THE MOCK INQUISITION

[strangerpeople]

[Soon after the final clue is found, there are three more loud, unsettling tonal clangs. Those in the first floor vestibule will hear another, loud creak afterwards, coming from the set of doors.

The set of doors on the left are slowly opening, revealing a long, long corridor, with a very long flight of stairs going upwards just barely visible at the end of it.

The Intercessor's voice booms through the air and shakes the ground, sounding loud and clear no matter where the Titled might be standing at that moment.]

ENTER!

[The voice brooks no argument. As soon as everyone goes through the set of double doors, they close behind them. There is no choice. The Titled must go up the stairs at the end of the hall. They feel like they take forever, but when the stars are finally traversed, there is a single door at the top, already open to them.

Welcome to the Debate Hall, Titled. Its perhaps the best-lit place you've seen, with gas lamps on the wall bright as possible. Its also the emptiest place they've ever seen so far - its massive and yet the Titled and the Intercessor are the only individuals to be seen in the entire area.

So, Titled, don't mind the faint chanting coming from the darkness behind that stage at the other end. There's no real way to hear what's being said, no matter how close you try to get, or if there's even anyone on or behind the stage to make such chanting possible. The only person remotely close to the stage, standing on the stone steps, is the Intercessor. Maybe its in your mind. You've been paranoid the past week, after all.

Maybe this is just all insane to begin with.

So. Take your seats at your stone desks to face one another as you debate. And yes, they are stone. Yes, they have stone chairs with which to sit in. And yes, your Title is on your assigned chair, etched in with chisel and hammer. Every desk also has a copy of the Writs with Orders 7 and 8 circled, and a copy of the autopsy file of the deceased on top of it; that is all the aid you will get from whoever brought you here. The rest, it seems, is up to the Titled, with what they have found.

Once everyone has taken their seats, the strange, ominous chanting stops. Its time. Bound in blood, the death warrant has already been signed. The contract is complete. Its now just a question of finding the guilty party to fulfill the call for justice.


The Inquisition of Kanna Hijiri has begun.]

Comments

[crywiththesaints]

..."A" body.

[warmdolls]

...Why do you think I can so easily recount the same exact events? I was dormant for... About six hundred years. But I kept all those memories.

[crywiththesaints]

Memories from life after life... I'd almost think it was funny, if we didn't have something to deal with.

[warmdolls]

Singular. That mage... Never died. We were together for so long. So why would I send her to her death unless I had good reason?

[crywiththesaints]

Because you did. An opportunity came up, the incentive taunted you with the safety of the one person you had left. Doesn't that mean that it would have ended the same either way?

[warmdolls]

...But if I did it... Then why would I have allowed her to get herself killed like this? Why not confess myself?

[crywiththesaints]

Because there was something you could do at home, wasn't there?

[warmdolls]

Not really. I'd just be killing time there.

[crywiththesaints]

[This is a ridiculous proposal, but...]

Literally?

[warmdolls]

Pfft, no, not at all.

[ ...No, she's absolutely right, he wants to destroy the current world because he can't be a god among men. ]

[crywiththesaints]

Oh, really.

In fair exchange, let me tell you about a story I've heard since I was a child. The Saint of Gaia has existed for hundreds of years, a miraculous healer and a powerful summoner. In some lives, she's kind, a charitable person whose followers help her heal the sick. In other lives, she's cruel, a tyrant or rebel who uses her powers and influence to kill and ensure her own safety. But every life, every single time, people grow suspicious of her power and despise what makes her different from them. And every time the last one dies, her successor gains the power and the memories of every Saint of Gaia before her.

Someone with great power who has lived many lives, but has always had to suffer and never achieved something good from life, only to finally discover that "life" may as well be pointless, built on the lie of "love..." It eventually breeds a wish to rend life itself away, wouldn't you say?

[warmdolls]

I don't want to destroy all life. That's silly. Why would I put in so much work only to destroy it? It's counter-intuitive.

[crywiththesaints]

After everything that's happened to you, you haven't gotten frustrated? Even if just with something specific?

[coldsouls]

... Killing time? ... Behemo...

[ She'll finally look over at him, eyes pleading. Please talk to her. What... was that implication earlier? ]

[warmdolls]

...If we go back, there's not exactly much for me to do. Levia as Elluka is the hero, the one who's done so much.

[coldsouls]

... You think I'm a hero, Behemo? I'm... no hero.

[ ... She... looks down. ]

There are... so many people who have died because of me. Why... wouldn't you just want to be together? Isn't that... enough?

[warmdolls]

...A hero isn't built on nothing, Levia. They have many bodies behind them.

[coldsouls]

... I never wanted to be a hero, Behemo. I never set out intending to be one. I agreed to Held's quest because I had nothing else to do. You know that.

And then... I came to Lucifenia... for the mirror, and decided I would serve its royalty for a little while. That was all. I didn't realize... I'd end up tied there, or that I'd become someone... 'important'. But, I'm not. Because in the end, people were still hurt, Behemo.

Lives were still lost.

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna's been thinking for a while during this line of reasoning, and now she finally speaks up again.]

Sir Behemo. A few days ago, when we received the letters, whose picture did you receive?

[warmdolls]

...Why do you ask?

[ POINTEDLY. Not answering. ]

[coldsouls]

[ ...!

... She... why is she asking this? No... no, Arianna, that's a good question. She'd assumed it was her picture, but...

She's listening very closely now. ]

[daughterofthemark]

Your current argument is, in summary, that you would not conceal your guilt if you believed doing so would lead to your sister's death.

But it occurs to me that you might have reason to believe otherwise.

[warmdolls]

...And what reason is that?

[daughterofthemark]

Suppose the portrait you received was a person who is here in this room. Then the message would act as a guarantee of safety. It would be a poor motive for murder, otherwise.

[warmdolls]

...I have no one left back home. Levia is the only one I have left. And she's right here.