looked at it, and before her eyes her clothes began to fall apart. Soon she stood only wearing her boots, with a ring of dust around her. Then her boots too began to fall apart.

The chief judge stepped forward, and spoke. "Justice has been served. Any clothes that you try to wear will suffer the same fate. The spell will be in effect for one year, at that time you may return here to have it lifted.

"You came to us as a Traveler, and we welcomed you as tradition says we must. But you abused your welcome, and broke our law. You are therefore banished from our town, and will leave today, never to return except briefly to have the spell lifted, a year from now.

"We have fetched your backpack from the inn. We have taken your clothes, you will not need them again, but everything else is still there. The backpack itself will not be affected by the spell, as long as you keep it on your back, and do not use it to cover your indecency. Leave now!"

*****

Kira was looking at the path, taking care where she was setting her bare feet as she slowly walked east. Progress was slow this way, and her feet were already sore. It was many hours since she had left the town.

Leaving had been most stressful. Only a small crowd had welcomed her these few days ago, but it looked like all the inhabitants had lined up along the road to see her off. They shouted insults and lewd comments at her, commenting her body in the most undignified ways possible. She tried not to let it bother her, but that was impossible, and soon she was at the verge of tears. Then she saw Liam standing silently in the crowd. As she passed him, he stepped forward and took her arm. Together, they walked along the road. Clearly people resented what Liam did, but the shouting and insults nevertheless subsided. Liam walked with her until they were past the last people waiting along the way, then they continued toward the forest. She knew it was silly to hope he would join her in exile, and when they reached the forest he did indeed stop. They kissed goodbye, before she walked in between the trees.

Now Kira was worried. She had just learned that magic indeed worked, and the fact that Lorin's voice had sounded so much like Christina's had given her the hope that the magic was related. There was perhaps a real hope that some day she would find a wizard that could send her home. She also realized that there might be some risk that Lorin's spell would continue working if she returned to the Real World. That would be inconvenient, to say the least, but if that was the price she had to pay, so be it!

But Kira was worried, very worried. Her progress was slow, and she would have little if any food left when she reached the next town. She did not even know how far it was. And how would they welcome her? She had always been received well, but a naked traveler... Would they chase her away, or just take her directly to the brothel? Some towns would perhaps accept her like this, but not many.

Her situation had never been good, but it was ironic that now when the first real hope for her quest had been kindled, her situation was more hopeless than ever before. Kira looked down as she walked along the path, unsure what fate awaited her.

THE END.