The hall of Jalde Frode's high-house was packed to the brim with people from all over - voices calling each other from other sides of the room all at once. Not talking about much in particular - judgements such as this happened fairly often. What made this judgement unusual was the presence of people from Jalde Dunstan's hundert. Several people walked out from the curtain in their best finery: Jalde Frode, Wymond, Jalde Dunstan, his bodyguard and the scribe, who took his place in the hidden corner of the hall. The crowd fell silent.
Jalde Frode stepped forward, addressing the crowd, "We are hearing and passing judgement on three people of my hundert, Daveth Dawsson, Kjell Davethsdort, and Aldred Davethsson."
Carrying on, Dunstan spoke, "As usual, we have heard their cases in private and decided the result - judgement of any guilty parties will be passed in front of you all." He refrained from either confirming or denying whether there were any guilty parties, it kept the crowd interested.
The family entered together, wearing their normal fare, all stopping in front of their leaders. Kjell and Aldred stood apart from their father. One by one their names were called out and their judgement decided: Kjell innocent;Aldred innocent. Knowing that they were free to leave or stay for the proceedings, the siblings stepped back together and melted into the throng of men, women and children.
As Daveth waited for his judgement to be spoken, many questions whirled in his head, their answers all dependant on the next words.
"Daveth, guilty."
The murmur of people began to rise back up in volume, but Jalde Frode projected loudly over them, "My judgement is that Daveth Dawsson is guilty and will serve 5 years of slave labour. As Jalde Dunstan was wronged by Daveth Dawsson's theft, he will own Daveth Dawsson as his slave. The judgement has ended."
At his cue, the peasants started to leave the hall to carry on with their work, leaving Daveth to be dragged to the high-house gates, into a waiting wagon to take him to his new life. As the wagon began to leave, with people spitting and throwing soft, rotten fruit he only thought of how he had no choice in this series of events.
***
Hello everyone for the last time! Thank you for reading this all the way through to the end!
Sorry that this last part is super late!! Been super busy working - finishing early as it is too stressful so I'm planning to be back and more active (on the forums right now, I don't have anything ready to publish) once I get back home on the 21st July.
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Berach's Jewel
Short StoryDaveth was a simple farmer, working for his lord, Jalde Frode, and raised two productive people of the community, Aldred and Kjell who together help their village and the Jalde's lands survive. The summer has been poor - they have tirelessly worked...
