Paladins: Judgement Time

Sanha was standing across from a portly older human in a well-cut suit, the dark jacket coming to mid-thigh and open at the top to reveal the crisp white shirt underneath it. The other Tekilans, family and servants alike, were clustered around them but keeping their distance.

"My son was in danger," Sanha was saying as Laina drew close enough to hear. "He's been in danger since I left Mileth, Mayor, and you know it as well as I do."

The man, who wasn't much older than Sanha herself, looked troubled; nobody from the crowd around them spoke up to contradict her claims, either. They knew what Mileth Tekilan was, she thought, or at least they suspected. 

"Pardon me, excuse me, we need to get through..." Laina wasn't tall or broad enough to be imposing, but she knew how to walk so people would get out of her way. She forced a path through the crowd, which parted more widely when they saw Raven and the two children who followed them. 

She arrived at the center of the circle just as another human, a woman in studded leather armor with a bow on her back and a pair of shortswords at her hips, emerged from the far side of the crowd. A moment later the fire-ender was pushing through, his clothing dark with smoke and soot, the decanter in a holster on his hip and his necklace plain (though dirtied) on his chest. 

"What happened here?" demanded the armored woman, and Sanha whirled to face her as if she were a lifelong enemy.

"Hold," said Laina, and Sanha whirled back, her expression softening as she caught sight of her son. 

They came to stand beside Sanha, and after a moment of study the armored woman asked, "Who are you, strangers?" 

Laina said, "I am Laina Heartling, a paladin of Nepthys," her voice firm. "May I ask who you are?"

"Talura Smokeseeker," answered the woman, "Landsknight for this territory."

Laina nodded. "A pleasure," she said, though it definitely wasn't. She didn't need help to render the judgement of her goddess, and she definitely didn't want anybody arguing with her.

"Likewise." Talura shifted her attention to Sanha. "What happened here?"

"We did, I'm afraid," said Raven quietly, before Sanha could finish drawing breath. 

"Did you?" asked Talura. "And who might you be?"

"Raven." She paused, deliberately declining to offer a patronymic. Her tone was a dull and lifeless as ever. "Priestess of Nepthys. We came here to destroy a vampire."

"Here now," huffed the mayor, who had turned to look at them. "You can't just go around murdering people--" 

"It's not murder if they're already dead--" Raven said, and Laina followed up with "--and vampirism is illegal in Sol Povos, punishable by sentence of true death."

"I-- that--"

"Mayor," snapped Talura, in a tone that strongly suggested that the man should stop speaking. She turned her attention back to Laina and Raven. "And in the course of your... sentencing... Tekilan Manor was set on fire?"

Laina sighed. "No. No, it's not so simple as that. This is Damlok, child of the vampire Mileth Tekilan and the wizard Sanha. When we left the farm to execute the vampire for his crimes, Damlok followed us-- he wanted to see what we would do, and what his father really was. Sanha, of course, found her child missing and came to Tekilan Manor believing that Mileth had finally managed to kidnap the boy." She glanced at the woman beside her. "I don't know exactly what happened, but..."

"I came into the manor," said Sanha calmly. "It was morning, and Mileth never sleeps in the house. I found Bartram and demanded to know what they'd done with my son. He called for his guards, and I... I cast a fireball. It was all a horrible misunderstanding."

Laina nodded, and saw the small, sympathetic movement of Talura's head mirror her. "Meanwhile," she said, "we entered the old tower on the south side of the property. Young Damlok was with us, and can speak for this part: we found his father, Mileth, lying on the dirt in the day-long sleep of the undead, and I put a stake through his heart and removed his head."

"You did what?" The mayor sounded scandalized. "How do you know he wasn't just drunk? How do you--"

"His head caught fire when I brought it out into the sun," Laina said, locking eyes with him until he looked away. "That's not what mortal corpses do." 

"And strangely," added Raven, "the moment it did, the rest of his body began to burn-- inside the tower."

"It did," said Damlok. "I saw it. He was definitely a vampire."

Beside him, his cousin Palissa tilted her head up defiantly and said, "He was. We all knew it."

"Mayor Shiftren," said Talura, "You would be well served to consider your words very, very carefully. There are matters of law and justice at play here, not just matters of politics."

Oh, I like this one, Laina thought. I wonder if she appreciates a well-formulated tea? "So," she said carefully, "the deaths of the Tekilan elders, while still punishable, should be strongly ameliorated by the circumstances." She was beginning to be thankful for the ridiculous amounts of Sol Povos law and precedent that the Temple of Amun had introduced her to during her time there. They weren't worshippers of Nepthys, but they at least had some understanding of what the Goddess demanded.

Sanha glanced at her, grateful, and Laina sighed. "Unfortunately, the deaths of her parent's tenants should not. Those were yours, weren't they? Not Mileth's."

Sanha took a step back. "I had to," she said simply. "Mileth would come to the edge of the property at night, dominate anyone who wandered out, and send them to try to steal Damlok away." She met Laina's eyes without blinking. "Once I took them, he could no longer control them. There was no other choice. I couldn't risk anyone stealing Damlok away."

"Mother," asked Damlok, "How many people did you murder to keep me safe?"

Sanha met his eyes, drew breath and opened her mouth, then closed it again. Finally she said, "Twenty-eight men and women, and nine children. I felt every one."

"Did you?" he asked. "Did you feel them enough? I grew up with those people, Mother."

Laina watched her close her eyes. 

Raven tilted her head and asked, "How did you control so many? You're an accomplished mage, but necromancy isn't easy. On your own, you should have been able to control... maybe half that? Less? But you still had them going about their work."

There was a long silence, while Sanha held still with her eyes closed and her shoulders slumped. Finally, she opened her eyes, and turned to look at Laina. "I was desperate," she said. "You'd have done the same, if it had been your child in danger."

"...No," answered Laina. "I don't think I would." She turned to look at Talura. "Do you have any children, Landsknight?"

"Three," answered Talura, "and I would not have murdered the people in my care to protect them." She looked back at Laina. "The sentence for multiple murder is execution. I would be willing to commute it to exile. Does that seem... just... to you?"

Laina glanced at Raven, who frowned. "She needs to tell us how she managed this," the girl said, "and how we can give the dead their rest."

Sanha loosed a choked sob. "Here," she said. She reached into her shirt and pulled out a black onyx amulet. "I stole this from Mileth. It let me raise and control more of the minor undead than I could have ordinarily. He should never have had it; blame his family for that as well."

Raven stepped forward, took the emblem, and examined it. After a couple of moments she said, "I can use this to give them peace." 

Laina looked at her and nodded. "Then with that, I can agree that exile seems just."

"What of the boy?" asked Talura, and to her credit she was looking at Damlok rather than anyone else. 

"My mother..." he swallowed. "My mother might have been pushed to it, but she has done an evil as great as my father's." He looked up at Laina. "I'm trying to do better. I think... I think I should come with the two of you."

No. Hell no. Absolutely not... Laina shook her head. She wasn't ready to be raising a child, even one who acted on his own to save people. Sweet cock-sucking Nepthys, you'd better be right about this. "The boy can come with us," she heard herself say, and wondered what in the hell she was thinking. "If that's what he wishes."

Sarha turned to look at her son. "Damlok..."

He shook his head. "No, Mother. I'm trying to do better. You have to go somewhere else and try to do better too."

Laina saw Sarha move, saw the magic gathered to aim at her heart. The wizard might have killed her, but Raven stepped between them, absorbing the firebolt and staggering back. A moment later Talura was on Sarha, holding her down and binding her. 

Laina had charge of Damlok. Raven had charge of the amulet, and the responsibility to release the undead tenant-farmers. Raven had put her own small body between Laina and harm. And Damlok had proven his worth by saving his cousin.

The judgement of Nepthys was rendered.