39. Detained
It wasn't Val's first time getting in trouble with the authorities, obviously. It wasn't even her first time getting arrested. So, while Ette, Ginn, and Wuldie were busy shouting at the ducal guards about how they were detaining an innocent child, Val stood nearby knowing full well she was going to get taken away. In her experience, when confronted with angry authorities, your options were to either:
Fight your way out of it.
Talk your way out of it.
If you were yelling at a Lieutenant of the Ducal Guard about three pay grades below being able to drop charges against an accused traitor, then you weren't talking your way out of it. And, while she had no doubt that Ette and Ginn could take on a half dozen middle-competence ducal guards, they were going to have trouble with the fifty elite guards who came in response to that kerfuffle. The lieutenant calmly informed them that Val had a right to petition and to representation, but that she was coming with her and, if any of the Uddys or Vinzennos so much as raised their voices again, they were being charged with belligerence against an officer of the duchy.
Ginn grasped Val's hand and pulled her into a bosomy hug. "Don't you worry, honey. We'll get this straightened out…" she glared at the lieutenant. "And whomever made this mistake is going to have a lot of apologizing to do."
The lieutenant managed a polite smile. "Complaint forms are available in your local constabulary. Miss… V, if you'd come with me…"
"Valicent-Vinzenno isn't hard to say," Val stated. "How do we know you're arresting the right person if you can't even pronounce her name?"
The lieutenant glanced to Val's papers. "Miss Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno," she said carefully. "You aren't under arrest. This is an order of detainment pending investigation. You do understand the difference between detainment and arrest, correct?"
"Yeah, one starts with a 'd'," she sighed. "Let's go, I guess."
They didn't put Val in restraints, which she supposed was a bonus. Instead, she was crammed into the back of a secure carriage with the lieutenant and two guards. The whole ride to the palace, the lieutenant cast concerned glances at Val, as if she wasn't quite sure what to do with a young not-quite-prisoner. Fortunately, the lieutenant's unease didn't last long, because it was only a seven minute ride to her place of detainment… which turned out to be the earl's palace.
+++++
Earl Gunthald's palace didn't have anything on the ducal palace in Verdenlecht aside from the fact that it wasn't in imminent danger of enemy occupation. That wasn't to say it wasn't a large or nice place, though. It was perhaps two-thirds the size of the ducal palace, situated atop a gently sloping hill rather than perched upon an ancient fortress astride a great river. That still made it plenty big and plenty visible. However, Val would soon find out, the earl didn't even live in the palace most of the time. He had a villa out in the countryside at his family's ancestral home and only ventured into the city the several times a year he had business there. Usually, the palace was mostly-empty, occupied by a few dozen government functionaries (a mere fraction of what was required in the ducal palace) and one or two petty lords who acted as the palace's stewards.
Since the very serious charges posted against Val required the earl's input, they'd sent messengers out to the villa but likely wouldn't have a response until the next day. Until then, Val was to be detained and kept comfortable.
"Can I get a food bowl and some water for Violet, too?" Val asked.
The lieutenant, who identified herself as Leftenant Bassa, was confused. "Who's Violet?"
"My familiar. She's the cat." Val pointed to Violet, who had unobtrusively followed them into the palace.
"What? How did a cat get in here?"
Val shrugged. "Violet comes and goes as she pleases. But I think she misses me because I've been gone for almost two weeks, so she's going to stay with me in my cell…"
"It's a secure guest room," Bassa explained.
Violet meowed and Val translated: "Violet doesn't care what you call it. Food and water for her, please. Fish, if you've got it."
"I'll see what I can do. You're a very strange girl…"
"That's what the dowager duchess said." Val shrugged. "I'll also need a quill and some paper so I can start writing my petitions."
Violet was much better company than most people. She wasn't much of a conversationalist, being a cat and all, but she was much more of one than most cats. And she was feeling very affectionate after Val's two weeks away. They locked Val up in a drab little room with a bed, a reading desk, and a little armoire. And, despite Val's insistence that there wasn't much point in locking the door, they locked it anyway. While Val was by no means an expert lock-picker (and by no means a complete novice), she was a battle-witch, and pretty much any device with complex internal parts was junk if she wanted to wreck it. You couldn't just magically harm a living being because of their individual internal energy, but inanimate objects were fair game.
So Val knocked on the door and called out for stationery, cat food, and reading materials and, when there was no response on her third attempt in fifteen minutes, she junked the lock and wandered out into the palace to forage for herself. Since she definitely wasn't under arrest, she figured it wasn't a crime to leave her secure guest room.
When Val and Violet finally found the kitchen, she explained to the staff that she was fetching things for the earl's special guest and managed to secure a pretty decent seafood meal for Violet and herself - with berry rolls and a jar of sardines, should either of them want a snack later. And, when she asked where the study was, one of the housemaids was happy to show her personally.
"What sorts of books is your lord looking for?"
"My lady wishes to read on magic, fighting, and… hmm… a book on the law. Do they make books about the law?"
"There are many books about the law, miss. Have you any idea what law topic she'd like to read upon?"
"Sedition," Val said.
For some reason, the maid was taken aback by that. Still, she found a volume that she thought might be relevant, and Val found a veritable trove of books on fighting and tactics, which she helped herself to. The only book on magic, though, might as well have been written for babies. The first three-quarters of the book walked you through how to read the most basic Old Sudren script, and the last quarter contained three exercises that Val had mastered on her first or second day of magic class, before she'd even known Old Sudren.
The maid offered to help Val carry her lady's things back, which Val appreciated, as she had supper for herself and Violet, a flagon of apricot juice, snacks for later, and about ten books that she had interest in. And, since one of the books was on sword-fighting, she helped herself to the old practice sword that somebody had just left on the desk in the steward's study.
By the time she returned, there was a guard posted by her door. The guard gawped as she and the maid approached the door and Val pulled it right open, the broken lock rattling as she swung the door out.
"Who let you out?" the guard asked.
"I left on my own recognizance," Val said. She was pretty sure that was a legal term.
Thirty minutes later, as she and Violet were just about done with supper, the lieutenant returned, glared at Val, and had palace maintenance install a sturdier lock on the door.
+++++
Val found the legal book, History of Noble and Military Law in Aurilicht by F.C. Svorsky, to be a bit dry, so she alternated between that and some of her combat books, practicing footwork and some sword moves with Violet, munching on berry biscuits / sardines (she preferred the biscuits and Violet preferred the sardines, though they each sampled from both), and working on her low and mid octal flow. Octal flow was supposed to improve your magical endurance at the lower levels by alternating back and forth between harmonics before she exhausted any one of them. Eventually, she was tired and used her law book as a sedative, wherein she dreamt of stuffy ladies of the nobility arguing over the semantics of Auriline law.
She awoke to a head full of questions and a bladder full of morning urgency. Since she knew there was a proper bathroom only two doors down, she called for her guard to let her out and, when that didn't work, she broke the new lock and saw herself to the facilities. The guard didn't even wake up - though Leftenant Bassa then had her people break the bathroom door down, even though Val hadn't even locked that door. Val shrieked and covered up, though it wasn't really necessary because she'd found something called bubble bath by the edge of the very large tub and decided to try it out. Violet didn't care for the bubbles, but Val had made herself a bubble crown and a bubble throne using magic and was telling Vizieress Violet about all of the royal edicts she would announce when she was queen. And, fortunately, the bubbles covered everything except for Val's embarrassment.
"What did you do to Corporal Estenzo?"
"Who?"
Leftenant Bassa took a step into the bathroom. "Did. You. Cast. A sleeping spell on him?"
Val blew a fluff of bubbles from her mouth. "No, he was just asleep and I needed the bathroom. You don't know very much about magic, do you?"
"So you just broke yourself out and helped yourself to the bathing facilities?"
Val shrugged. "I asked nicely and nobody answered," she said. "I'm being detained, not arrested, which means I'm entitled to privileges such as, but not limited to, reasonable access to facilities and resources within the house of detention, as well as any persons or channels of communication that might help in their legal defense to avoid incrimination and/or arrest."
The lieutenant was not pleased. "What? Who told you that?"
"F.C. Svorsky," Val said.
"Listen, girl," the lieutenant snorted. "Earl Gunthald is here and will see you now. I suggest that when you speak with him, you take a more conciliatory tone."
"What does that mean?"
"You can quote the law verbatim but you don't know what conciliatory means?"
"Yes," Val said.
"It means apologetic," Bassa sighed. "I'll have somebody bring you a selection of dresses to choose from."
Val chose the dress with the velvety burgundy jacket, obviously, because it reminded her of her old favorite outfit. That dress belonged to Iselde now and was stuck back in a closet in the Orphanage at Hale Wulde in Verdenlecht, assuming it hadn't been pillaged like most of the other buildings belonging to the sept. The jacket had gold buttons on the lapel and the sleeves, and they appeared to be made of real gold. Therefore, Val helped herself to the gold hair pin so she could do her hair up in a bun. Her coppery mane had grown to the point that there was no way she could hide it under a boy's cap.
"Miss V, his excellency is waiting," Bassa said, the anxiety clear in her voice.
"Right, sorry," Val said. "The duchess is usually pretty informal."
Bassa and her guards led Val across the palace courtyard and up a tower - she counted fifty-eight steps - to a stately study with a great bay window overlooking the whole of Port Rumm. The view extended from the southern gate, where caravans trailed into the city for the midsummer celebration and barges slid along the river from the hill country, out to the harbor, where caravels lazed in the warm waters, waiting to make port, and pleasure barges drifted over the reef. A portly middle-aged man in a royal blue tunic frowned over papers, squinting through his reading spectacles. Bassa tapped on the doorframe.
"Come," he said.
"Your excellency, the pr- detainee," the lieutenant said.
"Sit," Earl Gunthald said. He didn't bother to look from his work.
"Um," Val said. Not seeing any chairs around, she carefully lowered herself onto the serving table, careful not to jostle the carefully-stacked glasses.
"Leftenant, please bring a chair?"
"Yes, your excellency," Bassa said.
Two minutes later and sitting in an actual chair, its plush upholstery the same color and texture as her gold-buttoned burgundy jacket, Val spoke with the earl. He made her wait for a while first - nine minutes, according to the wall clock. She supposed that was fair, since she'd made him wait nearly half an hour getting ready after her bath. She spent the time going over everything she knew about Auriline law, which wasn't much. Val had only read the one book and, even though she'd used the mnemonic that Levin had taught her for committing text to memory, she was sure she'd forgotten at least some of what she'd read.
Earl Gunthald lifted a parchment from his desk bearing the blue and gray seal of House Wuhricht, which was the ducal house. He read over it a few times, as if he wasn't already perfectly aware of what it said, and then peered over his reading spectacles to look Val in the eyes. His little dark eyebrows went up toward his bald head, creasing his forehead as they went.
"Why do I have upon my desk a letter upon my desk, from the duchess herself, suggesting I take a long and thorough look, for seditious activity, at Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno, aged twelve?"
Val didn't bother to point out that the parchment was no longer on the earl's desk since he was holding it. "I'm almost thirteen," she said. "Your excellency."
The early chuckled. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all? "Indeed," he said. "I am not in the habit of throwing young girls into Port Rumm's dungeons. Can you offer any compelling reason why I should discount a letter from the duchess herself suggesting that I ought to arrest you?"
Val leaned forward and, with a little tug, pulled the letter from the Earl's stubby fingers. His excellency frowned but said nothing, waiting for Val to finish reading through the message. Val handed it back to him.
"First of all, it doesn't say anything about arrest. She says detain, which is 'a different and less severe legal apparatus. An individual can be detained prior to criminal investigation in order to limit possible interference of said individual with law enforcement protocols. Conversely, an individual is arrested after reasonable suspicion of guilt following some manner of extant legal investigation.' I read that in my book yesterday. So you're being asked to keep me from interfering with an investigation, but she isn't actually asking you to charge me with anything or even investigate anything. Plus, this isn't even from the duchess, and so it's not enforceable since 'the procedural soundness of any legal proceeding is pursuant to its being submitted in an unambiguous and forthright manner', and this is neither. Mrs. Eatherfine sometimes signs documents for Aleida, but she's supposed to use her own name."
"Mrs. Eatherfine?"
"The dowager duchess?"
"I know who she is," the earl said, unable to suppress his grin.
"You can tell it was her because Aleida doesn't slant her writing and she's a lot more curly with everything. Your excellency."
"I see. You've given me quite a bit to think about, Miss Valkyrie. If I might ask, how did you come to learn so much about the law?"
"There was a book in your library called History of Noble and Military Law in Aurilicht by F.C. Svorsky. Miss Claudia said it might help me. She's the second housemaid."
"Indeed," Earl Gunthald said. "Well, seeing as how you've explained all of our legal options so well, Miss Valkyrie, how would you feel about being my guest while we determine what, if anything, ought to be done about this?" He waved the parchment a bit and set it back on his desk, one paper among many.
Val pursed her lips and considered her options. His excellency's dark eyes bore upon her, intensely curious. He seemed like an open-minded man, so Val figured she might as well try her luck.
"My family just got into town. They'll need to be able to stay here, too."
OvidLemma
An Obligatory Message from the Author
Thanks for reading, and make sure you follow me here to catch my latest releases! I know these pleas for support are annoying to read, but the only thing keeping me from making daily chapter updates of the stories you love is the fact that I need a regular job. Please consider helping me realize my goal of writing full-time if you can. And if you can't, no worries! I don't want anybody breaking the bank on my behalf. Regardless of whether or not you can chip in, I hope you continue to read and enjoy my stories!
I plan on releasing chapters of this story 2-3 times a week, but I haven't decided on what days yet. Advance chapters are available on my Patreon. If you liked this story, don't forget to check out my many other stories Scribble Hub, Patreon, or Amazon (free with Kindle Unlimited)!
https://www.patreon.com/OvidLemma
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27:Ovid+Lemma
-Ovid
39. Detained
It wasn't Val's first time getting in trouble with the authorities, obviously. It wasn't even her first time getting arrested. So, while Ette, Ginn, and Wuldie were busy shouting at the ducal guards about how they were detaining an innocent child, Val stood nearby knowing full well she was going to get taken away. In her experience, when confronted with angry authorities, your options were to either:
Fight your way out of it.
Talk your way out of it.
If you were yelling at a Lieutenant of the Ducal Guard about three pay grades below being able to drop charges against an accused traitor, then you weren't talking your way out of it. And, while she had no doubt that Ette and Ginn could take on a half dozen middle-competence ducal guards, they were going to have trouble with the fifty elite guards who came in response to that kerfuffle. The lieutenant calmly informed them that Val had a right to petition and to representation, but that she was coming with her and, if any of the Uddys or Vinzennos so much as raised their voices again, they were being charged with belligerence against an officer of the duchy.
Ginn grasped Val's hand and pulled her into a bosomy hug. "Don't you worry, honey. We'll get this straightened out…" she glared at the lieutenant. "And whomever made this mistake is going to have a lot of apologizing to do."
The lieutenant managed a polite smile. "Complaint forms are available in your local constabulary. Miss… V, if you'd come with me…"
"Valicent-Vinzenno isn't hard to say," Val stated. "How do we know you're arresting the right person if you can't even pronounce her name?"
The lieutenant glanced to Val's papers. "Miss Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno," she said carefully. "You aren't under arrest. This is an order of detainment pending investigation. You do understand the difference between detainment and arrest, correct?"
"Yeah, one starts with a 'd'," she sighed. "Let's go, I guess."
They didn't put Val in restraints, which she supposed was a bonus. Instead, she was crammed into the back of a secure carriage with the lieutenant and two guards. The whole ride to the palace, the lieutenant cast concerned glances at Val, as if she wasn't quite sure what to do with a young not-quite-prisoner. Fortunately, the lieutenant's unease didn't last long, because it was only a seven minute ride to her place of detainment… which turned out to be the earl's palace.
+++++
Earl Gunthald's palace didn't have anything on the ducal palace in Verdenlecht aside from the fact that it wasn't in imminent danger of enemy occupation. That wasn't to say it wasn't a large or nice place, though. It was perhaps two-thirds the size of the ducal palace, situated atop a gently sloping hill rather than perched upon an ancient fortress astride a great river. That still made it plenty big and plenty visible. However, Val would soon find out, the earl didn't even live in the palace most of the time. He had a villa out in the countryside at his family's ancestral home and only ventured into the city the several times a year he had business there. Usually, the palace was mostly-empty, occupied by a few dozen government functionaries (a mere fraction of what was required in the ducal palace) and one or two petty lords who acted as the palace's stewards.
Since the very serious charges posted against Val required the earl's input, they'd sent messengers out to the villa but likely wouldn't have a response until the next day. Until then, Val was to be detained and kept comfortable.
"Can I get a food bowl and some water for Violet, too?" Val asked.
The lieutenant, who identified herself as Leftenant Bassa, was confused. "Who's Violet?"
"My familiar. She's the cat." Val pointed to Violet, who had unobtrusively followed them into the palace.
"What? How did a cat get in here?"
Val shrugged. "Violet comes and goes as she pleases. But I think she misses me because I've been gone for almost two weeks, so she's going to stay with me in my cell…"
"It's a secure guest room," Bassa explained.
Violet meowed and Val translated: "Violet doesn't care what you call it. Food and water for her, please. Fish, if you've got it."
"I'll see what I can do. You're a very strange girl…"
"That's what the dowager duchess said." Val shrugged. "I'll also need a quill and some paper so I can start writing my petitions."
Violet was much better company than most people. She wasn't much of a conversationalist, being a cat and all, but she was much more of one than most cats. And she was feeling very affectionate after Val's two weeks away. They locked Val up in a drab little room with a bed, a reading desk, and a little armoire. And, despite Val's insistence that there wasn't much point in locking the door, they locked it anyway. While Val was by no means an expert lock-picker (and by no means a complete novice), she was a battle-witch, and pretty much any device with complex internal parts was junk if she wanted to wreck it. You couldn't just magically harm a living being because of their individual internal energy, but inanimate objects were fair game.
So Val knocked on the door and called out for stationery, cat food, and reading materials and, when there was no response on her third attempt in fifteen minutes, she junked the lock and wandered out into the palace to forage for herself. Since she definitely wasn't under arrest, she figured it wasn't a crime to leave her secure guest room.
When Val and Violet finally found the kitchen, she explained to the staff that she was fetching things for the earl's special guest and managed to secure a pretty decent seafood meal for Violet and herself - with berry rolls and a jar of sardines, should either of them want a snack later. And, when she asked where the study was, one of the housemaids was happy to show her personally.
"What sorts of books is your lord looking for?"
"My lady wishes to read on magic, fighting, and… hmm… a book on the law. Do they make books about the law?"
"There are many books about the law, miss. Have you any idea what law topic she'd like to read upon?"
"Sedition," Val said.
For some reason, the maid was taken aback by that. Still, she found a volume that she thought might be relevant, and Val found a veritable trove of books on fighting and tactics, which she helped herself to. The only book on magic, though, might as well have been written for babies. The first three-quarters of the book walked you through how to read the most basic Old Sudren script, and the last quarter contained three exercises that Val had mastered on her first or second day of magic class, before she'd even known Old Sudren.
The maid offered to help Val carry her lady's things back, which Val appreciated, as she had supper for herself and Violet, a flagon of apricot juice, snacks for later, and about ten books that she had interest in. And, since one of the books was on sword-fighting, she helped herself to the old practice sword that somebody had just left on the desk in the steward's study.
By the time she returned, there was a guard posted by her door. The guard gawped as she and the maid approached the door and Val pulled it right open, the broken lock rattling as she swung the door out.
"Who let you out?" the guard asked.
"I left on my own recognizance," Val said. She was pretty sure that was a legal term.
Thirty minutes later, as she and Violet were just about done with supper, the lieutenant returned, glared at Val, and had palace maintenance install a sturdier lock on the door.
+++++
Val found the legal book, History of Noble and Military Law in Aurilicht by F.C. Svorsky, to be a bit dry, so she alternated between that and some of her combat books, practicing footwork and some sword moves with Violet, munching on berry biscuits / sardines (she preferred the biscuits and Violet preferred the sardines, though they each sampled from both), and working on her low and mid octal flow. Octal flow was supposed to improve your magical endurance at the lower levels by alternating back and forth between harmonics before she exhausted any one of them. Eventually, she was tired and used her law book as a sedative, wherein she dreamt of stuffy ladies of the nobility arguing over the semantics of Auriline law.
She awoke to a head full of questions and a bladder full of morning urgency. Since she knew there was a proper bathroom only two doors down, she called for her guard to let her out and, when that didn't work, she broke the new lock and saw herself to the facilities. The guard didn't even wake up - though Leftenant Bassa then had her people break the bathroom door down, even though Val hadn't even locked that door. Val shrieked and covered up, though it wasn't really necessary because she'd found something called bubble bath by the edge of the very large tub and decided to try it out. Violet didn't care for the bubbles, but Val had made herself a bubble crown and a bubble throne using magic and was telling Vizieress Violet about all of the royal edicts she would announce when she was queen. And, fortunately, the bubbles covered everything except for Val's embarrassment.
"What did you do to Corporal Estenzo?"
"Who?"
Leftenant Bassa took a step into the bathroom. "Did. You. Cast. A sleeping spell on him?"
Val blew a fluff of bubbles from her mouth. "No, he was just asleep and I needed the bathroom. You don't know very much about magic, do you?"
"So you just broke yourself out and helped yourself to the bathing facilities?"
Val shrugged. "I asked nicely and nobody answered," she said. "I'm being detained, not arrested, which means I'm entitled to privileges such as, but not limited to, reasonable access to facilities and resources within the house of detention, as well as any persons or channels of communication that might help in their legal defense to avoid incrimination and/or arrest."
The lieutenant was not pleased. "What? Who told you that?"
"F.C. Svorsky," Val said.
"Listen, girl," the lieutenant snorted. "Earl Gunthald is here and will see you now. I suggest that when you speak with him, you take a more conciliatory tone."
"What does that mean?"
"You can quote the law verbatim but you don't know what conciliatory means?"
"Yes," Val said.
"It means apologetic," Bassa sighed. "I'll have somebody bring you a selection of dresses to choose from."
Val chose the dress with the velvety burgundy jacket, obviously, because it reminded her of her old favorite outfit. That dress belonged to Iselde now and was stuck back in a closet in the Orphanage at Hale Wulde in Verdenlecht, assuming it hadn't been pillaged like most of the other buildings belonging to the sept. The jacket had gold buttons on the lapel and the sleeves, and they appeared to be made of real gold. Therefore, Val helped herself to the gold hair pin so she could do her hair up in a bun. Her coppery mane had grown to the point that there was no way she could hide it under a boy's cap.
"Miss V, his excellency is waiting," Bassa said, the anxiety clear in her voice.
"Right, sorry," Val said. "The duchess is usually pretty informal."
Bassa and her guards led Val across the palace courtyard and up a tower - she counted fifty-eight steps - to a stately study with a great bay window overlooking the whole of Port Rumm. The view extended from the southern gate, where caravans trailed into the city for the midsummer celebration and barges slid along the river from the hill country, out to the harbor, where caravels lazed in the warm waters, waiting to make port, and pleasure barges drifted over the reef. A portly middle-aged man in a royal blue tunic frowned over papers, squinting through his reading spectacles. Bassa tapped on the doorframe.
"Come," he said.
"Your excellency, the pr- detainee," the lieutenant said.
"Sit," Earl Gunthald said. He didn't bother to look from his work.
"Um," Val said. Not seeing any chairs around, she carefully lowered herself onto the serving table, careful not to jostle the carefully-stacked glasses.
"Leftenant, please bring a chair?"
"Yes, your excellency," Bassa said.
Two minutes later and sitting in an actual chair, its plush upholstery the same color and texture as her gold-buttoned burgundy jacket, Val spoke with the earl. He made her wait for a while first - nine minutes, according to the wall clock. She supposed that was fair, since she'd made him wait nearly half an hour getting ready after her bath. She spent the time going over everything she knew about Auriline law, which wasn't much. Val had only read the one book and, even though she'd used the mnemonic that Levin had taught her for committing text to memory, she was sure she'd forgotten at least some of what she'd read.
Earl Gunthald lifted a parchment from his desk bearing the blue and gray seal of House Wuhricht, which was the ducal house. He read over it a few times, as if he wasn't already perfectly aware of what it said, and then peered over his reading spectacles to look Val in the eyes. His little dark eyebrows went up toward his bald head, creasing his forehead as they went.
"Why do I have upon my desk a letter upon my desk, from the duchess herself, suggesting I take a long and thorough look, for seditious activity, at Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno, aged twelve?"
Val didn't bother to point out that the parchment was no longer on the earl's desk since he was holding it. "I'm almost thirteen," she said. "Your excellency."
The early chuckled. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all? "Indeed," he said. "I am not in the habit of throwing young girls into Port Rumm's dungeons. Can you offer any compelling reason why I should discount a letter from the duchess herself suggesting that I ought to arrest you?"
Val leaned forward and, with a little tug, pulled the letter from the Earl's stubby fingers. His excellency frowned but said nothing, waiting for Val to finish reading through the message. Val handed it back to him.
"First of all, it doesn't say anything about arrest. She says detain, which is 'a different and less severe legal apparatus. An individual can be detained prior to criminal investigation in order to limit possible interference of said individual with law enforcement protocols. Conversely, an individual is arrested after reasonable suspicion of guilt following some manner of extant legal investigation.' I read that in my book yesterday. So you're being asked to keep me from interfering with an investigation, but she isn't actually asking you to charge me with anything or even investigate anything. Plus, this isn't even from the duchess, and so it's not enforceable since 'the procedural soundness of any legal proceeding is pursuant to its being submitted in an unambiguous and forthright manner', and this is neither. Mrs. Eatherfine sometimes signs documents for Aleida, but she's supposed to use her own name."
"Mrs. Eatherfine?"
"The dowager duchess?"
"I know who she is," the earl said, unable to suppress his grin.
"You can tell it was her because Aleida doesn't slant her writing and she's a lot more curly with everything. Your excellency."
"I see. You've given me quite a bit to think about, Miss Valkyrie. If I might ask, how did you come to learn so much about the law?"
"There was a book in your library called History of Noble and Military Law in Aurilicht by F.C. Svorsky. Miss Claudia said it might help me. She's the second housemaid."
"Indeed," Earl Gunthald said. "Well, seeing as how you've explained all of our legal options so well, Miss Valkyrie, how would you feel about being my guest while we determine what, if anything, ought to be done about this?" He waved the parchment a bit and set it back on his desk, one paper among many.
Val pursed her lips and considered her options. His excellency's dark eyes bore upon her, intensely curious. He seemed like an open-minded man, so Val figured she might as well try her luck.
"My family just got into town. They'll need to be able to stay here, too."
OvidLemma
An Obligatory Message from the Author
Thanks for reading, and make sure you follow me here to catch my latest releases! I know these pleas for support are annoying to read, but the only thing keeping me from making daily chapter updates of the stories you love is the fact that I need a regular job. Please consider helping me realize my goal of writing full-time if you can. And if you can't, no worries! I don't want anybody breaking the bank on my behalf. Regardless of whether or not you can chip in, I hope you continue to read and enjoy my stories!
I plan on releasing chapters of this story 2-3 times a week, but I haven't decided on what days yet. Advance chapters are available on my Patreon. If you liked this story, don't forget to check out my many other stories Scribble Hub, Patreon, or Amazon (free with Kindle Unlimited)!
https://www.patreon.com/OvidLemma
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27:Ovid+Lemma
-Ovid
