Chasing criminals might have sounded exciting, but spending hours traveling or going through tedious paperwork, with the occasional moment of mortal peril sprinkled in, left Yaric and his friends exhausted. Stress and boredom had squeezed or stretched them without pause. Now they were on a riverboat with one of the most powerful wizards alive, with their job done and a literal boatload of activities available to them.
So they all went straight to their cabins and slept.
A full night’s sleep did wonders for everyone, even if they were still up early. Some habits die hard.
Lauren intercepted Yaric on the way to breakfast, having left her cabin at almost the same time as him, and joined him on the walk to the dining room. They found Sven already on his first cup of coffee and silently watching the river flow by with Lloyd. It wasn’t long until Li Na arrived as well, just before the breakfast carts were brought out, starting a long slow day of lazing around and joking. Sven snuck off for a tour of the propulsion system, but otherwise all five simply relaxed and unwound.
“I’m going to request that you four be limited to appeals in Lekton for now,” Lloyd informed them that afternoon.
“Was there a problem with our performance?” Sven asked, sounding both concerned and confused.
“You’re worried about Ira,” Yaric said before Lloyd could reply.
“Worried is the wrong word, but something like that.”
“I’m sure he has more important things to worry about than coming after some Novices,” Lauren said.
“I have no doubt,” Lloyd replied with a nod. “More than that, I doubt he’d be so foolish as to do anything even if you walked right by him. Someone with his experience is unlikely to risk everything for petty revenge against kids who happened to be sent his way. If anything, it’s his partner who should be afraid. He’s the reason anyone looked into them in the first place. No, harming you four wouldn’t do a thing to help him and would only increase his risk of being caught.”
“Then why are we limited to Lekton?” Lauren asked, earning a nod from the other three.
“Because there is more at stake here. Too many questions. While I sincerely doubt anyone is going to step out of the shadows to try and harm you, someone may feel it’s worth the risk to find out what we know. I believe that there will be some very nervous people in the wake of your investigation.”
“But we already caught everyone,” Sven replied. “Everyone but the wizard.”
“There’s likely more at play.”
“Are you talking about the people who sent deliveries from the other three towns?” Yaric asked, leaning forward in his seat.
“Partly. Nothing any of you need to worry about for now, though I promise I will let you know if I find something concrete. For now you should all be focusing on your lessons. Yaric, you have your scouting trainers here. Make the most of it. I trust you’ve already seen just how little you knew when running around kobolds and looking for flags?”
“Running through kobolds more like it,” Li Na smirked.
“Yes, I didn’t really know anything besides what the Corporals taught me last time. The training I had during the evenings on expedition was actually mostly bushcraft. I didn’t realize how different scouting would be.”
“Good. And I hear you all have your extra lessons starting as well?”
“Horse riding lessons start in three weeks,” Li Na pointed out excitedly. “Oh, and there are trainers from an assault battalion here as well. They’re going to teach me shock troop skills and stuff.”
“I have scouting lessons with Yaric,” Lauren added.
“And I have some one-on-one crafting lessons,” Sven said.
“Good. Focus on your education. It would be embarrassing if you’re still too blind to see what’s right in front of you next time.”
“Too blind? We figured out the whole thing by ourselves,” Yaric protested.
“Did you? You worked out that Jamus Terrell was directly profiting from everything and might be involved as well? By yourselves? You didn’t find out when you walked right into an ambush? Literally walked into a small room lined with employees of the man you’re investigating, who all just happened to be standing around and waiting at the very spot they knew you’d be?”
“Uhhh…”
“There were four of you. Next time you collect some town guards or other officials, and at least one of you waits outside. But most of all, if someone is making money due to suspicious circumstances, treat them like a suspect. Be suspicious. If you are ever ambushed traveling somewhere, I’ll personally see to it that those responsible are hunted down, but if I get told that something happened to you after you strolled right into the hidden office of your prime suspect, I’ll be hunting you down.”
Lloyd’s tone made it clear to everyone that he was joking, but they still took his words to heart. Particularly as he’d just been asking about scouting classes. Yaric felt like the comparison before and after his scouting lessons were mirrored in their investigation. He’d had some classes, but they still knew next to nothing. Even complete amateurs could have traced the issue. As they themselves had just proven.
It was late in the evening when they arrived back in Lekton, too late for their appeal to be handed in. Lloyd had already completed the paperwork while they were on the riverboat, but they still needed to submit everything as the individuals who had taken the appeal. There was a clerk on duty for emergencies, but only emergencies, so it would have to wait until morning.
“Make sure you submit everything before your classes start tomorrow,” Lloyd warned them when they were back on campus.
“We will. First thing,” Yaric promised.
By the time they were in their dorm rooms it was so late that almost everyone was already in bed. All four joined them, happy to be back in their own rooms and back on campus.
----------------------------------------
“Says here High Wizard Chen requests immediate forwarding to Council Head Ivers,” the day clerk pointed out. "I can get it delivered in two hours, but there are no messengers on duty until then."
"That’s not an issue,” Sven replied, knowing that Lloyd would be aware of the limitations.
“There’s too much here for me to offer you an assessment of your results,” the clerk said distractedly, still reading through the paperwork, “but given that the issue was resolved, and there’s mention of criminal groups caught and a service rendered to a member of the nobility, I think it’s safe to say you will be scored very highly. Breaking up organized crime tends to have particularly high rewards. I’d say this counts.”
Sven nodded in acknowledgment before realizing that the clerk hadn’t noticed. “Thank you,” he added quickly.
“Don’t worry about it. This will be assessed by someone higher than me. I can’t say when that will happen, but you can check back here to see what your rewards are whenever you have the time. Just don’t come back too soon or we won’t have an answer.”
The clerk was still reading through the documents when they left, deeply engrossed in Lloyd’s report.
----------------------------------------
“They promised to hand everything in before class,” Lloyd complained, sitting in front of Sandy’s desk. They were discussing things in her office before other people needed her attention, and for once, without the whole Council present.
“It’s probably on the way still. Look how early it is,” Sandy replied with an amused smile.
“Everyone is so slow,” Lloyd grumbled.
“Tell me about it. I’ve spent the last two days trying to track down misappropriated money after a rounding error. But don’t act like you weren’t going to tell me the whole story anyway. What happened?”
Lloyd grudgingly went into the whole story, starting with the event that had occurred before he had joined the students. Sandy was smiling for most of it, but she was very unamused by the time Lloyd got to the attack on her student. She was frowning deeply by the time Lloyd had finished detailing everything he had since discovered about the case.
“We’re going to have to put out an alert for Ira. Do you have his details? I’ll need to have his records pulled.”
“Not with me, but everything’s in the report we’re waiting for. He’s not the only problem though.”
“The Baroness?”
“No, she was very amenable to us. She obviously wanted to try and reduce the hit to her own reputation, but she didn’t do anything at all to interfere with the investigation. On the contrary, she helped as much as she could.”
“Good. But then what is your concern?”
“Everyone else. There are the frequent deliveries from Yellowseed and Bellmare. And one other place, I don’t remember the name off hand. Those would have been collected, packaged, and sent by someone. Ira couldn’t possibly have handled everything personally. I suspect he didn’t get involved at all.
“Then there are the barges and boats that transported everything. It was always vessels owned by the same business. Not to mention whoever it is that received everything at the other end.”
“You think we should start looking into everything now? Don’t you want to wait for the results from Sarton?”
“No. This is a large organization. And it gets worse.”
Sandy raised her eyebrows expectantly and leaned back. She knew better than to play into Lloyd's hands, so she just waited patiently.
“The seals on the documents from here, they were real,” he eventually said with a sigh.
“Those documents declaring shipments to be chemicals from the Academy? They weren’t forgeries?”
“No, they were real. Someone here is involved.”
“But so many people here have access, it would be impossible to narrow down. How could a staff member be involved in smuggling?”
“Who’s to say that they are? There are a lot of ways someone could be misled. Even if they know they’re doing something wrong, they could easily believe they’re helping with something less serious. I don’t believe we have any reasonable chance of catching the culprit no matter what they believe they are doing, so I think our best course of action would be to simply let everyone know that we are aware of what is going on. Make them scared of getting caught.”
“We can’t simply look the other way.”
“No. But we can’t catch them either. At least this way anyone who is involved should stop. If we’re going to catch anyone it will most likely be by catching the accomplices outside the Academy. A full investigation should be launched into every other party.”
“I think we have enough to go on to get that started. I just hope we don’t spook the guilty party.”
“Why? They’re hiding in plain sight. What better way to catch them than to flush them out.”
“Maybe…” Sandy mused. “Treating this appeal fairly is going to be a nightmare.”
This time it was Lloyd’s turn to lean back into his chair and wait for Sandy to clarify.
“Two of the four students were sponsored by us. The rewards for something of this magnitude, which they discovered due to diligence in fulfilling an appeal that had an entirely different issue… well, they would be significant. And coming from Novices as well. Who recently won the...”
Sandy sighed deeply. “Those kids have had too much success lately. Their performance is now causing issues.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” Lloyd reassured her. “I’ve never had a student who didn’t overperform.”
Sandy stared at him with a deadpan expression. “You only have two students.”
“Two exceptional students,” he corrected her, making Sandy crack a small smile.
“Still, it’s going to raise eyebrows. These kids just keep earning rewards and accolades. If they could just keep their heads down for a few months, it would make everything so much easier.”
“Speaking of,” Lloyd added pointedly, “I also want to have them restricted to Lekton for the time being.”
“You believe they might be in danger?”
“Not in the way most would assume. I believe we’re going to be ruffling some feathers over the next few weeks. Those who are hiding in the shadows are going to be keenly watching what happens. No one will know if we’re going to be visiting them next. What better way to find out than to interrogate the kids who started the whole thing?”
“I can restrict them for a period, but we can’t hold them back. Danger is a part of the job.”
“The restrictions don’t need to last very long. Only long enough for us to kick the hornets’ nest and see where things settle. I suspect that people will be less afraid the longer things go without any attention on them.”
“Agreed. They cannot leave Lekton for now. But they can still take appeals within Lekton’s limits. I’m not going to take away their reward.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. Although there is one more thing I would ask.”
“Yes?” Sandy sighed.
“I want them to be issued with a summoning signal. In case things go wrong.”
“You realize that no Novice had ever been issued something like that?”
“I guessed as much. But if it isn’t something you can authorize yourself, you can always change the motivation behind it. Instead of giving them authority, you’re giving them a rescue beacon because we think they may need help.”
Sandy smiled widely. “Look at you, getting all political.”
Lloyd stared at her in dismay.
“I guess you’re a natural.”
A sudden knock on the door saved Sandy from Lloyd's response.
“Come in!”
The report had finally arrived, just as Lloyd was finishing up.
“I’ll see what I can do about the rod, but don’t get your hopes up. Now go, some of us work here.”
Lloyd scoffed and waved a hand over his shoulder, leaving Sandy to her work.
‘Which one of us was rounding up criminals and investigating organized crime, and which one was organizing an investigation into rounding crimes?’
----------------------------------------
It was good to be back in class. Every lesson had been fully covered in the class notes they’d received, but sitting with classmates and listening to their instructors was significantly different, and almost normal. As normal as their class ever got, anyway.
“Wyverns. You’ve all heard stories about them. The vicious cousins of dragons. And for those of you who were paying attention, you’ll remember that wyverns are not considered to be related to dragons, despite sharing a deeper link than almost any other species. Can anyone tell me why?”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Lorelle looked around the quiet class, clearly not expecting a reply. They’d all learned to tell when she was teaching them something unexpected. No other instructor enjoyed the drama and expectation of a big reveal as she did.
“Simply put, wyverns are not natural. They’re manufactured.”
“What?!”
“How?!”
Several people started trying to ask questions at once, forcing Lorelle to wave them down. She wasn’t at all upset though.
“There is no assembly line for wyverns. Nor does anyone believe that they’re still being made. What we do know is that the first wyverns appeared a few thousand years ago. There isn’t a lot of clarity on exactly who made them, or how. I’m going to start with the facts first.
“Wyverns are the result of a terrible, misguided attempt to create a dragon that could be controlled.”
The instructor wasn’t able to get any further with the questions already being thrown her way.
“Quiet. Ask your questions after,” she said loudly, firmly ending the discussion before it had time to get out of hand.
“As I was saying, someone attempted to make dragons that could be controlled. Their very name is a derivative of an old Elven word that means ‘to bring forth’. Now, you might think that such a thing is a horrible crime, and you’d be right. But it’s worse than you think. Not only did someone try to make a highly intelligent, sophisticated living thing into a docile, obedient animal, but they did so by experimenting on unhatched baby dragons. In a moment we’re going to examine the physical characteristics of wyverns, and I want you to keep this in mind when we do. Particularly the differences between wyverns and dragons. All of those changes are a direct result of the experimentation done upon those original eggs.
“The biggest mutation is not physical though. Wyverns are instinctual animals, far more similar to any other monster than the highly intelligent dragons they come from. But that doesn’t mean that they’re mindless. Even a wolf knows to avoid a city. Never forget that a wyvern is driven by instinct, and should one be hungry enough, they will take advantage of the dense prey population found in a small town. Something their strength and pure power enable them to do quite effectively.
“Now, open your books and turn to the page on their physical characteristics, and we’ll get started. The first thing you’ll note is that they are not as big as an actual dragon, usually growing no more than… Yes, Novice Tanner?”
“If wyverns were once dragons, why aren’t they part of the same family?” Kaeden asked.
“The dragons themselves decided that. They refused to be associated with creatures such as wyverns. Much like we don’t associate ourselves with any risen undead.”
“Then why didn’t the dragons stamp them out?”
“Would you want to stamp out human, dwarven, or elven children if they were mutated into something else? No, the dragons refuse to have anything to do with wyverns, but they also take exception to any hunting of the creatures. As far as they’re concerned wyverns are the poor, unfortunate victims of arcanists. Something that no one can argue against.”
“But then what about when they attack a village?” Vano asked.
“Luckily that is usually a very rare occurrence. Each event has to be treated in isolation though. Some dragons are more understanding than others.”
“What’s so hard to understand about defending ourselves,” Derrick asked, just as Lauren voiced her question.
“Usually rare?”
“One at a time,” Lorelle admonished.
Lauren gestured for Derrick to continue before he could respond, so Lorelle answered his question first.
“Think of it like this. If you were to see someone receive a bad bite from a dog, you would likely sympathize, wouldn’t you? But what if you found out that they abused that dog day in and day out, wouldn't you see the dog as the real victim? It’s much the same for dragons. We created the wyvern, disfiguring them and damaging them in the process. Most dragons consider the wyverns to be the victims, as I mentioned earlier, but many also consider a wyvern attack to be the consequence of our own actions. Some understand that the town under attack had nothing to do with the original crime, while others see the attack as justice. It all depends on which individual dragon we are talking about.
“As for your question, Novice Silver, attacks aren’t spread out evenly over time. They sometimes happen in clusters, like the recent attacks. And before you ask,” Lorelle hurriedly added as she raised a hand, “no, I cannot discuss the details of those attacks. They are not public knowledge yet.”
Lauren blushed at the warning. She’d had a similar experience with questions about the dragon ambassador, and truthfully, she had been intending to ask why they hadn’t got involved as well.
The rest of the class was spent asking questions, with the textbooks quickly forgotten. Any creature as powerful as a wyvern would receive a lot of attention, but the details behind their origin made them even more interesting than they would have been. So much information was still unknown. Were wyverns created as servants, or warriors? Were they intended to be treated as equals? Were they really created to form an army to launch an assault on the Abyssal Fields and drive back the monsters that plague every nation, as some rumors suggest?
Lunch was spent discussing the mysterious rogue wizard who had created the wyverns in the first place, along with their goals and current whereabouts. The most popular opinion was that he’d been eaten. By wyverns.
Law was even more shocking, because it was just as interesting as the lesson on wyverns.
“Settle down,” High Wizard Sniders began. “Today we are going to be looking at things within your existing understanding of the law, but with differences in objectives and priorities. You will find many occasions where the same crime can have different outcomes, or where conflicting motivations push you toward different decisions. Each example will be taken from a real event, so you can compare your thoughts and decisions with the actual outcomes. Please bear in mind that most crimes don’t have an ideal outcome. Some decisions are closer to justice than others, but that doesn’t mean they are entirely just. In the same manner, some outcomes are influenced by external factors, no matter how just or unjust it may seem.”
The instructor was looking around at the whole class as she spoke, but she kept glancing back at Li Na, much to her chagrin.
“Our first example involves laws that you should all be very familiar with. The first is that Prospects are not entitled to protection from the Academy and will often be tried by civilian authorities, as you all know. The second is the use of magic to inflict bodily harm. There are several others, but I want you to keep those two at the front of your mind.
“Not long ago we had an event whereby Prospects assaulted their fellow classmates. It was not a case of two groups arguing; the first group waited for the second, and they attacked suddenly and without warning while the second group was talking calmly.”
Li Na sat up bolt upright in her chair when she realized who they were discussing. Lauren and Sven were leaning forward as well, though Yaric was also watching High Wizard Sniders and her interaction with Li Na.
“I will not give you the story of how events unfolded, nor will I give you any opinions. Powerful intervention allowed some to witness the events behind the scenes along with all that transpired, as if they themselves were there. That allows us to accept many actions as fact.
“First, the three students involved planned the meeting in advance, discussing their options and how they would go about confronting their targets. Much of their conversation was flippant, and though there certainly were insinuations of violence and revenge, their explicit motive was to convince their targets to accompany them to members of the staff, in order to request the transfer of awards and accolades to the three students in question. That would obviously be impossible if their targets were injured or had any visible sign of duress. And here is the first point of focus. Keep in mind, however, that people with twisted worldviews seldom act within reason. It is possible that they intended to assault their targets. At the very least, no one can deny that they intended to use the threat of violence as a part of the planned coercion.
“The guilty party laid in wait for their targets in an out-of-the-way area and confronted them when there would be no witnesses. During their opening discussion one of those students lost their temper and physically struck their prime target. It was unprovoked and without warning. This first strike inflicted enough of an injury that they may have even augmented themselves slightly.
“All three of the students in question certainly augmented themselves from then on. One of their targets tried to defend her friend, and a full brawl developed. The guilty side consistently used magic against their targets, resulting in many injuries. This brings us to another complication.
“One student was severely beaten during the exchange. She suffered extensive damage that required urgent attention after she was left untreated for too long. But here’s the second point of focus. The student who assaulted her repeatedly paused his assault. He only continued to strike his victim when she continued to fight back. Each time he struck her again, then stopped to see if it was enough. That creates a separation between action and intent. He clearly didn’t assault her with the intent to do that much damage, yet that was the final result, for which he is fully responsible.”
Li Na scowled at the Sniders referring to her as ‘his victim’, but she continued to listen with rapt attention. Many of the other students were also paying more attention than usual, with some whispering to friends who hadn’t yet realized the significance of the current example.
“There is of course far more to the story than we have covered. The students in question initially lied to cover their actions, they had a history of confrontation with their targets, and much more besides. But I want all of you to focus on the key issues mentioned.
“You also need to take into account that these students were primarily driven by greed, arrogance, self-importance, and very, very large egos. Motive can play a significant role in sentencing any guilty party. Is the punishment punitive, or corrective? If someone steals through desperation, pressure, or simply foolish impulsiveness, there is a fairly good chance that an appropriate punishment would prevent such behavior in the future. Someone with a history of theft, however, particularly if they show no remorse, or are more concerned with being caught than having committed the crime, their punishment is more likely to be an attempt to protect everyone else. Removing people like that from society helps to keep the whole community safe.”
Several students were listening contemplatively. Unfortunately for them, Li Na noticed. Yaric had a front-row seat to several of his friends landing on her shit list. He cringed when he saw Li Na’s expression.
“There are also several priorities during the discussion about what to do with these students. Some were very clear. What is an appropriate punishment for their actions? How do we prevent a repeat? Others required balance. Arcanists like us are unfortunately also a resource, and talented arcanists even more so. How could we keep these arcanists within the Academy, and have them available to serve the Kingdom? But also, can we keep these students within the Academy, where they would soon start learning proper magic? We certainly don’t want Mages or Wizards who display the same behavior and thought processes.
“And if we were to expel them and hand them over to city authorities for a trial, what would happen to them in the future? They certainly won’t be executed for their actions, nor would they be imprisoned indefinitely. Do we want arcanists capable of augmenting themselves to be released out into the local communities when they have displayed the behavior we’ve seen? Why should someone have to first be another victim before we resolve the issue?
“You have ten minutes to discuss this case. I want to hear your own thoughts on what should have been done and why. Once we have discussed some opinions, we will look at what the actual outcome was.”
Furious discussions started throughout the classroom. Many were pointing at Li Na, but Yaric was surprised to see that quite a few people were also looking at him, Lauren and Sven. He’d become so accustomed to thinking of the event as the time Li Na wound up in the infirmary that he seldom thought of it as the time he was beaten up as well. Li Na’s recent attitude to the event had pushed his focus even further onto her.
“Is there really anything more to discuss?” Lauren asked. “We’ve already spoken about this so many times. And we know more about what happened than High Wizard Sniders mentioned.”
“Don’t care,” Li Na confessed. “I just want to get to the part where she tells us what happened to them.”
“It’s not going to change anything,” Sven warned.
“Yeah it will. I have no idea what they got for attacking us, but when she tells us that will change to knowing exactly what they got for attacking us.”
Their instructor was currently pacing around the classroom, listening in to the discussions and pausing frequently to answer any questions her students might have. She continued moving around the classroom until she came past Yaric and his friends.
“Are you ready to give your suggestions for how this case should have been handled?” she inquired with a smile.
“I’m not sure we should,” Sven responded. “It wouldn’t be right for the people who were transgressed to pass judgment.”
“People involved?” the High Wizard asked with a gasp. Her poor acting skills were embarrassing. “I only know of one incident that involves you four, and I don’t have permission to discuss that event. We can only discuss events in detail when they are public knowledge or discuss vague and undefined events when they are not. Any similarities to an event you know of are surely coincidental.”
“We must be confused,” Li Na said, grinning smugly.
Sniders gave her a knowing smile and a quick nod before moving back to the front of the classroom.
“All right, if anyone wants to offer their suggestions, raise your hand. We will go one at a time.”
Several people started vying for attention.
“I think we’re focusing too much on who committed the crime, instead of who they targeted,” Tracy began. “The crime was against a student, so instead of a disciplinary hearing there should have been a full trial before the Council.”
That raised an entirely new point and a whole other discussion. Several minutes were spent weighing the pros and cons of her suggestion.
“They should be demoted to one of the earlier years,” Gerrick suggested. “There’s no way anyone would risk it happening again.”
This time most people were firmly opposed to the idea. No one was all that comfortable with the idea of shame used as punishment, at least not to that extent. And several people brought up the problem of much younger students being stuck with older, stronger, and more experienced students with a history of aggression and arrogance. Many students thought such a punishment would make them worse, not better.
“They should have been tried for attempted murder,” someone else confidently declared. It was Barney, whom Yaric recognized as a member of Li Na’s little fan club. Many students had clearly been waiting for a similar suggestion because people immediately began clamoring for attention. Barney wasn’t done though. “But like you said, arcanists are valuable resources. They also tried to deprive the Kingdom of some of those resources, and that has to be taken into account. Those resources need to be protected.
‘Idiot,’ Yaric sighed to himself. ‘He clearly doesn’t know Lina very well.’
Li Na was glaring daggers at him.
The next suggestion was ridiculous, but unlike Barney, Logan did know Li Na.
“They should be locked in a room with the people they attacked,” he suggested. “No rules, only consequences. Let Li… whoever he ambushed teach him a lesson. She’s perfectly capable of getting revenge herself. Ummm…” he started stammering, “I mean, she’s an arcanist, so I’m sure she would be. Whoever she is.”
This time Li Na was nodding along and grinning. She obviously thought that it was a great idea.
The next thirty minutes were spent listening to suggestions ranging from one extreme, such as allowing the students to continue with reduced privileges, to raising the possibility of execution. Li Na herself looked uncomfortable at the thought of Andrew and the others being executed for what happened to her. Lauren was the same, but Yaric was shocked to see that Sven wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea. Or at least, he seemed to give it some thought, even if he very obviously supported less extreme suggestions.
At least half of the suggestions took some of the instructor’s points into consideration while completely ignoring others. She was repeatedly forced to remind them that all priorities had to be considered. Or as she put it, ‘a balance had to be maintained’. It was relatively easy to decide on a single priority and go all in, but finding a way to keep every aspect in mind was far more difficult.
Finally, High Wizard Sniders called for silence.
“We’ve heard many interesting suggestions so far. Some were very good. But before we look at what the actual sentence was, I do need to mention one thing. Just because it may be different from your idea doesn't mean your idea is necessarily wrong. We’re all different. Each of us prioritizes different things, sees things from different points of view, or has a different understanding of the objective. This is true for almost any case you will face.
“Now, for the students in question, there were two decisions made, each with their own reasons. First, it was decided that they should be given the option to continue studying.”
Several people started protesting loudly at the High Wizards disclosure.
“Wait, I’m not finished. This is not the punishment they received. And they were not given the option to continue studying as if nothing happened; the option came at a cost. If they wanted to be able to continue their studies, they needed to show remorse and the desire to make amends. As such, they were offered the opportunity to work here for room and board, doing menial labor. If their performance is satisfactory after three years of service, they will be given the opportunity to continue where they left off.
“But even this right had to first be earned. They first had to serve their sentence for the actual crime. It was decided that punishing a mere Prospect ourselves could reflect badly on the Academy and may serve as a form of protection for people who had not yet been accepted as full students. So, the tribunal decided to lay charges with the civilian courts. If the students chose to take the three years of service to the Academy, we would suggest a lenient sentence in service of the Kingdom. If not, we would ask for the maximum possible sentence. The guilty party was not aware of these caveats, however.
“They chose to follow their sentence with service to the Academy, so we requested a more lenient sentence. Their final judgment was eight years in the engineering corps. All three students would fight with the army during hostile engagements and provide manual labor for the combat engineers outside of battle. Once their eight years are completed, they may come back here and spend three years in service to the Academy, after which they may resume their classes.”
Opinions varied widely. Some saw the time they would serve and thought it fell on the harsher side, while others were unhappy that they would mostly be performing physical labor, which they complained was not much different from their earlier years at the Academy.
High Wizard Sniders needed to quieten everyone down before she could explain the motivation behind each decision.
“I’ve already told you why we wanted the civilian courts to decide the punishment, but there is more to it. The same goes for why we requested military service. We needed these students to understand that there was no support for the actions, none whatsoever. They seemed to believe that there were some conflicting ideas or ambiguity. Leaving them to the civilian courts made clear that they were on their own.
“Performing hard labor for the military serves as punishment and service to the whole Kingdom. In my opinion it will also help them to learn some discipline. Following orders from people far weaker than them could very well help with the arrogance they consistently displayed. Eight years of strict discipline can do wonders in some cases. They will also be sharing in the hardships of the rest of their unit. Seeing the unconnected struggle or receiving help from the people beside you can change your perspective about those weaker than yourself.
“Once they’ve served their term we will have a clear record of their conduct, and voluntarily serving the Academy for a further three years will give a clear indication of the commitment. Once again, it is my hope that serving other students for three years might also help to teach some humility as well.
“Either way these students will serve an eight-year sentence for their crimes, have the opportunity to recognize and overcome their mistakes, and hopefully one day be productive members of our society. And if they fail to show remorse, we have several safeguards in place that will help us to pick that up before they start learning proper magic. All without throwing powerful individuals out onto the street with little opportunities and a history of assault.
“Is it a perfect solution? No. Are many people going to disagree with their sentence? Of course. Is there any option that would make everyone happy? Absolutely not.”
And she was correct. Many students were not happy with the outcome, least of all those who advocated for more extreme penalties. Tracy pointed out that the decision focused mostly on the possible futures of the guilty party, and didn’t show as much concern for those they had assaulted. Others felt that emotions had gotten out of hand, leading to a single, unintended mistake that would now ruin the next decade of their lives.
The class didn’t begin to settle down until Sniders turned to Li Na.
“And you, Prospect Jakobson? How do you feel about the outcome of the hearing?”
The entire room instantly fell silent.
“Dunno,” Li Na shrugged, her voice sounding loud in the eerily quiet classroom. “They got what they deserved. So long as I don’t have to see them or hear them ever again, I don’t care where they are.”
“But are you happy with the sentencing?”
“I was already happy. I was happy when Yaric took his flag from under his nose like a sneaky scout. I was happy when Sven smacked him around and took his ribbon. I was happy when Lauren kicked his ass in front of a big crowd and left him lying in the dirt. And I was happy when I knocked him out with my mace – twice!”
Most of the class started snickering quietly in their seats.
“He never beat me. He couldn’t stop me. The wizard who stopped the fight had to lift Andrew into the air to keep him safe…”
“I think you’re going off-topic,” Sniders interrupted, trying to suppress her smile. “Nothing you just mentioned are confirmed details in the example we are discussing."
Yaric, Lauren, and Sven all watched Li Na carefully. They were pleased to see her looking so comfortable with the outcome. She even looked like she’d moved on.
"I would like to know," Sniders continued, "what would you have thought if you’d been present during the sentencing and heard the outcome yourself? What would you have said after the sentencing of the undisclosed case we have been discussing.”
“Me?” Li Na asked.
“Yes.”
“Me.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand?”
“Me."
"Me, me, me, me, me, me…”