...gasp...

Laws.

The law system in Amerda was far from perfect. Zara, as an officer of the law, knew this better than anyone. But of course, as an officer of the law, she was duty bound to never speak a word of how flawed it was. Indeed, she was at the moment dragging a man through the halls of the prison as he pleaded with her not to take him in.

"I didn't do it!" The man cried, struggling uselessly in her grip. "I don't even have a weapon! You saw me! Please, please, it wasn't me!"

"Silence," Zara said blandly, tightening her grip around his arm. "If there is an issue, the judge will sort it out."

"Please!" The man had tears in his eyes. Zara felt a little sorry for him. "I have a wife! I have kids!"

"Then they will be sorry to hear that they have a murderer for a father," Zara said dryly. "Keep quiet, or else we will be paying them all a visit."

The man fell silent and ceased his struggling. Zara continued to drag him down the hall. They were very close to the courtroom now, and there, the man would be given his sentence.

A woman had been shot and killed outside a shopping center. Zara had watched her fall lifelessly to the ground, revealing the man standing a few paces behind her in a crowd of people. She had picked him out and dragged him away in seconds while the other peacekeepers pushed back the crowd and cleaned up the mess left by the corpse.

"We're here," Zara said flatly, shoving the man inside the courtroom. He fell to his knees and looked up fearfully. The courtroom was just a large room with a high ceiling in which the judge sat all day, waiting for peacekeepers to come in with criminals. The judge sat at his desk, watching tiredly as the man scrambled to his feet and began babbling that he was innocent.

"What is the crime?" The judge asked Zara. He looked over the man's head, not even acknowledging him. The law system was flawed.

"Murder," Zara replied, "he shot and killed and women in public."

The judge snapped his fingers, and from the sides of the room, in marched two men wielding guns. The man fell to his knees once again, begging tearfully, explaining that he has a wife and three kids waiting at home for him, that his wife couldn't work, that they needed him.

"Fire," the judge said. The man screamed, his body jerking three times as the bullets ripped through him. He crumpled to the ground, lying motionless, blood soaking his cloths and seeping onto the floor.

"Send someone to clean up the mess," the judge said, nodding to Zara, "you may go."

Zara left the room hurriedly, her head held high, her face betraying nothing. The law system may be flawed, but it had its uses. Investigations for murders were tricky things, and they often revealed the truth. Peacemakers weren't supposed to shoot their sisters in public, but when they did, it was easy to conceal.