Terra Firma - Tokyo, Japan

October 31, 2547 C.E.

A tall Japanese man stood before a jury of his peers. The judge was looking down upon him from a raised desk. This man was not on trial. He stood for the government of Terra Firma and he knows he is right. “Mr. Li. You and your family have been practicing witchcraft in violation of the Charter of both the Terra Firma Government and the United Christian Church of the Americas. This is punishable by death, or lifetime mental and memory imprisonment and separation from civil society so you are no longer corrupting it. Which do you deserve? Death; but that is not my decision to make I defer that to the wise members of the jury.” He made a grand bow to the jury fully expecting them to be on his side. The law is clear in this matter, he won. He then slowly walked back to his desk and sat alone with a smirk.

Everyone looked toward the other desk. At this desk sat a young family and their lawyer. The man and a badly injured woman sat solemnly. They both looked toward the other man at the table. Their eyes spoke not of regret but distaste of a society that would imprison them for practicing a religion different than the official one. Their son, six-years-old, looked around at the large room with eyes of wonder. They had spent the last four months in a six by six-foot concrete room without hardly ever leaving. At least they spent their time together, as a family.

The judge looked down toward them and continued the process, “Counselor, your closing argument.”

The older man stood up from beside the family and looked at them pitifully. He then turned to the jury and started walking toward them as he was speaking. “We all know what was found in the home of the Li family. Those are facts. What we are debating is if he used those items. This is truly a case of a collector of ancient antiquities, Jin Li, who collected items from times past. He had a great interest in eras and religious past. At the time he was collecting them it was not illegal to collect such things. These items were never used.”

He paused. The timbre of his voice went much louder as if to impress the point, “No witchcraft was ever practiced by any member of this family.” He changed to speak in a quieter, almost fatherly, tone. “Jin has learned his lesson. The police have destroyed the items as the new law states. Jin and his family have served four months in prison. Why would you punish his wife, Kikue, and his son, Timothy, for an error Jin made? Isn’t that an injustice on its own? That injustice has already been done.” The public defender looked sympathetically back toward the young family. Then he turned back to the jury.

The lawyer walked back to the table and then sat down next to his clients. He said something just loud enough that only the family could hear. Jin and Kikue scowled at him.

Timothy Li would remember this moment as the first time he ever felt betrayed. The death of his mother would be the second, due to the injuries she had. That would come in a couple of days.