"She deserves to be hanged! The least you can do is throw her in a cell."
"She saved the life of several people who are important to me, mister Nehast. I haven't yet decided if she's to be punished at all."
"But you have to! It's tradition!"
"Tradition, although a very good thing in many ways, is peer pressure from dead people. I don't think I have to punish this girl just because others in earlier years would have. I may start a new position."
Nehast saw that he was just making the man dig in his heels stubbornly. The opposition just made him more determined. The man was one of the kindliest to rise to power in many years, after all. His party was supposedly the stronger in the town, and it was only made stronger by the attempted murder of some of its members. Nehast gave a sigh. It was hopeless to try to persuade him that way...
***************
Meanwhile, Maira and Reesa laughed together. Reesa had been walking an had bumped into a table. Herbs had spilled on the floor, but instead of being angry, Maira had made a game of it. The two tried to find funny pictures in the way the herbs fell. After each picture, they picked up part of it and made another picture with what remained. Reesa had no idea that her fate was being discussed as she played.
"She saved the life of several people who are important to me, mister Nehast. I haven't yet decided if she's to be punished at all."
"But you have to! It's tradition!"
"Tradition, although a very good thing in many ways, is peer pressure from dead people. I don't think I have to punish this girl just because others in earlier years would have. I may start a new position."
Nehast saw that he was just making the man dig in his heels stubbornly. The opposition just made him more determined. The man was one of the kindliest to rise to power in many years, after all. His party was supposedly the stronger in the town, and it was only made stronger by the attempted murder of some of its members. Nehast gave a sigh. It was hopeless to try to persuade him that way...
***************
Meanwhile, Maira and Reesa laughed together. Reesa had been walking an had bumped into a table. Herbs had spilled on the floor, but instead of being angry, Maira had made a game of it. The two tried to find funny pictures in the way the herbs fell. After each picture, they picked up part of it and made another picture with what remained. Reesa had no idea that her fate was being discussed as she played.
