"So how is your husband?" Asked Timothy's mother, her three sister wives and husband
out of Glendale at the moment but moving at lightning speed back to see Timothy as a
wolf again as past as their legs or their mode of transport could carry them, she had
remained to look after their pup.
"Zackery?" Pearl asked, "Ask wonderful as ever, but he suffered during the battle with Kurse
and... I'm the only ones of his wives that isn't bedded up along side him."
"Oh... I see... in that case I wouldn't keep you from him... so what is your next scheme for
elevating him to Alpha Male as a sign of your love to him?" She asked politely and
conversationally.
"I ONLY DID THAT TWICE!" Pearl blushed. "And..... no... I haven't thought of what else I
could do to have Alpha Jensen step down and have Zackery take his place."
"You do know that in the olden days that if you did manage it, he'd have to abandon you
and your sister-wives, and take Kaylee and her sister-wives as his mates instead right?"
"I do know... and... he could do such great things ... but I, Hope, Grace, June, sometimes I
think we're the only ones to see past his exterior."
"Not true... " She looked at Zelipe with Timothy. "There's him and his sister yes?"
Pearl smiled, and nodded, "Right."
"I won't keep you from your wounded husband."
"Thank you."
++++++++++
1689 August
"Gita, Goldwyn and Griselle were gonna make it so people would WANT to hurt each
other!There wouldn't be a NEED for laws if everyone was happy and friends!" Joella finally
shouted out her voice going hoarse.
"Order! I said this is not a debate!" Dr. Azrael, "The jury will ignore the witness when she is
not the stand."
Joella huffed and puffed.
"I promise... I'll save your mothers if I can." Marie Cruz whispered to her.
"I should take her back now." Vatican said.
"No... keep her for a tiny bit longer... just until I make my statement to the jury after the
recess."
"I understand."
++++++++
Marie Cruz stood up, "People of the jury.
The lives the defendants ended by transforming others and transplanting in them new
identities, were done either when they were children, or after they performed their rune
experiment on Glendale intending to give everyone in Glendale eternal childhood as written
in their journal. As children they knew no better. And after the experiment their behavior
became something lost in a different world.
"Did they kill the men who tried to kill their foster child and planned to kill them, and their
servants and their families? Yes. Could they have likely defended her in a way that need
not have resulted in death? Yes. But, I will remind the court those men WERE trespassing,
and openly stated their desire to commit murder. And I will contest most men or women if
holding a loaded gun were to see someone aim a weapon at their child they would not
hesitate to pull the trigger."
"OBJECTION! CONJECTURE!"
"Sustained. Last part shall be ignored by the jury."
Marie continued, "... Had the law of the land or another legal or religious authority
condoned the actions of these men? Unlikely.... "
Marie stopped for a moment, "In that way, I suppose they were no different from myself,
and my companions. Were they doing so to protect lives or boaster their own egos? We
shall never known. Were the witches in their legal right to defend their family and property
as they themselves saw fit? Debatable. But....
"These witches are off in their own world. For us to execute them for their acts would be
meaningless. We do not pass the death sentence upon the mad. We punish people for the
actions the committed of their own free will. If the witches are indeed mad, does that not
mean that they did not commit these acts of their own free will? To kill them because they
are 'dangerous' to live? That is the justification that Marcus Brutus was given to assassinate
Julius Ceasar! Are the various child familiars 'too dangerous' to live because they might
inherit the witches' gift? What of the ones that are mad, and might indeed have that power?
Shall we execute them along with the defendants? Just to be safe? How can we be sure
which ones are safe and which ones are dangerous? Perhaps we should kill them all just to
BE 'safe?'"
"NO!" Joella screamed as Vatican held her in place.
'I am no nun, I am a manipulative bitch.' Marie Cruz thought as the fairies looked at Joella
with tears in her eyes.
"The point is... if the witches are indeed insane. As is what I seek to prove. To kill them
because they are 'too dangerous' would open the door... who ELSE shall we kill because
they are 'too dangerous?'"
++++++
"And it did open the door," Betty ask in a slightly depressed voice, "Didn't it?"
Marie-Eliza nodded, "Linus had no idea that many of his arguments would be perverted
and warped and used in the witch trials... though the defendants there would, so I have
heard, be offered no legal council."
"So you have heard?" Maddex's two heads asked.
"I've never studied on the subject, and I am not all knowing. Only what the game 'knew.'
The game actually SCARED people in Glendale into NOT accusing others of being witches...
So I have no knowledge of such proceedings."
"Is that you 'know' the defenders of the witch trials had no legal council, and yet you say
'so I heard' not most strange?" Alice spoke up, breaking her silence at last, "The larger any
faith or religion, the less likely people are question unkind things said of that religion,
quite the opposite of how people reacted two thousand years ago I have read."
Marie-Eliza only nodded, "Many things are the opposite of what they once were."
++++++
"If the witches are found innocent," Marie Cruz continued her argument, "I move their
deaths would be pointless. The threat is via their magic, not themselves."
'This is cheating, this isn't meant to exist for two hundred years... and I'll pay for this
cheating if it comes to pass, but I have to try my best as the defense.'
"... I know of a procedure that... can disable their use of magic, which I will only go into
more detail of if they are indeed found innocent. Which I hope the jury does."
+++++++
Marie-Eliza, "She didn't know the word, but Marie Cruz knew she could lobotomize the
witches, cutting off the parts of their brains that enabled them to do magic..."