-Forty years ago, Solqulo's perspective-
Solqulo stood in the middle of a ring. Chains bounded his wrists to the floor, not allowing the great performer to escape.
Voices whispered to one another, ready to make their first ruling. They exchanged ideas and questions, even points of interests during his trial.
A Thawed battler emerged from the tables that encased Solqulo. His broad shoulders bore the marks of battles and hunts, while his hand bore the same executioner's sword he used for each one.
"Rule!" his voice bellowed.
"We heed!" the voices shouted back.
"This poor soul is called Solqulo. Look down at his rags and unfortunate state. How sad is it now that I tell you of his practices?" the judge asked.
He pointed down at Solqulo with the hilt of his sword. "Great Solqulo, Oracle to Nihton. This man has performed rituals one shouldn't. But my duty isn't to convince you to let me execute him, my duty is to convince you to not let me execute him."
Solqulo looked at the bronze end of the sword's handle. He could vividly make out his reflection within, yet he knew this was his opportunity to change that.
Fellow Oracles rose from their seats, awaiting to argue against their fallen brother. Some did it out of greed, others of malice. But a rare few grew worried about what some arts might imply.
The judge glared at the first Oracle, prompting her to lay down her accusation and reasoning for all to hear. She spoke clearly and calmly, not letting details out.
"He performed duel-rituals. Namely, Inamus' first and tenth visions. Other examples include Yatuki's ninth and sixth gasp. And lastly, Urnamakros' fourth sin and Hishidu's unwanted blessing."
Onlookers remained silent, piecing the rituals together. Some started seeing the concerns. Urnamakros' fourth sin made it so their Guardian would cease to exist for a brief amount of time.
Since Hishidu's unwanted blessing resulted in material possessions that would, by normal standards, be illegal to hold on Koroth. This meant the Nine had the grounds to cause the entire mountain to go extinct.
"Inamus' rituals all include livestock. Whether it grew our Eteni fat with meat, or sacrifice a Sky Beast for a Yinmar migration, we do not suffer from any duel rituals of the Inamus origin." The judge explained.
"My fellow Thawed. Yatuki was the first of our kind, and prospered our believes. Yatuki's ninth and sixth gasp together create winter storms for our young to embrace themselves in.
However, Urnamakros and Hishidu origin rituals are highly frowned upon. We only hold their names in archives for educational purposes." The judge added.
He turned to look at the next Oracle. Who took off his mask in favor of speaking clearly and openly.
"Solqulo's rituals recently have been highly successful when compared to other Thawed of his ranking. I want to introduce the Syndicate Dust I submitted earlier as evidence against him."
The judge looked down at Solqulo. "It is true. I used several rituals to trace the bag's origins to Solqulo's home. However, while I continued to use different rituals, I used Gull's evidence.
Within the ritual, I discovered no dust was taken out or experimented on. This counts as illegal possession of anti-Nine artifacts, but not enough to incriminate Solqulo for crimes against our kind."
Another Oracle removed her mask, revealing her judgmental gaze as she studied how much of an animal Solqulo looked. She secretly felt overjoyed at the sight.
"I am one of Nohtin's closest Oracles, so by nature I am expected to advise the elder and be a medium between all other Oracles and him. When Solqulo started performing his duo-rituals, I've noticed he had become more invasive and demanding."
Solqulo gritted his teeth, knowing it was a lie. He had simply asked to meet with Nohtin to discuss normalizing and reforming older rituals. Yet she'd lie.
Claiming he demanded for change and even threatened to stalk Nohtin. But she stood on no legs, with no evidence to back up her claims against him.
"Upon meetings with Nohtin, I've come to the discovery that each time you came up to him with these 'messages,' you had only vague stories," the judge countered.
She sighed, not sure how to answer if Nohtin had shared other messages to the judge. So instead of taking the risk, she sat back down like the other Oracles. Leaving only one more.
The judge looked at the last prosecutioner. Waiting for her to step up and speak. And she rose, wearing a heavy Yinmar fur coat.
"Unlike the previous accusations, mine has a solid foundation. Solqulo is responsible for the accidental incursions into army and pack territory."
"And that is true," the judge's voice grew deeper. "Resources bountiful for us all, yet our greed hinders our progression towards friendly relations with our neighbors. It is best for us to cut the root of our problem and let them free."
Solqulo locked eyes with the judge, hoping his final decision wasn't to execute him.
"True to the trial, the future judge comes to me with a basket full of red and blue pebbles. Blue indicates his execution, red is his alternative punishment," the judge narrated.
Like he said, the future judge arrived with the basket. The voters sat eagerly waiting to see the majority's decision.
When the current judge looked inside, he announced the results. "Red! In agreement to illegal possession of anti-Nine materials and indirectly starting warfare, Solqulo is exiled from the Nobbo-Taski Glacier.
But with compensation for false accusations and speculation, he is to leave with supplies."
Oracles groaned with frustration, feeling like a great injustice was dealt to them. However, Nohtin sat silently. Pleased to see the result.
"Rule!" the judge boomed.
"We heed!" the court replied.
-Back to present day, Ether-
"What? There were no weaknesses, just how he left his glacier," Ether's voice rung with frustration.
Bergo sat patiently in the sky. "Perhaps you should store this trial in your mind... The weakness lies in logic and rituals..."