Yue

10th July

15:07 GMT

Batman leans forwards. "You would have preferred it if we had no idea where he was or what he was doing?"

Truth.

"Yes. The only reason for keeping him close was if you were planning on taking action against him in the short term. On the basis of what I've seen, you weren't. It was unlikely that he intended to leave the Earth and you could have lured him into position for an ambush in the same way I did. Quite aside from that, recruiting him required you to lie extensively and act in a despicable manner. I had doubts about your recruitment practices before that but I never doubted that League members were good people. If you can't trust the Justice League to hold the moral high ground, who can you trust?"

William.. actually raises his left eyebrow, looking towards the head of the table. I'm not prepared to give him points for not being entirely onboard with Nabu joining up, but it was mildly gratifying to know that at least one of them said something. Superman notices, then awkwardly looks away for a moment.

I wonder how the original debate about the lie went? Doesn't really matter now, but I'd be interested. See how much of my respect the participants could salvage.

King Orin straightens suddenly, then stares at me. "Mera said that she couldn't make sense of the spell Constantine used at New Year. You tried to get rid of him then, didn't you?"

Truth.

"Yes. That particular spell required both Klarion and Nabu to be in the same place at the same time. It was designed to use their opposing energies to push them both from this plane. Unfortunately, Captain Nazi grabbed Klarion before it could complete. It would have been far better if he hadn't. Nabu would have survived banishment."

King Orin looks like he doesn't quite believe it. "You had a way to permanently remove a Lord of Order after two months' study?"

"I was hardly working on it on my own. But yes."

Diana's face hardens. "Did you intentionally leave Nabu chained up when it failed?"

Truth.

"Yes. I wanted to see if the chains could hold him when he put significant effort into escaping them. At some point, I planned to chain him up for real and I wanted to ensure that I could do so safely. Though.. once the Belle Reve fight started it genuinely slipped my mind."

"You left a man chained up because you wanted to see whether or not he could escape?"

"Yes. I didn't have another Lord of Order I could test it on, and I wasn't going to create a plan which was premised on our ability to restrain him if we did not in fact have that ability."

Truth.

"Zatanna also tried removing the Helmet conventionally while Nabu was sleeping off the effects of the cure-tech. Sadly, that didn't work."

Superman nods. "I knew about that. I just didn't realise that it was more than a momentary thing. I still don't understand why-?"

"If I dropped a Star Conqueror off in Kansas the next time I was there, would that help you understand?"

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment, trying to control himself. "Clearly, you're… Very upset. How about you try calming down a little?"

Truth.

"Superman, I've been angry for eight months and I no longer have any reason to conceal it. I don't think-."

"Why didn't you tell us? Not.. everyone, but Wonder Woman or Batman?"

Truth.

"Because making Nabu a Justice League member required a unanimous vote. Which means that everyone approved it. Batman, who was the reason why Mister Zatara was on the League in the first place, voted to appoint his new owner to his post. Diana, who values truth so very highly that she signed off on lying to the world to cover for… So I couldn't trust any of you on this matter. I actually hoped that he was influencing your minds somehow." I shake my head. "It was better than… Believing…"

"What was the next step in your plan?"

Batman's voice is.. hollow, dead sounding. Either he's actually hearing the point I'm… Not so much making as bludgeoning him with, and it's matching up with doubts that he already had, or… Or he's trying to keep whatever he's feeling out of his voice.

"In the evening of the first of January I encountered Mister Charles Tong at Zatanna's home. That was when I told him that Mister Zatara had been possessed by a Lich and was being held in an Atlantean prison until it could be expunged. A little later that evening a group of us took a trip to the Harmony Grove Cemetery and summoned the spirit of Kent Nelson-."

"You did what?" Diana actually looks shocked.

"He was the best source of information on Nabu I had access to. He didn't object, if that's what you're worried about. The first thing he said was how relieved he was that Zatanna was free, as he didn't think that Nabu would have released her. When she explained what actually happened he told us the precise location of Nabu's tomb-."

"Nabu has a tomb?" Mister Allen's eyes have narrowed. I think he's frowning, but his mask makes it a little difficult to tell. "He didn't seem dead to me."

"According to the hieroglyphics, it was the resting place of his former hosts. I'm not sure how long the place had been undisturbed. Based on the style, I'd guess at least two thousand years. The last host was in some sort of suspended animation sarcophagus when they opened it. Something about the magic used killed Sven Nelson, and the last host died shortly afterwards. One of the sets of remains was alien. Cilian, to be precise. Given what the images decorating the walls showed they were either the host who brought Nabu to Earth, or Nabu's original pre-ascension body. We took the skull to use as a focus for our offensive magics."

King Orin scowls. "If you tried that in Atlantis this would be a very different sort of hearing."

"We built a sympathetic putrefaction system on the second and left it running behind some very strong scry wards. The aim was to see if we could weaken him to the point where lesser attacks could remove the helmet-."

Batman's jaw hardens. "And what if Fate's reduced capacities resulted in Zatara being injured or killed?"

"I saw no sign of him being impaired while on duty. I still don't know if we were having any effect at all. If I had, I would either have attacked him or stopped it, depending on how essential I felt that Nabu was. As for Mister Zatara being hurt… Yes, that was a possibility, but Nabu getting him injured was a possibility anyway. If it came to it, I could probably have carried out a medical resurrection on Mister Zatara once Nabu was off him. But… We never saw definitive evidence it was doing anything. If I had, it could have been deactivated with little notice. Something I had done when Oceanus appeared."

"And if Zatanna had been adversely affected by the Star Sapphire?"

"We designed a staff which contained the effect, channelling as much of its power as we could into her spells rather than into her. I or someone else was always around to monitor her use of it, and ensure that she took regular breaks. In addition, my empathic vision meant that I would have got an early warning if anything was going wrong."

"Oh yeah?" Jordan looks somewhat sceptical. "And just when did she start using this staff?"

"The fifth of February. It took her about half an hour to learn how to focus well enough to use it."

"The fifth?" Diana's eyes grow distant for a moment. "The week Fate was scheduled to spend in the Mountain."

"And Zatanna and I moved out."

"I could understand not wanting to be around him, but there was no way for us to know how strongly you felt about it if you didn't tell us."

"I didn't-?" My jaw tenses. "Twenty fifth of November, just before Thanksgiving dinner. We were talking about Justice League membership-" Her eyes widen slightly and her mouth tightens. I see that she's remembered the conversation. "-and you said: 'What about Nabu?' And I said: 'Well, if we can pick supervillains I'd probably have gone with Circe ahead of Nabu.' What exactly did you think I meant by that?"