1689
Marie and Linus slowly made their way out into the backyard, stepping over unconscious forms of the witches' servants to make their way toward Katherine and Draco, who were both redressing themselves.
"Marie!" Katherine said happily and rushed to hug her friend.
Marie hugged her friend back.
"It is good to see you too, Katherine," Marie answered, "it is good to see you as you. And I'm sorry I got you into this."
"I asked to help, and I'd do it all over again," Katherine said firmly, "as any friend would."
"Thank you, Katherine," Marie hugged her again.
"Is it over?" Draco asked.
"The fight is over," Marie answered, "do you still have the drugs needed to insure that we can try them."
Draco slowly nodded, "I would that they would have been killed after this."
"Breaking the geass knocked them out and put them into a very deep sleep," Marie sighed, "as it appeared to do the same to all those out here. But I don't know how quickly they will revive... we still need to work quickly."
"I still do not understand this, you know they are guilty, you know that they will not let you try them," Linus sighed, "it would be better to kill them now. Before anything worse happens."
"And how fair would that make me?" Marie answered.
"They don't deserve "fairness" after what they've done to so many people. We have about twelve unconscious Leoman males, twenty unconscious Leoman females and..." Linus then noticed Twilight's unconscious form near one of Draco's feet, "...and something out of hell, and at the very least twenty child familiars. All of them had to have come from somewhere, had their own lives to lead, and the witches ended them for their own little fantasy."
"They may not deserve it, but they will still receive it," Marie answered, "if we simply kill them, we'd be no different then those in Europe that called anyone they disliked a witch, vampire, werewolf, or some other creature man has feared..."
++++++++++
"Are werewolves real?" Lilly asked.
"You mean are there humans that turn into half man half wolf... or some other large predator... and then go on bloody rampages?" Marie-Eliza asked back, "no. Transforming one's form like that requires an inordinately large amount of magic to channel the transformation and possibly even to survive it. The werewolf of legend doesn't have that capacity."
"But they call it a curse," Lilly spoke up.
"The legends still don't have the "victim" bathing in magic in order undergo such a transformation," Marie explained, "some wizards used their magics for the purposes of transformation, but that did not make them werewolves."
"But people still had the legends of these monsters," Eliza spoke up from behind her daughter, "it was the legends that Marie Cruz was referring to."
"What legends?" Abbey asked.
"The best known is the Beast of Gevaudan," Marie answered, "a "werewolf" that terrorized the French town for three years. In reality, the murders that took place there were done by a rogue Lupman who wanted the land as his private hunting grounds... and the murder of the people there was done with the intention scarring the few people that lived in the region at the time away. I could explain more, but that would take us further off track."
"Sorry," Lilly spoke.
+++++++++++
The witches were still out cold when Draco arrived in what was the heart of their citadel. All were tied up with various ropes or long pieces of dark cloth that was in the room.
"What were they doing with all the cloth?" Katherine asked as they made their way forward.
"I don't know," Marie commented, "maybe they had taken up sewing or something in their spare time. All I know is that it was lying around and I tied them up with it."
"So what was the thinking of having the daggers in with the rope and cloth bindings?" Draco wondered.
"Stop them from remaking the geass if they revive," Marie spoke.
"You're certain you want to go through with this trial?" Draco asked.
"Yes," Marie answered.
Draco nodded and turned to a bag he had with him. He pulled out a small bag that was full of small darts and small blow gun. The darts were all covered in a resin like substance as though it had been ground and mixed with some adhesive and then "painted" on the dart.
++++++++++
"At that time, opiates were only smoked or eaten to get the effects of the plant," Marie-Eliza explained, "the standard method of introducing it into the bloodstream, the hypodermic needle wouldn't be invented until the 1800s..."
"But eating and smoking it would take too long to take effect and it wouldn't be as effective," Lawrence commented.
"Which is why Draco had ground it into a powder and attached it to darts," Marie nodded, "the drug would go into the bloodstream through the wound."
"So what was the adhesive?" Betty asked, "I doubt glue would have worked."
"It wasn't a glue," Marie answered, "Marie had some access to files in the Vatican that had mentioned that the adhesive and drug coated dart was used in the past against suspected sorcerers at various times. Marie would eventually tell Linus about these records, which he had learned about through his guardian, and it turns out that the adhesive was some minor form of magic, but similar to Merlin's cure. It doesn't depend on the person using it, but unlike Merlin's cure, the magic in it was very weak and couldn't cut the geass, which is why the dart was stopped during the witches' first encounter with Marie and the others."
+++++++++++++
"And how many times must this process be repeated?" Linus asked as he looked at the three sleeping forms of the three witches, a dart lodged in each shoulder.
"Once a day," Marie answered, "according to the instructions. We should have enough for about a month's worth of proceedings."
"And your plan to convict them before we run out?" Linus asked.
"If all goes as planned, I fear they will convict themselves," Marie commented.
"And where are you to get a judge for them?" Linus asked, "My superiors won't leave Boston, and yours are in Rome."
"Mine also don't believe in the witches," Marie sighed, "Draco is the official leader of this mission, to try and convert the Puritans."
"You'll need a LOT of good luck," Linus chuckled.
"Hopefully we'll get it."
"So who will you get to judge the case?" Linus asked, "we can do the prosecution, but since we were opposed to the witches, if one of us is the judge, they wouldn't see that as "fair". There is also a jury to find, and witnesses to the trial, besides those involved in it."
Marie paused for a moment. That was a difficult part, that she honestly hadn't thought through, but she was determined to find a solution.
++++++++++++
Monica, Rosa, and Mal'akh slowly made their way toward the edge of the witches' property to find the smoldering ruins of the battle. The thorn wall was still there with the massive holes in it, where the hunters had blasted their entryways in it. There were also a few holes from where some of the ammunition that the witches had summoned exploded
"Here goes," Monica said weakly, half expecting to see a mess of children and Leomen playing the shredded bodies of the hunters.
Instead they found a mass of bodies laying on the ground, as if they had been part of a massive battle. Leomen and human children all lay still, like the dead on a battlefield.
"They killed them all?" Rosa wondered as they slowly made their way in. As they got closer, she was able to see that they were breathing.
"No, they're still alive," Monica said, feeling breath come out of Mondain Renard's nostrils.
"Um..." Mal'akh gasped.
Monica and Rosa then turned to the unconscious form that Mal'akh had come to.
"The witches mutated a Leoman?!" Monica gasped looking at Twilight's unconscious body.
"So uncivilized," Rosa sighed, not knowing that what had been done to Twilight was essentially done to herself by herself, "come on. They're all down and none of the hunters appear to be out here. They have to have won."