Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

So, hopefully I've not run into any continuity errors here...

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Oswall's face softened to be more calm at Meesei's insistence. "That is quite alright, champion. The healers say that this wound is no longer going to kill me. I've been given as much help as I can make use of." Oswall looked in front of himself and huffed, taking on a low, frustrated tone, "It's all down to bloody waiting now. Lycan regeneration makes you take the time saved on normal wounds for granted, I'll tell you." He shook his head and waved Meesei away, "Don't worry about me, you have work to do. Get to it."

The hour went by without outward trouble from there on. Harriet's huddle with her alphas was finished within a minute. It seemed as though whatever they conversed about was organised too quickly for any eavesdroppers to relay any useful information. What was clear to see, though, was that Harriet had a more determined look about her as she dined on a light lunch. She spoke to no one else as she waited for the trial to resume.

The end of the break came about with the sound of Darahil's staff pounding upon the ground once more. The crowd wasn't quite as large as last time. Many of the younger members of the clan had moved on to go play or get chores out of the way. All those wise enough to know the weight of the trial remained to observe. It was still the majority of the clan present.

"Now we will resume this trial," Najirra announced from his previous seat. The only difference on his table was a tray of tea making implements now used and mostly depleted. He had been sipping away on his seat during the entire break. "Harriet. It is your right to speak in your own defence here. This is now the opportunity to refute the accusations and affirm your innocence." Najirra's hand gestured smoothly in Harriet's direction, "You may begin."

Harriet started by taking a long, slow breath and unfolding her arms from across her chest. Her eyes went up to meet Najirra's as she stood up from her seat, keeping her fingers in contact with the table. "This entire trial is a joke," she said with disdain. "As soon as the champion pulled out that vial with Clavicus' icon on it, I knew this whole thing was a big, sick joke. This entire time, Meesei, you have been calling the shots!" Harriet looked to Meesei as soon as she addressed her by name, "You had been with Jerrick, you had been convincing him of falsehoods, you had your pack all over this joint setting up your petard while we trusted you. What's the point of having a trial where the evidence being used is clearly planted!? What's the point of saying that I only had the opportunity to poison Jerrick when you were with him all night? And then you have the gall to back up the claim by having tests run on the poison's length of time by your little twerp who didn't even have the courage to speak the lies herself!" Harriet's scathing tone was directed with her finger to Sabine standing at the edge of the crowd.

Harriet stopped and stood up straight, spreading her arms, "This whole thing has been you covering your own tracks. Locking all of us down while you did all the significant 'investigating' in your favour. Truth? Pah! You want to cripple this clan!" She brought one arm to her chest, "I have no cause to kill Jerrick. No motive! He was an effective leader." She pointed at Meesei again, "The only difference in this clan shortly before Jerrick died is that a certain strange pack rapped on the door and the alpha claimed she was the champion of Hircine itself. Spin up an epic tale of killing the Orc slayer who stole the ring, and then suddenly it isn't just that bit of carved bone that's around your finger, it's everyone you need to destabilise our community." Harriet paced slowly around her table, keeping her eyes on Meesei, "I'm not going to let you pull off your next move. Galsek?!"

Amongst the now partially inflamed crowd, an Argonian arm tossed something small that glinted on the light as it shot towards Harriet. She caught it out of the air and put it on her finger. It was a gold ring with a diamond upon it, but it exuded a subtle magical glow. Attempts to catch in in telekinesis seemed to fail and cause a strange stirring in the flow of magicka.

The crowd itself was murmuring again, but this time a proportion of people were regarding Meesei with more suspicion than Harriet. Najirra had let the tirade continue until he saw the ring, at which point he sat up and widened his eyes. "Harriet? What do you think you are doing?" Najirra asked forcefully.

Harriet only had eyes for Meesei. "I've got a proposal for you, Meesei." Her sentence ended with a high scream from the crowd as a large werewolf ploughed through a couple of the guards at the edge of the dais as well as knocking down the edge of the crowd. The lycan's lunge made way for a line of warriors aligned to Harriet. They encircled her protectively and drew their weapons.

A flash of anger spread across Najirra's face. "You will halt, Harriet!" he shouted firmly. Both his hands glowed a brilliant green and unleashed a great torrent of paralysing magic upon the circle. It seemed to work for an instant, but before it could take hold, Harriet's entire body took on a purple sheen that repelled all of the power displayed. It was such a sheer reaction that Najirra dropped back into his seat and began to breathe shallowly with a wince. The magic had been reflected, but Najirra had expended his energy in resisting his own spell.

The crowd itself was a chaos of movement. Everybody who wasn't a warrior was desperately trying to stream out of the room down whatever exits they could find. At the same time, others were trying to work against the crowd, coming to Meesei or Harriet's aid. It was unclear enough that no one except the alphas around the rim of the dais had also drawn their weapons. Meesei's pack was let through, however. Janius and Fendros both moved to Meesei's side. Fendros took a couple of seconds more after imploring Sabine to find Ahnasha and make sure that Rhazii was protected.

Now that Harriet had destabilised the crowd itself, she shouted to make her words heard. "Meesei, you killed Jerrick. Fight me one on one and prove that you have Hircine's favour, or you know what's going to happen." Harriet was handed a longsword by one of her warriors and she pulled it aggressively from its scabbard. "Let's see if you have more than just deceit to hunt your prey."

The challenge had subtle undertones in Harriet's wording. Despite Harriet's claims that Meesei was the one destabilising the clan, the situation seemed to point to a bloodbath if it wasn't resolved on Harriet's terms. With what she said, Harriet understood that fully.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

So, I'll try and get Harriet's defence started before I leave, but between this Thursday and Sunday (your Wednesday and Saturday, I think), I'm going to visit my sister interstate. I'll probably be away from the guild during that time.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

From then on, Najirra had a few questions to ask of the witnesses to clarify their statements. The proceedings were dry, as they were mostly inconsequential detail. After a short while, Najirra requested that Oswall be summoned to give statements in person. While they waited, Najirra offered Harriet the opportunity to ask some questions of the witnesses leading up to her defence. Harriet simply shook her head calmly. The wait was instead replaced with a short break that gave space for the crowd to converse.

The crowd mostly hushed itself as Oswall came forth. He was laid on a cloth stretcher with only light bed clothing on, carried by two people that appeared to be healers. The crowd parted for his passing and he was carefully deposited on a table. Under the light above the dais, he was pale and breathing slowly. The bandages over his wound were clean, but tiny spot of blood had already seeped through. Without the benefit of Ariel's alchemy to push the silver around his body evenly, his healing was slower than when Meesei took a silver spear to her torso. Still, he displayed enough strength to sit up on his own, even if he did so painfully. The healers moved to help him, but Oswall waved them off. He sat silently, trying to breathe without hurting himself.

Najirra was the first to speak with him, leaning forward in his seat with concern. "Oswall, are you well enough to speak with us?"

"Of course..." Oswall started quiet, but raised his voice as he turned his head to Najirra. "Of course I am! It's going to take more than a needle to my side to bring me down."

Aside from Oswall's defiant spirit in the face of his evidently serious wound, his answers to Najirra's questions were clear and straightforward. Najirra read his questions off the parchment he had been taking notes from, and for the most part were the questions that Meesei asked of other witnesses. Again, there were questions to clarify details, however the answers were still in line with what Meesei had presented.

By the end of Najirra's queries, he surveyed the crowd and the parties present. The trial had already gone on for the entire morning. He could see that there were yawns amongst the worry. Many had wandered off to find food. He struck his staff on the ground twice and regarded everyone present. "This one believes a break for lunch is in order. The trial will resume in one hour, at which time Harriet will give her defence. Vharei?" Najirra looked over his shoulder, "Could you prepare some tea?"

The entire chamber began to shift and shuffle with combined voices and feet. The break would help everyone to refresh. Even under her guard, Harriet strode to her alphas, beckoning each one to convene with her.

While Oswall was still sitting up on one of the tables, Janius took the time to approach Meesei and give his own opinion. "I don't get it, Meesei. Why isn't she doing anything?" Janius looked over to the huddle of alphas around Harriet, "She hasn't given up, has she?"

The Depths of Deception

Shiva was thankful that their ride didn't take long to arrive. She wasn't exactly in the mood for waiting around. She stepped into the shuttle, but not in a particularly hurried manner. She didn't want to crease her dress uniform, after all.

"So, this place, is it traditional human food that they sell, or more fancy stuff?" Shiva asked to anyone who would answer, "I sometimes wondered what the soldiers on the other side ate during the war. I mean, I doubt this will be like military rations, but you know."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

There was a wave of murmurings from the crowd at the mention of the vial's details. A few gasps were even sounded to accentuate the crowd's surprise. There had been rumours of the murder having Vile involved, but this was material proof. Even Najirra had a reaction of turning his head slightly and squinting his eyes in initial scepticism.

Najirra leaned forward and took the sealed jar containing the vial in both hands. He carefully held it closer to his eyes, rotating it to inspect its metallic motif of Vile's horned face. He was patient enough to satisfy his curiosity visually with both the vial and the rag before the crowd got too loud. Before opening the jar with the rag to inspect its scent, Najirra picked up Darahil's staff and struck it enough times against the floor to quiet the crowd. "Silence! I require silence," Najirra added to deal with the more obstinate voices. It took some work to open the container with the rag, but Najirra managed. He hovered the opening of the jar below his nose and nodded, and then reached in and lifted the rag out between the claws of his thumb and forefinger. "This does indeed hold Harriet's scent. And some traces of your scent, champion. This is to be expected as you handled it." Najirra replaced the rag and the lid and put the both aside, "You will have to forgive this one if he is seeing details that are irrelevant, but this one could not help but notice there is a cut corner on the rag. It has less fraying than the other edges. It may have been cut more recently, or with a sharper blade in a careful hand," Najirra turned his eyes to Meesei and weaved his hands together on the table in front of him. "Do you know why that might be?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Darahil was the first to answer with a "yes."

At the edge of the dais, Vera stepped forward and stood beside Darahil. "The champion's words are true."

Some of the crowd's attention went to Harriet in that moment. She was the only other lieutenant present. As she had been before, she sat in silent indifference. Looking at the centre of her table.

Najirra himself did not seem to expect any answer from Harriet. Rather, he turned slightly in his chair to face his daughters. "Saraya, my writing implements are in the bag. If you please."

One of Najirra's daughters was indeed carrying a sack of various things. She hurried forward and produced an ink pot, a quill, a sharpening knife, and a scroll of spare paper. After Saraya withdrew, Najirra set up his tools and began scrawling some points on his parchment. Everyone waited patiently.

"Harriet," Najirra did not look up from his writing, "Can you confirm what the champion says?"

Harriet's eyes shifted up to Najirra now that she had been addressed directly. "I'll defer my answer until I get to speak."

With a glance up, Najirra considered, then slowly gave a nod. "Very well." He finished his writing in short time and gestured again for Meesei to continue.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

S'all good. G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Darahil spoke from the side of the Dais, stoic as ever. "What you have said is what I told you. It is correct." Now with everyone's attention, Darahil stepped into the light of the dais. If it weren't for the toes of his shoes poking out from the bottom of his robe, he would have looked as if he was gliding across the floor. He held his hands behind his straightened back, and continued his speech with attention only on Najirra. "The day of the meeting was the day one of my packs and myself returned from exploring the ruins beyond the gate. I did not spend much time outside of the scholar's loft, excepting heading to the meeting itself. I observed Jerrick and Oswall finishing their lesson as I walked through this chamber. Jerrick was drinking from his waterskin before he finished changing back into his clothes."

Even though he had his eyes on the paper Meesei had put forward with Oswall's words, Najirra seemed to be listening well enough to Darahil at the same time. There was a silence while he finished reading, making it look suspiciously like he wasn't listening at all. After a while, however, he put Oswall's testimony aside and looked up at Darahil. "Thank you, Darahil," he said with a small frown. His following words were directed to Meesei. "I understand that Oswall's wounds were dire, but I would rather have his testimony confirmed in person. We may send for him later." Najirra waved his palm forward, "For now, go on."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Oswall is currently still with the healers, but he is well enough to be brought out on a stretcher if requested to speak.