The clamour of the crowd was deafening, impossible listen to, the screams and yells merely storming and hailing onto the clearing.

"She's a child!"

"She is intolerable!"

"You have not enough support for this!"

"We demand justice!"

"Death by four tokens? Unheard of!"

"She doesn't even belong here!"

"This is not over!"

It was impossible for Loganna to regain control over the crowd. Again, Garrett stood up and dared a step onto the clearing, but this time he did not wait for attention.

"I demand the right to speak!"

The storm of chatter began to ebb, just the slightest bit, Garrett yelled once more.

"I demand the right to speak!"

One of the Trusted Judges seemed to have noticed Garrett. The crowd finally started to calm down.

"I DEMAND the right to SPEAK!"

His voice, drawn deeply from within his chest cavity echoed from the bare cliff face was swallowed by the trees of the forest.

The Trusted Judge that had noticed him stood up. "Purple Paw, you have the floor." Loganna looked at the judge in disbelief but the other judges made her understand that they were willing to overrule her any moment now.

Garrett bowed in acknowledgement. "I wish to show my Apprentice something to put this entire situation in its true light."

The trusted judges beckoned him to continue.

"I will need a n object which was taken from the accused Nannade at the night of the incident."

A gesture from the Trusted Judges told the Guardians to bring forth Nannade's items. Garrett approached them and took from them the blood vial necklace. He returned to Nannade, knelt down to her and undid the plug. Then he poured the fresh-red blood onto the ground of the clearing. Nannade's scowl only intensified. Then Garrett took one of her claws and pricked her own palm with it, despite her struggles to unwind her finger his iron grip. He squeezed a few drops of blood into the vial and held it up the girl's face. After a few moments the blood turned a perfect pitch black, as the vial rejected that which it did not recognize as the blood of the girl Nannade's mother had died to set free.

Realization and shock appeared on the girl's face, but she quickly re-established her façade of spite and resentment. Then, slowly bubbling up from the depths of her mind, regret, shame, and guilt came to the surface. The girl tried to keep herself composed as tears welled up in her eyes. She closed her eyes and turned her face upwards and away, trying hard to keep her dignity. Even that was eventually overwhelmed and her breathing began to shake. She started to snivel, turned her head down. When she finally grasped what she had done and what she lost, thrown away by her actions, her lungs seemed to fill with agony and pain before she straightened her head up and released a blaring cry from deep within her chest that shook even the trees at the edge of the clearing.

She toppled over forward, pressed her face on the cold ground, as if she was hoping to suffocate herself in it. Her wails echoed from the cliff face. Over and over again she cried "Mommy" and "I'm sorry!" while beating her head onto the ground that had swallowed the last drop of old Nannade's blood, the last blood worthy of her mother's love. The crowd murmured, Loganna tried to look somewhere else but didn't know where, Priscilla knelt down to the girl and looked at her with deep sympathy from her sunken-in eyes, Elissa started to get teary eyes herself, Faan stretched his paw through his cage's parts to touch her foot, and Garrett softly ran his fingers through Nannade's hair, cradling her head.

Garrett picked the girl up, still in chains, turned to the forest and looked to the judges. Loganna made an imposing gesture, but one of the Trusted Judges called two Guardians to their side and sent them into the forest with Garret. He bowed in gratitude to the Judge and the Guardians, then he carried the girl off into the depths of the forest, until it swallowed all her cries.

Loganna called a break of undefined length, but told everyone to stay within sight of the clearing. Black Surgeon used this opportunity to walk over to Elissa. His face showed remorse and sympathy as he approached her. "I am deeply sorry. I do not want the girl to die."

"Are you not the one who is specialized in hunting pactitioners down, to cast judgement upon them, Black Surgeon of Hozorcia?" She said his call sign, his title with a sort of mocking veneration.

"Yes. And that's why I say that she should not die. She is no abomination. She is not inhuman; she is a rare case even among those who do not lose their will and mind."

Elissa wanted to believe that. That he truly cared for the girl. Garrett would have killed her for sure that night had she not stopped both of them, but he had come around, maybe the girl had more allies than she initially thought.

"I believe the girl will need a lot of work and discovery to fully understand her transgression and position. But she should not be forsaken."

"And who would teach her in this world where she was left alone even before this transgression? You?"

Black Surgeon smiled a genuine – not polite – and deeply beautiful smile. "It would be about time I took on an apprentice."

Elissa tried to smile back, but she was already back in deep sorrow.

Eventually, Nannade came back from amidst the trees walking on her own feet, followed by Garrett and the two Guardians. She returned to her place, but did not kneel down. Garrett remained behind her.

Loganna beckoned everyone to return to their places and silence was quickly re-established in the court. She raised her voice reluctantly, glancing over to a certain Judge. "Does the defence have anything to append to their closing statements?"

Garrett nodded. Then the girl raised her head and spoke to the judges. Her posture was much more relaxed but still determined, she looked ahead with purpose, as if she saw the future ahead and braced for it in all its severity.

"I recognize my past stubbornness and wish to retract my impolite words, if the jury would forgive me at least this." She turned to the crowd, who answered with just slight murmur. "But my resolve remains! The Lodge had not just condoned, but furthered my education into an assassin and thief for the past six years. Arch-Druid Loganna had personally accepted me. I have read books and learned under a teacher of the Lodge, I learned about anatomy, poisons, spells, traps, and much more with the Lodge's help. Now, they want to get rid of me." The girl paused for a moment, looked into the crowd and to the prosecution, then continued. "I have absolved my test of moral commensuration under Druid Herlewin."

She apparently had found Herlewin's face in the crowd, but he pretended to have found something more interesting than the fourteen-year-old crolachan abomination making her stand against the death penalty right now.

"I was deemed to be capable and morally adequate. But now you say I am not? Based on what? The report said it, I'm still the same individual, the Serpent couldn't have taken this from me, it always wanted my well-being; without me, there would be no well-being of mine! Hidden Hands do not kill because someone has power, but because they misuse it, otherwise no university, sisterhood, lodge or church would be left standing. If I am dangerous because of my new capabilities, then the Hidden Hands must settle this, as it is up to their discretion whether my capabilities can be handled by their training. If I am dangerous because I am no longer the same person but instead an abomination, then I ask you to prove it, you want to put me to death, not the other way around."

Nannade ended it with a long and angry eye contact with Loganna, but the Arch-Druid was not intimidated in the least. Nannade's eyes were watery, swollen up and red, but her face showed no sadness or fear anymore. Garrett smiled upon Nannade's words. How many of those were truly hers?

Loganna had fallen back in her chair, holding her forehead. After a while, she sighed and turned to Black Surgeon. "Black Surgeon, you are the specialist. Can you help us draft a test and report specifically on whether she is abominable beyond any doubt, not just your own understanding of the term?"

Black Surgeon stood up and spoke to the judges. "I must again stress the uniqueness of Nannade's case. I am a specialist in dealing with blood pactitioners, abominations, possessions, ghouls and other forms of spiritual transgressions, that is why I was summoned. And part of my experience is having seen hundreds of such entities and this girl is probably the most human-like – apart from being crolachan - one would find. If one were not familiar with crolachans, one would easily ignore all her abnormalities. Her body is symmetrical and healthy. No mutations, disfigurement or constant pain as it is usual for abominations. Her mind is clear and self-defined. This is all a result of unique circumstances and lucky coincidences, based on the spirit, the girl's past and the exact ritual she happened to perform, and thus, the result is unique in many ways." Black Surgeon had spent quite a while with not answering Loganna's question, and annoyance had appeared on her face. "But, if you insist on making an exact judgement then, yes, I could help you draft such a test and report, but it would not be done in a time frame as short as you had previously given me. I'd also have to call to aid many other specialists on a similar matter for only they can make an exact judgement, most of which cannot simply travel here, take a look at her and give a solid judgement."

Loganna again fell back in her chair, sighing and putting her face in her hands. The rising chatter seemed to not help her in her thinking, even the Trusted Judges seemed to argue loudly amongst themselves She banged her staff on the shale slab table repeatedly and called for order. When she had returned order at last, she rose.

"As my Trusted Judges have informed me, the sentence cannot stand." Resignation and defeat resounded in her voice. Did she want to put the girl down like a rabid dog? "As such, we will retreat for deliberation. The guilty verdict stands."

The Trusted Judges and Loganna turned around. Loganna tapped the cliff's stone face with her staff and a part of the rock slid back and upwards to reveal a tunnel in the mountain that the thirteen promptly disappeared into. The tunnel closed back up again and the clearing seemed empty and void of power.

Elissa moved over to Nannade, embraced her and held her, she held the girl as tightly as she never had before, she could feel her own heart hammering in her chest and against the girl's skull. Together, they waited for the final verdict. The Guardians had problems keeping the crowd orderly, rarely had something split the Lodge so cleanly in half. Elissa feared that she was the parting of a cleft within the Lodge. No matter how the Trusted Judges and Loganna decided, there was no telling what would happen beyond the law. Clasha nd conflict was unlike the Sisters and Brothers of the Lodge, but it was all she saw in their faces. The time seemed to stretch to infinity and all that was left to do was waiting and hoping, but eventually, the cliff face opened again. As if the air had disappeared through that tunnel, silence gripped the clearing within a single heartbeat.