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Confession of Mistress Deirdry Noll
Given Wednesday, May 13th, 246 H.E., under Truthspell
Jane Street Kennel
"Oh I've always known Beka Copper. That Tansy Lofts too. I've knowed them from when we all lived on Mutt Piddle Lane. Why is this important? Well, if I am telling you about all this, I should start from the beginning.
"We was, all of us, barely getting by. Beka's poor mother with her lung rot, trying to raise Beka and her four siblings. And me trying to run my bakery and provide for my own. That Tansy was always stealing my works; I had to make up for the difference from my own pocket! I worked like a slave, to be able to get my family out, and all she ever did was take what was not hers and then she got the easy way out by marrying that Herun Lofts. It made me furious.
"Well, folk who got above themselves annoyed me too. One day after we had all moved away from Mutt Piddle Lane, I saw Amaya Painter walking down the street, wearing a ruby pendulum. She was no great mage; she had no use for the pendulum and here she was showing it off as if she were better than everyone else and her little brat kicking dust all over our market stalls. Well, she needed to be taught a lesson. I had my son Yates take her boy and I wrote her a note in charcoal saying that if she didn't leave the pendent in a temple, I would kill her boy. I signed it as the Shadow Snake. When she didn't leave the pendent, I had Yates dispose of the boy.
"I carried on like that for near three years. If I heard tell of someone who had something they oughtn't deserve I would send out Yates and his friends and send the family a note, signed as the Shadow Snake. In the beginning, not as many folks paid up, but, as word spread, more folks did.
"Then, a couple months ago, I head tell that Crookshank had found jackpots of opals, and was mining them in his houses. If I could get my hands on some of those opals, we could make a fortune. Stop having to work ourselves to death and stop with the Shadow Snake business. Yes, I was through with it. Once we had made our money, we were to be done. And here, also was my chance to get back at that brat, Tansy, for robbing me for all those years. Her son, Rolond, was to be first in line for the taking as Crookshank's great-grandson. She had taken away countless chances for me to have happiness, so I was going to take away hers. When Crookshank didn't pay up, I made sure Rolond didn't make it home, and then took Tansy's husband, Herun, leaving another note.
"It was around then that Beka started sticking her nose in. She was Tansy's good friend, see, and was investigating into the whole Shadow Snake business more than anyone had ever done before. Ran around, she did, talking to victims, asking about the ransom prices, talking to children who were gave back.
"I wouldn't have been too worried, except Beka wasn't too fond of Yates because she saw him bullying my good-for-nothing daughter, Gemma; she told her Dogs about it and they kept a close eye on him, to my great displeasure. See, they were regular customers. Always stopped by the stall for an eat while they were on duty. She had gotten wind of Crookshank's opal digging somehow, though I didn't know then.
"I sent Yates into hiding with his friends. I couldn't risk them, getting arrested for some other reason and then spilling the whole story when they were in the cages. They hid out at Sheepmire Tavern and took Lofts with them. It had sheds in the back, see. We persuaded the innkeeper to let them stay and provide them with food.
"It was all going well until I heard that the Dogs had found one of Crookshank's mines, set the diggers free and arrested all those who were found to be working there. I wasn't too worried; Crookshank had been mining long enough to have a very good-sized stockpile of opals stored away. It was Beka and her dogs who were in charge of the investigation, though, and I defiantly became more wary of them.
"Then cam the day of the riot. We were all staying in the house, waiting until the riot had stopped. Beka Cooper walks in, in her Dogs uniform dripping from the rainstorm going on outside. Gemma brought her to my office. She told us both that She and her dogs had caught Yates and, after confessing to being the Shadow Snake, he had killed himself.
"But then she looked at me and told me that they knew he was not the Snake; that they knew it was me. She said that she had recognized the lily necklace that I wear as something I had taken for a ransom. She was right, but I don't have any idea how she recognized that necklace. She hobbled me, though I fought her, and walked me and Gemma all the way back to the Jane Street Kennel. That's where I am now. The trial's tomorrow, a special eclipse session. I always did like Beka, but I don't think I will ever be able to forgive her for what she did to me."
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