Caidoz

Chapter 2 ~ The Man That Knew Everything

All eyes fall on me as I enter the room. I notice them all, each and everyone who looked towards me. Brown, black, green, blue, and even shades of topaz and amber. The emotions in the courtroom were all gloomy, drooping eyes, slow heartbeats, and flashes of people attempting to stay conscious from their mixed boredom. It took all my strength to make sure the court's emotions were not transferred into with my own to change my own mood.
   Whispers in the crowd began and rose to a loud roar of exclamation at my arrival, all the people turning in interest and excitement at an unplanned event of the appearance of the Princess of Caidoz, the descendant of the generous, yet ruthless in war, monarch, King Cancer. The gossip was everywhere. The hissed backhanded comments on my gender, the remarks on my brown hair; unlike all Cancers before me; and the shock at the similar inherited pale skin like the moonlight, and my slightly spread apart eyes with unrealistically long lashes that claimed my Caidozian heritage.
   "Silence."
   The word was only faintly heard, but it was all needed for my father's magic to control the crowd's voices to nothing. My head snaps back down the aisle in surprise, startled away from the sudden drop of sounds around me. Seated there, I saw King Libra, the King of Caidoz. A majestic king with a golden crown upon his head. This crown had a Karm, or in other words, the symbol of a Caidozian, twisted into the design atop his long brown hair.
   From his massive hickory desk engraved with the Karm of Libra, my father rose slowly, his hands pressing gently on the wooden surface. The average height for his middle age, he still carried with him an aura of strength that could make anyone feel tiny. Looking directly into my eyes, he acknowledged me with a gesture. "Princess Cancer. For what reason today are we all blessed with your appearance in my humble court?"
   I felt my heart nervously throw itself frantically against my throat as I lifted my head to return the same emotionless head gesture of acknowledgment and greeting. "I simply decided I wanted to watch the case today." Turning my head towards the left and right sides of the intrigued, but silenced, crowd, I felt a smile spreading across my lips. "Someday I will be Queen Cancer, and I should rule my people with the intelligence and wisdom which comes from my father. Is there really any way to learn that is better than personal observation?"
   He was silent for a moment before nodding. "Very well, come closer to the stands, Cancer. I wish you to sit beside me."
   The crowds' tension blots out my emotional powers, driving me mad with the fact of which I could not sense his emotions. I walk down the wooden stairs, presenting myself in front of the almond-shaped eyes of King Libra. 
   The moment I came into close view, he motioned to the four servants awaiting his orders by the exit. They ran up to his at his gesture, falling into a deep bow before arising to his bidding. "Bring a seat for my daughter beside me." 
   My surprise must have shown on my face because he chuckles down at me. Placing a flat piece of metal at my dad's requested destination, the servants kneel as I walk past them. With a flick of dad's fingertips, the metal rises into the air and glows white underneath as it quietly vibrates and hummed, instantly becoming a seat. Up the stairs and around to the massive desk, the floating panel falls lightly under my weight, otherwise supporting me.
   "Judge them with me, Cancer." My dad's grey eyes twinkle with kindness, a fresh wave washing over me as a result. It was child's play to sense his pride in me. His pleasure in spending time with me, for the moments spend we together are often rushed, as he had many responsibilities as king of a massive empire.
   I looked at the crowd and felt a small headache with all the people's crazy emotions pressuring down on me. I realized I Homam was right for me to wear my crown/headband because otherwise, I was utterly undressed for the occasion, for even my dad wore a golden robe. Racking sobs came from a small distance below my eye level, and I turned my head to look. The sound seemed to be flooding from a middle-aged man with ragged short blond hair that appeared to have been attacked with scissors.
   King Libra only glanced at him before I heard a barely constrained strangled sigh. His eyes had slightly narrowed, his heartbeat thundering in restraint, and his hands squeezed briefly, all pointing towards his apparent emotions of irritation. He tilted his head in my direction slightly, and in a hushed whisper that was contained from the listening ears of the crowd asked, "Why are you really here, Cancer? I am rather sure it isn't to see this man crying his eyes out and flooding the floors with his tears." 
   I shrugged, unsure how to respond to the straightforward question. "Go on with the case, I said what I meant."
   King Libra centered his attention back toward the men below us seated at unpainted wooden desks. "Mr. Regor, please contain yourself. This is a courtroom, not a psychologist's office!"
   The man looked up, his tear-stained face blinking. "I'm sorry your regalness... but THAT MAN!" He frantically pointed toward a young man. The boy was no more than sixteen with fiery red hair that grew down past his shoulders, several strands brushed into a long bang to the right. Happy and free blue eyes, and a long ugly red scar on his right hand. A long brown travel coat that tailed down to his feet, he was dressed for the cold even though it was Summertime; it was much too warm for the long coverings he wore currently. But then again, there was something off about this entire manner of dress-- a bright red shirt that exactly matched his hair's brightness, black pants made of a strange material, and a scarf that was wrapped in a unique knot pattern and complimented his eyes in color. He tilted his head with a cheerful smile, exhaling a sudden breath.
   "THAT MAN has committed a sin! And worse of all, he claims I am to blame for this audacity!" The man pounded his fists on the stand in frustration and rage.
   My father cleared his throat, and I felt the strain of annoyance drip like a streak of bright paint in a bucket that was steadily filling. "In my court, all are heard, there is no point in hysterics! Simply tell me what occurred, Mr. Regor." 
   Calming down a bit, Mr. Regor took gulping breaths, nodding his head." I am sorry, your regalness," He said before taking a single, choking, ragged breath for air. "Your majesty," He began.
   "I am but a humble fisherman of your exquisite kingdom, and I was doing my daily routine to support myself to sell my daily catches at Bazars in different lands of your beautiful kingdom when I noticed I was short of a few of my finest fishing nets. At the time, I didn't pay as much attention as I would pay millions to give at this moment, but I did get suspicious when I noticed half my bait supplies were missing as well!"
   King Libra waved a hand, and a pen wrote furiously in midair. "Half your bait you say?" My father focused on his attention on the other for a moment. 
   "Yes, yes," Mr. Regor immediately nodded, eyes wide.
   "How long for was it missed?"
   "I am not sure, your mightiness, I only noticed it after I recalibrated the ship's course." 
   "And how long was that?"
   "About thirty minutes."
   "What happened next?"
   "YOU SHOULD ASK THAT MAN!" 
   I jumped in my seat in surprise, struggling with the lock of the crab's mental cage. The red-haired man chuckled, his arms rising into the air in a shrug, traveling coat buckles gently jingling. 
   "Mr. Regor, I am questioning you at this time and only you at this time! When it is his turn to state his side of the case, I assure you I will ask." King Libra frowned in disapproval.
   "I found HIM on my boat with my fishing line with my bait! And worse of all..." The man burst into new tears. "I.... cannot say it," Mr. Regor says, pressing a hand to his temple with a significantly loud sniff.
   "Very well. That is completely fine, and maybe even slightly better with me. And my time," King Libra adds. He begins to gather his papers into a large stack in midair, carefully rearranging them in order. "I will have this case viewed, instead, by Judge--"
   "Wait! No, I will say!" Mr. Regor turned his head up, but his bulging blood-shot eyes swivel in their sunken sockets to look at me.
   Creepy.
   "He reeled in a net full of..."
   I rose from my chair, forcing my lips back to reveal a smile. "What was the net full of Mr. Regor?" I asked, no longer able to stand the monotony. I knew as the princess I had my full right to question the plaintiff, but never would I have predicted the consequences. 
He picked at dirt under his fingernails. "The net was full of Blue Bloods, all crawling around hopelessly."
   The royal court inhaled a horrified gasp, and all eyes fell on me once again, this time fearing my response. My heart pounded faster than ever as if it were trying to escape my chest, beads of a cold sweat breaking out on my forehead. I made no effort to disguise my terrified feelings, and I knew it showed my face.
   My father looked sharply at me, and I just barely felt his own shock, his quickened heartbeat. We both knew the Blue Bloods are a species of crabs which were contained a special bond to all Cancers. Like all crabs, they were illegal to fish due to protection over them by the laws of the first Cancer. The punishment was usually fifty years or more in the dungeons. But Blue Blood crabs were the symbol of Cancer because we look quite similar when I transform into my other self.
   While I could usually, yes, talk telepathically with crabs, Blue Blooded crabs communicated with me on a different level, and we treated one another as equals. In my mother's meditation pool in the garden, I had three of them as friends. My dad saw the sadness and fear in my eyes, and his jaw tightened. We both knew the fishing of Blue Blood Crabs resulted in the penalty of death by execution.