“Sister, I’m going to be executed, not married away. And even if I were, you’d be the last person I would want to spend my bachelorette morning with,” Zora snarled. She was kneeling, hands behind her back, and bound with warded cloth. Warded prisoner garbs hung loosely over her lithe frame. A temporary wooden stage had been installed overnight to serve Zora’s execution, and the sun was beating mercilessly on it.

  “I would much rather be in the sanctuary, to be honest,” Maribel responded staley. “As dull as those executioners’ prayers are, anything is better than sitting here with you.”

  Zora guffawed. “I’m going to miss you, Sister. So full of sass. They’re really getting their money’s worth for pulling you down here, aren’t they?”

  “This is how it works,” Maribel shrugged. “They call for an interrogator, then they get one. Suddenly, my job description includes babysitting.”

  “Okay, joke time’s over,” Zora snorted. “I’m a dead woman, remember? Show some respect.”

  “Sorry,” Maribel said, frowning. She adjusted her habit and sat down beside the pirate captain. “So, this is-”

  “Your last chance to come clean with any information. Blah blah blah blah.”

  “Well, that takes care of that,” Maribel sighed.

  “Sorry, Sister, but the church wants my head smashed in this early? They gotta pay the price. The treasure trove of information on how I seduced a god and where I hid all those countless coins and corpses is going with me.”

  “So, just for the record, you would have spoken more had we had more time? I can put that in my report and the Justicar will read it.”

  “And do what? Laugh at it?”

  “Well, bloodthirsty Justicars do not often get to keep their gavels. I just want him to realize that he made a mistake trading pomp for humanity.”

  “Well, maybe I’d tell you a bit about the treasures. And the boats. Nothing about Tidus, though. That’s for me and him!” Zora said with a wink. She would swear that the sun got hotter at that remark.

  “You know,” Zora began. “In all the stories, executions happen on cloudy days. Shame it’s so sunny. I was hoping the world and weather would feel the way I do.”

  Maribel looked down, not sure what to say.

  “What do you think is going to happen?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “After you all kill me.”

  “Oh,” Maribel noticed there was nothing too accusatory in what she had said, but she felt a pang of guilt. If the priestess had learned anything from the pirate, it was that she was genuine. “Well, I’m sure the High Council up north is eager to hear you’ve passed. After that, the Coastal Dispatch will probably get underway to take care of your ships on the sea with that weapon of theirs. Then they will do victory port calls, get trashed, and vault the Justicar to fame as the man who killed the Sea Witch.”

  “Well damn, girl,” Zora groaned. “I was hoping for something cheerier. Maybe you’d all say a prayer for my soul or something. Is that something you church types do?”

  “Maybe for Chael to take pity on you,” Maribel shrugged.

  “You think he’s real, huh?”

  “No reason to not, I suppose. After all, I use magic based on my faith in a god whose avatar has not walked in generations.”

  “That’s not a bad point,” the pirate said. “You know, I heard he eats your soul and shits you out where you get buried.”

  Maribel rolled her eyes at the remark, prompting Zora’s laughter. With a clank, the gates to the courtyard opened and ones and twos of paladins and priests began to file in. They milled around, chatting with one another. They worked hard to avoid looking at the prisoner.

  After the first handfuls of clergy, civilians began to file in. Port and dock workers, mariners, merchants who had lost livelihood to the pirate’s attacks were invited to see her lose her life. They sat in the benches set throughout the courtyard and stared relentlessly at the prisoner.

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  Maribel watched Zora stare back and could feel the air drying out around her. “Don’t do it. Those shackles will react.”

  “I know, sister.” Zora took a deep breath, and the humidity returned. It was unseasonably heavy. “I just want to get this damned thing over with.”

  “Soon,” Maribel said softly.

  The benches continued to fill and the paladins and priests moved into formations at the foot of the stage, leaving a large walkway through the center. At the end of that walkway, beneath the courtyard’s largest arched entrance, the Mother Superior, High Sergeant Boldbounty were standing on either side of the Justicar. And there behind them, in that stupid and ugly cloak, Cayd was making eye contact from across the courtyard.

  A heavy dark cloud cast a thick shadow on the courtyard as it rolled in front of the sun.

  A choir on the wall around the courtyard began to sing, their voices carrying over the audience. The song was a major-key chorale called “Justice.” The Justicar’s footfalls matched the slow beat of the song and the Mother Superior and High Sergeant were in step behind him. As the march started, Cayd remained under the shadows of the archway. Just like him.

  Zora smiled villainously as another cloud rolled past. “Sing faster, bastards!” she shouted to the wall. Maribel, half expecting that sort of outburst, barely reacted. The audience, though, gasped and muttered to one another.

  The choir continued through the heckle.

  The Justicar closed his eyes and held his head higher, aloof, as he continued his march to the stage. The song brought the three clergy leaders to the bottom of the stairs leading to the stage where they stopped and allowed the song to finish.

  The choir brought their chorale to the end with a long and drawn plagal cadence. The entire audience joined in the amen being sung and allowed the echoes of their voices to rumble through the courtyard.

  It was joined by some other rumbling. The distant roll of thunder.

  “Let’s get this over with so your final moments will be sunny, eh?” the Justicar said quietly, so as not to disturb the audience.

  “Don’t want your fancy lunch getting cold, either!” Zora responded loudly. The audience groaned at her disrespect.

  The Justicar bit his tongue, then looked up to Maribel. “My dear Sister. I have come before you this morning to relieve you of your charge. You have borne the weight of this woman’s crimes as her personal guard before execution of her punishments and you are now no longer chained to this duty.”

  “Justicar, I appreciate your mercy on me, and beg you to show it to the prisoner as well.” It was during Maribel’s response that Zora realized the two were reciting some inane script. No one in this room wanted mercy on Captain Zora.

  The Mother Superior handed the Justicar a gold colored envelope as Maribel bowed deeply. The High Sergeant and Mother Superior climbed the stairs to stand on either side of her in a semi-circle behind Zora. The Justicar cleared his throat and turned around, opening the envelope.

  “Brothers and Sisters of Gessel’s societies, hear now the crimes for which this prisoner is being brought to this courtyard today.” The entire courtyard was now darkened by overcast skies.

  Zora’s breathing went from natural to rhythmic as the Justicar began rambling off the long list of accused crimes. She was controlling her breath. Maribel was about to call Boldbounty’s attention to it when she felt a drop on her head. It was a fat, cold droplet that splashed across her.

  Looking up, Maribel could see some of the audience members looking skyward at the clouds, which seemed to just grow thicker.

  The Justicar continued as Maribel noticed again the sudden change to the air around her. A strange smell filled her nostrils. Suddenly, something had a hold of her. High Sergeant Boldbounty had suddenly moved to embrace both the Mother Superior and Maribel, surrounding the three of them with a thick, golden barrier.

  The crash of thunder was instantaneous and deafening as the lightning struck immediately beside them. The Justicar was knocked flat by the shock to the air and the sheer volume of the thunderclap. Maribel was completely blinded by the point-blank lightning flash, but when her vision began to return, she could make out Zora, standing tall. The chain that connected her shackles were glowing the red of molten metal.

  Maribel could not hear the audience’s shrieks of surprise, but the ringing in her ears began to calm and was replaced by some other deafening sound. The sky above had released the entirety of its contents. An opaque sheet of rainwater was spilling down on the courtyard, filling the small area completely.

  The three beneath Boldbounty’s barrier were completely dry, but Maribel could see the water beginning to rise. Silhouettes of the audience scrambling could just barely be seen through the deluge.

  Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.

  “Dreamer,” Mother Superior said in a hushed tone as Boldbounty released her. The audience had spilled all around the courtyard. Many people were wading toward exits while others were pulling their neighbors from the water that was at least waist deep on most of the onlookers. The drains in the base of the courtyard that had been plugged to prevent more insults from Tidus refused to let any of the precipitation leave the space.

  The Justicar, weighed down by his armor, was struggling to keep his head above the sloshing rainwater as Zora walked to the edge of the stage, laughing.

  “Dammit!” Boldbounty cried as Zora’s laugh was joined by another’s. The laughter was as loud as the thunder from the sudden storm. It roared through the courtyard, bouncing off the walls, and driving the floodwater to slosh throughout the area.

  The water was becoming most agitated in the dead center of the courtyard. It surged and whipped into a massive cyclone that roared skyward. Once level with the courtyard’s surrounding walls, the cyclone exploded.

  Tidus, the Laughing Buccaneer was hovering over the waters, his light blue aura a stark contrast against the wet stone and cloudy sky. “Release the woman I love!” he roared heroically.