>>5205441Lisa quivered under the weight of the threat, overawed at the gap and scale and of Sathriel's mastery over the power of skintalking. Nevertheless, she forged ahead with her decision. A silent small nod from Lisa was all Sathriel needed to see.
"Let us hear both of your confessions then."
What came next was a long and emotionally charged tale. A tale of a child who grew up in an estranged household living in quiet fear of a strained family. A girl whose family was forcibly separated by the law when the divorce lawsuit came in. A girl who woke up in the Crucible as a skintalker wandering until she encountered officer Grizzie who took her in Wishbone village where they spent their coming months growing close as a makeshift family, carving out their own slice of haven. Until one day Lisa heard through the whispers of the Fleshscape of her mother's existence. Susan Loupe, Wolf of the Wastes, a merciless woman and the leader of a small warband. Grizzie ever the reasonable and kind-natured woman went against Lisa's warning to not meet her in hopes that the two could reach a negotiated truce given Lisa's status as Susan's biological daughter. A meeting that turned horribly south that resulted in a fight that would have killed Grizzie were it not for Lisa's intervention in a desperate attempt to stem her mother's wrath with a lie fabricated by her own lips, a claim that Wishbone is more useful alive than ruined. A bribe in exchange for survival, paying her mother a tithe in order to stay her hand and leave Wishbone Village alone. With the deal struck and in the face of the dreadful tax imposed on Wishbone Village, another lie was created by Lisa's lips, with Grizzie's complicity to complete the ruse this time to fool the village. Thus began the extortion racket that slowly sapped Wishbone Village of its food and wealth as each time Susan would demand more and more to feed the warband that followed her, forcing the Lisa Loupe and Grizzie Baerns to make bolder and bolder thefts in order to ready the next payment, further fueling the growing despair and desperation within the two until everything came to a head when Sathriel entered the village, sparking the theft and the trial that exposed their crimes.
When the tale concluded the entire village was silent. Sathriel remained motionless as the weight of judgement hung heavy in the air. Slowly but surely the runic circle and the swirling energy dissolved back into the low ambient environment, but the heavy atmosphere remained, now under the crushing weight of the truth.
"Grimm, Lisa, the court has reached a verdict. The two of you are found guilty of the crimes committed against the village." Sathriel simply stated, letting the sentence fall with a deafening silence in the court.
"How troublesome. To think that a simple trial over theft of stolen property has evolved into a case of Grand Larceny, racketeering, terrorism, extortion, and possible domestic abuse."
(cont.)
