Not Guilty

Chapter 7

Tuesday - Amari Council

The grandfather clock in the corner ticked away as a guest and seven council members pulled their chairs out. Next to the clock a set of matching arm chairs sat close together and faced the couch on the wall perpendicular to the door. The walls above the furniture were adorned with large paintings and lamps. Hanging from the center of the ceiling a golden chandelier cast its light onto the long dark wood table below. Around the table eight chairs were set, one at the head and three to its right and four to its left.

The arms of each the chairs was covered in a once beautiful gold fabric, on most chairs it was frayed, stained or ripped in some way. The table fared no better, a large thin crack ran down the middle, one corner was missing and there were light scorch marks covering a fourth of it. There were what looked to be gashes where the table had been stabbed in outrage. While the rest of the room appeared polished and priceless the table stood out as it stood on a large oriental rug just large enough to cover the floor beneath the table. The clock began to chime the hour and there was a shuffling as each person took their seat.

At the head an elderly gentleman rested his cane against the table next to him. It had a solid gold rose on top and painted around the stick was the stem. The man tugged at his suit after he was settled, he had a neatly trimmed white beard and mustache, and his gold tie was perfectly straight. He could see the clock in the corner ticking away. To his right was a young woman about twenty nine, her dirty blonde hair was curled and pinned up with a diamond studded hairpin, her petticoat and dress skirt were deep blue with white trimming. She smoothed her skirt after she sat down, slipping off her white gloves and crossing them on her lap. She radiated power and confidence, her green eyes challenged all who dared to meet her gaze.

Across from her was a middle aged man, he had a head full of jet black hair and recently shaved his beard and mustache. He had a gold band around each finger except his left ring finger and a pen behind his ear. When he cracked his knuckles the rose tattoo in place of the missing ring was clearly visible. To his left was a large man, his hair was trimmed short and his arm tattoos were showed when he rolled up his sleeves before taking a set of three files. He took one and passed it down to a woman in her early forties. She wore pearl bracelets and her caramel colored skin looked dark compared to the light grey shawl she had wrapped around her lavender dress. She took the file from the bottom and slid the last one to her left.

The far left corner of the table was occupied by a young strawberry blonde man in his late twenties. He adjusted his emerald tie and stopped tapping his fingers on the table when he was slid a file. He glanced next to him and followed everyone else in looking at the first page of the file before them. Adjacent to him a rather tall and skinny man took up barely half of his chair and stretched his legs under the table as far as he could. He had flipped ahead in his file and was doodling in the margins of the last page around a picture. To his left the woman next to him was madly underlining her file she only stopped to circle things and occasionally look up to see who was watching.

She looked up to see the young man staring at her paper which was a mess of black from her pen. He quickly looked away catching the eyes of proper the lady to the left of the head of the table. If she saw the look of curiosity and annoyance in his blue eyes as they regarded her she didn't say anything. To her left the rather tall and skinny man was still doodling in the last page of his file stretching his legs are far as he could without slouching.

***

The head of the table cleared his throat and shuffled closer to the table. Part of the gold chain of a pocket watch grazed the table as he moved breaking the silence. "I'd like to welcome Miss DuValle from Lomalita county council she'll be supervising our vote following today's agenda." The young blonde woman straightened up her presence was unwelcome and there were various mumbles around the table. The tall man next to her shifted uncomfortably in his seat until a look from her nearly stopped his heart. The man with all the rings stopped cracking his knuckles seeing the look on her face, her eyes like emerald daggers. She pursed her lips as she looked at the faces of the council unimpressed with what she saw.