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Excerpt: Forbidden Memories

“The court finds the defendant guilty in the charge of murder.” 

Sana tried to stay strong as she held her quaking daughter in her arms, terrified of what would likely come next. Murder was a capital crime under Airgiallan law, and her daughter was certain to face the hangman’s noose. Tears came quickly, Kathryn covering her face to sob and leaving Sana grateful that she did not have to feign a look of reassurance. 

Kathryn’s lawyer, drunk as always, merely stuttered. “Your honor, my client, uh, requests an, um, appeal. She is only… Seventeen, after all…” He burped and learned onto the table, barely able to stand. An appeal was not in the grasp of a drunkard who couldn’t even remember his client’s age. 

A hammer thundered on the dais. “Your appeal is denied.” The chief magistrate of the trio of judges towered over the front of the packed courtroom. He and his compatriots were bland, bald men appointed by the Airgiallan aristocracy, kept fat and happy to rule in favor of their patrons. “The schools so generously run by the Imperium teach the harm of murder at a young age. Your client was well aware that she should not have killed a man, even out of vengeance for the crime she claimed but the plaintiff disproved.”