He’d probably automatically started a standard werewolf sign of affection—rubbing your cheek against another—before he remembered the setting or picked up on the scent of my hairspray and disapproved.
I’d bet on the latter.
My guess was proven when he narrowed his eyes at the bun my hair was pulled into, then turned his gaze back on the regretful wizard. “Either way, the public is allowed to listen to arbiter cases. Unless the rules have changed?”
“Nope.” The wizard gulped. “Go on in, Alpha Greyson!”
The wizard flattened himself against the wall and held the door open.
I shrugged at Greyson, then hurried after Gigi, who charged up the aisle that led to the arbiter’s desk.
Arbiter Tanaka was already seated. His salt and pepper hair was tidy and smooth, and his build was slight, but as he adjusted the two computer screens set up in front of him and then adjusted his gold framed glasses, there was an innate sense of power in his movements. He must have been using a magic, because I felt it—it was a buzzing hum that prodded my senses.
Arbiter Tanaka was an alchemist—a wizard who used his elemental magic combined with years of study to produce magical items, like the artifacts fae needed in order to use their own magic.
There weren’t many alchemists around these days. Wild magic was dying out, and with it so was the potency of the supernatural races, and it took a fair amount of power for a wizard to become an alchemist—an amount of power that was rarely seen in recent generations.
Arbiter Tanaka straightened in his seat when he saw Gigi and me approach and flicked a notch on his glasses, which slightly magnified the size of his eyes.
“Hunter Phillipa Sabre,” he said. “Be seated. Hunter Amos Fletching has already arrived.” He gestured to Amos, who was sprawled in a wooden seat in the second row of the sea of chairs and was wearing a surprisingly tidy suit, though he hadn’t taken off his net covered hat.
His nose was still taped up, but the swelling and bruising had subsided considerably—he must have finally found a fae potion.
I mirrored Gigi and sat down in the front row of seats positioned in front of Arbiter Tanaka.
Greyson prowled past us, finding a chair on the wall that was positioned so he could see the whole room and had his back protected.
Arbiter Tanaka only glanced at him before he motioned at the wizard Greyson had frightened to close the door. He rubbed the joints of his left hand, massaging his golden skin, and peered at his computer screens.
“Shall we begin?” He didn’t wait before launching into his speech. “Hunter Phillipa Sabre, you’ve been called to the Curia Cloisters due to your violent attack of Hunter Amos Fletching on the date of…” he read the official claim off his computer screen, including details of the incident that were relatively accurate.
（The Curia Cloisters had compiled testimonies from the Fletching hunters as well as the humans and wolves from the Northern Lakes Pack, so it was pretty balanced.）
He droned through the incident report—which I’d read ahead of time—plunging into the case with no hesitation.
Supernaturals handled their crimes in what most humans considered a frightfully casual method, given we didn’t have things like courts and juries.
In reality, arbiters were remarkably genteel considering we used to settle all arguments by duels, fights to the death, and lots of other “fun” and violent methods.
“…breaking Hunter Amos Fletching’s nose. Do you agree to these accounts, Hunter Amos Fletching and Hunter Phillipa Sabre?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Yes.” Amos smirked—not at me, but Greyson, weirdly.
Does he think he’s somehow getting at Greyson through me? Wow. He is a really bad investigator. Like, he isn’t barking up the wrong tree; he’s in the wrong forest! And this is who the Regional Committee of Magic sent as their A team?
Arbiter Tanaka removed his glasses as he focused on me. “Although Amos Fletching requested this be tried as a larger crime, the Curia Cloisters has found it to be appropriate as a small claims,” he dryly said. “And if Hunter Sabre had anyone to her family besides herself, it wouldn’t have even come this far and wasted valuable Cloister resources.” He gave Amos a narrowed look as he drummed his fingers on his desk. “But while the testimonies make it obvious Hunter Fletching was acting in an insulting manner, he has a legitimate complaint, given his injury,” he concluded. “Hunter Sabre, do you have anything to say in your defense?”