The courtroom was a powder keg, the fuse lit by Duke Hektor's grief and Keibrant's ambition. King Maltherion leaned forward, his face etched with a grim disappointment.
"Sovereign Regina," the King's voice boomed, heavy with the weight of the crown. "The evidence before us is harrowing. A child of the Empire has been taken within your jurisdiction. Do you have any defense left to offer? If you cannot explain this atrocity, you will be stripped of your position and banished from these walls immediately."
Eliosa held her breath, a tiny, triumphant smile twitching at the corner of her lips. Keibrant remained perfectly still, already mentally drafting the decree for her arrest.
Regina did not rush. She stood up with a deliberate, haunting grace, her obsidian silks whispering against the floor. She did not look at the King; she looked at Keibrant, her violet eyes flashing with a cold, superior light.
She snapped her fingers once. The sound was sharp, cutting through the murmurs of the court like a blade.
The shadows in the center of the hall began to boil and rise. From the ink-black vortex, Azryth emerged, his towering form casting a long, intimidating silhouette. But he was not alone. From beneath the heavy folds of his shadow-cloak, he gently lowered a small, shivering figure onto the marble.
"Father?" a small voice squeaked.
The courtroom gasped in unison. Lord Julian stood there, his sapphire tunic slightly wrinkled but his skin pale and completely unharmed. There wasn't a single scratch on him; not even a drop of blood marred his clothes.
Duke Hektor stumbled forward, his knees nearly buckling. He reached out with trembling hands, touching his son's face as if fearing the boy was a ghost or an illusion. "Julian? My boy... you're alive? But the blood... the shadows..."
Regina stepped forward, her voice ringing out with a terrifying, calm authority. "My defense mechanisms do not exist to murder, Your Majesty. They are programmed to neutralize threats. When a breach occurs, the shadows simply swallow the intruder into the Void—a space between dimensions where time and harm cannot reach. They do not kill unless I specifically order a death strike."
She looked around the room, meeting the eyes of every trembling noble. "The shadows are not to be feared by the innocent. They are merely a doorway. They bring the intruders to me, and as I have sworn, the ultimate decision of justice belongs to the King alone."
A heavy silence fell, but Regina wasn't finished. She walked toward the silver tray held by Cornelius, pointing a slender finger at the blood-stained cloth and the raven feathers.
"Duke Hektor asks how these cloth pieces were stained in blood when his son is untouched," Regina said, her tone dripping with icy disdain. "The answer is simple: the blood is fake. A concoction of pig's liver and dye, easily manufactured by those desperate to see me fall."
She turned her gaze fully upon Keibrant and Eliosa, who had turned ashen. "This was not an accident, Your Majesty. This was a calculated plot. Someone pushed that child into the vault, and someone planted this 'evidence' to rile the nobility. The only monster in this room is the one who would use a child's life as a political pawn."