It gave him no pleasure to witness the trials, yet it was necessary. Apart from it being an unskippable step in the process of ridding the place of its most damaging outlaws, he vowed to not repeat the mistake of not being personally involved in everything that happened. It was the exact same place as last time he had pirates judged in a row, except overseeing it all were not three people, but only two.

"Mister Stede Bonnet" he heard the judge reciting downstairs "nicknamed The Gentleman Pirate. You are accused of two counts of high seas piracy. The first written testimony we have received-"

"-there is no need to read them to me" Bonnet interrupted, prompting a dead silence from everybody "I do not wish to defend myself. I am guilty of high seas piracy and I do accept my sentence"

Woodes could not help but feel respect for the man's gesture, and perhaps even a little bit of envy towards it. There was something ironically heroic in going down for high seas piracy and at the same time there was something oddly relieving in knowing one's imminent and inevitable end. As the judge sentenced the pirate to death, he heard a faint sigh escaping Max's lips. He could tell that she was trying to not let sentiment show on her face, however, it was clear that the latest days had affected her. It was a strange feeling he got from seeing at her in that moment, as if she was not worried about herself, but about somebody else. She looked exactly like mothers do when their sons take to sea, watching the ship disappear on the horizon, after they have wished all that they could wish and all that remained was for fate to take its impassible course.

"I know who you would have chosen if I have gave you the freedom for it" he quietly told her

Her gaze was lost forward and her lips absently opened and closed a few times before she replied:

"You know that Jack and Anne are my friends and I know that they are your enemies. When they heard of your return and of my wish to stay, we parted peacefully, knowing that we both chose different paths, knowing that I cannot stop you from hunting them. I do not beg you to spare them, because I know you will not, though I have to admit that I hope you would one day give up on the thoughts of revenge that you must currently have. I hope that personal feelings and ambitions will not interfere with the order you are trying to instill here"

"That cannot be the only thing you hope for".

In contrast to how composed she had been in the last days, and especially the day before, it looked like some new thought was bothering her. He did not need to ask her what it was, as she must have known better than to look like she was withholding something from him.

"Mister Rogers, I admit to my worry that one day you would put me in the difficult position of asking me to betray my friends in some way"

"I won't. You told me that Jack and Anne had ran away and I take your word for it. Not that I believe you would tell me the absolute truth in their regard, but I rather believe they told you they ran away far from this place to keep you safe from me"

She turned around to look at him, but kept silent, leaving his ears full of the rumbling downstairs as one guilty man was condemned after the other. Yet even if she looked quite relieved to hear this from him, he could still sense some melancholy in her, hinting that he did not hit the right spot.

"Or maybe … you do not fear my determination when it comes to Jack as much as you fear Jack's determination when it comes to me. Maybe what worries you is that he will not leave his feelings or ambitions aside and he will ask you to overthrow me, putting you in a most uncomfortable position"

She did not reply, but the way her gaze fell down let him know that he perfectly read her mind.

"Miss Elisabeth Durand" the judge recited "Nicknamed as Betty the Widow. You stand trial today. As unlicensed creditor, you stand accused of possession of stolen goods, using intimidation and physical violence on your clients, and blackmailing."

"Sir" the woman replied "First of all, I do have a licence"

She was one of the names that Max had given him, with all three of them being relatively recent arrivals to the island, so he paid careful attention to her. The woman was bound in an odd manner, with the chains wrapped around her wrists and fastened with a lock, as the cuffs they used must have been too big to constrain the woman's tiny hands and wrists. She had black hair, worn into what has been intricate braid, ruined by the nights she must had spent in the cell, and she wore a completely black mourning dress, as her nickname suggested she might. The combination of her features and dress made her look grim, despite her otherwise youthful look. Still, there was something unsettling about seeing a woman chained so uncomfortably, a feat which he found to also be quite useless. She couldn't have weighed more than one hundred and twenty pounds at best, she was in a room filled with soldiers and she certainly didn't look like the violent type. Besides, the long and heavy dress she wore was probably more of an impediment to running than chains could ever be. She clumsily wiped away some tears from her face with her tightly bound hands, yet her tone was quite aggressive and her eyes, which were a little too big for her face, looked as if she was accusing the judge and not the other way around.

"Miss Durand" the judge spoke "the books for your official crediting business state that you have made profits of only twenty thousand pounds over seven years and a loss of forty eight thousand pounds. How then do you explain your current wealth of one hundred twelve thousand, five hundred and sixty four pounds, if not unlicensed crediting?"

"Sir, I owe the money to my inheritances, as I have found myself on a most unlucky streak of short-lived husbands. Now not only are you persecuting me for daring to profit off of my extraordinary misfortune, but you have also chained like some rabid dog!"

Although Woodes found himself holding in a chuckle at hearing her defense, it made him wonder why the woman chose this rather odd strategy.

"Does she know of our little arrangement?" he asked Max

"No, this is how she is. No matter how cornered or desperate, she acts as if the opposite was true"

He almost did not believe Max until he saw the woman's gaze going up towards her. By the surprise and confusion on her face, it was clear to him that she did not know why Max was there, possibly not knowing that she was alive in the first place and maybe she didn't even know who he was.

"Among the people indebted to you" the judge went on "there are several men who miss various knuckles from their fingers, along with other signs of bodily harm. Your collectors have been terrorizing people with violence."

"I am sorry, can you repeat that?" the woman inquired, turning back to face the judge, as if his talking had interrupted her thoughts

Woodes did not need see the judge's face to notice his annoyance, as he could see that his hand was rubbing his forehead and his shoulders raised up and down in a sigh.

"Among the people indebted to you" he repeated "there are several men who miss various knuckles from their fingers, along with other signs of bodily harm. How do you defend yourself?"

"Among people who are not indebted to me there are some who miss entire limbs. Am I guilty of that too?"

The remark brought back a certain a certain memory from the back of his mind: "One day at a time, I suppose". As if coming back to this place was not enough, as if talking to the same people was not enough, there had to be something more to remind him of Eleanor. He had suffered losses before, so he knew what to expect, though facing the world after three years of relative isolation made it harder. Each time he saw some blonde curls, each time he saw any woman wearing a blue dress he found himself startled, though in time some details remained, some of them faded and at one point he realised that he had almost forgotten her face. Her ghost, or whatever gruesome trick of his mind it was, had faded in details just the same, all that remained being the flutter of a skirt here or the shine of blonde hair there. What did not and could not fade were the guilt he beared and the facts of the whole story. One such fact was that chains and a condemnation did not stop Eleanor from taking her power and influence back. It was the way she was, as if it were a law written in stone about her.

"Innocent" the judge declared, as the woman looked absolutely dumbstruck, switching her gaze between the judge, him, Max and about everybody present, until she saw herself unchained and directed outside to make room for the next prisoner

"As I promised" he quietly told Max "All the three people you've named have gone free."

"And I promise that they will collaborate. I also have to admit, this seems to be a better idea than pardons. Back then, anybody would have seemed reasonable to ask for a pardon, since everybody got one, but I don't see how anybody in their right mind would dare ask to be found innocent in a trial"

"There is more to it. I minimise the risk of people begging me for a pardon for useless or false information. If anybody comes to me now claiming to switch sides, I will be sure that whatever information he gives me is worth switching and is worth taking the risk"