[Admin: This is set the same day as Brion's questioning of the witnesses,
which is roughly at the same time that Perrin Mayce had gone to see the
accussed.]


[Brion]

By the time Brion climbed the back stairs at the City Hall, making his way
back to Allenel's office, even the warpiper was beginning to feel the day.
And his news made him feel even more leadened.

As he entered the outer office Elektra looked up from her work (until they
found a receptionist she filled in that role - along with her
apprenticeship). Her serious gaze studied his own grim expression and she
said, "We've no clients at the moment."

With that she went to knock on Allenel's door and quickly murmured, "Brion
is back."

While he waited, and watched Elektra return to her day's worth of
backlogged work, he remembered what Alexandrin had said and wondered what
nightmares haunted Elektra and Lucc now? What nightmares had been
reawakened by either watching, or the knowledge of, such casual torture?
And to be bound by honor not to say the name of those who did it - that
had to twist the boy's gut.

And while it was true that this time Law and Ethics would hold sway the
path and the knowledge could not bring any ease - for there was a good
chance that while the very necessary forms would be upheld that Menagrem
could slip free.

Elektra felt his gaze and looked up - noting that the warpiper seemed to
thinking more than pondering her. She softly said, "Mr. Antlon has the
statements locked away....." She shuffled a few more papers and asked,
"Did you find him....?"

"Yes," Brion answered, knowing that the only comfort either Lucc or
Elektra had - as they struggled with the dilemmas of the mortal realm
(more than most for they fervently believed in working for the healing and
greater good of the people of Montfort) - was the knowledge that there
were spirits, like Alexandrin and Yals, who were represented a far higher
Justice. Who could speak the Truth when mortal laws had bound.

He smiled at the lass and lightened his tone, and said, "Ye should be
putting yer work away - Serun will be here soon to walk ye home. And if I
know the lad - he'll be wanting to stop and gawk at Telanya's silverwork."

Elektra gave him a wan smile in return and said, "He yearns so to work
such metal again - but he claims his hands are too big....."

"The gift is in his spirit - not his hands," Brion said, "And with
practise I can see him doing the fine work again.....possibly combining it
with his blacksmithing for some truly lovely pieces. He knows the soul of
metal - no matter what form it takes."

"That's what I keep trying to tell him..."

"And yer as stubborn as he," Brion finished, "It will sink in."

The girl had relaxed with the change of conversation, and Brion knew that
Serun (whose easy-going temperament always helped rally Elektra and Lucc)
would be good for the lass.

As she began to put the papers away in their cabinets Elektra said, "I
keep telling him that it isn't that far to my quarters, but each night he
comes out of his way to see me home." She didn't sound like she minded -
just that her practical and independent nature required her to argue the
point on occasion.

"And I have doubts he'll ever change his path," Brion said, "Ye're as near
a kin as one can get."

"You'll make sure he eats," the girl asked, abruptly changing the topic.

"Aye," the warpiper answered, knowing well that it was Allenel she
referred to - who was notorious for forgetting meals.

[Allenel]

"Just don't threaten me with your shillelagh," Allenel said as he
stepped through the door to the inner office. "Weak with hunger as I am,
I might faint from the fright." He set a small stack of papers on the
corner of Elektra's desk, with quick instructions to finalize the
Raymonds' quitclaim deed, and Maud Warner's latest version of her last
will and testament. "I imagine next week she'll be changing it back,"
Allenel explained as he waved Brion into his office. Maud's predilection
for venting her displeasure with her children by removing them from her
will was well-known, and the gossips had predicted that her oldest son
Will's recent courting of Marisa (or `that blowsy barmaid' as Maud
referred to girl) would prove to be motivation enough for another
amendment.

[Brion/Elektra]

"I'll get these done before I leave," Elektra said, "Though I'll keep Mrs.
Warner's to the front of the cabinet."

"And I'm sure she'll change back in his favor once wedding plans get under
way," Brion said with a deep chuckle, "Though I hope he asks the lass soon
- before this courting addles the pair of them any more than it has."

After he followed Allenel into the office and closed the door Brion pulled
up a chair, and sat down with a deep sigh. "How much of the 'news' do ye
wish to hear?" he asked, "I'm still gettin' used to the laws of this
land....in the mountains it is either the Chief's decree. Or if the matter
is a complex one it is left to the Bards to puzzle out."

[Allenel]

"Frankly, we're still getting used to the laws ourselves."
Montfort had been left in a bit of an undefined legal limbo in more ways
than one; the royal charter gave it some independence to make its own way,
but the displeasure of the court in Bleckner was a constant threat. "He
could have been taken to Bleckner and summarily executed," Allenel
explained, "the attack upon the envoy would have been reason enough for
that. But they've left it in our lap, and I for one had enough of that
with the Republica and the Church." It was a blunt answer, blunter
perhaps than Allenel would have given to any but a few men -- and Brion
Hillrover was one of them.

[Brion]

"Aye," Brion said with a nod, "Justice has often been as swift in the
mountains." He didn't need to add that part of the reason he had never
made his way "home" was because he had tired of clan wars - that the
outpouring of blood in Montfort had drowned any desire for the swift
violence that marked the lifes of mountain warriors.

[Allenel]


"They have seen fit to send us a prosecutor, though," he said,
sliding an opened letter, bearing a court seal, across the desk. "Arno
Everett -- I don't know much of him, but he's said to be a thorough,
deliberate man who keeps his own counsel." The name had been a bit of a
relief; Allenel had half-feared that they would receive either no one, or
someone so wildly incompetent and dishonest that the whole affair would
become even more of a debacle than it already was. "You'll also notice at
the bottom that the Council has been directed to appoint a judge and
bailiff. And we've been instructed to choose a jury when the time comes."

He gave that announcement a moment or two to sink in, waiting
until the other man looked up. "I will be the first. Consider yourself
appointed to the latter position -- Deborah is having the papers drawn up
now. After registering whatever protest you want," a slight wave of one
hand was enough to indicate that any objection would be noted, but
ignored, "you might as well tell me everything, since he'll have his
fate decided by twelve of the local finest."

[Brion]

Brion opened his mouth, then shut it, glanced at he papers, and finally
shook his head in mock defeat. "There be no arguing with that
woman....she'd make a good piper in the way she leads a charge...."

He chuckled and added, "Though I also know a lawyer who is a hard man to
argue with. So I won't even bother to argue - its too busy a week for us
to be wasting our breath." The new bailiff shifted about in the chair to
get more comfortable and said, "And I'll be needing my breath to tell ye
what I've learnt."

[Allenel]

`Everything' was more than he wanted to hear, but little that he
had not suspected. Allenel asked only a few questions, to clarify things,
but took copious notes in a neat, careful hand. When Brion reached the
part about Lucc, he stopped, and looked up to meet the other man's gaze.
"I hope someone tells him he can expect to be grilled fairly extensively
by Perrin Mayce," Allenel remarked. (Archie Chisholm had sent word
earlier about the man's arrival, by note clutched in the dirty hand of a
street child. Allenel had simply thanked the boy, given him two coppers,
and told him to instruct Mr. Chisholm that, no, the Council would have no
comment to make.)

[Brion]

"I'll be going out to see him," the warpiper answered, "Its a long enough
stroll that I doubt that Mr. Mayce will be wanting to take it first."

[Allenel]

Regardless of whatever shading Lucc tried to put on things,
though, it was clear from Brion's account that -- if Mayce cared to do so
-- he would get a thorough description of Fillip Menagrim's "questioning"
from Alexandrin.