The Power and the Glory

Book 2 Chapter IX: The Fallout

Our backs against the wall
We're surrounded and afraid
Our lives now in the hands
Of the soldiers taking aim
-- Sleeping at Last, Mars

Many disasters started because of something that someone thought seemed like a good idea at the time. Infinitely more of them started because someone involved just didn't think at all. Many a general had created a battle plan that was foiled by the actions of an apparently unimportant soldier or overlooked detail.

Common sense told Abi that reacting badly when accused would just make her look guilty. In this case common sense was pitted against fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, and general stress. It was defeated. Roundly. Blind instinct took over as soon as Haliran mentioned necromancy. No matter what the situation blind instinct was not known for choosing the most logical course of action; just the one that would immediately neutralise whatever threat she faced. Attacking Haliran with magic seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do in that moment.

Seconds later, with Haliran crumpled on the ground like a tossed-aside newspaper and the eyes of the entire courtroom on her, Abi realised it wasn't a reasonable thing to do at all.

Down on the courtroom floor her grandmother stared up at her with an unreadable expression. It was the sort of look that would strike terror into anyone's heart, even if they hadn't done anything to warrant it. Naturally it was even worse when Abi knew only too well she did warrant it. Ilaran gave her a look somewhere between horror and exasperation. Beside her Kiriyuki gave her a glare so fierce anyone would have thought she was trying to set Abi on fire. Uncle Arikimi's mouth hung open as if he'd forgotten to close it. A veritable sea of strangers' shocked faces gazed up at her.

Even the bravest person's courage would desert them when confronted with over a hundred rightly angry and horrified people. Abi turned and ran. The people between her and the exit shrank back as if they would suffer the same fate as Haliran just by being too close to her.

The door at the back of the seating area opened out onto the first floor's landing. Abi fully expected the guards to stop her as she charged through it, then ran down the stairs and out the main doors. Amazingly no one stopped her. She received a few bemused looks from servants as she hurtled past them. The guards at the gate paid no attention to her at all. She ran and ran until she was safely away from the Silver Palace.

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You could have heard a feather fall to the floor in the courtroom. Irímé found he hardly dared to breathe. He and Kitri could only stare at each other in horror.

That idiot! he thought over and over again.

They'd had a very good plan. Fool-proof, one might say. No one had taken Haliran's accusation seriously. It would have gone down as a particularly ludicrous attempt to deflect attention onto someone else if only Abihira hadn't decided to confirm it in front of everyone!

A small part of Irímé's mind was reluctantly impressed by how easily Abi had thrown Haliran around. Telekinetically picking up an inanimate object was harder than it looked. Use too much force and it would shoot up to the ceiling. Use too little and it wouldn't move at all. Telekinetically picking up a person, who was much heavier than, say, a book and much more likely to protest, was something very few immortals could do. For an adolescent immortal to toss an adult around the room with enough force to break a bone... Well, no wonder Abi could do impossible things like raise the dead. She clearly had far more magical power than anyone realised.

It was just a pity she'd used that power to make a spectacle of herself.

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