The King moved out of the way to give the official curator the stage.

That was because it was the curator who was going to start the trial, giving the introduction.

"Good evening everyone. Thank you for attending this trial today. This evening, we will be discussing a very serious case. Someone has leaked all our private information," everyone in the audience gasped, like it was the first time they heard this news. It wasn't like they were rioting into the castle a week ago, with posters in the air.

Nope, never happened.

The curator continued. "Standing over here, we have Serca-" the spot light turned on, shining on her. Serca put her hands over-head, squinting at the lights that were blinding her. Everyone in the audience booed at her.

The light went back to showing the curator, who started talking again. "Serca, over here, has been accused of doing this horrendous crime. In this trial, we will declare whether she is innocent or guilty. Thank you all for your time."

The curator set down the microphone and went over to the left-most podium, where he stood behind there. The lights turned off again, and shined on Serca, except with less intensity this time.

Serca bent over, and spoke into the microphone. "Good evening everyone. As you all know Serca, your Trust Keeper, and I'm being accused of spreading all your private information. I don't know how I can convince you, but I would never do such a thing. I promise. Throughout this trial, I hope you'll see that I had nothing to do with this incident. Thank you."

People started to chat amongst each other, muttering things about Serca. None were good. Everyone was definitely convinced that Serca was evil and did in fact do the crime. There was nothing Serca could do to change their mind. The trial was already set in stone.

Everyone was whispering about how she was lying, or how they didn't believe her. Serca couldn't hear them, and didn't look affected. Gos realized that everyone was talking about Serca behind her back, just like everyone done to Gos.

He didn't know if he wanted to join them everyone in talking badly about Serca, or if he wanted to defend his sister. He knew for a fact Serca was innocent. If anything, it was him who was guilty. Maybe not just him, Lysth as well. It was still his fault.

But then again, Gos wasn't about to go to jail to save his sister from her fate. He was selfish like that.

The curator seemed to be finishing the story and backstory about the whole trial. "Because of that, we are all here."

Serca seemed awfully silent. Which wasn't like her. By now, she would've been pleading and begging, saying that she had nothing to do with all of this. Instead, she just stayed silent and watched.

"May I call upon a witness?" the curator's voice boomed through the chamber, snapping Gos away from his thoughts and into the real world.

"Yes, you may," King Rhon replied. He was serving as the judge.

The curator turned around to the audience. "I called upon the first witness. He was the one who led the protest a week ago, May I call upon Mr. Xavier?"

From the crowd, a person somewhere in the middle got up. He walked all the way towards the stage, going up from the left side, where the curator was standing.

"Mr. Xavier, can you testify that Serca is the one who spread all our private information?"

With that, Xavier, Caviar, whatever his name was, recounted his story. It was basically an over-dramatized story, where all he was explaining was that Serca is the culprit. No actual evidence, none of that. The king was just going on random stories the town told, even though all of the stories were all lies.

"Thank you for that, Mr. Xavier. You may go sit down," the curator told him. And they sat down.

"Uh, may I call on a witness," Serca finally spoke up. She faced the direction of King Rhon.

"Absolutely not, Serca. Please sit down."

Gos didn't know who was more surprised: the crowd, the King, Serca, or himself. This is going to be a long night, Gos thought to himself, as the curator called upon another witness.

***

The trial just went back and forth, going nowhere.

Not once was Gos called up, which was a really good thing. It was probably because none of them knew he came to the trial, and the fact that the back row was fairly empty and the room was dark, so no one saw him.

The entire time, however, Gos was tempted to fall asleep. But by some miracle, he managed to stay awake the entire night and trial. However, he zoned out for most of the trial.

Hey, it was either fall asleep or zone out. No in betweens.

Finally, the curator pulled out the final weapon, which countered Serca and would finally end the never-ending trial. Why he didn't do it before, Gos had no clue. It would've saved everyone a bunch of time and a whole night's worth of sleep.

"Serca, let me ask you this," The curator asked her. "How do you open the Chest of Knowledge?"

Serca looked around uneasily. "Uh, I opened it with the Privacy Key?"

"I asked, how do you open the Knowledge Chest? I need specific answers, not doubts." he repeated himself.

"I open it using the Privacy key," Serca said, a little more confidently.

"And who has the Privacy Key?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm asking, who keeps the Privacy Key?"

Serca looked down at herself, no doubt looking at the thin gold chain around her neck. The same necklace with the key to the Chest of Knowledge attached to it.

She looked back up to the curator. "I do, sir."

"Do you give it to anyone else?"

Gos knew exactly where the trial was going to go. In the next few minutes, the King would proclaim that Serca was guilty. That is, unless she lied.

This was not how the plan was supposed to work, he looked down at his feet. All Serca was supposed to be was revoked from her Job as Chosen One. Not have the kingdom protest, and definitely not have the trial.

But there was no going back now. If Serca wanted to save herself, the only thing she could do was lie.

Serca being Serca, told the truth. "No, sir. Only I keep the key."

The curator let out a thin smile. Gos knew that expression very well. It was a smile of triumph. "Let me get this straight: you can only open the Chest of Knowledge using the Privacy key. And you are the only person who keeps the Privacy key. So, therefore, you're the one who spreads everyone's private information."

He turned to the King. "And that, your majesty, ends my argument and proves my point.

Everyone gasped, and looked at each other. The King looked impressed, which was not the expression Gos thought he would wear. In fact, it was almost as if King Rhone had hoped Serca would be proven guilty...

That didn't make any sense.

Isn't Serca, like, King Rhon's favorite person? Gos asked himself. Isn't she like his best friend or something? Why would he want her to get kicked out of her position?

His sister, on the other side, looked horrified. "No- no! That- that's not what I meant!"

King Rhon looked at Serca with fake pity, then sighed. He walked all the way to the front of the stage, right in the middle of Serca and the curator. He put his hand up to silence everyone who was talking amongst each other.

"Everyone, this ends the trial. With all of this, it is safe to say that we've come to a conclusion," he glanced at Serca, then looked back at the crowd.

"Serca, and I'm sorry to say this, but she is found... guilty."

~~~

A/N:

Longest chapter so far!

I originally wrote this as one chapter, but then wanted to split it up into two chapters. But that didn't work out well for me, so I kept this one chapter. If you're disappointed with the trial chapters, sorry about that.

And, disclaimer: None of the things and process that happen in the trial I've written out is legally accurate. Just letting you know.

So... how many of you guys thought that Serca would be proven guilty? Just curious.

Now, everything's going downhill. I'm going to be starting to wrap up everything in the next few chapters. It's kinda sad, but also exciting!

Anyways, enjoy the rest of your time. Have a good day/night!