No gods, no nightmares, no tormentors. A good night sleep for an arguably bad life lived. Balance, in a weird way.
He didn't dream about his usual ailments because they now existed on the outside.
Dragons, werewolves, hexblades, evil princes, he had it all. So in sleep, he was granted none.
Peace.
An attempt at least.
Then he was shocked awake.
"Claude! Hey Claude! Get up, young king! Your people need you!!!!!"
Claude opened his eyes to Chase yelling in his face. He hadn't brushed his teeth in days. That or he preferred eating really old meat for breakfast.
"What time is it?" Claude felt like dirty laundry.... If that made sense.
"Mid-day. Listen! We found Stella..... But somehow everyone knows she's the serpentmancer and Xander and Emma are looking to avenge themselves and Julia.... they're kinda badass I don't know...."
"Chase....."
Chase blinked twice before his face finally twisted up in shock, "WHAT THE-- dude, it wasn't me. That only almost happened once. I'm a changed man!"
Claude sat up, pushing Chase's head aside since he wouldn't move on his own. His long light brown hair was greasy and smelled like tree oils-- probably why he was so hard to detect. He smelled like a forest.
"Where is Stella now?"
"Well uhh.... she might possibly..... Kind of sort of be running because the students are hunting her because some dumb idiot suggested the serpentmancer dies how she tried to kill them."
Claude exploded out of his bed.
"Listen! I know you're all about your hero stuff just like how I'm about my hunter stuff but come on man--"
"She's not the serpentmancer, you dumb fuck!" Claude flipped out of the window to his treehouse and hit the ground at a sprint. His hounds and Ren fell in line.
The forest was loud with commotion. He didn't need wolf-like senses to know so. No one was trying for stealth. It was barbaric-- feral, like beasts on a full moon. The thought made his stomach twist as he ran.
Students yelled for Stella. Now that she was up and moving he got a hold on her scent and started making a b line through the jungle. He swung on vines and leapt across rivers like a stoneape.
As he passed the slower students, he tied them up in roots and vines, slowly shrinking the mob until he could literally hear her exhausted pants as she ran ahead.
Then he saw them. Reagan, Finn, Xander and Emma. They led a hunting party of three more and looked just about ready to re-enter their hospital beds.
Claude sped up and dusted past the first three. Emma took aim with her bow of flame at the front.
Claude lunged at her from behind, kicking her legs just hard enough to send her tumbling. Her arrow of fire flew straight into the clear blue sky.
As he slid across the jungle grounds with her, he let his palms sink into the grass.
All around them it extended like hands and grabbed their ankles.
Claude got back his feet, standing in front of Stella and Grimm with his claws extended and eyes wild. A mirror reflection of the Island-Dogs and Ren as they huddled under Grimm.
"So all beast-tamer's are evil little shites, then?" Emma asked as she tried to pull at the vines holding her arms to the ground.
"Are you always on the wrong side of history?" Claude retorted.
Xander looked away in shame for a moment before readjusting. Emma seemingly wasn't capable of the same.
"Nothing wrong with playing the game how your told. I've got people to feed. You think I care about which island has a more caring king? You're forgetting about the real world."
"You say that while ignoring due process? Rich." Darius came in on a gust of wind with Carmen in tow.
Claude had never been so happy to see his silver streaked head of hair.
"Darius, I understand you and the rest of these Ends-Island natives have faith and immense respect for Claude-- but I've been hearing about him." Xander started.
Claude looked back at Stella, observing her head wound and startled eyes as the rest of the students caught up with them.
"Ever since the fifth-wave....ever since he arrived we've heard whispers of a dark-tamer. They say he healed from the Violet Scourge in a day. They say his blood is transforming beasts at a mere touch. I hear Claude is plagued by nightmares..... rarely sleeping, always fighting. He's either exhausted and not in his right mind or complicit in our attempted demise. Either way, he is not reliable on Stella's behalf. I understand my mistakes, let me right them and save future students." Xander explained.
Darius sighed. Sion, Percival and Tyrell-- the surfers, came in behind him. Percival, the soundless giant with cold blue eyes stood over Xander-- over everyone, and spoke.
"Claude can be unreliable. But what about the rest of us?"
Claude was too busy thinking about who else was watching him. Who was gossiping. When he changed Ren was on his Island. Protected an unknown by Samuel and his hexblade help. So who else?
"You follow. That's the point of Island-Kings and slave bands." Xander replied to Percival.
Percival looked down at his toned arm-- where the band would've been.
Claude smiled. Even if Percival didn't speak, he communicated as much as anyone.
"We do not follow. I follow no man blindly. I also don't kill man without knowing the full story."
"Yeah, plus, some of us took an oath upon Rebirth." Trey said from beside Goren. "Let me heal Stella and the rest of you or I'll treat all of you as you are currently. Monsters." As an early-waver Trey's words held weight.
Xander wasn't budging.
Neither was Emma.
Claude prepared for a fight with two mages that were arguably stronger than all of End's-Islands very own. Especially Emma. She was a nightmare in combat.
"Let's hold a trial." Someone said behind the crowd of students, somewhere deeper in the jungle greenery.
They all listened as he soundlessly pushed through the foiliage and took center stage between Claude and the hunting party.
He was short. No taller than five foot six. On top of that he was slender-- lean as a cut of chicken. When Claude first met him was paler, but the island sun brought him closer to Claude's complexion. And the harsh daytime sun highlighted the auburn tint in his curly black hair. He had a sword at his hip and rifle at his back-- an unconventional kit for an assassin but he made it work.
"What is a trial, Enzo?" Finn asked.
"It's that due process Darius was talking about. This jungle is full of two things, evidence and witnesses. Let's comb through both-- thoroughly, before we skin this chick. I've been part of an Island where they ran it how you're trying to. It sucked. Then this guy came..." Enza pointed to Claude, "And got captured by goblins. But, he survived. So maybe he's doing something right."
Darius nodded in agreement.
Claude mouthed a thank you to Enzo the gunslinging assassin as the crowd calmed.
"Alright, let's get to work." Enzo pulled a thick hemp rope out of his belt, "Stella, I need to tie you up."
"At this point just kill me."
Three hours passed by in a blur of land transformation, cataloguing and allocation of resources. Not to mention the most tedious of all, meetings.
But it was all for the sake of reason. For the sake of maintaining it. It took effort to not give into suspicion and fear when you're steeped in it everyday.
Claude understood it then as he watched the students nervously chew their nails and flinch at the wind.
If he wasn't actually stalked by dark-gods and possibly the son of a werewolf, he still must've been an enigma to them. In every sense he should've been a nobody. He wasn't a legacy. Broke as all hells. No physical gifts. But there he stood at the top, doing things they couldn't explain and protecting people they deemed dangerous.
Now he had another person-- or people, trying to push past the curtain and gaze through the windows to see his innermost secrets. If he wasn't more careful, they'd find exactly what they were looking for.
Thanks to Finn, Reagan and a few other earth-element users, the beach had been transformed into a sandstone auditorium. Students filled the beige benches, seated shoulder to shoulder. With all of them in one place he was reminded of how many there were. Bigger than any of his classes back at the C.S Academy. All superpowered and capable of incredible things. All future heroes. Still not even actual students.
"How did you come up with this?" Claude asked Enzo as they stood in the central pit.
"Yea, it's basically a societal norm to ignore Enforcer Organization standards in favor of heroic action." Ursula added.
Enzo wiped the sand off his berry black boar pelt sweater as he spoke, "My dad's a member of the Detection Corps. He's part of a low stakes unit. Property disputes and theft for powerless high class families. It's not much..... But I couldn't tell you how many lives he's saved just by making people consider the evidence. The little stuff. We forget about the details in a world where teenagers can spit lightning and grow wings."
"Good point. Hopefully we can remind them of that here." Ursula said.
Isaac, Naz and Marion entered the central-pit then.
"Is this everyone?" Claude questioned after turning to greet them.
"It is." Naz replied.
Claude combed through the rows of students until he found Chase sleeping against Reagan at the bottom row.
He turned to Enzo. Enzo looked at him confused.
"This was your idea, please lead."
Naz and the others agreed.
Enzo cleared his throat and stepped forward. "The trial of Stella Fellinoire begins now. We'll split it into sections. First the accusers will speak, then the accused, then the witnesses. The evidence will speak through members of all sides to a keep a sense of impartiality. Then from those uninvolved we will form a verdict. If we can not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Stella is the serpentmancer, then she's not guilty. Everyone understand?"
The crowd agreed and the trial began. Stella stood in a cage center stage in silence.
The accusers spoke like they almost died and found out who was to blame.
Xander and Emma led the charge with Claude's unreliable aspect and the reality that all beast-tamers were suspicious.
Sixth-wavers Adrian, Eugene and Scilla backed it up with the fact that they knew serpents gathered at her home, they found her running in the forest alone with snake eyes and her recent tame being a possible cover in case she was caught.
That didn't help Claude's rep since he was the one who urged Stella to take Grimm home.
After an hour of conversation and statements, all accusers had spoken. Claude could see the sway in the crowd. Not much, but enough to do damage.
They took a ten minute recess and started with the accused.
Stella.
She looked tired of it all already, "As you'll hear soon, I was out last night because I was doing my usual night time perimeter runs with the archers and assassin's."
Enzo nodded, silently becoming her alibi.
"How come you didn't go back to your treehouse after? Emma said she found you two miles away from it."
Claude cursed. That small sway he was talking about took effect quickly.
"I was getting there." Stella snarled, "The reason I wasn't home is because I was attacked."
"By what?" Enzo asked.
Stella shook her head, "Not what, who. And I couldn't tell you. He was hidden. I didn't even get a chance to react. One second I was heading home, then I smelled someone familiar, I must've startled them. Then I got hit with a wave of magic and lost ninety percent of my health."
"Shit!"
Claude and Stella looked up and found Carmen in the nosebleeds cursing herself.
"Please continue." Enzo said to Stella.
"When I woke up, I smelled dead goblin in the air and thought we got raided, so I took off in search of you guys.. then I ran into Emma and she tried to shoot me."
"Can you give us any more details about this mystery figure?" Enzo asked.
"They were big. I mistook them for a tree."
"But they were human?"
"They were one of us. I've smelled them here before. I can't remember where, though." Stella explained.
With nothing more to be said on her account, Stella was done speaking and it was the witnesses turn.
Stella had no alibi, which was devastating to her savior verdict. By the time the rest of the witnesses spoke, it painted a clear picture of the whole night, and she wasn't in frame.
When Claude took the stand as witness, his confidence waned. He spoke anyway. Because he knew.
"I almost died to a snake attack yesterday evening. Ren and my island-dogs saved me, which led to Goren being able to make an antidote to save you all. Later that night me and a few others ran into Chase-- he was also hunting snakes-- he knew where they gathered. Eventually he brought us to that location... Which was Stella's house."
The crowd of students gasped.
"Pretty damning at face value, but Enzo says we need to look at the details. And I did."
The crowd quieted.
"I went into her room--"
"You what!?" Stella yelled from the cage.
Claude held out a hand, "Just-- hold on."
She did.
"Rooms say a lot about people. Where you're from, your interests and insights. In Stella's room I learned she likes the romance of a good story, and was born in the Sunlandian Prison -Sect."
Her face darkened. Claude had just told all of End's-Island that Stella was a product of criminals.
"More importantly, she lost someone very special to her there." Claude said, "His name was Socks."
The previously drawn in crowd was suddenly taken out of their immersion.
"That sounds like a cat."
"It was." Claude replied.
.....
.....
"Get him off the stand!" Someone yelled.
"Come take me off." Claude pressed.
A student tried to stand and grant his wishes only for his sandstone seat to mold around him.
Finn's eyes glowed from the nosebleeds.
"Violence will not be tolerated here." Darius said.
"Continue Claude." Enzo said.
"The Sunlandian Prison -Sect has another name. Which I'm sure some of you know... Scale-Island. There is nowhere else on earth with a higher population of snakes and reptilian biodiversity. It's why The Sunlandian Government chose that place as it's prison-sect. It's deathrow but the lethal injection is alive and actively searching for you every second of every day."
Claude turned to Stella. Her eyes watered, "Stella, Socks was killed by a snake, wasn't he?"
Stella nodded silently.
"So what?" Emma questioned, "Respectfully, I've seen people turn to the power of their tormenters all the time. The girl lost a cat."
"You could only say this as someone who doesn't know beast-tamers. She didn't just lose a cat. She lost a part of herself. She lost family. She lost life. As a child. That doesn't mold someone into a serpentmancer. Those snakes gathered before someone they saw as a god. They listened to every inch of every command they were given down to how many times they were allowed to blink. Even as a beast-tamer, Stella can't have a connection that strong to snakes. I've been raising dogs my whole life and even I couldn't coordinate that many wolves that well."
Claude wasn't one for public speaking. It caused him to look down at his hands as he took the stand. The lack of sound made him finally adress the crowd with his dark-brown eyes. They stared.
Xander dropped his head.
Emma nodded with pursed lips as if she was accepting a fair defeat. She gave him a nod. Claude returned it.
"Thank you, Claude Grey." Enzo called him away from the stand across from Stella.
He continued, "Now, before we enter the evidence portion— or lack of it, we have a truth verification portion."
That wasn't part of the plans. Everyone picked up on it and stiffened.
Enzo shrugged, "Humans make great lie detectors if they know what to detect. Because of my dads line of work I've picked up a few things. I know what to detect."
Claude watched as Enzo approached him and held out his hand.
Claude took it.
Enzo moved his fingers up until they pressed his wrist.
"What is this?" Claude asked.
"Like I said. Verifying the truth." Enzo replied, "How many beast tamers have you met in your life?"
"Six."
"How well do you know snakes."
"Very well."
"Well enough to control?"
"To a degree."
"Have you ever experienced a connection with snakes that went deeper than normal for beast tamers."
Claude cringed. Enzo gripped his wrist harder, catching the blip in his pulse.
"Yes."
"How so?"
"I'm not allowed to say. I got sick."
Claude replied.
"Why?"
"Why I got sick?"
"No, why can't you say?"
"It could cause hysteria." Claude replied, "I was ordered not to by my professor."
"Do you think the serpentmancer is a beast-tamer?"
"No." Claude replied. It was only then he realized Enzo wasn't even looking at him.
"What then?"
"I think it's a hexblade."
"Do you think we've met the serpentmancer?"
"Yes."
"But we have no HexBlades here." Enzo replied.
"That we know of." Claude suddenly understood it all.
While everyone thought Enzo suddenly considered Claude the serpentmancer, he knew it was a rouse, to let the actual serpentmancer in the crowd relax— to slip.
"That's all." Enzo said, suddenly letting go, "Thank you for your time."
The rest of the trial went as suspected.
That's what Claude wished was the case.
Then Enzo found scales under Stella's bed. And the globe he previously called to in explanation for her resentment of snakes was gone.
Night had fallen and Stella was still in her cage with Grimm.
Even worse, something flew across the sky. All while the students were beginning to argue.
"Was that a supply drop?"
"I thought that only came when students arrived."
"The seventh-wave was rushed, but they're coming when the Night of the Wraiths starts in over a week." Someone said.
Carmen pushed through the crowd to meet Claude and Naz.
"Guys! We need to release Stella. It's not her."
"The evidence—" Claude started.
"It's being doctored!"
"How do you know? I mean I know… but how do you?"
"Because Sapien never left."
Claude felt like the dumbest man alive.
"He's here and he's already screwed us."
"By making Stella the fall guy?" Marion questioned as he joined the circle of students. "Does that mean he's working with the serpentmancer?"
"Yes— no, Sapien is all for himself. He's using the serpentmancer to keep us distracted. Look at us we all left the jungle open all day. He's keeping us on his time through manipulation of our fears, but also by lying. The Night of the Wraiths doesn't start in a week. It's starting right n—"
Carmen didn't get a chance to explain— not that she needed to.
The surfers saw it first. It came out of the water a few hundred feet out, massive even from that distance with its arms spread wide as if to welcome them. It wore a sleeveless cloak, showcasing furry musclebound arms. It had a deep hood and white mammoth bone mask.
Wraith-Brutal.
Just their luck.
The beast clapped its hands so hard the world shook and with it came a two hundred foot tsunami.
A tsunami full of glacial sharks and fishmen.
The final event came even sooner than expected.
And it was off to the worst start imaginable.