[Arno Everett/Allenel]

        Everett waited until Allenel looked back to him, and then nodded.
A quick shuffle through his papers and he brought out two pieces of
parchment.  "May I approach, Your Honor?"  His quiet, careful manner
indicated no personal offense at deferring to a much younger man; he
simply waited for the nod before stepping up to the bench to hand one copy
over to Bog.  "And a set for defense counsel," he added, placing the
second copy in front of Mayce before returning to his own place.  He
opened his mouth, then stopped, looking inquiringly at Allenel.

        "Would the defendant please rise for the reading of the charges?"
Allenel prompted gently.  After making a quick notation on the parchment
handed to him, Bog had passed the document up to Allenel himself -- the
first opportunity for any of them to see what charges would be brought
against the defendant.

        After Fillip had risen to his feet, Arno folded his hands behind,
cleared his throat slightly, and directed his eyes to a space somewhere
between the defense table and the bench.  "In the matter of the Crown v.
Fillip Menagrem, the defendant is hereby charged by His Royal Majesty,
King of Claremont, with the commission of following offenses against the
public upon the dates and under the circumstances set forth under the
royal seal: assault upon the person of the Royal Envoy, Lawrince Ournel;
battery upon the same; kidnapping of the same; attempted murder upon the
same; intentional and premeditated murder of His Majesty's loyal subject,
citizen of Claremont and of the Chartered City of Montfort, Denlira
Ophelian; abuse of a corpse; fleeing the scene of a crime."

        Allenel scanned the document once, and then again, before looking
up.  Behind Everett, Archie Chisholm had raised his own head in surprise
-- no charges for the death of the envoy's secretary, Netit?  Arno simply
stood in place, eyes dropping down to look at the toes of his neatly
polished boots.  "Does the Crown intend to seek the death penalty?"
Allenel asked.

        "Yes, Your Honor.  The Crown feels that the nature of the
defendant's crimes demands the ultimate punishment."  By the tone of his
voice, Arno Everett might have been commenting upon the weather.

[Fillip/Denlira]

Color faded from Fillip's cheeks as his possible fate was so
matter-of-factedly stated, and he gazed up at Perrin Mayce with something
akin to pleading in his eyes.

>From around the chamber, growing in volume, sounded a long, lost moan of,
"Noooooooooooooooooo..........." And from near the witness' box a figure
wavered into existence; a young woman with lank blond hair and with her
hands outstretched in entreaty as she said, "Its all my fault...."

Denlira's gaze fell on a Fillip, who looked like he was about to faint,
and she floated towards him; her visage alternating between dagger-ravaged
and whole. "All my fault....Oh, my Fillip it is all my fault....."

She hovered next to him, where he cowered in his seat - trapped by table
and bounds, and said, "Oh.....I need to be pretty....." Her visage
stablized to that of unmarred, except for the lines of worry on her face
and the empty black pools where her eyes should have been. "See my love
I'm pretty for you........." she said, reaching out a spectral hand to
brush over his curly hair, despite the fact that he was leaning as far
away from her as possible.

For a moment she seemed to become aware of Perrin and looked directly at
him.

"All my fault," she said.

Then swept over Fillip (causing him nearly to roll under the table), and
vanished.

[Perrin]

With looked at the apparition with a distinct lack of fear on his face.
One eyebrow was raised in curiosity, and looked to be on the verge of
interroagating the spirit right there in the courtroom.

*Hmmm...* he thought.  His mind was working a a furious pace, trying to
figure a way to turn this woman's pain to his advange.  *Dammit... why
couldn't she appear during the TRIAL!  That would CERTAINLY get me an
acquittal!  Poor timing, woman... poor timing....*

[Allenel]

        In the back of the courtroom, Archie Chisholm had risen to his
feet, scribbling furiously in his notepad.  Allenel himself had started to
stand, and made it halfway, before stopping and slowly sinking back into
his chair.  Arno Everett had simply turned to watch with a bemused look on
his face.

[Fillip]

With what wits he had left Fillip realized he could't afford to curl up in
a fetal position under the table. He pushed himself upright and tried to
compose himself. He knew that his paleness required little explanation; so
he quelled his anger at the ghostly Denlira (leave it to her to meddle and
mess things up - look at what they were charging him with - not the
secretary's death but _her's_ .....if she hadn't made him kill her and
waste time burying her he wouldn't be in this fix) and shakily, sadly,
said, "She shouldn't blame herself....She couldn't help what she was...how
she was brought up...."

[Mage Brendan]

-Damnation,- he thought, -We have to find a way to keep her out of this,
an appearence like that during the trial it could get him off.- He rose
quickly and left the courtroom sweeping past the many stunned onlookers.
He nodded to the Sheriff, seeing understanding in Armand's face.

[Perrin]

The defending attorney looked almost disappointed when the spirit
vanished.  He leaned over and whispered in Fillip's ear...

"You don't suppose you can convince her to re-appear at a more strategic
time, do you?"

[Fillip]

There was a hint of fear in Fillip's voice as he whispered back, "She's
always done what I told her to do."

[Perrin]

The attorney nodded and flashed a quick smile.

"We'll talk about that later..."  he said.

[Allenel/Arno]

        The murmuring continued for some time after that, and Archie
leaned over to get the reactions of some of the on-lookers in the sparsely
occupied benches.  After a few more moments, Arno Everett looked up
inquiringly, eyebrows raised, and Allenel lifted the gavel to drop it,
once, twice, thrice upon its wooden pad.  "Counselor," he said evenly to
Perrin Mayce, "would the defendant please rise and enter his plea to the
charges?"

[Perrin]

"...ahem... he means us,"  whispered Perrin.  "Just stand up with me and
try not to look frightened."

[Fillip]

Fillip managed to look ahead and not to shake, but he was biting the
inside of his mouth, and Denlira's appearance had left his guts feeling
like they were burning with gall.

[Perrin]

Perrin stood and announced:

"The defense moves that these charges be DISMISSED by reason of lack of
viable evidence, your honor."

[Sheriff Armand]

He stood and looked at Allenel, hoping he wouldn't agree to the emotional
plea of a ghost. The evidence was more then just viable to was
incriminating in the extreme. Let Perrin disprove the evidnce during the
trial as should be done he thought.

[Allenel/Archie/Arno]

	Allenel considered Perrin Mayce for a moment, and then turned his
eyes to Arno Everett.  The prosecutor looked about for a moment, taking
count of the people actually still in the room, before turning back
towards the bench.  "The Crown was not expecting a motion to dismiss, Your
Honor," he said easily, "but if the defense wishes to proceed with a
preliminary hearing to establish that we have sufficient evidence to
present the case to a jury, we could begin with Sheriff Jonathan Armand?
And if his testimony is not sufficient by itself, we would call Mr.
Hillrover to establish the authenticity of the sworn statements collected
from the various witnesses."

[Narration]

For the rest of the afternoon bloody daggers and lingering magics were
spoken of; as were the testimonies of observant neighbors.

And with each word, particularly when Brion Hillrover spoke of the fights
the neighbors had overheard, Fillip's mouth became more set and his brown
eyes flashed with contained anger.