[Player Log Start!]

[Log Holder: Verity Monroe]

[Level: 2]

Verity kept her head high as the metal clamped onto her wrists. They hadn’t brought any other restraints, but she wasn’t looking to struggle, anyway. Such a thing would have her falling to her death into the oceans.

So, she let them whisk her away, claws digging into her tender flesh, leaking blood out of where they pierced her skin. It was almost comforting, the pain a sharp reminder that she was vulnerable and at least composed of the same limitations that a human was.

Not too much, though. It was never good when she felt pain to the point that it overrode her self-control. The crows balanced the levels perfectly, though, and if she kept her eyes closed, she could imagine that she was sitting on a bed of nails on solid ground. Well, the sound of wingbeats and the feel of the wind whipping around her kind of broke that illusion, but still.

Verity did not like flying. She did not like to be powerless. Even if she was being marched off to her execution, she would like to do it under her own power, thank you very much.

Somewhere ahead of her, there was cawing. Discussion. The crows shifted around her, changing course slightly. That was the sign she needed to crack her eyes open and see what the fuss was about.

In front of her, there was a flying mass of rocks. A blot of brown and grey and mottled green against the yellow sky, with no sight of land in any area. She cringed and squeezed her eyes shut again, more worried about the lack of land than the floating island.

The crows didn’t bother with any comfortable landing. They just threw her onto the ground in a heap, twigs scraping against her skin and her jacket knocked askew. She scrambled around, quickly righting herself and grabbing any guns and knives that had slipped out in the fall.

“Warn a girl, would you?” She scoffed, looking around. She had been thrown onto a platform of firm ground, mostly soil, but woven through with roots and plant matter. In front of her, the path dipped down into a bowl-like structure.

A sharp beak pecked at her back, forcing her forward. She stumbled, glaring behind her, but followed the directive and started walking down the path and into the bowl. Now that she had gotten a better look around, she came to the realization that this wasn’t actually an island, now that she could see what was going on. It was more like a clod of earth and soil and tree branches molded into… a nest.

“So, is this the Main Nest?” She asked, following the bird hopping in front of her, hyper aware of the many more hovering behind her, ready to slash her to bits for one wrong move. She didn’t see why they were going through the whole charade of giving her a trial when it was obviously going to end in a guilty verdict and an execution anyway. In fact, it had to end in a guilty verdict, otherwise they would turn their sights on the others to find the actual guilty one and realize that Terry was the moldy-haired boy everyone was talking about.

And if Terry died, not only would they lose a much more reliable member than her, but also Asadullah too, as who knew how he would react to it?

No, if they had to sacrifice anyone, it would be Verity. She was more than willing to take up that burden.

They took her into the very center of the nest, and the population of birds quickly increased, with more and more birds clustering around her and hovering above. She kept her head forward, but her eyes were flicking around everywhere, taking stock of every type of corvid bird. There were more than just crows and ravens here. There were starlings and magpies and jays, and… a lot of surprisingly blue birds.

One sharp peck to the shoulder, and she took a sharp right turn, finding her feet sinking into a soft patch in the nest. She almost believed that she was going to fall right through, and be sent into free fall, no matter how far up this nest was. But it held firm. It was instead the nest material that was reaching upwards, trapping her inside with walls that would have been strong if she wasn’t stronger than a bird.

Verity tested her arms against it, feeling it crumble a little. Good. So, if they tried to capture the others and subject them to this, they would be able to break out no sweat. Not Verity, though. She was willing to sit through this farcical trial.

All around her, the birds were coming down to roost, all sitting down in circles and circles, lining the inside of the nest, with her in the middle, near the base.

In front of her, a large raven the size of a particularly chubby raccoon was flipping through the air, ebony wings and tail feathers tipped with navy blue. Its call was rich and throaty as it flew around, cawing and screeching up a racket, voice carrying much further than she expected it to. It seemed to be addressing the entire nest at once, even.

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Then, this blue raven turned towards her. Expecting an answer.

“I’m sorry.” She replied flatly, “I didn’t understand any of that. I don’t speak Crow.”

A gasp went through the entire audience. Oops.

The leader crow from the Avian Judicial Enforcement Force landed lightly on a twig sticking out of her cage. It took at her sternly with its left eye, “Sir Manewit is not a crow. He’s-”

“A raven.” Verity replied, “Yes, I know. What’s the difference?”

The agitation in the crowd was skyrocketing. While Verity didn’t understand why the reaction was so severe, she wasn’t upset at the result. This was what she wanted. To make them think she was guilty, so that they would execute her, dismiss her as the only troublemaker of the group and then move on to make better relations with the rest of her Party. It was all going according to plan.

“The difference is that ravens are bigger. Stronger.” The bird explained, “And most importantly, they rank above us in the hierarchy. It is disrespectful to insinuate that they are one of us.”

Verity scrunched her eyebrows, “That’s… vaguely problematic.” She pointed out.

“We do not care for your outdated opinions, human.” It replied, cleaning its beak on the fragile roost it had chosen. So, they were going this route, were they? Not exactly something she had the patience for.

“Yeah, well…” She cleared her throat, “We all saw how much I cared for your opinions too, didn’t we? That’s why this whole thing is happening.”

That seemed to make the crow remember what they were here for. It made a hoarse coughing sound, before continuing, “Right, well, I shall repeat to you what I said to them in the Dead Tongue of Mankind.”

“English really isn’t the only language spoken by Man-”

“To quote: Residents of the Main Nest! We are gathered here today in this austere trial room to see our fallen comrades receive justice! The Judicial Enforcement Force brings to the stand, under his own volition, the human who claims to be responsible. For full transparency, he will now repeat his testimony of the event, before the trial will properly commence.”

Now, Verity had never been part of a trial before, but she wasn’t certain that this was how it was meant to go. But whatever. New species, new rules.

She puffed up her chest, and put on as much of Jared’s pompous douchebag swagger as she could manage while stuck in a pen too narrow for her to even stretch her arms out fully in, “Yeah, I did it.” She admitted wholesale, “The crows were all around us. They sent us into a pit and were trying to kill us. We wouldn’t have walked out alive if it wasn’t for my quick thinking. The others might not have had the balls to make that decision, but I absolutely fucking did.”

She wasn’t well-versed in the art of reading bird body language, but the outraged caws were unmistakable. The crow sitting in front of her shot her another dirty look as it took to the sky, cawing.

In his place, the translator crow, slipped in, and quickly began muttering along a translation of his words to Verity, “My flock! His words may be vitriolic and hateful, but we must remember our commitment to justice! A fair trial is warranted to even the most unsympathetic of sapient creatures. That is what the Judicial System was built on, and I will not allow our decades long streak of clean trials be besmirched by this- this- beast!”

Huh. She felt almost… touched. Good on this guy for having principles.

“Now, may I please extend an invitation to the esteemed Judge, Raven Hornby, who will be delivering the final verdict on such matters.” It held its wing out, the other one working double time to keep it aloft, as a massive shadow emerged from the lip of the nest, and descended into the very middle, scant meters away from Verity herself.

She found herself taken aback, gaping ridiculously at what stood in front of her.

It was a raven. But a huge raven. Like, the regular ravens she had already thought were too big, but this one was almost as large as a child. It shouldn’t even be able to fly, the way she understood physics. But it did. And it had. And it was standing in front of her, right now, watching from an eye so big that her entire face was easily reflected in it.

“The prosecutor is in the form of our first Major from the Judiciary Branch.” Raven Hornby spoke, and its voice wasn’t hoarse and throaty like all the others’ were. It was velvety smooth, with practiced ease and understanding. Either it had worked very hard on its mimicry, or its voice was aided by unnatural means.

“And the defender…” It continued, turning a massive beak towards her, “Will be Captain Lapika.”

That was… a bit of a shock. She hadn’t expected her to get a defense. Now, who was Captain Lapika? She turned her head around, waiting for another bird to come out from the feathery mass lining the nest. No one did. Did they give her a fake defense lawyer?

The translator crow leaned towards her, its head dipped conspiratorially, “Captain Lapika is the one who fetched you.” It told her.

Verity looked up at it in surprise, as Lapika continued to beat its wings sharply. She didn’t think that it would have cared enough to go to bat for her. Maybe that was the point? Give her a shitty lawyer and sentence her to death.

Still though, when Lapika landed on the edge of her stand, she leaned over to whisper, “Yo, good for you. Defending the murderer.”

“It’s my duty.” It replied, eyes flashing, “And I will do my best to accurately represent your case, so you must be truthful with me, human.”

“I’ve been nothing but honest.” Verity replied, lips twitching up into a half-smile, showing off her sharp teeth. Inside, her heart was beating like a drum.

“Don’t bullshit me, I believe the phrase is.” Lapika responded.

In front of them, Raven Hornby spoke, “If found innocent, we will return him to his flock, with our most sincere apologies. If found guilty, we will execute him in the normal way those responsible for this crime; by feeding them to the young of us Head Ravens.”

The nest shifted, clumps of soil and grass tearing apart to reveal a clutch of baby birds nestled in a pit beneath the base of the nest. Baby birds the size of her face.

A slimy octopus was thrown into the pit, and the group descended on it, ripping it apart into a flurry of blood and gore.

Verity felt sick at the sight for the very first time.

[Player Log End!]