"Very well." The priest's calm, ever so restrained voice answered, having paid keen note to the man's obvious submission to the trial. Were it left to him to judge, one could imagine how the gesture would have persuaded his heart, and one could see why the sternness of a justice like the one just behind him would function more than as a governing figure. But that was what the sanctioned spell was for, to judge not in the eyes of a young priest or an old judge, rather to view with that which the god Erithar did.

Once Renault bowed before the bars, at the mercy of the divine conduit before him, there was a pause as the priest's eyes washed over him and studied the fallen paladin intently. There was nothing to truly be felt, no sensation of tingling, no mystical chiming or whirling of incense smoke or anything of the like. All the fancy, grandiose ritual was removed here in this forsaken place and its cold stone walls on such an early morning. So when no obvious result came other than the priest nodding without word, the judgment in the eyes of a literal god had been passed. Erithar, merciful as he was, would not have struck down Renault, altough it still burned him at the soul ever so slightly that a holy man of his own church, the same one he was cast out of, now saw over him down to his very heart. The priest could not know the depths of his failure but a god sure did.

The modestly adorned priest turned to the justice and took the man's hand with both his own and communicated, equally wordlessly, with his digits to the other's palm. No one would know any of the shame outside the two men and the guilty themselves; it was a respectful gesture, even if it were so primitive and one likely having been quite different ago. In the end it was all the same as the justice, in turn, still stoic and only watching the working of the man holding his hand before him, nodded in reply before speaking.

"Judgment in the eyes of the holy has been passed. You may pronounce divine judgment in the eyes of our god upon the next."

Which in turn brought the priest to a mirrored bow to Renault, their eyes holding upon one another for a moment. There was much to be said between an obvious faithful of the temple to the man judging him at the behest of their god but it could not be said or done now and it was clear the priest knew this, young and inexperienced as he was. The shared exchange broke as he stood again, hands clasped over his abdomen. He blinked almost mournfully, knowing some glimpse of truth that only the divines above, far off and away as they were, knew for certain.

"Please come forward, the next man, and allow judgment." He spoke this time, gently turning a palm toward the fellow cellmate of Renault, the man who had kept almost exclusively to himself throughout the past few days.

[@Lord Wyron][@TyrannosaursRex]