The day of the trial was finally here. Cinder was not looking forward to all the political stuff of the day but that had seemed to become her life. She remembered when Adri just left them alone. Kai had her banned from the palace which she had thought was unnecessary. Adri hated her why would she come to the palace? Then she had to go and kidnap Kai on their wedding day.
Her port went off.
Don't be late for the court hearing at noon. -Torin
Aren't I supposed to remind you.
She checked the time. She had an hour till she had to be there and the courthouse was only ten minutes away. Torin needed to keep her busier, he did so much for Kai when he was adviser. She felt she should be doing more. Meant that she had time to go visit her friends before she had to leave though.
The courtroom was exactly like the netdramas. With pews and a bench and everything. An old tradition she was pretty sure. She took her place in the pews with all the other witnesses. The whole thing was really boring. She understood what was happening. There was a similar system on Luna but she had never really been interested in it all. She waited for her turn to testify. She wasn't sure about the judge though. He looked off.
"I would like to call up Selene Blackburn as eye witness your honour ." The crown said.
"Accepted." The judge replied. She walked up and was directed to a seat next to his honour. The crown started asking questions after she had said an oath.
"What did you witness regarding Linh Adri?"
"I witnessed a video, the same one you saw but longer where all three kidnapers tortured K— Kai. She also forced Kai to go hide with Pearl when we had found him and he had no choice because of the device she helped put in his neck."
"What did you witness regarding Linh Pearl?"
"She was also in the video and she was the one to take Kai away on her moms order. When we went looking for Kai later she refused to help us free him or help in any way."
"Could Adri or Pearl have been glamoured into doing so?"
"No, they both had linh devices in."
"Objection your honour." The defence lawyer said.
"Yes."
"No linh devices were found in either Adri or Pearl when taken into custody." The judge nodded.
"Proceed." They said to the crown. Maybe he wasn't so bad.
"Did Adri ever harm anyone or attempt to harm anyone."
"Adri made me physically remove my hand saying if I didn't she would activate the device. She was also caught on camera taking Kai as I assume you already know." The crown looked at her weird.
"There's video evidence of Adri taking Kai?"
"Yes that how we found out it was her who took Kai. This is public knowledge is it not."
"No such video was presented as evidence. All cameras where down at the time of the kidnapping." What? Didn't she do a press meeting about it or maybe someone else did. She remembered it being on the news.
"From Levanas old cameras to spy on Kai in his office. They're hidden under layers of security, almost invisible. Ryan didn't turn them off because he never found them. Cress was the one to find the video. I was with her along with Thorne. We were the first to see the video." The crown turned to the judge.
"Permission to enter in new evidence if found your honour?"
"Permission granted to be looked over after the trial. Continue."
"I'm done questioning this witness your honour." The crown said. That meant it was the defence lawyers turn. He walked up.
"Growing up in Adri's home would you say she was a good parent? Kind, loving, concerned, fair." She smirked. The exact opposite actually.
"She was never a parent to me. Just my legal guardian." She said nonchalantly.
"So why should we trust that what you say is true when you could just as easily kidnapped Kai yourself and blamed it on her to get her behind bars for what she did to you."
"With all due respect I could have imprisoned her while I was queen of Luna. I had no intention to send her to prison. I just wanted her out of my life."
"It was my understanding that as queen of Luna, you couldn't arrest a Commonwealth Citizen."
"I could have arrested her for keeping me as a slave when I was in fact Queen of Luna."
"A fact she was ignorant to."
"That doesn't matter. If your caught just speaking against the queen, weather you know it or not, it's a crime against the crown. That was considered a series offence."
"Then why didn't you punish her for that legal offence?"
"Because she was ignorant to the fact I was royalty. I never wanted to be queen, and if I had to be one I was going to be a fair one. Unlike my ancestors who would have punished her for such a crime."
"If you never wanted to be queen then how did you end up as empress of the Eastern Commonwealth?"
"I'm not empress."
"Your next in line and there is no Kai to deal with." What was he talking about next in line?
"Next in line?"
"Don't play ignorant."
"How's that possible?"
"Well if anything happened to Torin, as his adviser, you would step in."
"There would be an election and Kai's going to wake up."
"The country loves you, you would get voted in and you know it." She stood up.
"Why would they vote for an ex fugitive, cyborg, lunar as an Empress? And Kai will wake up!" The defence lawyer took a step back.
"Calm down Miss. Blackburn." The judge said. She decided she didn't like him. She sat back down and took a deep breath. Text had popped up but she didn't bother to read it before blinking it away.
"I'm done questioning this witness your honour."
"Could someone escort Miss.Blackburn out of the room. I think she needs some air." She could not believe the judge just said that but she didn't care. She didn't want to be there anymore anyway.
She was sitting in Kai's room. The court hearing was taking forever. They must be coming back soon though. After seeing Adri again it reignited her hatred for her. Not that it had ever left, but she would always hate Adri now. She could never forgive what she's done to Kai alone.
The door finally opened and Torin walked in. She hadn't been expecting him. He had a meeting directly after he testified.
"Shouldn't you be at a meeting?" She asked.
"It got cancelled, someone got a case of letumosis." He said it so casually. It was still deadly and highly contagious.
"Are you ok, were you in contact with them, was it contained?" What if he had it. Did Thorne and Cress bring the antidote back with them or would they have to go back to Luna.
"Yes, yes I'm fine and it was contained."
"Good. How did the trial go."
"Adri got a life long sentence and Pearl thirty years. Wolf was able to prove that they were in fact not being controlled and that Adri took Kai of her own will as I testified." That made her feel a little better. Adri was never getting out.