If Trutina has cast a spell, she does not show any outward signs of having done so.
"Cygna doctrinae Bjornaeris. Have you ever used the magical abilities associated with the marks upon your body?"
[color=red]"What?" Cygna looks at Trutina in shock. [color=red]"What magical abilities?"
She looks quite cross, and ignores the question. "Allow me to rephrase, and please respond to my question directly. Cygna Bjornaeris, have you ever knowingly utilized any Infernal magics since swearing the Hermetic Oath?"
[color=red]"No, I have never knowingly used any infernal magics since swearing the Oath."
(IMO the rituals she performed with Adorjan would have been infernal magic, or at least Cygna would have believed them to be, which was why Trutina specified after swearing the Oath. Assuming Cygna isn't knowingly lying about her history, I will assume the "never" was just an oversight.)
She nods, and turns to speak to an empty space at the foot of the pallet. "We should be able to dispel this, but it would require a ritual. Inform my soror that I will require her assistance in its casting. We'll do it at sundown." Trutina turns back to Cygna. "We should return now," she declares.
Back in the amphitheater, magi are filing back in after the recess; Guglielmo (Great Will) calls the Tribunal back to order.
Iudicium stands and announces, "Will Gruis filia Ardea doctrinae Bjornaeris please come forward to give testimony."
Gruis arches an eyebrow, but accedes. As she takes the stand, Iudicium traces the circle and chants, "You will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
Gruis looks at the Quaesitor blankly. "Was that supposed to impress me?" she asks archly.
Iudicium frowns. "You will suppress your Parma to aid in my investigation. Need I remind you that you are under suspicion of diabolism?"
Cygna's mater shakes her head. "I fail to see how compulsion glamours are pertinent to your investigation, where a simple truth detection effect will more than suffice. I will suppress my Parma for an Intellego Mentem effect only, and if you attempt another Rego Mentem upon me again, I will bring this to Grand Tribunal."
A look of sheer rage crosses Iudicium's face for the briefest of moments, but he quickly regains his composure before others notice (Per+Folk Ken of 15 required to catch it). "As you desire. Trutina? See to Gruis' request."
The younger Quaesitor makes eye contact with Gruis, and the Bjornaer seems satisfied with whatever passes between them.
"Gruis Bjornaeris. How much did you know about your filia's involvement with Adorjan?"
The aging woman frowns. "I knew he was up to no good, but I did not imagine it to be infernal in nature, nor did I have any reason to suspect them of violating the Code."
"And did you never notice the markings upon your filia?"
"I saw them, but they meant nothing to me. It seemed rather Criamon-ish, but I wasn't going to intrude on my filia's privacy out of my own sense of propriety."
"Were you knowingly complicit in Adorjan's diabolism?"
"No."
Iudicium frowns. "Cygna told us earlier that Adorjan said Bethany Merceris, and I quote, 'had to die for what she had done.' Do you have any idea what this might have been referring to?"
"I do not, Quaesitor. Are we done here?"
Iudicium sighs, meets Trutina's eyes, and then points up at Cygna. Trutina nods. "Cygna, can you clarify for the Tribunal what that statement meant?" he calls up to the box where Gallus Florensis' magi are seated.
((yes it was, I'll fix it directly)).
[color=red]"I actually don't know, he's never told me. If you'd like, I can ask him the next time I see him."
Needless to say, the entire amphitheater erupts in chatter at that 
Iudicium turns to Trutina, who shrugs. "It was truth, with no sarcasm."
The crowd goes wild with speculation and chatter.
Iudicium shouts, "ORDER!!" in a voice too big for his aging lungs, and the tittering recedes somewhat. "Do you mean to tell this court not only that Adorjan still lives, but that you maintain contact with him?"
A few of the Hoplites are now standing, many with their hands on wands, staves, or swords.
[color=red]"No, and yes. He does not live."
She looks at Guillaume. [color=red]"Do you remember the last words that Adorjan said in this world? Just before we...before you struck the killing blow? He said that I would never be rid of him, and that he would haunt me until my dying day."
She looks down and speaks in a voice just loud enough for those around her to hear. [color=red]"I have been tormented by his shade almost every day since his death."
She then looks up at Iudicium. [color=red]"So, no, he does not live. And yes, I do maintain contact with him...or rather, he with me. I have tried Lay to Rest the Haunting Spirit with no success. I have had my mater try, unsuccessfully. Practically no one but me has ever seen him. In fact, some have even thought me mad," she says as she looks at Hiems.
Attravere stays conflicted in the stands. His anger at what was done to Bethany lingers, but now there is both pity for Cygna if she is indeed tormented and a desire to know what was meant by Adorjan's proclamation of Bethany's deed(s).
Attravere remains fairly sure Bethany did something to thwart Adorjan and Cygna's diabolic acts, afterall, any member of his family would have, but he would like to know that he might place her on a pedestal in his mind.
(What are the reaction(s) of his fellow Mercere that came all the way here?)
Iudicium exchanges a glance with Trutina, who motions for Cygna to suppress her Parma, and touches her. After a moment, the young Quaesitor looks up at her mentor and shakes her head. "There is no ghost about you now, not have you come into contact with any ghosts for the last year," Iudicium declares. "In that light, we find it unnecessary for you to make inquiries of... Adorjan.
"Given the confirmed murder of Bethany Merceris, the tribunal will vote to ratify the Wizard's March on Adorjan Megidezo scholae Bonisagus, by Quaesitor Justinius Tremeris.
"In the complicity of Gruis doctrinae Bjornaeris in the diabolic rituals performed by Adorjan, there will be no vote, as the gross incompetence and disregard for a maga's responsibility to her apprentice is a low crime, and one which Gruis does not contest. Gruis is fined twenty-five pawns of vis, which shall be--"
"Point of order, pater?" Fredegisa interjects. The bookish woman stands, pushes her spectacles up higher onto her nose, and clears her throat. "Hermetic Crimes, excepting the ratification of Wizard's Marches, are to be resolved only after all policy proposals have been made and voted upon." She smiles nervously and sits back down.
Iudicium seems studiously unperturbed. "Very well, her sentence, and the question of any legal ramifications for Cygna's actions, shall be postponed until day three of proceedings; we shall recess and reconvene at sunset to vote upon ratification."
Great William's voice booms out, "Session adjourned."
Cygna looks at Trutina, stunned, until Great William adjourns the Tribunal.
[color=red]"No...wait. That's impossible! I have seen him! I have heard him! I have felt his touch! I swear that I am not making this up! I saw him just yesterday!" She grabs Trutina's robe and drops to her knees, looking up at her with tears in her eyes. [color=red]"Please, believe me! He is real, he torments me day and night! Why would I invent such a heinous tale? Ask Georges Saint Jean! He saw him, last spring, when we were returning from Burnham! He saw Adorjan, too! Ask him!"
Trutina gives Cygna a soft glance. "I believe you believe that," she replies.
"Georges Saint-Jean?" Praeco Talion speaks up. "Mara's widower? He's dead."
[color=red]"I'm not a lunatic!" Cygna yells.
[color=red]"What? Dead? How?" Cygna feels a cold chill and a knot in her stomach. She already knows, but she hopes and prays that she's wrong.
Focus lingers behind as the tribunal filters out of the amphitheatre doors. "Old age," he answers simply. "Georges could not afford to buy another longevity ritual, after Mara's failed him. He never found anyone willing to invest the time and vis into making one for him, and last winter, he caught a chill and died."
[color=red]"What? But...that's impossible. Georges was so young." She then describes Georges, as chastely as she can (that is, she won't describe him as an absolute studmuffin, despite the fact that she thought he was). Blond, yay tall, muscular? [color=red]"Is that him?"
(Focus was the magus who travelled with Cygna and Georges. He knows who she's referring to.)
"Cygna, some are blessed such that time may wreak its havoc upon their bodies without ever showing its mark outwardly. Georges was one such man. He looked ever the same as he had as a boy, but despite his appearance, he was of an age with me, and I was already old when I fought to retake Lisbon from the Muslims." He barks a sharp laugh. "Why did you think Georges treated you so gently? He hoped you'd throw a few rooks of vis and a season of your time into making him a longevity ritual. Surely you must have realized he was drawn neither to your looks nor personality."
(OOC: Unaging virtue.)
Slap, and storm away.
Focus catches her hand in his, and gives her a distant, detached smile.
She struggles to pull her hand away, and if (likely) she can't, she will hiss [color=red]"Let go of me."
"Do you have yourself under control now, little devil-girl?"
He lets go of her hand with a vague grin.