Blai Artigas is now-
Back at the Worldwound? It's colder, a bit, and there's snow and broken crags of rock all around. A sharp-walled canyon is visible off in one direction, with something large and regular enough in shape to maybe be a structure visible in the distance. High mountains cover two other directions, and what looks like a long slope down to a frozen sea on a fourth.
"So after the big stampede towards their little fort, those automatons came out and started stepping on people and there was a panic, and a stampede right in the other direction, and then New London's people suddenly come boiling out of the place and rounding up everyone who still had weapons or looked like they might have been involved?"
"Damned if I know. Just keep going straight, I guess. This whole business stinks worse than rat guts. They built a prison in like four fucking hours. They could've built houses and prevented this whole thing! God."
Oh okay let me talk to my boss no sudden movements.
Boss would like you to come down to the fort where the records are, please.
And is put in front of a bespectacled woman with several strange machines around her in a little side office. They don't seem concerned about his mace. It's busy, in an officey sort of way. Clerks running about.
"Name, name and description of your group, when you were separated, where and what they were doing last night?"
"My name is Blai Artigas. My party -" he can list them and give their various ages and genders and hair colors - "separated some few blocks that direction from here if I'm not turned around, we were trying to peacefully visit the town and learn more about it and New London."
Click click clack click clack clunk.
"Mr. Joseph has elected to immigrate to New London. Leon, June, and Nuts are currently detained in Block 46. All three are accused of attempted murder and have pleaded self-defense. Further questions?"
She sighs and gives him a name and an office.
The man in the office makes him wait a bit and then a woman files out, looking angry, and he is invited in.
"I'm handling external testimony. Is that what you're here for?"
"I'm told that my companions stand accused of attempted murder and wish to corroborate their self-defense statement."
He nods affably and pulls up a file and asks Blai for his name again, and then for his accounting of the events last night. Is he sure they weren't starting fights? Why were they there at all? Did he try to de-escalate? Did they maybe have a little accident, that they didn't really mean? Did the fire start before or after the rope fell (there was no fire until later)?
It's overall a fairly competent interrogation for lacking mind reading. But also fairly brief.
Blai recounts the events - they were boxed in, someone mentioned food and this was very agitating, his companions went up a rope, he didn't make it, he escaped the town, he didn't see what happened after that but they certainly didn't come in with an attitude that would lend itself readily to doing attempted murders, the only fire he saw was on his way out at a building he can describe...
He enters all that into a typewriter.
"I can certainly see an argument for a summary acquittal. We're doing a lot of those just to get through everyone faster, especially if there are other mitigating factors like useful skills and a desire to immigrate."
"We'd have to talk about immigration not only amongst ourselves but among others who didn't join us on this trip."
"I see. Well, you can check back tomorrow to see if there is any news on the case. Visiting under supervision might still be open too. I would also like to inform you that last night in an emergency session of the Council, the decision was made to annex this area in more formality than before, including the mountainside Vault, largely in order to prevent another outbreak of violence in the future. That process will take a few months."
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