„Any last words, Alva?"
The moment I had first entered the council room to stand trial for the crimes I had been accused of aka abducting the crown princess as well as the assault of various royal guards, I had known I had lost my battle long before it had even begun. All it had taken had been one look at the hatred marring the wrinkly faces of the four elders sitting on their beloved thrones adorned with enough diamonds and silk to stop the starvation of our folk permanently as their personal assassins clad all in red, with their faces hidden in the shadows of their hoods stood against the room's preposterously high walls entirely unmoving.
„Does it even matter, what I have to say?...You found me guilty long before I even stood trial. You found me guilty long before your puppet of a crown princess went missing. You found me guilty long before I first hit a man to save myself from his groping hands. You found me guilty long before I picked up a sword for the first time... No, you found me guilty the day I was born. You found me guilty because I am different...because my skin is darker, my hair shorter and my nose smaller...You found me guilty, because of who my parents were, because of my family's past time crimes. You found me guilty because the child of a criminal can only become a criminal too...Isn't that the truth? Admit it! I am not here to stand trial for a disappearance I clearly have nothing to do with. I am here to stand trial for being different. Just as I always had while you all continually judged and belittled me...out of what...fear? Why would you have feared me? I was just a child. It was you and your cruel 'punishments' that made me the monster I am today. It was you and your absurd ghost stories that put the blame on me over and over again. But no more. I am done being punished for your mistakes.
So, no, I didn't abduct your crown princess, I tried to save her. While you? What have you been doing when the castle had been under attack? Where have you been? Because I clearly haven't seen you out there at the battlefield...While I protected the people who constantly spit on me for something I am not responsible for, you hid yourself away as the cowards you are. And now, realizing your mistake, you try to blame it one somebody else once again...'cause that's what cowards do."
After I calmed myself down enough to take my surroundings in again I was met with uttermost silence. Lifting my head in confusion to meet the elders accusing faces I realized that for once in my life, they were finally quiet. They might be staring at me as if I had grown another head, but they were quiet non the less.
„I have nothing more to say."
