Chapter 178

Neia stood soldier-like in her place. The crossbar where her wrists were secured had a dual purpose, it kept the witness, the accused as it were, confined. But it also allowed those in terror of their lives to hold on to something to keep them on their feet.

It was not lost on them that Neia did not grab the bar, rather she stared up at the Judge, the Vice Commander with his swarthy, rough sort of face, rounded a little with age but still leathery in a way that befitted men who lived their lives at war or readying for one.

He gave her no look of pity, but when he looked at her, he looked longer than he needed to before banging the gavel.

A young officer approached the open space, standing in the center between jury, judge, accused, and all those watching, he spoke with the clarity of voice common among those born to lead. "Humanity lives on the brink of death, the strength which holds humanity from falling into that black precipice has always been that we stand together against those who would destroy us. Demihumans, beastmen, dragons, and monsters… these are our natural enemies. To render aid or comfort to any of these is to commit treason. The defendant has been known to commit this offense in the past to demihumans, and now to have repeated the same sin during her corrective assignment. She refuses to learn from her mistake, and as a result she placed the entire Kingdom at risk of a dragon attack. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that there can be only one verdict for this crime, not only because the defendant is guilty."

He made a dramatic pause and held an accusing finger stretched out toward Neia, "But also because the penalty of death is the only way to spare us from her deepening corruption."

Neia's chains rattled a little, she turned her eyes to his, and he immediately put his back to her and walked away.

'I never got to meet with my advocate… how fair is that?' Neia cursed her ill luck until she realized the judge was looking down at her.

"Well?" He asked.

"Judge?" Neia asked, glancing up at Gustav.

"You will be defending yourself, did nobody tell you?" He asked, briefly baffled.

Neia's jaw dropped for an instant before she recovered. "Forgive me, but no… nobody was willing?" She asked the question and got no answer, 'No, nobody was allowed.' She cursed. 'I've never been a public speaker… ugh, I wonder if anybody else has ever had to just wing things like this before…?' She cleared her throat to center their attention on her.

She took a deep breath, gathered her thoughts, and then addressed them with an enthusiastic, even performative voice befitting a stage actor in a dramatic moment. "I am accused of treason and collaboration. But to be clear, I never took pay for what I did. No orc, goblin, dragon, nothing ever paid me for what I did, or didn't do. I hunted with squads before, and alone later in the wildlands, and I took many, many demihuman lives. Even my persecutors don't deny that I have an exceptionally high success rate."

"Objection," the prosecutor spoke up, but looked only at the judge, "we are not here because of the favorable parts of her record. Her past successes are not at issue, only her greatest failures are material to the case."

"Sustained." Gustav banged the gavel and turned to Neia, "Please stick to the matter at hand."

"As you command." Neia answered with a bow of her head, the sack she wore was itchy on her skin, but she ignored the urge to scratch, and instead continued to speak. "It would be useless to deny that I spared some lives, I felt pity for them. An orc mother-to-be who clutched her belly and begged me not to shoot her, that she only came looking for food and didn't hurt any of my people. A wounded stone spitter child whose father died by my hand, all he wanted was to live and desperately tried to protect a corpse… A snake woman and her mate fleeing wounded from a monster that wiped out their tribe, with nothing in their arms but the eggs they could save, not even weapons to fight us with? Yes, I spared lives. But not without reason."

"And the dragon?" The judge asked pointedly.

"He was weak, helpless in sight of my bow… I… yes, I spared him. I tended his wounds to nurse him back to health." Neia answered, and a rumbling went up around her.

"And don't you think you should have killed it?" The prosecutor asked.

"No, he was weak, I'm a Paladin. Protecting the weak is supposed to be common sense for us, isn't it?!" Neia demanded of the whole courtyard, the whole fortress. "What's the point of protecting humanity just to make us into monsters ourselves?! I didn't do any of this for coins, I did it because I got to sleep at night. I did what I thought was right… how can I apologize for that?" She asked in a small, quiet voice that still somehow echoed off the far walls where soldiers stood in quiet observation.

At the judge's urging, Neia told the story of her hunts, and began the story of her tending to Olasird'arc with setting down her bow when he asked for his life. She spoke of him with affection that struck the fortress as beyond bizarre, and yet she never flagged or even noticed that they found it odd.

What she also did not notice was the intensity of focus that came her way from Albedo.

'Lord Touch Me spoke like that… how could she have come by the words of a Supreme Being?' That… that troubled the Guardian Overseer.

"...And that is what happened." Neia said when she finally finished recounting the events in question.

"I only ever did what I thought was right!" She added again, "How are we supposed to have a Kingdom of Justice if we slaughter others for daring to exist?" She demanded to know, but silence answered her.

And then, she shouted, bellowed, even roared out in defiance of their silent judging eyes, "They're people too!"

"They're people too…"

"They're people too…"

"They're people too…"

The echo of her self condemning words rang off every wall and filled every ear.

Gustav was looking down at her as if she'd grown a second head, he didn't even bang the gavel.

Not far away, Remedios stood with arms crossed, smug and satisfied, 'That will get rid of one more threat to humanity.'

Neia, for her part, was barely minding the chaos that grew up around her words, humans sparing wounded or young demihumans was not unknown, but it was an 'open secret' that was never publicly, let alone proudly proclaimed.

When the judge came to his senses and began to bang the gavel, the prosecutor approached, though he could no longer meet Neia's eyes, he was able to speak with force and asked, "And how would you have made amends if the dragon had responded to your kindness by rampaging over the Roble Holy Kingdom?"

"Olasird'arc would not have done that." Neia bit back, "We… we were friends."

"Yes, such good friends that he left you here." The prosecutor mocked her, then turned his face up to the judge, "Your honor, enough has been presented, the accused convicts herself by her own words."

"Had you all not screwed everything up, we might have had a powerful ally here to protect us, to help us!" Neia shot back without waiting for permission to speak, "Imagine how we could thrive if we had a dragon to help ward the border and the wildlands, now… you put us in danger. Not me." Neia spat the words like they were frozen venom meant to chill the blood before death took hold.

But Gustav again pounded the gavel. "The jury may deliberate until morning. Court is now out of session… Unless the accused would like to plead for mercy from the court…" It was almost a plea of its own, a lifeline, tossed to the drowning in dark waters, Neia heard it. Neia saw it.

Neia swam away from it, kicking it back in her wake.

"I will not apologize. Olasird'arc was weak, so were the rest I spared. I am a Paladin, I protect this country, I fight for this country… how dare anyone tell me I'm wrong for applying our stated ideals to all, no matter their race. I said it before, I say it again now. They are all people too. Do what you're going to do, but I will never say I'm sorry." Neia shot back at the judge, and Gustav could only shake his head with pity.

"Return the prisoner to her cell until the verdict." The judge said with a heavy spirit, and once again she walked with sharp metal points ringing her throat and a sword at her back all the way back to her cell.

She entered, then turned around to see the halberds poking through the bars in case she attempted anything. Remedios held the door and looked at her with contempt, then slammed it shut with a growl of disgust.

"No more food or water for you tonight," she said while locking Neia in the cage-like structure, "there's no sense in wasting it."

"You're a petty one, but have it your way." Neia said and went to lie down on the straw. She interlocked her fingers and lay on her back with her head in the palms to look up at the ceiling. "Get out, I'm not going anywhere." Neia spat at them, and the heavily armored paladins flinched enough that the clink of their armor reached Neia's ears.

Remedios said nothing, she only stared, and stared, and stared as she was ignored.

Until Neia's stomach growled three hours later. Only then did Remedios make a noise.

She laughed.

She laughed, and left Neia alone.