The magistrate raises the carved scales above the bench. Frost gathers across one pan, whitening its edge, while the young clerk draws a fresh wax tablet beside the crowded first record.
The Magistrate
Kynd, did your ice restraint carry a cost that belongs in this judgment? Did your divine healing carry one as well, whether paid by you, by another power, or by those brought before this court?
The young clerk presses the stylus into the new wax. The four prisoners remain linked before the bench, watching the frost creep along the raised pan as though it might weigh their fate.
The Remaining Bandits
We were restrained, not spared. If magic carries a price, let the court name it plainly before it names restitution.
The Magistrate
Law does not excuse robbery because the victims resist, nor does it excuse excess because the offenders are guilty. Both burdens may stand in the same judgment.
The magistrate lowers the scales slightly. One pan settles beneath its frost, while the other trembles above the written account of the ambush, the dead leader, the weapons, and the journey to court.
The Magistrate
Answer carefully, traveler. The court will hear what your power cost, then decide what these prisoners owe, and what accountability the law may require of you.
“Pardon Magistrate, but what do you mean by cost? Mana is the source of all magic, and my Divine Blessing is from the God of Self Sacrifice, Freshar, and also *He draws a bounty poster from his book. He kept it when he ran into criminals, and has such memorized it* the man was wanted dead or alive by the country, the kill was justified as such”
FAILURE (Great Reasoning, rolled +0)
Kynd
Pardon, Magistrate, but what do you mean by cost? Mana fuels magic. Freshar’s Divine Blessing is given through self-sacrifice, not coin or debt.
Kynd reaches inside his book for the bounty poster he remembers preserving, but the expected sheet is absent. His fingers find only blank pages and binding.
Kynd
The dead man was wanted dead or alive by this country. I memorized the notice when I took it, and his killing was justified under that bounty.
Without the poster, the claim has no written warrant before the court. The clerk pauses over her wax tablet, while the frost-bound pan dips toward the prisoners’ account.
The Magistrate
Your knowledge of mana answers part of my question. Your blessing may still be lawful, but the bounty requires proof beyond memory.
The Magistrate
I will record your claim as an avenue, not a finding. The country’s bounty rolls, or a witness who can confirm them, may yet establish the justification.
The Remaining Bandits
Then let the court search its own records. If the bounty existed, it should not depend on a missing sheet.
✓ Quest Accepted
Clarify the cost of Kynd’s magic to the court
“*He then begins to explain that he recalled that the boss had been on a wanted sign a few days ago, dead or alive*”
FAILURE (Great Reasoning, rolled -2)
Kynd
I recall the dead leader appearing on a wanted sign several days ago. It named him wanted dead or alive, though I cannot recall the wording or reward.
The memory remains firm enough to place the sign, but its details dissolve before Kynd can offer a name, seal, or sum. The clerk’s stylus waits above the wax.
The Magistrate
Then your recollection establishes a possibility, not proof. Without the sign’s particulars, the court cannot yet connect that notice to the dead man.
The Young Clerk
Magistrate, wanted notices are copied into the city rolls. If the traveler remembers the man’s face and offense, I can search the entries for a matching record.
The young clerk turns to a clean section of wax and writes a brief note: roadside leader, notice seen days ago, dead-or-alive warrant remembered. The claim now has a path to verification.
The Remaining Bandits
Search the rolls, then. If the notice names him, the court can judge whether his death fell within the law.
The Magistrate
So ordered. The clerk will examine the bounty rolls, and this hearing will distinguish what memory supplies from what the records confirm.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish whether the dead leader was under a valid bounty