The judges sat forward with keen interest.
The one of the left, who wore the bearded satyr’s mask, asked in a dangerously calm tone, “In what ways have you changed?”
Will stifled a yelp. His eyes widened with terror. When Nico gave him a concerned look, Will mouthedI know that voice.
The crowd had fallen silent, waiting intently for the telkhine to answer.
Morpho’s wild eyes searched the onlookers’ faces. “Someone help me,” they said. “This is ridiculous!”
Nico was tempted to try. This whole scene enraged him. But there were too many enemies between him and the accused telkhine. The three demigods wouldn’t stand a chance. Besides, they didn’t yet understand what was happening, or where their friends had been taken.
“No one here will come to your aid,” said the judge on the left. His voice was reedy and nasal, as if designed to whine. Nico was pretty sure he’d never heard it before. “Answer my question. How have you…changed?”
He spoke the last word with distaste. The question was some kind of trap, Nico realized. He wanted to yell to MorphoDon’t answer!
Morpho let out a desperate sob. “You don’t understand! I have been alive for nearly a thousand years. I’ve passed through so many cycles of regeneration—Tartarus to Earth and back again, over and over, killed, reborn, killed, reborn. Yes, I did all those things you mentioned! I thought that was my purpose…until one day I decided to choose something else. I’ve been in the mortal world for over a decade now, causing no harm to anyone. Why are you judging me after all this time?”
The judge on the right picked up her quill, speaking as she wrote. “Decided to choose something else.Can you elaborate?”
Don’t, Nico thought.
There was a desperate gleam of hope in Morpho’s eyes.
“I am a creator now, not a killer,” they said. “I maketoys. I have a very successful Etsy account. Just ask Fufluns, who lets me use his winery for my workshop!”
The audience erupted in a din of jeers, shouts, and boos. Under cover of the noise, Nico turned to Hazel. “Who the heck is Fufluns?”
She shook her head, too rattled to answer.
“Old Etruscan god of health and growth,” Will murmured.
Nico stared at him.
“What?” Will protested. “I glow, I heal people, and I know things. That’s what I do. And that judge on the left is—”
“Order!” The middle judge banged his gavel. “Order in the court! We have heard the accused freely confess his crime.”
“No!” Morpho cried. “I just told you—I’ve changed! I’m not a monster anymore!”
A collectiveoooohran through the crowd. It was the same kind of sound spectators made when a professional athlete face-planted in front of a live television audience.
The three judges huddled briefly, conferring.
Fake Hades stood. “This tribunal has decided. We find Morpho the telkhine guilty.”
“Guilty?” Morpho barked. “Of what, cannibalism? Body odor? I batheeveryday! I’m a water mammal!”
“Guilty of change!” bellowed Fake Hades. “By your own admission, you forsook your natural purpose! Cannibalism, arson, murder, body odor, even interrupting an authority figure—these are commendable! They are in your nature as a monster. Until ten years ago, your official record was spotless. But now…making toys? Not bothering anyone? Running an Etsy account?”
The crowd booed and catcalled at the mention of such vile crimes.
“The Court of the Dead has been established to punish such deviant behavior,” said Fake Hades. “To return the world to its natural order! And you, Morpho, are irredeemable. It is our judgment that you shall be executed for your crimes in such a way that you will never regenerate in Tartarus, for this is a court of thetrueandpermanentdeath!”
Wild cheering from the spectators. Two skeletal guards in red robes approached Morpho, lowering two-pronged spears at the accused.
Nico bolted to his feet. He couldn’t help it. This waswrong. But as he did so, Defiance tumbled from his lap. Without direct contact to his Puff, Nico’s head spun. The room seemed to tilt like a gyroscope—changing from a torchlit cavern to a mortal courtroom and then back again. Nico nearly fell over, but Hazel grabbed his hand and pulled him back down into his seat.
“You have to control yourself!” Hazel hissed. “We can’t fight this many.”
