"Case 14354: Harbani Unnamed, accused of bread thievery in the Farral bakery three mornings ago." Farug enunciated slowly. "Offender, do you have a speaker?"


    "No, I don''t, honourable guard." A wiry, malnourished man wearing simple brown clothes just better than rags stood up and moved to the lectern.


    "Next!" The Senior Severen''s indifferent voice resonated in the courtroom.


    "It will be all for today, registrar Farug," Senior Severen Zakin announced offhandedly. "Let''s take care of the condemned and return the last one to jail."


    Two guards manhandled her up, and they marched back to her tiny cell inside the massive jailhouse. Once out of her stupor at walking out alive, her guts and her brain had held a meeting whose conclusion had been that something was afoot.


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    Old man Khadim unlocked her cell door with one touch of his palm and, without another word, glided back to where he came from.


    Mana Sapience also noticed a sort of dark taint spreading from the wound, eating away tissues and muscles and, more importantly, dissolving the Mana flowing inside the Severen''s body.


    "What are you smiling at, sister?!" Shrieked Supay, sitting across from her, holding for dear life to his shoulder straps.


    "Nothing, you traitorous scum." She answered, widening her smile before his fear. "If we die, I want you to remember this is all your fault!"


    She couldn''t resist tormenting him. She hadn''t let go of her resentment towards Supay. Because of his cowardice and avarice, she had been pulled back into this world of cloaks and daggers where one could die not for Reps or personal power but to gain political advantage for someone she would never meet, like the Fravashi War Prophet. She hated being a pawn on somebody else''s board.