The soul of Dietrich Webber finally materialized in the box and Hikari inclined her head to the left, peering at him critically and wondering why he should shake the feeling of familiarity. Nevertheless she had a case to finish and poor Dietrich here was about to fry. She moved closer and raised an eyebrow. "Please identify yourself." The slender looking man smiled faintly and nodded; there was a certain waiflike vulnerability about him that belied the intelligence in his eyes even in the afterlife and that smile was eerily familiar. He folded his arms composedly and murmured, "I am Dietrich Webber the fifth." The attorney nodded and glanced down at her notes.
"Alright then Herr Webber, I shall bring you up to speed about what is going on here. You are currently acting as a witness in a trial- obviously, hence the courtroom- a trial in which you play a pivotal part." She stopped and stepped aside, putting Faustus in plain view of her witness. "Tell me Herr Webber, do you recognize anyone in this courtroom?"
Dietrich glanced around uncertainly for a moment until his eyes fell on the defense bench. His gaze lingered on the fair haired woman staring back at him with a tense expression and then moved to her companion, a start of astonishment jerking through him when their eyes met. Hikari watched the communication with hawk eyes, finding the confirmation she needed to finish the case. At length Dietrich turned back to her and nodded gravely.
"Yes indeed I recognize an old friend here." The lawyer returned his gesture and moved closer once more, "Indeed Webber, your old friend is the very reason we are all gathered here and you have been summoned from repose, for he has sued my client and I'm here to redress his claims." Webber glanced to her bench and her client and she saw his lips purse a fraction. "Well then without further ado, let us get on with the proceedings," Hikari continued briskly and glanced at her note pad.
"So Herr Webber, according to the old accounts, you saved Johannes Faustus from his terrible bargain by advocating on his behalf. Isn't that right?" He nodded once and she smiled faintly. "I take it then that you and Faustus were friends, weren't you?" Webber nodded once more and she raised an eyebrow. "Very good friends even, right?" Her witness nodded once more and she began pacing, "So good, in fact, that you offered your very soul for him...that kind of friendship is- is inspirational to say the least. Binds so rare, affection so pure...you are truly an exemplary man Webber."
He raised an eyebrow at the compliment and then murmured his thanks, wondering just what it had to do with the case when Hikari turned around to face him. "Tell me Webber, did you generally do this sort of a thing for a living? I mean, according to the accounts you were very scholarly and no one could doubt your eloquence- certainly not my client," she paused and allowed room for the little titters scattered here and there in the courtroom before leaning back to hear Webber's response. He cleared his throat and leaned closer, "I was well known to have well, a way with words and so my peers regularly came to me to settle their disputes. I suppose you could say I gained a reputation as well as a following." The attorney's eyes sharpened with that last statement and she inquired, "And was Faustus part of that following?"
He shrugged and shook his head. "Faustus was an academic much like me and we shared the same interest, however our fellowships ran in different circles." Hikari nodded, as if coming to an understanding with him, and then put in, "So although you were a well known advocate, that was not your profession." Dietrich shook his head and turned away. "I was a seafaring adventurer, eager to explore the seven seas and wow the academic community with my findings."
Over by the opposite bench, Faustus stiffened imperceptibly but his advocate caught his reaction and her mind instantly began trying to connect the dots Hikari was so painstakingly leading them all to. The attorney in question nodded and leaned closer once more, "In fact, isn't that the very reason you two orbited so close and yet never seemed to encounter each other? You were more than just an adventurer weren't you Herr Webber? In fact you captained your own ship and this more often than not kept you close to the border, and the sea- close to Rostock."
She paused and deliberately held his eyes, letting him know just where she was leading. "Faustus himself lived in Hamburg and you two would cross paths at last, at the exact time he was seeking means to rid himself of my client's contract." Her forceful ending sent a flutter of conversation stirring in the rows above and Judge Trudy had to char boil a few errant renegades to retain order.
When the hall was once more quiet, Hikari continued with her line of questioning. "Not only did you cross paths with Faustus, you actually ferried him in your ship to the open sea and labored with him on the quest, didn't you? Wasn't that really the way you came to know about this bargain?" Amidst the thickening silence, Annette turned a sideways glance to her client but his gaze was fixed on the academic captain with an expression akin to longing and...loss. At that moment it hit her straight in the chest and her mouth suddenly went try. This was what she was driving at- oh no!
Hikari paced to and fro the front, never shifting too far from her victim's line of sight, never letting up from the intensity of her gaze. "And that was how you got enlisted to Faustus's army. Tell me Herr Webber, were you ever married?" Her sudden shift in tactics left him bemused for a moment but he quickly recollected himself and shook his head. "No as you can recall, my eagerness for academic greatness left me little time to pursue other ventures for back then I saw them as frivolities not worthy of my time." She shrugged and gave a small chuckle. "No wife or kids, well we all know that Faustus here didn't have time for women either."
Her comments sent him looking up sharply and she raised an eyebrow, "Well Herr Webber we have on the same ship and separated from civilization by miles of water, two academic thinkers with similar intellectual pursuits and a certain need to publicize their distance from anything as base as physical frivolities. It is only natural that such great minds in pursuits of ventures toward the edification of the mind- to steal a phrase from my good debtor there- might find things of the physical not so frivolous after all." Her tone cooled as she finished and, anticipating the jerking reaction her witness gave, she raised her eyebrows in challenge. "Or am I lying, Herr Webber? Weren't you and Faustus in fact lovers, and wasn't that the main catalyst for your selfless intervention?"
Her revelation was met with strained silence and she watched him look away from her, toward the plaintiff and Hikari caught the hesitation. Ah well too bad, she thought to herself as she glanced at her papers. Now it was time for the final blow. "Have I been wrong at any point in all this? Yes, well then show me your arms Dietrich." There it was, the incomplete anchor, and she was willing to bet her last five dollar note that the remnants of this anchor were on Faustus's person. But there was no need to go that far; all she had to do was make just one more comment.
"So you loved him then, enough in fact to lay your life down in his stead because how could you bear to live with your lover being snatched from you without doing anything? So it makes me wonder, just how selfless you were being when you advocated on Faustus's behalf." Her casual statement ran deep with hidden meaning and she at last savored the taste of victory. Yep, this case was in the bag.
Hikari smiled and clapped her hands together, "Thank you very much Herr Webber, no further questions for you and you may return to your abode of rest." She dismissed him with the snap of a finger and nodded once to the judge before wheeling around to smile at her counterpart. Their eyes met and held for a moment and she could have sworn there were tears in Annette's eyes as she turned away.
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"Judgment is awarded to the defendant and I'll add now that the previous contract between the litigants be taken up for further review." Trudy had given her final say and the case was over. Hikari closed her eyes and let out a sigh she didn't know she'd been holding. The case was finally over and now she could wake up in her own bed...
Her eyes flicked open and she realized the scene had changed. She was sitting on a plush arm chair in an elaborately decorated room and Lucy was sitting beside her but it looked nowhere like her living room. "What's going on here," she began and the other woman chuckled. "Why Eliza, whatever do you mean?"
Hikari resisted the urge to throw something- preferably a punch- and cleared her throat. "What do you mean what do I mean? I won the case, our contract is over, where aren't I floating into the vortex and waking up in my own bed?" Her erstwhile client chuckled once more but this time it wasn't quite as filled with mirth. "Yes my dearest, you won the case and what a win t.o...but at what a cost!"
She gestured to something on the mortal's body and the latter glanced down. Her body still shimmered with the translucence that told her she wasn't corporeal but felt a lot denser than before. She concentrated her gaze and realized there were flecks of black mingled with the gray and the more she looked, the more it seemed that they were the prevalent color.
"Yes Hikari you won but you forgot the Goldilocks rule; you aren't quite just right anymore now are you?