Liisa's Declaration
-
::Magistrates Borodim and D'Arneau, together with the Far Scouts Aghila and Raúl, observed Liisa as the "Discern Lies" spell was cast. The preliminaries were simple tests to "calibrate" the spell, as the tormtar himself called it. Liisa was told to say something that is a lie.
I am blonde - said the dark haired woman.
Once "calibrated", a second spell was cast. A Zone of Truth, this time. Once again, a test was carried. The cryptic scout was told to speak a lie again. This time she was asked to say something even farther from reality. She was asked to say "I am a miniature frost giant".
I am a m… min... - _no matter how she struggled, she could not pronounce the words.
With that, she was indicated to begin her declaration. However, before doing so, she tossed a piece of ragged cloth from her own prison garb to the witnesses. The piece of cloth said clearly "I am blonde".
When all of the witnesses could read it, a couple of them just showed a confused gesture. Magistrate D'arneau went rambling about how something written in a piece of cloth prior to the enacting of the truth spells is not subject to it._
Exactly. - _said Liisa, rejoicing much in the Magistrate's ignorance, as the Far Scouts, much sharper of mind, had already caught its meaning immediately. Raúl even allowed the hint of a grin show in the corner of his moustache. It was the way that the villain Jonathan had filtered information to Peltarch's senate, and they had foolishly taken as truth, at least enough to open an investigation and arrest one of their own without any evidence.
With that, Liisa began to speak clearly._
To me, this story started when I decided to head for the Gypsy Camp. Or the hoaran camp, as it is known now. I had lived in the gypsy in old times, and I sought their current leader. I personally did not know him before that day, not even his name.
This man, by the name of Jonathan, was a robust man, and held a longspear that he likes to lean on. After an exchange of words, I told him that I sought to gain acceptance amongst his people. Like in old times. Naturally, Jonathan wanted to know how could I be trustable.
This is where I made my most grave mistake. I showed him my Peltarch Defender badge, and my Legion tag. Surely someone that earns access to noteworthy organizations is worth some trust.
But this didn't cause the effect I had wished for. In my eyes, and here I'll speak my honest opinion, Jonathan suffers a thirst of vengeance for what he thinks his people has beeen wronged with. My missinformation about him, or the lack of knowledge of how deep those grudges crawl into his being, were the beginning of why I stand here today, in front of you all.
In me, Jonathan didn't see a possible new friend. He saw an opportunity to weave a plan to spur his people into raising on arms, and satisfy his thirst for vengeance. I met one condition that no one else in this land does, as far as I know. I was both Legionnaire and Peltarch Defender. I was his perfect victim. I only saw this when it was too late.
His plan was wicked. He sent Silverblade to his death willingly and knowingly. He was the brain and schemer behind Silverblade's death. I suspect Silverblade was a sensible elder that did not wish for conflict. My belieft is that with his death, Jonathan earned two things. First, his opposition within the camp to begin armed conflict was gone. Second, he could blame that death on Peltarch and use it to spur his people into marching to war.
And I came into his plans as the one to blame for it. I don't think he wanted to frame me, the person. He wanted the Defender, the Legionnaire. And with that, have an excuse to extrapolate his accusation towards the city of Peltarch primarily, but also towards the Legion.
The worst of all is that I think many of his people are not guilty of anything. They are victims, just like us, that have been lied to, manipulated by their own leader.
I swear under this truth spell and before the eyes of the gods of the Triad that Jonathan planned Silverblade's death, and that I did not betray the Jewel that day.
I swear I never spoke to Jonathan as a private, nor as a Defender, and definitely not as an agent sent by the city.
I swear that I never acted in behalf of Peltarch towards Jonathan, and he knew it perfectly at all times.
He's using all of us. He used me and I was naive enough to fall in his trap. And because of what happened in that day, you can judge me for being stupid, dumb if you like, which are shameful enough charges for someone that calls herself scout. But not for betraying Peltarch.
_Liisa did not falter and did not stutter at any point of her statement. Both Magistrates then took it to whispers between them and ordered the Far Scout to leave the place. Liisa knew that whatever she said, the blind fanatics that had in front of her would see to the worst possible outcome for her, with whatever excuses they could come up. She had heard it plenty of times. "But you wear dark armor". "But you use a helm in public". "But you smirk cold-" Or not, she actually wasn't the smirking type. Two out of three were bad enough, surely.
The two Magistrates kept going on making tricky questions to attempt getting Liisa to make a mistake or say something that would implicate her in an act of treason. She repeated the events in that day and repeated to exhaustion that she did not betray Peltarch, and never meant to. Everytime under Torm's spells of Truth.
At that point she did not care that much about her fate anymore. At the very least, people would know who is the real firestarter of the conflict. They would know that everyone, including the self-proclaimed heroes of the land, are dancing to the music of a puppeteer called Jonathan, a simple bandit, and they are too blind to see it. She trusted that as much dislike and bias as the tormtar had proven repeatedly to hold against her, he'd honor his god and not attempt to twist, manipulate, hide or skip any of the truths that were spoken that day under Torm's judgement. If he did, well, then he wouldn't be a tormtar for long._
//For anyone's curiosity, this happened ingame, and all the blue text is Liisa's words, directly quoted from the game log. Of course, as every post I make in TbtF, it's OOC information unless you find out ingame.
