expiationnet | voice;

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voice;

[There is a shuffling sound, like someone restlessly pacing back and forth in a patch of grass. Then a cold, demanding voice speaks.]

We have been here for weeks now.

What have you lot learned about this world?

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[Yuuup, that's what he was thinking... Ethlyn isn't sure whether to laugh or sigh. It's probably not to laugh. The prospect is a little too serious for that.]

Because lawyers don't use swords. They're extremely well-read people who have a command of the law and use their knowledge to argue for or against you.

...And before you say that you'd simply leap across the courtroom to cut one down, remember that we've been teleported here by unknown persons. I'm sure they can keep their lawyers out of your reach.

They argue?

That's it? How would that be helpful to us?

[Explaining lawyers and the law from scratch... Ethlyn has a lot of questions about what his home is like, but she'll put them aside for a moment to try and put together a cogent explanation.]

Well, in my home how it works is this. As an alternative to settling every conflict by the sword, we have a set of laws that everyone follows. If someone is accused of a crime, like we have been, the state appoints a judge. Then, someone tries to use logic to prove that we committed the crime. However, we could have our own lawyer who points out anything that could show we didn't.

Once both lawyers have made their arguments, the judge decides who was right, and either declares us guilty--in which case we're punished--or innocent, so we could go free.

[She won't get into things like treaties or property law or inheritances--just sticking with the most applicable basics right now.]

I am familiar with laws. Where I am from those found guilty of breaking a lord's rules are put to death or violently punished.

It seems...much more straightforward than what you're describing.

Those who deal out summary justice can certainly be found in my homeland. Unfortunately, they are often less concerned with actual justice than they are with making an example--or eliminating an enemy. Straightforward it may be, but getting to the actual truth sometimes takes complication.

In your system what happens to those who are found guilty? How are they punished?

That depends upon the crime they were accused of. For smaller things like petty theft, a spell of days--or months--in jail. For grave offenses like murder, treason--death.

It sounds like the only difference between our worlds is that mine is more honest.

Oh? So all of your rulers act with clear vision and good intentions all of the time? They never call honest advice "treason" and behead the giver? No one ever spins up evidence of a crime to plant on a rival so the king will do the work of eliminating them? No one ever makes a mistake that can never be undone? What a lucky people you must be.

Oh, that all happens. But we do not delude ourselves into thinking someone will decide our crimes aren't worth a severe punishment.

And at what point does a crime count as worthy of death, for you?

Any act of defiance is worthy of death.

Ah. So you'd prefer tyranny.

That never lasts, you know.

[A long-suffering sigh.]

...Indeed.

Known many tyrants, have you?

[To him it's just a word with empty meaning. Growing up he's never known anything other than tyrants, what other type of ruler was there?]

Yes. [It comes out rather flatly.] One I saw with my own eyes. He killed his father to seat himself on the throne, and then he tore his own country to pieces within a year and died.

But my homeland has it not so far back in its history, too--an empire ruled by men who made their pact with a dark god and slaughtered anyone who tried to rise against them--it took divine intervention for him to be thrown down, ultimately.

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