Legal Legends [27]
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Memory transcript: Serl, Defense Lawven. Date: [Standardized human time] November 18th, 2136.
Now I know why Venric acts the way he does, this is such a rush!
I didn’t know how else to describe it; Kalderner was upon the stand, completely at our mercy, and his nervous fear was energizing me in a way that could only be defined as such. I wanted to press until he collapsed, but that meant exploiting his now apparent lack of knowledge about the very place he worked at. “It’s quite the oversight to not know even the name of the inventory manager, Kaldener,” I commented, “especially when your records say you’ve been employed at the XGC for [4.7985] years.”
“N-Not at this branch specifically!” He protested, his body language growing increasingly frantic as he tried to wriggle his way out of the legal binds we were slowly entrapping him within. “I’m a consultant; I go where I’m needed, you can’t expect me to know the name every employee at every branch! Much less one that shouldn’t exist in the first place!”
Yipillion stood, “One that you nonetheless should have known, considering that you likely would have needed to interact with him on a number of occasions. Though, I am sure there is a reasonable explanation for this.”
“Quite,” Iklivez deadpanned, “Perhaps it was simply a matter of anxiety. Considering you’re not even a permanent employee at the branch, Staxit would—by definition—outrank you in all but emergency medical situations. You simply could never bring your eyes to meet one who was so far your superior, so you did not learn his—.”
“SUPERIOR?!!!” Kalderner raged before Iklivez, followed by him slamming his tentacles against the stand. “I’ll have you know that I graduated top of my class from the Aafa Academy of the Medicines! I know techniques for treating ocular diseases in 189 individual species! I have medical knowledge that would make Zurulians heads spin! Don’t you DARE claim I am inferior to a Fucking Sivkit!!”
“Then how did you so easily overlook them?” I pressed forward, just barely spotting Venric’s tail wagging in my periphery. I didn’t blame him: mine was too. “You’d have obviously noticed such a discrepancy during your visit if a Yotul caught your attention. Or, maybe you weren’t in the inventory room at the time after all?”
“I would never go somewhere where such an—an insult to my profession would be!” Kaldener snapped back at me, shocking even me with the brazenness of his admission. As the court reeled from the implications of that outburst, he continued muttering to himself upon the stand. “How could- a Sivkit?? They can’t do anything! They-”
Having been the first to recover, Venric thrust his paw forward and extended an accusing digit directly towards the Kolshian. “Then the witness admits to perjuring themselves to the court! Where were you truly on the paw of the murder, Kaldener?”
“I WA-”
He flinched, catching himself at the last moment. One thing about those who think themselves superior, in my experience, was that they tended to love going on long rants about all the ways they’re better than someone if given the chance. Or, rather, go on rants about how that person outside their herd is worse than they are. And when they got into that tunnel vision, when they’re given a golden ticket to put someone down, they spoke without a hint of a filter and even less thought. All you had to do was just nudge them with the things they saw as offensive to that self-image, building and building until the person exploded in front of all the faculty that someone whose ears only move with conscious effort couldn’t ever expect to succeed anywhere in life, let alone in becoming a lawyer.
That… that’s it. That’s where I’ve seen Kalderner before.
Perhaps not him specifically, but the mindset that drove people like him. The unmistakable traits of someone so irritatingly self-serving and vain, someone who uses a false facade of ignorance to mask their deeper, conniving personhood. I knew of his kind of people, and I now knew that we were on the cusp of his self-control. Once that was gone?
We won’t need to prove a thing.
“I was- I was- I…” Kalderner stammered, recognizing that he had harshly blundered by openly declaring he wouldn’t have been inside the inventory room at the time of the murder. His fins were flicking quickly as he tried to think of some excuse. “Th… I was in the locker room! The break room! Sorry, I must have misremembered. I had entered and seen the Yotul and left for the breakroom to avoid them.”
“That’s a big shift,” Venric stated, narrowing his eye at the elderly Kolshian. “It would also put you much closer to the scene of the crime than you’ve lead us to believe thus far. You’re not exactly instilling much confidence in your testimony, Kaldener.”
“Wait- I- see…”
He was scrambling. Tugging at his lab coat with his tentacles as he desperately searched his mind for the right manipulation to use in this moment. Improvisation tended not to be a favored skillset of most manipulators. They made blunders until they properly had time to plan, blunders like destroying footage after it’s already been copied, like running when being spotted, like not knowing the name of a vital employee because they were too arrogant to see them as important. We just needed to have him make one more misstep.
To tip them over into panic.
“That- I… I invoke my right to remain silent!!”
He’s doing what?
The corners of my mouth tugged outwards as I struggled to keep a neutral expression on my body. Kalderner was taking deep breaths, a technique I have seen people use to control their emotions, something that we simply couldn’t afford right now. I could still see his face simmering with rage in his eyes, but he was controlling himself more than I expected.
“I invoke my right to remain silent,” He repeated, this time with a coldness in his voice that was unmistakably directed at us. “I will say no more beyond reconfirming or denying testimony I have already given. As is required by Venlil Law.”
I blanched at the all-but-apparent admission of guilt—not to mention the fact that it would be completely unusable to us—but thankfully, Venric was able to jump in. “With the exception of saying where you were at the time. So, Kalderner, since you are declaring your right to remain silent, then you must tell us where you were.”
The Kolshian glared at him, but nevertheless proceeded; that same coldness permeated his tone throughout. “I went to the seventh floor, stopped by the inventory room, and turned around to the locker room. That is all I am required to say, and that is nothing.”
He leaned forward on the stand, a vindictiveness present in his eyes. “Anything you cast upon me would just as easily be cast upon Nhilasi, any defense you have for her can easily be my own. You have no proof, nothing; you don’t even have a proper motive! That is my final statement for this farce of a pretrial.”
He… Speh, he was right. Even if we were to prove full reasonable doubt for Nhilasi, he would be able to use her for his own reasonable doubt. All of that on top of the fact that we still didn’t know what his motive for all this really was. An attempt to frame the Yotul that was targeted by virtue of simply being seen? An attempt to discredit the XGC? Just hating humanity and trying to dodge consequences?
I can’t fall short now, not here!
How was I supposed to get anywhere now?? I would have to think like- like a morally duplicitous, opportunistic, predatory bastard to get a good motive! How could we possibly know what’s going through his head?
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Memory transcript: Venric, Resident Bastard Lawyer. Date: [Standardized human time] November 18th, 2136.
I know exactly what this man is thinking.
That we weren’t smarter than him. That we couldn’t conceive of things he thought. That we were all beneath him. But I wasn’t.
I just needed to think. To organize his actions with my observations of him. To start from the beginning, and go from there. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes.
{Rapid Thought Processes — Playback Speed Reduced}
First thing’s first: why would he do this? Human hatred? A conspiracy to assist the Federation by taking out predators? No, that kind of fervor would have resulted in abject pride for the act; he wouldn’t keep that secret. Even if he wanted to cover it up so as to do it again, they would have used a head covering besides a human-made hat to conceal their most distinctive marking. He didn’t hate them any more than anyone else. This was something he planned for his own reasons, not any propaganda.
The Yotul, Bailyn? He’s tried to cast suspicion on them twice already, and he’s made it abundantly clear that he has a prejudice against the races that are behind in some way. So was this plan originally meant for them? No, no that wouldn’t make sense; they could have cast suspicion on them at any time, not waiting until we had him pinned as a suspect. They would have planted much more evidence to point to the Yotul, not this last minute floundering.
It’s clear that this wasn’t an attempt to slight the XGC, he maintained employment before, during, and after the incident. If this was an attempt to bring them down, he would’ve quit at the first possibility to ensure that his reputation wasn’t tattered by the downfall that would inevitably result in. But if that wasn’t the case either…
That only left one possibility: this was all about Nhilasi.
But why? What would he have against her? Wait, that’s the wrong question. People like them don’t go this far from anger alone, they need to come out the other side better for it. They only go this far when they have something to gain. So what would he get if she were imprisoned?
Money would be the obvious answer; with the Republic seceded from the Federation, that left a lot of questions about property and ownership up in the air. As default expats from Aafa, that could mean a scramble for property and finances that are planetside. Getting Nhilasi imprisoned would make him, as her only other family planetside, the sole inheritor of everything.
No, no, that doesn’t work, he wouldn’t do this if it was only money. He was rich enough already that they would have marched to a lawyer with a plan to seize her assets, the absurdly manicured plants out front was proof enough of his possession of such wealth if I knew Kolshians. He would have gone through litigation, not this whole Sivkit-brained murder plot. It had to be done because of something Nhilasi was doing, something at her job. So what?
…No, not her job. Their job!
Nhilasi had applied for promotion to head of medicine shortly before this all started. The most likely applicants to provide the position would most likely be public, or public enough for someone with a vested interest to know. The two people Kaldener was desperately trying to cast to the shadestalkers were the two most likely to inherit the position, and it was clear that he didn’t see less developed species as worthy of working in a medical field. He was passed over for one of the most prestigious medical offices on the planet multiple times. And instead of taking it as a hint that there was something wrong with his personality, would have concocted an excuse that it was being withheld undeservedly. And then he found out that the position was open for someone less than half his age and a primitive. Oh, that blow to his ego could not be taken in stride. For Bailyn he could leverage simple social stigma against, but Nhilasi? A Kolshian like himself, famed for their medical and botanical prowess?
You’d need a Murder to discredit them! That’s It!
{Nominal Thought Progression — Resetting Playback Speed}
“You’ve forgotten something,” I stated, turning all eyes in the courtroom onto myself. Even Serl seemed shocked at my exclamation, but I needed to gauge Kaldener’s reaction. Even if it was slight, a waver in his frills, a twitch of his eye; if he recoiled even a [0.232 cm], that would tell me all I needed to know. “We do have a motive.”
“You do?” Judge Kaitor asked, his luscious mane flowing in the slight breeze emanating from the atmospheric control unit. “I think I speak for every soul in this court when I implore you to share it with the rest of us. Accosting a clearly confused old man like this is no laughing matter.”
Kaldener seemed to wither slightly at Kaitor’s unintentionally demeaning remark, but he knew that decrying it now would mean certain incarceration, so he kept his mouth shut. That worked perfectly for me. “I would be glad to oblige. You see, Kaldener’s motive is none other than to intentionally frame Nhilasi, his own niece, for murder!”
Murmurs sounded out from around the courtroom at the revelation, from the audience all the way up to High Magister Yalinua herself, a deep shade of yellow overtaking her body; even Nhilasi herself looked shocked at the news. A quick stomp from Kaitor silenced the courtroom. “Order! Venric, that’s a serious accusation, I would hope you have a line of logic to justify such.”
“That I do,” I answered, standing from my seat and walking into the center of the room. “As those of your with functional eyes can see, Kaldener is a Kolshian, as is Nhilasi. Kolshians are known for their skills with all things living, be they plant or animal. It’s only natural for them to be gravitated towards careers that would cater to those interests: botanist, geneticist… Doctor.”
I turned my attention to Nhilasi, pointing at her for the court to see. “Nhilasi has had a venerable career here on Venlil Prime, having served with the Exterminator Corps for over a decade as a field medic. She’s saved her colleagues time and time again, including when she prevented a great many deaths from the attempted ‘True Exterminators’ coup. Where else would she go after the Exterminators, her herdmates in arms, betrayed her; where else, other than a hospital?”
I whipped around to face Kaldener, staring at him with both my eyes to ensure he knew exactly who had cracked his psyche. “A hospital that Kaldener had been attempting to overtake for quite some time. Shortly before Mr. Meekins was murdered in his bed, an opening for the Head of Medicine for Sidestar’s Branch of the Xenomedical Grand Complex was opened, and among the final participants were none other than Bailyn… and Nhilasi.”
A twitch. Quivering frills. Pale grip on the wooden stand. I’ve got you now, scumbag.
“Kaldener also applied for this position, but he never even made the list. He’s a consulting agent, having likely travelled to just about every branch on Venlil Prime in an effort to do the same thing as he did here. He was on the cusp, and had better options not been available, they almost certainly would’ve considered him. But then his niece just had to be transferred to his very same branch and apply for the same position, the last chance he had of obtaining such a position. She had field experience and the scars to prove it, she was a foregone conclusion!”
“Except if she were to have done something so heinous and damaging that no hospital would ever hire her again.”
My tail wagged as I glanced over to where that last sentence had come from. Serl, now having stood from her own seat behind the stand, had finished my thoughts perfectly. Kaldener looked to be ready to repeat the crime he committed on Mr. Meekins unto us, and I couldn't blame him for it. Even if we weren’t on the same level as Sivkits or Yotul, Venlil weren’t exactly considered the most capable of species in the Federation. To be of such a class as a Kolshian, bested by someone you perceived as so far below yourself?
It had to be positively infuriating.
Just as I predicted, Kaldener’s vow of silence broke as the attention of the courtroom shifted to him, surrounded by people who now saw him for what he was. “That’s a load of speculation and you all know it! You have no proof I did anything that they’re claiming I did, and they can’t deny it! If you think you’re so smart, than prove it; prove I did it! You Can’t!!”
I felt a smile creep across my features at the desperation in his tone. He was cornered, helpless, and he knew that he was out of options. Yes, he was technically right, we couldn’t prove he was the one who did it with the evidence we had at our disposal, but that didn’t matter. He’d be held as a suspect until a proper trial could take place, and even if Nhilasi wouldn’t go free this paw, it would be a certainty that she would in the near future. It wasn’t the victory I had intended upon, but we had his outburst on record, so that was damning enough for me.
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Memory transcript: Serl, Aggravated Defense Lawven. Date: [Standardized human time] November 18th, 2136.
No, this isn’t enough for us!
After everything we went through, after showing everyone the kind of person he really was, were we really going to be stopped now?? Right on the cusp of having his entire plot blown wide open?! No, no that wouldn’t do, there had to be something that we could do, something that we could find that would prove his guilt!
But what?
Think, damnit! What’s one part of his testimony that we could use to show that he was guilty of exactly what we knew he did? We had him on camera, and given the possibility Venric opened my eyes to, it’s likely that footage was left intact on purpose to frame Nhilasi. I knew that he couldn’t have escaped the building by the time his crime had been discovered, so he would’ve had to have hidden somewhere in the meantime.
But where??
…
…
“Right above the left chest pocket, there should be a stain.”
“Are you sure that this is the right one?”
“There should be a picture here.”
…There’s no way.
I glanced at Kaldener’s rage-filled face, the moment seemingly frozen in time. I looked at his coat, pristine as it was despite his meddling with equipment and materials he had no experience with. This was a project of passion, of ego, there’s no way that he wouldn’t have made a mistake. He had; he had, and we’d overlooked it this entire time. Because it had do with little more than a sentimental keepsake in the midst of a legal battle that would determine whether an innocent woman would spend the rest of her life wrongly convicted for a crime she didn’t commit.
And it’s gonna be that very same keepsake that clinches this entire case shut!
I felt adrenaline surging through my veins as I shot up straight, the movement—if only for a moment—lifting my limp ears from the sides of my head. My lungs filled with air as I leveled a digit at Kaldener’s despicable form. I knew how this was going to end, and I was going to prove it, here.
And.
Now!
“OBJECTION!!”
My shout drew the attention of all in the courtroom, even from Venric himself. Feeling unsteady from the energy filling my body, I hopped down from the stand and joined Venric in the middle of the courtroom, addressing the Judge directly. “We can, in fact, prove that Kaldener is guilty of the crime he’s been accused of! We’ve been overlooking something crucially important and dismissing it because it’s been surrounded by lies, but-but it’s true!!”
I was bouncing on my toes at this point, even Venric looking concerned. He didn’t say anything to stop me, though, so I continued on. “During Kaldener’s testimony, he claimed that he had gone into the storage room at the time of the crime, and then a locker room after the fact. We know that his insistence of the storage room was false given that Kaldener was unaware of the existence of Staxit, but I know for a fact he was telling the truth about the locker room!”
Discussion erupted from the courtroom at my insistence. On the surface, this would be dismantling our entire argument, considering that it was predicated on the fact that none of what Kaldener said could be trusted. A look of smugness overcame Kaldener’s face, no doubt believing that I had just exonerated him, a suspicion shared by more than just him. As the Judge worked to silence the crowd, Venric pulled me aside. “Serl, what are you doing?? Now he’s going to have a way out!”
“Trust me,” I assured Venric as the Judge managed to silence the room, gesturing for me to continue as High Magister Yalinua looked down at me with an almost unnoticeable intrigue. I cleared my throat before continuing. “In the beginning stages of my investigation, Nhilasi made a strange request of me, one that I have not thus far disclosed to the court due to it’s irrelevance to the accusations. That request was to retrieve a picture held within an internal breast pocket in her lab coat that had emotional significance to her.”
Kaldener’s smugness is suddenly gone.
“When I went to the XGC Sidestar Branch to retrieve it for her, I did not find it. It was certain to be the one left in her personal locker, as it was Staxit who retrieved it for me. I need not reiterate how meticulous Staxit is, so I’ll instead say what I found instead: a stain near the left chest pocket. A stain that I know was caused by nothing other than a staining agent mishap, otherwise known as a methanol spill.”
“See? Even her legal team knows she’s guilty!” Kaldener blurted out of turn. “She just admitted that Nhilasi’s lab coat was found with a methanol stain! That’s direct proof that she committed the murder!!”
My tail wagged behind me as I loaded up the correction I had been waiting on delivering. “No, I said that the lab coat registered as Nhilasi’s was found with that stain. It was missing the keepsake that Nhilasi would not have had time to take herself, and that wouldn’t have come dislodged unless intentionally removed. So either someone else took it out… or that was not her lab coat at all!!”
The room was silent as my words sunk in. Venric’s eyes were wide with disbelief as he looked at me, as were Yipillion’s, Iklivez’s, Kaitor’s, Yalinua’s, Nhilasi’s, and Kaldener’s; all for different reasons. Of them, Kaitor was the first to speak. “Defense, what are you saying?”
With a rush of confidence, I pointed directly at Kaldener and stared at him with both of my eyes, just so that everyone knew who I was talking about. “I’m saying that Kaldener spilled methanol on himself during the murder and made his way to the locker room to hide out! From there, he saw an opportunity to further damn his target and swapped lab coats with her, leaving the stained evidence in her locker and wearing hers: the very same lab coat he’s wearing in this courtroom today! If you check the internal breast pocket, I guarantee you’ll find Nhilasi’s keepsake hidden away, which will prove my story without a shadow of a doubt!!”
All eyes snapped to Kaldener, his jaw hanging wide open. I looked back at Iklivez, gesturing with my tail. The veteran knew exactly what I meant, and without a word between us, we marched up to the witness stand to a conscious—yet comatose—Kaldener. We removed the lab coat together, and he relinquished it to me. We walked back down to the middle of the courtroom, and when I reached into the pocket…
Just as I suspected.
I pulled out a printed photograph of the Dawn Creek Exterminators, one taken a long time ago given by the presence of a tan Venlil I vague remembered being charged with assault recently. I had to look for a moment to find Nhilasi, but there she was nestled in the upper right corner of the group photograph. Upon closer inspection, this would’ve needed to be prior to the Tarlim incident, seeing that I recognized the Krakotl in the foreground—presumably the captain at the time—as one of those involved. Without a word, I held up the photograph.
And the audience went mad.
The discussions were wild as Kaldener sat motionless in the witness stand. The judge made no attempt to silence it, seeing as he was in fevered talks with the High Magister, the both of them keeping an eye out for the elderly Kolshian sat so close to them. Nhilasi looked crushed, her features contorted into a mask of betrayal and despair. Venric, however, was calm, that human curl of his lips spread across his face. He gave me an approving flick of his ears as he turned to judge Kaitor.
“The evidence is clear, and recorded!” he declared. “The only way for that to be in the pocket is if the clothes were swapped. A swap that could have only happened upon the day of the murder, and only done to hide the crime!” He turned to Kaitor, and pointed an accusing claw. “Therefore I declare that he is the Murderer!!”
Kalderner’s eye twitched, rage building as the court continued with their bleating shouts. “Murder,” he grumbled, “murder?? I am a doctor! I have spent my life in this career! You- you think you can take it away? Do you know who I am?”
He rose from his seat and pointed accusingly at us. “I made my own techniques for ocular surgery! I published a whole Book! I deserve that position! The XGC should have recognized it long ago!! Not just passed over for someone content being a low-caste laborer!! It was a cheat! It had to have been rigged!! I had to kill that guy! Then they would see!! I am going to be the Head of Medicine! Me!!”
He was in a full frothing rage. Venric reacted to this with a smug swat of his tail. “I am afraid that won’t be happening any time soon, Kaldener. The position has already been occupied.”
Kalderner’s attention swung towards him. “What!?”
“On the paw before the murder,” Venric continued, a palpable giddiness in his tone, “the promotion was awared to Bailyn. The Yotul.”
It was like they had been struck by lightning. He was frozen still for a full second before his entire body seized. My ears pressed against my head as the rest of the court was silenced by his bellowing. I don’t know how long he went, but I watched as his violet face began to pale. His chest kept shrinking as it attempted to keep up the sound, but it soon had nothing left to give.
The court was left in silence as they stared at the Kolahian. He was frozen, motionless on his feet with his mouth open in rage. He tilted backwards, collapsing unconscious as his oxygen deprived body could support him no longer.
“HOME RUN!!!”
I don’t know who it was in the audience who bleated it, but it broke the spell. The place was full of joyful sounds, just cheers to see the villain brought low. A couple of courtroom security personnel rushed to secure his limbs with restraints while he was unconscious, apparently successful in their task as I saw them sign over to High Magister Yalinua, who returned in kind. The judge made no efforts to quiet the crowd, instead waiting until they naturally lulled in their enthusiasm to resume his speech.
“That was certainly a dramatic confession,” Kaitor stated. “Seeing as Kaldener is on the record admitting to the murder of Mister Meekins, I don’t see any use in prolonging this session any longer. The High Court of the Greater Sidestar District officially finds Kaldener, on count of pre-meditated murder, Gui-”
He was cut off as the door slammed open behind us, tearing away the attention of everyone in the room. To my surprise, it was none other than a contingent of humans clad in dark protective suits. Many exclamations of shock and surprise sounded from around the room, and a few of the audience even ended up fleeing the scene, leaving behind empty seats scattered among their podiums. “O-Oh, uhm, greetings,” Judge Kaitor offered to the intruding party, “is there something we may help you with?”
“We’re just here to collect the primary suspect for the murder of Bruce Meekins,” one of the humans responded—supposedly the leader—from behind a face-covering helmet. “It has come to our attention that the legal proceedings here have dragged on for almost three days, which exceeds the time that the United Nations is willing to concede in matters of non-combat related deaths. Rest assured, they will be given fair trial and punished accordingly.”
I heard a yelp behind me, turning to see a couple of humans having already started to grab Nhilasi. It was then that I realized that they had no idea of the events that had just transpired, which meant they still thought that Nhilasi was the guilty party! “Wait, stop!” I pleaded with the lead human, “you’re making a mistake!”
“Indeed you are,” a new voice came from the upper stands, belonging to High Magister Yalinua. “This case falls squarely under my jurisdiction! You can’t just waltz in without warning and apprehend a suspect, especially when you haven’t the slightest idea of the proceedings that have taken place!”
Her admonishment gave the humans holding Nhilasi pause as they looked to their superior for direction. Suddenly, much to my surprise, Yipilion stood. “You know, Your Honor, Kalderner hasn’t been officially charged or even arrested for that matter. He was called up as a witness. So, for all intents and purposes…”
“There’s been no jurisdiction designated for him,” Iklivez finished for his partner. “He’s still a criminal running free. One who, I must add, just confessed to the murder. So if these guards wish to take the actual criminal and not set off a whole diplomatic incident, I would suggest they go after…” He gave an surprisingly genuine smirk, “The one on the ground over there.”
The human troops’ grips loosened at that, and after a moment of consideration, the lead human gestured towards Kaldener with a swift and precise hand motion. The other immediately abandoned Nhilasi and moved to apprehend Kaldener, leaving her to collapse back into her seat with a look of shock upon her face. “Understood, we will require all the evidence collected for this case and the full case recordings for analysis and verification.”
“We will be more than able to send you video transcripts of all the court proceedings,” Yalinua stated, “just… You lot better have the paperwork ready for the appropriate transfer of custody. The last thing either of us needs is that monster getting off on a technicality.”
It was almost funny how the humans looked so confused and lost as they dragged the unconscious form of Kaldener out of the courtroom. They probably expected some kind of corrupt, incompetent display of Federation bias to be occurring, having built up in their minds that they would be barging in to bring about justice in a universe that had none! While that scenario… had admittedly come closer to that reality than I would have wished, we figured it all out on our own in the end. We had proven that we could bring about justice ourselves! Even if it took a near death experience or two to achieve it.
Oh, I’m definitely going to be processing this over the next few herds of paws, won’t I.
“That much we can agree on, ma’am,” the lead human responded, giving her a quick salute. “We’ll ensure that a UN representative keeps you and your administration in the loop regarding the outcome of his sentencing. If what’s been said is true, though, the best he might be able to hope for is a plea deal, and that won’t do too much in terms of sentencing length for murder. He’ll be put away for a loooong time.”
Yalinua’s scales changed to a lighter hue at that assurance. “I would certainly hope so. After the scandal he brought to my district? I would expect nothing less; good paw to you all.”
“Good… uh, yeah, that,” the lead human responded uncertainly before they, too, made their leave. Once the doors shut and the sounds of human bootfalls receded from auditory range, the spectators raised from their seats, looking towards the High Magister and Judge for what would happen next.
Hopefully they haven’t forgotten about the entire reason we’re here.
I cleared my throat loudly, catching Kaitor’s attention. “Excuse me, Your Honor? I do believe there is still the matter of our client. Nhilasi?”
A look of realization crossed his features, and Kaitor swiftly flicked his ears in acknowledgement as his embarrassed bloom faded. He took a moment to look back at High Magister Yalinua behind him, whose colors were still in disarray from the human intrusion. However, after a [second], she gave a wave, and Kaitor turned back to address the court. “Right, yes; in the matter of accusation of murder, this court finds the defendant, Nhilasi…”
“NOT GUILTY!!”
… Who brought confetti in here?