"I do so swear." He will repeat the whole oath if the judge looks like he wants him to but is also aware of the risk of annoying him by drawing it out too long. 

"Where were you the night of 3 Sarenith?"

"I was at home, in the house rented by delegate Permira, which she was renting to myself, delegate Aina, and our personnel." 

"And did anyone approach your home that evening?"

"Yes. A large group of men approached the house." 

"Did you recognize any of them?"

"Not at first. I had already gotten out of the house with my mother and sisters before I heard a voice I recognized; it was Delegate Barro, saying that the halflings they had caught in the house weren't all of us." 

"What was your previous acquaintance with Delegate Barro?"

"We had both served on the Slavery committee, where we had expressed opposing political viewpoints." 

"What did you do when you heard Barro saying to the others that the halflings caught in the house weren't all of the halflings?"

"I told my mother and sisters to run in different directions and then I yelled an insult to delegate Barro so that he would chase me and not them." 

"What specifically did you yell at him?"

"Uh--'your mother was a drunkard and your father was a worm.'"

Damn, could he have gotten more of them if he hadn't gotten distracted by those insults?

...Well, obviously, given that this one is now alive again.

Damn, could he have gotten more of them if he hadn't gotten distracted by those insults?

What, you think Alonso would have wasted his breath on you if it didn't serve a tactical purpose?

You're a slip. Who knows why slips do anything?

"And what happened after that?"

"He chased me, until he caught up with me and began to attack me with a knife. I also had a knife on me, so I tried to fend him off with it. It didn't work. I died." 

"Thank you. The prosecution has no further questions for this witness and submits him to the court."

He has one question here from the accused. He'll ask it, why not.

"Did you stab delegate Barro in the eye?"

Oh, good, the magistrate is a reasonable person.

"I don't know. I wasn't aiming for his eye, particularly, but I also wasn't trying to avoid it, or any other part of his body. If my knife had found his throat and he had died, I would have preferred that outcome to the outcome where he succeeded at killing me." 

"So this was after he attempted to kill you and your family, not before? Or, rather, during the attempt?"

"Correct. The only point at which I could have physically hurt him in any way was after he had begun attempting to murder me." 

"The court has no further questions for you. You are dismissed."

He bows and leaves.

"Finally the prosecution introduces a transcript of the interrogation of the defendant after he was arrested on the testimony of halflings who recognized him in the mob.

Her Majesty's Prosecutor Alfonso Olini: So obviously this is a misunderstanding and if you only killed slips we're fine, I just have to get it written out what happened so I can tell them it wasn't a crime. Did you tell a bunch of people to go to the place where the slips lived to kill them?

Livi Barro: Yeah. Only slips though, like you said.

Olini: Yeah of course. if you'd run across any humans on the way to go kill the slips you wouldn't have killed those, right?

Barro: Of course not!

Olini:  And when you got to the slip house, you just started killing the slips who were there?

Barro: Yeah. Well, some of them tried to run away. But it was just slips, no humans.

Olini: And you did your best to chase down the ones running away?

Barro: Oh, I ended up going head to head with one of the bastards from the slavery committee. But yeah, some of the guys I was with tried and chased them down.

Olini: Right, thanks, I think that should clear everything up. 

The killing of free subjects of Her Majesty is murder, regardless of their race, a matter of which the law must be consistently mindful especially now that the Archmage Naima has changed the race of many men. The prosecution has established that it was the intent of the defendant to stir up a mob and go kill halflings, and that he then did so, including delegates here by special invitation of the crown. Those delegates are alleged to have responded to his violence with their own only once he and the mob accosted them in their home, at which point their own violence constitutes clear-cut self-defense. Those delegates made a confident identification of the defendant by name and the defendant has not alleged he did not come to their homes to kill them and then kill them; he has alleged his innocence only in that he believes it lawful to kill Her Majesty's subjects if they are halflings. Murder is not a crime for which ignorance of the law constitutes a defense.

It is an unusual murder case in which the victim can directly testify to the murder but it is an ordinary murder case otherwise. This concludes our case." 

"Does the accused wish to present any argument?"

"Your Honor, they're slips. Calling it murder to kill a slip is insane. Every slip we went after was a murderous thieving bastard and they got what was coming to them." He glances at the (small) audience. "And if you convict me of murder you're saying murderous thieving slips matter more than people like you and me."

Are they? Are they really? Because here's this one delegate who's feeling pretty pleased with it, if Livi recognizes him in the audience.

Oh, the diabolist priest? Checks out.

Sigh. Another one? 

"This court is interested in seeing the Queen's Justice done, according to the queen's laws, and with no regard to the sense of justice writ upon your own heart, except insofar as that is referenced by the queen's laws, which in this matter is not at all. 

Do you contend that you did not of your own free will commit the alleged acts?"

"No."

"Then this court finds you guilty and sentences you to death. Do you desire the mercy of the final blade?"

Fucking bastards. Damn them all to the Abyss with every other robber and murderer.

If the Iomedaean priestess was right that normal people aren't Evil, he doesn't want the Final Blade. Heaven sounds awful but Axis would be nice. (And he doesn't think he's in danger of making Heaven. He's never seen a reason to help people if he's not getting anything out of it.)

But he really doesn't want to go to Hell. And he's not actually willing to risk everything on the word of a teenage girl, even if she's a priestess.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Livi Barro, you are sentenced to be killed by Final Blade. Justice is done."

The baliff takes Livi out of the courtroom and to a small courtyard in back where the final blade waits.

Zip.  Thud.