Litvir shivered nervously in their seat as they sat in front of Captain Mathenon, one of the many, many Captains of the 901st Legion, representing both teachers and school administrators. Mathenon was the headmaster of Litvir’s school, and had called Litvir to their office at the end of the day after… something had happened.
By Litvir’s side was Ketiis and their father. Weirdly, Litvir was taller than both of them and also slightly taller than Mathenon, but a lot skinnier. The two adults both straddled the average heigt of 2.5m, but Ketiis was very short and very muscular, having not reached their 16 year old growth spurt yet. Ketiis had a black eye, mud on their back and their right hand wrapped up in a cast. Litvir had taken several punches and kicks to the stomach, but since Litvir was, well, divine, all traces of their injuries had already faded.
Everyone was waiting for Litvir’s parental guardian to arrive. Ketii’s dad was also a teacher but worked for younger students, and they were being a little impatient since they had tests to mark.
Eventually, there was a knock on Mathenon’s office door. Mathenon immediately called them in, but seemed a tad anxious as they could see the silhouette of whoever was outside.
“I apologise for my tardiness, getting here quickly from the capital was tricky, what with rush hour and all that…” General Gath grunted as they entered, glanced around and then very cautiously sat in the remaining empty seat. “Why have you requested my presence?”
Ketiis’s father stared at the Keeper, then turned to Mathenon. “What IS this?”
“Calm down, Kietras.”
“No, I will NOT calm down. This little menace broke my kid’s hand and gave them a black eye.”
“Kyr Gath here is legally one of Litvir’s two parental guardians. Litvir did not have one and was not assigned one, so Kyr Gath offered.”
“This monster here still broke my kid’s hand!” Kietras argued, pointing at Litvir. “There should be punishment at-”
Gath very gently pushed Kietras’s hand down, then turned to Litvir.
“Little one, did you break this kid’s hand?”
Litvir shuddered and shrank in their seat. “No.”
“How did… I apologise, I do not know your kid’s name.”
“Ketiis.”
Gath grunted in acknowledgement. “Litvir, be honest with me and tell everyone how Ketii’s hand got broken.”
“Ketiis punched me in the stomach, not aware that I wear full armour at all times. They attempted to wind me to prove that they were stronger and better than me, but broke their fingers on my steel stomach armour.”
“But you are not hurt, you must be lying!” Kietras interrupted, only to be interrupted by Gath.
“If you punch someone in the stomach who is wearing padding and protection, that will not to much damage.” Gath turned back to Litvir. “Now, why does Ketiis here have a black eye?”
“Um… because… I punched them back in retaliation.”
“And why did you retaliate?”
“Because… because I was concerned that… if I did not show strength, I would find both myself and Miisa outnumbered. And I would have to be more… uh… I do not know how to put this… violent.”
“Hang on!” Mathenon butted in. “Why was little Miisa involved in this?”
Ketiis glanced at his father awkwardly, then stared at the ground.
“Ketiis and their friends were bullying Miisa. Stole their lucky charm!” Litvir immediately started talking properly now. “I told them to stop! They did not! They threw Miisa’s charm away. And that made Miisa really sad and I needed to help them, so I stepped forward and shouted at them for being cruel and un-Rethan! Ketiis did not like that, insulted both me and Miisa then tried to punch me!”
Mathenon took a deep breath and turned to Kietras, who then turned to their kid.
“Ketiis, is Litvir telling the truth? Did you steal someone’s lucky charm and throw it away?”
Ketiis shuddered, then shook his head. Litvir was about to open their mouth and tell Ketiis that they knew they were lying, because of Litvir’s telepathy, but before they tried to speak, they caught a thought from Gath, who was silently hoping that Litvir would not reveal their unnatural powers.
Mathenon leaned forward some more. “Ketiis, we will call Miisa and their parents and ask them, if you are not honest right now.”
Immediately, Ketiis gave in. While they could lie about Litvir, because none of their classmates liked Litvir, Miisa was a nerd and an insanely honest one. They would immediately side with the person who tried to get their lucky charm back.
“Alright, fine. I did steal Miisa’s charm and tried to punch Litvir. But I broke my hand and Litvir still punched me in the face!”
“You threatened to escalate the violence!” Litvir hissed. “I can take a punch, I can take a lot of punches, but you and your… uh… cronies… your cronies would have attacked me AND Miisa! And that made me angry!”
“How angry?” Gath asked.
Litvir paused, then thought for a moment. “Like… very angry. Bubbly. And overprotective.”
“A quarter-stance, perhaps… Because you wanted to protect Miisa.”
“If anyone knows about levels of Defensive-Stance, it is you, Kyr Gath!” Mathenon tutted. “Ketiis, do you understand what you did was wrong?”
“Y-yes… Captain Mathenon…”
Kietras closed their eyes and sighed. “Mathenon, hand out any punishment you feel is valid for Ketiis. We were in the wrong. And my kid was VERY in the wrong. We are going to have some very strict weekend lessons about bullying.”
Satisfied with Kietras’s response, the Captain turned to Ketiis, pulling a sheet of paper out of a draw.
“Very well. Ketiis, your punishment is thus: You are free-time suspended for two weeks. You will remain in the detention hall any time you are not studying, eating or sleeping. You will write a letter of apology to both Litvir and Miisa and deliver the letters to them in person. Finally, you will find a way to make amends with Miisa, by either finding their lost lucky charm or offering to make them a new one. Do you understand?”
Ketiis said nothing, but nodded. Mathenon wrote everything down on a sheet of duplicate paper, signed their name at the bottom then made Ketiis and Kietras do the same. Kietras was handed the pink duplicate, and they immediately lifted Ketiis up by the collar, muttered an apology and dragged Ketiis off.
Satisfied, Mathenon turned to Litvir.
“Litvir, while your desire to met out justice is understandable, you should not have hit Ketiis back by punching them. Our rules of honour tell us not to further hurt wounded combatants, and instead using restraints. On top of that, Litvir, you are very, very strong for your age, you could seriously hurt someone if you lash out.”
“But… but… but…” Litvir stuttered. “I did not want to hurt Ketiis. Their stupid friends would have piled on me. And I would have gotten properly violent.”
Mathenon grunted. “And that there is a problem. Litvir, you are a very smart kid and a very strong kid. You need to learn restraint. Because you did attack another student, who you had already neutralized, I am going to give you a small punishment, to calm down and how to think more clearly.”
Mathenon glanced to Gath. “Kyr Gath, does Litvir with with you? You are Litvir’s parental guardian, after all.”
“I live in-” Litvir again quickly shut up.
“Litvir has their own place,” Gath helped Litvir cover themselves. “But if you are suggesting sending Litvir home for the weekend, as a home-suspension, I will accommodate for that.”
“Very well. Litvir, you are to be sent home for the weekend. While you are at home, you will be sent training exercises to complete and will spend time writing a report on what you did wrong and how you will better handle situations in the future. You will also be given some emotion-training tasks. Ideally, we should have started you on emotion-training sooner, but we were unaware that you are prone to quarter-stances and half-stances. Am I clear?”
Litvir nodded, but didn’t say anything, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Mathenon grunted to themselves then wrote down Litvir’s punishments, had everyone sign the required form and handed the duplicate to Gath.
“Thank you for coming, Kyr Gath. Litvir, you are dismissed.”
Unlike Kietras though, Gath didn’t drag Litvir out of the room. Instead, they gently held Litvir’s hand and walked them out. They kept on walking until Gath was certain the coast was clear.
“I… I am sorry… I was stupid…” Litvir stuttered. “I just want to protect everyone, but here, I have to pretend to be normal…”
Gath patted Litvir on the shoulder. “Well, in my opinion, you did the right thing.”
“You do?”
“You took a punch meant for someone else, then punished the aggressor and stopped them from causing further pain. While Captain Mathenon was right that you need to reign in your strength, I am proud that you have such a strong connection to justice and the defence of others.”
“That was literally what I was made to do though…” Litvir whispered. “Everyone expects me to know what a 16 year old should, but I do not. And now I have this stupid punishment that I feel I do not deserve.”
“I do not think you deserve it either, but the punishment is nowhere near as bad as the ones I got when I was at school.”
“I guess…” Litvir sighed, clearly disheartened.
Gath noticed Litvir’s sadness, and decided to do something about it.
“While you do have work to do, I think we should take a quick break, because you are upset. Would you like to come to the shops with me? Relkir is coming to my place later and I thought it would be nice to bake a cake and ice cream”.
Litvir glanced up at Gath. “I would like that. Thank you.”
Gath put an arm around Litvir and walked them off. “No need to thank me. You are a good kid, you deserve a treat.”
“Yay…”