Emily fought for words. The entity’s presence was starting to feel a little ragged. Perhaps the trick to defeating it was to force it to expend power faster than it could drain it…but that would almost certainly kill Marian too. What would happen if she killed Marian? Would the girl’s death spell the end of Justice? Or would Justice merely turn one or all of them into a source of power?
She focused her mind. Keep it talking, she thought. Perhaps Frieda and Caleb could get Croce and Sienna out of the chamber before it was too late. Limiting the number of available power sources would force Justice to burn energy trying to catch some power. Perhaps we can find a way to trick it.
“Tell me,” she said. “What gives you the right to pass judgement?”
“I AM JUSTICE,” the entity said.
Emily forced herself to meet its eyes. Something looked back at her, an oddly inhuman intelligence. She’d met demons and fairies, but this was something else. She wanted to look away, but somehow she held its gaze. The entity had to believe her if she was to chip away at its faith in itself.
“Tell me,” she managed. “How do you know you’re Justice?”
The entity seemed surprised by the question. “I WAS THE LORD OF JUDGEMENT WHEN BALOK THE MANY-HUED WAGED WAR AGAINST SOLARIS, KING OF THE GODS. I HAVE PASSED JUDGEMENT SINCE I WAS BROUGHT INTO THE WORLD. I REMEMBER EVERY JUDGEMENT. I AM JUSTICE”
Emily frowned, wishing she knew more about the gods. She’d never paid enough attention to the myths and legends of her new world. She certainly didn’t know enough about the stories, particularly the ones Janus and his comrades would have believed, to argue with Justice. And yet, there were options…
She pushed her mind out, trying to sense the ebb and flow of power. “Do you remember every last detail of every last judgement?”
“YES.”
“Then tell me,” she said. “What did Balok look like?”
Justice hesitated. “BALOK THE MANY-HUED WAS JUDGED FOR WAGING WAR AGAINST SOLARIS, KING OF THE GODS. HE WAS CONDEMNED TO A MILLION ETERNITIES IN THE PITS OF…”
“You said,” Emily agreed. “But what did he look like? What was he wearing? Who watched the trial? Who cheered your judgement?”
She reached out with her mind again, carefully touching the magic. Justice drew power directly from Marian now, his last true link to anything outside the spell nexus that had created him. Emily gritted her teeth as she parsed the lines of power, realizing that killing Marian would solve nothing. Justice wouldn’t run out of power and die quickly enough to save the city, let alone the rest of them.
“I…DO…NOT…RECALL,” Justice said.
Emily felt a hot flash of triumph, mingled with fear. Lady Barb had talked about subtle magic and how it could warp a person’s mind…and how a victim could respond with fear and anger, if the mental framework started to crack. They’d lash out at the people trying to help them, just to avoid the pain of breaking free. Justice wasn’t human, but he might easily go the same way.
Marian screamed. Caleb hurried back to her and started to fiddle with her bonds, but it was starting to look as though she couldn’t be freed in a hurry. Justice had a direct link to her magic, to her very soul…Emily paused as a thought struck her. Perhaps, just perhaps, the link went both ways.
“Tell me about another judgement,” Emily said. It would keep the entity talking while she thought. “Who else have you judged?”
“I DESTROYED THE CITY OF GRAYREN FOR SIN AND DEPRAVITY,” Justice informed her. “THE INHABITANTS WERE EXECUTED FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST THE NATURAL ORDER.”
Emily nodded. “And what were those sins?”
There was another pause. “I…DO…NOT…RECALL. I PASSED JUDGEMENT ON THEM…”
“What did they do to deserve it?” Emily asked. “Did you find all of them guilty? Was there not a single innocent man, woman or child in the entire city?”
The entity said nothing. Emily pressed her advantage.
“How could a child have committed a crime worthy of death?” she asked. “How could you destroy them all?”
Justice peered at her. “THEIR PARENTS WOULD HAVE TAUGHT THEM TO SIN. THEY WOULD HAVE SINNED IN TIME.”
“But they would not be guilty themselves.” Emily risked a glance at Caleb, still struggling with Marian’s bonds. “How can executing them be just?”
She felt the presence grow stronger, again. Logically, Justice stood condemned by its own rules. It could not execute children because they might grow up into criminals. But if it was learning to think, it might manage to evade that argument by reasoning that the children would grow into criminals and it was merely executing them before they committed a crime…a crime they certainly would commit. It made no logical sense, but if Justice needed to believe it to survive…
“THEY WOULD HAVE SINNED. I EXECUTED THEM FOR SIN.”
“But they never had the chance to sin,” Emily pointed out. “How can that be just?”
Justice made no answer. She tested the power again, then carefully strode around the entity and walked to the altar. Marian looked weak, her strength slowly draining into the creature’s insatiable maw. She didn’t have long to live, Emily realized. At some point, she’d be too far gone to recover, whatever happened. Caleb looked at her, his eyes despairing.
“Get your mother and brother out of here,” she whispered. She didn’t want Caleb to see what she might have to do. “Hurry.”
She looked up at the entity. “How did their parents sin? Why do you not remember?”
“I…DO…NOT…KNOW,” the entity said.
“You should know,” Emily said. She studied the threads of power, trying to work out how they fit into the spell matrix. Justice was changing even as she watched, the spellwork growing more and more complicated. She hadn’t seen anything like it since she’d created the wards at Heart’s Eye. “If you don’t know your own history, how do you know you are Justice?”
The entity glared at her. “YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE ME DOUBT.”
“An unquestioned belief is not worth having,” Emily quoted. “In fact, it is positively dangerous.”