Dragon's Legacy

Extra: Lorry Thierrson

I was told I was lucky to even have a trial. Somehow, I doubted that. Mostly because I knew better than to expect much mercy from a people that pillaged most of the northern continent. They dragged me into their joke of a courtroom and forced me to my knees before a bloodstained pedestal. In front of me were three raised desks, the middle of which was the highest. Looming twenty feet above sat the judge in his flowing white robes, holding an executioner's sword aloft. To his sides were two younger men, one glaring at me as the other looked down on me serenely. A massive oil painting dominated the wall behind them, of a muscular man with curly, blond hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to follow me as I walked into the room. In his hands he held an hourglass and a sword much like the judge's. At my sides were a bunch of people clamoring and shouting at me. Their crazed eyes burned with hatred as spittle flew from their gums, calling me every name in the book, and some they'd probably invented. I focused on tuning them out, instead meeting the judge's gaze. There was nothing but a smug sense of superiority in his eyes. Still, it was better than looking at the pile of heads at the bottom of his raised desk, familiar faces with expressions of rage and sadness cut short in their final moments.

The judge held up his sword and the people at my sides quieted down.

"I am judge Quintus Arkourum. We stand here to judge this individual of the following crimes: conspiracy, conspiracy to murder, smuggling, imprisonment, and defying hierarchy. To my right is prosecutor Herig Jallim and to my left is defendant Pall Oubi. Does the guilty party wish to deny these charges?"

"If he is smart," Herig snarled, "He will accept the charges and the quick execution. Denying the charges increases the severity of the sentence."

"It's a good thing I'm not smart." I quipped, causing those in the courtroom to rumble in a mix of discontent and badly disguised glee.

"What charge would you like to deny?" Arkourum asked.

"Let's start with smuggling. I wasn't a part of the ship's crew." I said, avoiding looking at the glassy eyes of the captain no more than a few meters in front of me.

"You were on the ship." Herig smirked.

"Yeah, as a slave. Not smuggler."

"So you admit it." Herig pushed. "By allowing yourself to be captured and sold, you were party to the transaction."

"That's ridiculous." I growled.

"Sustained." Arkourum noted. "You are weak, physically and mentally. You were made a slave and rather dying like a man, you allowed yourself to become an accomplice to the smuggling. Since you denied the claim, you are now guilty of an additional count of smuggling and perjury."

"How is that fair?" I wanted to slam my heads on the bloodied pedestal, but they were chained together. "And aren't you supposed to be defending me?" I asked Pall, but he just shrugged.

"To a southern savage like you, our advanced concepts of justice may seem confusing, but every Bergin citizen knows of the effectiveness of our judicial system. You are now guilty of one more count of defying hierarchy." The judge smirked as the people around me guffawed.

"Fine." I grit my teeth and thought through what I could do. As it turns out, barely anything but delay, delay, delay. "What about imprisonment?"

"We have witness testimony from a valued Bergin citizen and other guilty parties that you were among those who had imprisoned others."

"You mean the slave breakout? Wouldn't that count as an attempt to prevent the smuggling?"