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When the doors opened, Tidas came walking into the room with a stack of books in his arms. He was followed by Ralph and several Highlanders from the excursion north. Apparently, they were the ones that were adamant about testifying on the Alconians’ behalf.

Ralph also had a stack of books in his arms, just like Tidas. The dignitaries stood up and peered over each other to see what all the fuss was. As the Alconians approached the center of the room, Tidas shouted to everyone in it..

“These are our inventory logs going back to the first day we left Alcon! Every move we made, and every word we said was witnessed by those sent with us! These records list every piece of equipment that was brought with us, and will prove that Alcon had nothing to do with this!”

Malcolm practically jumped to his feet; “How could we possibly know that these havena been tampered with?! We’d have ta compare every piece of armor ta the log!”

“Isn’t that the point? Or are ye just lookin’ ta convict us without a chance ta defend ourselves?” Skye stated as she glared at him.

“The proof of yer treacherous behavior was plain fer all ta hear! I’d trust the word of a Highlander over a Southerner any day!”

Malcolm had a few cheer out loud for him, but not nearly as many as before. It was obvious that he was biased against the Alconians, which hurt his standing a bit. Most just wanted the truth of the matter without the commentary..

Ignoring Malcolm, Tidas held up a notebook as he spoke; “This is the first log we made when we left Alcon! I request that five trusted officials view the contents together! Then compare it to the logs of right before we left!”

.....

“Why would we trust what ye wrote?!” Malcolm shot at him.

“Because Tidas wasn’t the only one to check off our provisions! Several high-ranking officials signed off on it. If we had extra equipment of any kind, it would’ve been obvious,” Ralph finished, familiar with Malcolm’s nasty streak from the last time he was in the Highlands.

Murdoc was becoming frustrated the longer he listened to Malcolm bickering. As his patience reached it’s end, Murdoc walked over to the Temporary Head Councilor..

“This is why Amara was elected the Head Councilor! Even if she doesna agree wit somethin’ or someone, she still hears ’em out! If ye were in my position, ye’d be a bloody Tyrant!”

“We’re tryin’ ta make a peace treaty wit the Alconians, but it seems ta me that ye don’t want ta even give ’em a chance! Tis like ye don’t want the treaty signin’ ta happen at all!”

Being as flustered as he was, Malcolm spoke before he thought about the words; “Why should we make peace wit the ones that have been slaughterin’ us fer generations?! Why should we bend the knee ta a King-”

“How else do ye suppose peace comes about?! Either one side destroys the other, or an agreement is made. The treaty Protects both sides, and puts an end ta the bloodshed. Unless ye Want the fightin’ and death ta keep goin’.. Against the majority’s decision, and Yer King’s.”

Malcolm fumed at himself, and at Murdoc and Skye. He knew that wording it how he had would bite him in his arse; he’d spoken too truthfully in the heat of the moment..

Many began to murmur about how vehemently he’d been speaking out against the alliance. He’d even heard someone ask if the witness had been ‘talked to’ before his testimony. Malcolm glared into the crowds, quickly quieting down the naysayers.

To add to his stress, he’d also heard the Last Warrick say that she wanted to exhume the body..

“I will not allow her ta desecrate a hero!” Malcolm bellowed.

The Highlander King narrowed his eyes on him; “I make those kinds of decisions, not you! Watch yer self, Malcolm.. Yer gettin’ close ta soundin’ treasonous yer self..”

At Murdoc’s warning, the gossip kicked into overdrive all around the room. Some were bold enough to suggest that Murdoc’s position was Malcolm’s ultimate goal, but quickly hushed themselves when he attempted to see who was saying such things.

Murdoc was enjoying watching Malcolm squirm in front of everyone. He still thought the bastard was the one that had put Drexel up to trying to kill him, but he couldn’t be sure. All he really knew about that was that the plan was too complicated for Drexel to have thought it up on his own..

Another hour had passed before they’d figured out that the only difference between what the Alconians had brought, and what they still had were their dead count, and one gauntlet..

Malcolm argued, but the logs clearly hadn’t been tampered with. A different-colored ink had been used in the original log, and the numbers all matched up. Their dead had been buried, and their belongings had been set aside for their families to claim upon their return home in the spring.

Malcolm tried to be petty and say that someone could snuck extra gear, which made Tidas stifle a chuckle; “That’s not how it works in Alcon. Only high-ranking officers can wear their own specialty armor, and it’s not allowed to look like Alcon-issued armor. All other troops are issued their armor.”

“So the king flips the bill?! I find that hard to believe-”

“Not the king, the kingdom. What do you think taxes pay for? Infrastructure and military armament are the two main costs. Why would we make our soldiers buy their own armor?”

Several Highlanders applauded Tidas’ words. The Highlanders bought or made their own armor, and some even stole it from their dead enemies. Many of them even had old, outdated pieces of Alconian armor that they had re-fashioned to suit their personal tastes.

One of the Councilors voiced this fact, and said that the Southerners might even be being set up..

Malcolm watched and listened as his perfect plan started to come apart at the seams. The armor that they had this time was brand new, but still made from the same metals as the older models. If a person wanted to, it wouldn’t be that difficult to alter a gauntlet to resemble the new ones.

Murdoc called for the gauntlet to be brought forward, and was a little surprised when Malcolm didn’t protest. It meant that the gauntlet was genuine, and that what Mickey had told Skye was the truth. Anger rose up within him again, but Murdoc pushed it down as he handed the gauntlet to Tidas to identify.

He barely had to look at it to know; “This is one of our current models, and the one missing from our inventory! The rest of the suit is back in our bunker-”

“How could ye possibly know that?!” Malcolm wailed.

Tidas didn’t even try to hide the smug expression from his face as he replied; “I know because all pieces to a suit of armor have the same number sequence ingrained inside them somewhere; usually along a seam. It’s to avoid stolen property issues, and helps to identify fallen soldiers on the battlefield.”

Tidas’ grin stretched as he walked over to Malcolm, and handed him the gauntlet; “See for yourself..”

As the dignitaries began to talk all at once, they gave Tidas plenty of cover to whisper; “We know you put Mickey up to it.. You won’t get away with it..”

Malcolm’s eyes bulged from his skull as Tidas shot his a death glare, then returned to his previous, cavalier-self. As doubt of the Southerners guilt spread, Malcolm looked from Tidas to Skye.. Wondering which one of them he should take down with him, should his sham fail...

Skye had been watching Malcolm’s reactions carefully, and knew that he was guilty of trying to set them up. The question was: was he a murderer? The guard at the hydroelectric dam was supposedly killed in the struggle with an Alconian..

‘If there was no soldier with bombs, then who killed him? Were the bombs even real? Would Malcolm go that far?’

Struggling to understand the man’s motives, Skye became frustrated and asked Murdoc loud and clear; “I would like ta examine the guard that twas stabbed. I think I can shed some light on who might’ve-”

Malcolm clapped his hands together to gain everyone’s attention, and to cut off Skye; “We will Not let ye desecrate a hero! Ye canna be trusted! Ye be a Warrick that married a fuckin’ MacArthur! Yer own kin be rollin’ over in their graves-”

“Shut yer yap, Malcolm! Next time, Ima shuttin’ it for ya!” Murdoc bellowed.

Before Malcolm could protest, Skye suggested to have at least three medically-educated people accompany her. It was basically the same thing as when Tidas had gone and gotten their records: she was to be supervised.

Skye didn’t mind because to her, it was just more witnesses. The more people that saw what she did and concurred, the easier it would be for the Council to accept the results. As she waited for the medical experts to arrive, Skye stared down Malcolm with obvious dislike..

It only took about twenty minutes for the doctors to arrive. Two of them knew Skye from her work at their hospital, and the other three were eager to meet her. When the last person showed up, Malcolm had instantly thrown a fit.

Gavin walked straight over to Skye’s side, stood next to her, then openly glared at Malcolm. He knew Gavin was pissed at him because he had Amara imprisoned within her house.. ‘He’s lucky I couldna convince the Council ta send her ta jail..’

Tidas walked over to his wife’s other side as he watched the exchange of malice between the Highlanders. He kissed the side of Skye’s head, then told her to be careful. She smiled brightly at him, told him the same before she and the others left to head off to the morgue.

After she left, Tidas walked over to Murdoc, and said something to him that made him smile. When they both looked towards Malcolm with the same scheming grin, he knew that something bad was coming..

Walking towards Malcolm, Murdoc called out; “Guess we get to go compare notes to armor! Come on, Malcolm! You’re gonna be one of the witnesses!”

“Tis not hard to engrave a number onto metal! I wouldn’t believe it, even if ye showed it ta me!” Malcolm protested.

Tidas smirked at him; “Did you not hear me before? I said ‘ingrained’, not ‘engraved’. Any idiot could engrave a number, like you said. The top three coats of our armor are lacquered, so we can tell if the numbers have been altered or tampered with.”

“That’s quite ingenious,” Murdoc commented with a cocky tone.

“Aye, it tis.. Stops thieves from trying to pass another member’s armor off as their own,” Tidas replied as he kept his eyes on Malcolm.

As their group of inspectors readied to leave, Malcolm doubled-checked the dagger he had strapped to his backside.. ‘If Ima goin’ down, Ima take that bastard prince wit me...’