A week has worn the edges off the prison lights, but not the silence. Sally sits alone at a bolted table in a windowless conference room, gray cloth stiff on her shoulders, the inhibitor cuff cold at her wrist.
The steel door opens with a slow groan. A woman in a sharp suit steps in, carrying a stack of legal files like they matter more than the concrete walls.
Amilia Jacobs
Sally? I am Amilia Jacobs. I am here to represent you.
Her skin catches the light like polished silver, and her short afro frames a face that has learned how to stay calm in bad rooms. She sets the files down, then pulls out a chair without hurrying.
Amilia Jacobs
Before court, I need the story in your own words. What do you remember, what do you know, and what does the Department want buried?
She folds her hands, glasses glinting softly, and waits with the patience of someone who has faced worse than a locked room. For the first time in days, Sally has someone in front of her who is there to listen.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confide in Amilia about your experiences
✓ Quest Accepted
Provide Amelia with all legal defense details
“I describe the Department's illegal experiments and the relay system and that Mrs. Dawn was a criminal.”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +0)
Sally
Sally lays it out, the Department ran illegal experiments, used relay nodes to push signals into her, and Mrs. Dawn was part of the cover-up.
Amilia does not interrupt. She slides one file open, then another, as if each detail has to find its place on paper before it can breathe.
Amilia Jacobs
That matters. More than a slogan, more than outrage, this is structure. Names, dates, chain of custody, who signed what, who touched the relay system.
Sally
Sally adds the relay boxes, the control loop, the way the Department used the network like a leash, and how Mrs. Vale sat at the top of it.
Amilia Jacobs
So it is a prison and a lab, braided together. Good. That is the shape of a case, and the shape of a threat.
Amilia’s pen moves fast now. She marks the file, then pauses when Sally mentions Mrs. Dawn, her expression sharpening without losing its calm.
Amilia Jacobs
Mrs. Dawn is connected to this too, then. If she is criminally involved, I can use that. I need every name you remember, every transfer point, every piece of evidence you still have.
Outside the room, distant locks engage somewhere deeper in the prison. Inside, Amilia closes her folder on Sally’s testimony and waits, ready for the next name.
Quest Complete
Provide Amelia with all legal defense details