"Yes. I'm going to try to get you self-defense. But it'll work better if you can tell the judge, while a truth song is running, 'I feel awful that it came to that, I wish I hadn't listened to my friends, being scared didn't make it right, the stolen boar meat wasn't worth that, I wish she could be alive again'."

He takes a deep breath and nods.

"Be a bit hard to take that attitude." He gestures to the weapons. "But aye. I wasn't defending anybody that time."

"Well, you've got a couple days to mull it over. Do you have questions for me?"

"I heard they might have tried to charge us for the jail if we were citizens?"

"Usually that comes out of basic income; it just works out to paying them less but since they get to switch jails they have an incentive to choose cheaper ones."

"Oh, right. That. Nothing else for now, I think. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Will you be checking your email or should I come back to visit again if something comes up while I'm preparing remarks?"

"Uh... I'll probably forget, sorry."

"All right. What time does it feel like to you, when do you expect you'll go to sleep?"

"Late afternoon, going on to dinnertime. Probably sleep not long after that."

"All right. I will try to avoid coming by while you're sleeping. I recommend that before your trial you arrange to be freshly bathed with clean clothes, it's not supposed to affect anything but it's impossible to chase down every tiny bias the judges might be harboring unconsciously and there is some risk you'll get an Amentan or just a judge who's sensitive to that kind of thing."

"I don't suppose you can get them to let me go clothes shopping with the silver in my pocket that doesn't count."

"I can try to get you the value of the silver in the precious metals buyout for Anthel Camme but this will make it basically impossible to argue that you are not a citizen of Anthel-Camme-under-Vanda-Nossëo. You should be able to wash what you're wearing here, and there are prison uniforms, which the judges are at least used to if not necessarily well-disposed toward."

"Okay. I have some stuff in storage in Bronzehill? I guess I can email someone to come bring it probably."

"That will work just fine."

"That'll be it, then. Entangled with the space wizards like it or not."

"Have they been treating you all right since you got here?"

"I haven't been here very long but it's practically a palace, for a jail."

"All right. If they mess up at that - if you don't get fed, or if it's loud while you're sleeping, or if anyone even another prisoner attacks you, or if anything you see someone else getting or see on the internet other prisoners get isn't available to you, let me know. There aren't usually problems but that's because we keep them on their toes, right?"

He smiles a bit. "Makes sense. Goodbye for real for now, then."

And off goes Rhamba.

Grimmal sits and thinks for a bit then asks whoever he sees first about a place to exercise.

Shannalore tells her lawyer once they arrive much the same story along with, "I only stayed with those idiots after the dragon appeared because we've worked together for years and you don't just turn on something like that. If you do, well, now you're alone in the wilderness, with a dragon around, and your comrades in arms think you're an honorless coward and are right behind you, armed and angry. I kept telling them to leave it alone, Mattin's dragon obsession was nothing but trouble, and here we are now."

Shannalore's lawyer thinks she has a fairly solid case for knocking it down to manslaughter; she will probably do some time and have to take classes but he'd be surprised if she was in for longer than six months.

Also, she can't read, if that's going to be an issue. Never really bothered to learn.

It will not be a problem for the trial but spending six months in jail is a great time to learn, here is a learning to read website that may be adapted for her language by now - yeah, there, it only has the first six lessons translated but that'll get her started.