Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or any of its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.
Rating: M, for graphic violence
Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Origins, Awakening, Origins DL content, and Dragon Age II as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling.
Chapter Sixty-One: The Difference Between Vengeance and Justice, Part Two
"Is he gone? By the Maker, Loghain - I am certainly glad to see you. Quickly, help me up so we can get out of here. My guard will take care of this murderous knife-ear."
Silence, as oppressive as the heavy hand that remained, pressing down, on the back of Vaughan's neck.
"Listen, I don't know what you're playing at, but this has gone quite far enough. Now let me up."
"I told you what would happen, Vaughan, if I found out you were doing what you oughtn't here in the alienage."
"What? You can't be serious. You are not going through with this ludicrous trial business - it's farcical."
"If you think justice is farcical, Kendalls, then that explains exactly how you got to this place."
"This is outrageous! I demand you release me at once!"
"When I heard cases in Gwaren I allowed those on trial the right to maintain their silence. I suggest you exercise that right yourself. Aside from the very real possibility that what you say might influence my personal opinion of you, which I'm already struggling to set aside in the interests of unbiased judgment, I'm really quite sick of hearing your voice. You give me a headache."
"You - you - you have no right to hear cases in Denerim! This is not Gwaren's jurisdiction!"
"No, but it is the Crown's jurisdiction. While they haven't officially given me the right to hear cases for them, I'd prefer to beg forgiveness than ask permission in this instance. After all, I had that right under the rule of Anora and Cailan, and it was never officially revoked that I knew of."
"You're mad - insane!"
"You're hurting your case. Shut. Up."
Loghain sighed and pulled the Arl up off the ground. Vaughan's face registered a degree of relief until Loghain back-dragged him toward the makeshift wooden staging platform where the elves held weddings and festivals and sat down on the edge of it with another tired sigh as he pushed Vaughan down onto the ground in front of him. "This is turning into one hellacious long day."
Elves began to assemble around the vhenadahl, keeping a wary distance from both noblemen. Hahren Valendrian came, and stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a worried expression on his face. "I do hope that the community does not pay for this," he said.
"You won't, Sergeant," Loghain said.
"I'll have the alienage cleared out completely - all of you rotten knife-ears will pay for this insult," Vaughan said, and Loghain cuffed him on the back of the head.
"You just don't know when to shut your stupid mouth, do you, boy?"
Loghain Tabris came running up shortly thereafter, hotly pursued by a small contingent of the Arl's elite personal guard. Loghain rose to his feet and thundered a command at them to cease and desist. Confused, the men stopped as ordered.
"M'Lord, this man was seen to abduct the Arl of Denerim at knifepoint," the guard captain said.
"This man is my bailiff, Captain. Arl Vaughan is on trial for the crimes of rape and battery. Stand down."
The guards were clearly taken aback, and more confused than ever. They seemed to debate the wisdom of rescuing their Lord and employer versus the wisdom of disobeying direct orders from the restored Teyrn, Consort or whatever, of Gwaren. To a man, they stood down.
Tabris, newly appointed bailiff of this makeshift court, cleaned himself up a bit and, with only a little residual doubt clinging to his person, moved to stand nearer the prisoner, who did not for the moment have a hand upon him - merely a very large albeit half-grown mabari eyeing him with a narrow scrutiny that boded ill for him if he attempted to move.
"All right, let's get this amateur circus under way," Loghain said. "Bailiff Tabris, you will present the charges please?"
Never having so much as witnessed a trial before, Tabris fervently hoped he would not be called upon to say anything too official-sounding. "Arl Vaughan raped my wife, and beat her, about a month ago, Your Grace; she was hurt so bad she hasn't fully healed, yet."
"Serious charges. Is there any other charge that you…or anyone else…would care to bring against Arl Vaughan?"
There was silence for a time, and Loghain gently prompted, "Perhaps you are unaware, but while many nations set limitations on the length of time one has to level charges against the perpetrators of crimes deemed lesser than murder, Ferelden has never done so. We are seeking justice for all who have been wronged by this man, if it so happens that he has done wrong to more than this one woman. The number and severity of the charges he is found guilty of will weigh heavily in the consideration of proper sentencing."
After another short silence, a dark-haired elven man pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He stood there a moment, wringing his hands nervously, and then stammered out, "Your Grace…Arl Vaughan ordered his men to kidnap my daughter, Nola. I don't know who did it exactly, but because of those orders, my little girl is dead, now. Murdered."
"I was there," red-haired Shianni said, from where she stood by the door of Tabris' house. "I saw it happen. I don't know if the guards who did it were acting with or against orders, but they had no good reason to kill Nola, none at all, and they obviously didn't fear censure, either. And then Arl Vaughan and his cronies took turns raping and beating me. I'd be dead now, too, along with the other girls who were kidnapped, if Lo - if Lightning and Cousin Soris hadn't come to our rescue."
Fired by example, others began to come forward, painting a grim picture of what the alienage had suffered over many years. There were parents and siblings who told tearful tales of daughters and sisters stolen away forever, some whose bodies had never been found. There were dry-eyed, whey-faced women who told of their own encounters with the Arl, which in numerous cases were barely survived. Some of these women told of things that had happened to them when they were no more than children, and some were no more than children who came forward to break their painful silence, and Loghain felt his hatred for this foul man rise to entirely new levels.
"Other than the victims themselves, have there been any witnesses to any of these crimes?" Loghain asked. "Anyone who is willing to say what they saw with their own eyes?"
No one spoke for a long time. Vaughan had, after all, been quite open with his abductions but relatively private about his assaults. Loghain didn't need further witnesses, but he wanted them. He wanted every witness and every charge he could get against this beast, because no matter whether Alistair and Anora approved of his actions or not, there would be fallout. He intended that it should fall upon his head and not that of the Denerim elves, but all Vaughan's cronies, and all the nobles who would fear the precedent he set here today, would rage and flail and pick apart his actions, looking for some way to discredit him. The procedure needed to be as unassailable as possible. This ruling would stand.
He was about to give up when a slight disturbance by the vhenadahl caught his attention. A tiny blonde-haired girl tugged at the Hahren's shirt and whispered in the old man's ear when he bent down to hear her. Valendrian straightened up with a look of disconcertion on his face, but he said, "Your Grace, young Adaia Tabris says that she saw the attack upon her mother, Nessiara."
In Ferelden there existed a peculiar and rather quaint notion, at least from Loghain's perspective, that children below age ten or so made for perfect witnesses as they were incapable of lying. Loghain knew better, for he had a daughter who, at the tender age of six, looked him dead in the eye and coolly told him that the reason so many bottles were broken in the royal wine cellars, where she and Prince Cailan were playing, was that they had been attacked by an army of ogres. Still, there were enough fools who believed children utterly incorruptible to make hearing this witness a very good thing, and the girl had little reason to lie in this instance, and had no chance to be coached on what to say since the elves could never have expected to be heard in any sort of court.
"Please, child - step forward and tell me what you saw," Loghain said.
The little girl sidled into the clearing, looked doubtfully at Arl Vaughan kneeling dumbfounded in the dirt, and seemed to lose her courage. Loghain saw that and spoke again.
"Don't be afraid, little one. Your father is right here beside me, and no one is going to let you be hurt. You look very much like your grandmother, did you know that? She was one of my soldiers, long ago. She was a very brave woman, too - one of the bravest I've ever met. I bet you're as brave as she was, aren't you?"
The little girl took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Finally she said, "I didn't feel good, so Mama went to the Hahren's house to get me some medicine. She came back and that man - " she pointed to the Arl - "broke in the door to our house. Mama told me to stay in bed, but I…I peeked."
Loghain felt a bit queasy at the thought of what this innocent child saw that night. "You did the right thing," he said, voice a trifle hoarse thanks to a sudden dryness in his throat. "I know you probably wish you could forget what happened, but I need you to tell me exactly what you saw. Can you do that, Adaia?"
She nodded, her eyes downcast. "He pushed Mama down onto the floor and tore her dress. He hit her in the face and told her to shut up. Then he kept hitting her. Mama was bleeding all over the place. Then he put his hands around her throat and started choking her. Then all of a sudden he stopped. He just walked out, like he'd forgot all about it. Mama was really still. I was scared she was…dead. I was just scared. I was too scared to do anything for a long time, but then I was so scared for Mama that I ran out of the house to the Hahren's house."
Her little face worked, and then twisted up as she started to cry. "It was all my fault. If I hadn't been sick - "
"It was not your fault," Loghain said. "It was not your fault, your mother's fault, or your father's fault. It was no one's fault except for the man who committed this crime. I know something of what you're feeling now, Adaia, believe me, and I know how much it hurts, but you have to know that you did everything you could have, and everything you should have. Your mother might have died if you hadn't run for help. You were a very smart girl, and very, very brave. Now I'm going to ask you a very serious question and even though you have already told us I still want you to consider the answer very carefully, because there must be no mistake about it. Who did you see attack your mother?"
Her tears did not abate but she still looked up with a very different sort of expression on her face. There was anger and stubbornness and fierce pride there, quite a familiar sort of countenance to Loghain, and while that look was not exclusive to the Mac Tir family or to the nation at large, nevertheless it was somehow an ineffably Ferelden expression, and knew no restriction of race or social caste.
The little girl looked directly at the Arl, her eyes locked upon his for a long moment as if she were memorizing his face, and the fearful expression she saw there, for all time. "It was that man. That man right there, Ser. I know it was, and no mistake."
"Thank you, my dear. Your testimony has been invaluable. I believe I have heard more than enough evidence to render a verdict of guilty on all charges. I have only to consider the appropriate sentence, and for that I require a moment or two to think."
Loghain stood up, pulled Vaughan to his feet, and led him up onto the wooden platform, where he pushed him back down again, this time all the way to the floor. "Tabris, hold him down, please, while I ponder. Champion, see to it the Arl doesn't do anything stupid or otherwise typical of himself."
Loghain sat upon the wooden steps next to the prostrate Arl and made a great show of thinking. Maric had once accused him of developing a taste for dramatics, and perhaps he had. But even though he knew full well what sentence he would render, he did need this time to think.
"I've heard a lot of cases in my life, Vaughan," Loghain said at last, in a low voice intended only for the Arl's ears. "I've rendered a lot of guilty verdicts and pronounced a lot of sentences. I've had men whipped, locked in the stocks, cast into prison to rot out the remainder of their lives…men who committed not a fraction of the crimes you've committed. I've had men hanged, beheaded even. But they were commoners. You're an Arl. I just keep coming back to that fact in my mind. You're an Arl."
He felt silent for a time, considering. "You want to know what else I keep coming back to? Our oaths of fealty. You know the one - the one we swear to our King and Queen each year at the Landsmeet. I've said that oath time and again in my life, and so have you. But have you ever really considered what it is you're swearing to? I have. Sure, we're swearing fealty to our sovereign rulers, but there's a lot more in that oath than just that. We also swear to enforce and uphold the laws of this nation, and to protect her people. Uphold the law, protect the people. You haven't been very good about either, Vaughan. Not at all. In fact, it is now my duty to protect your people from you."
Loghain paused for thought again, and tapped his fingers on the platform inches from Vaughan's terrified eyes. "If you weren't an Arl, I'd sentence you to death, no question about it. It's what your crimes have earned. But there isn't any precedent in this nation for the execution of a noble for crimes against an elf, and I know there'd be a tremendous flap about it if I did it. People would be seriously angry. Important people. Powerful people."
Another brief pause, and then, "You know something, Vaughan? I've never been much afraid to anger powerful people."
He stood up then. "Upon due consideration I pronounce a sentence of death against this man, to be carried out immediately. I would recommend, good people, that if you've a weak stomach or small children, to remove yourselves from this vicinity forthwith. You may be quite familiar with the specter of death, but an execution is an upsetting event and I would not encourage anyone with doubts to witness one." Someone came and hustled little Adaia Tabris away in a hurry. Loghain probably would have let her watch, for closure, but she was awfully young, so he supposed it was for the best. "Tabris?"
"Yes, Lord General?"
"I require an executioner. I am quite capable of carrying out this sentence myself if necessary, but I thought perhaps I would make the offer. Don't take it unless you're sure. It's not an easy thing to do, killing a man in cold blood, no matter how much it is justified."
"I will do this, Ser, with great pleasure."
Loghain nodded, having expected as much. He drew his strange blue sword and passed it over. "Make it clean, lad. You don't owe it to him to give him an honorable death, but you owe it to yourself. Trust me when I tell you that drawing it out will serve you nothing."
Vaughan, who up until then had been silent, disbelieving, began to hyperventilate. "You can't do this to me. I am the Arl of Dener - " He was silenced, permanently, when the Archdemon-bone blade sliced neatly through his neck.
The blade had lodged itself deep into the wood of the platform. Tabris yanked it out with some difficulty and wiped the blood off of it with a shabby handkerchief he pulled from the collar of his armor. He looked slightly stunned, probably with the ease of the execution. Lopping off a head was not a pretty proposition, even with a very sharp sword, but this execution was eerily swift and clean. He handed back the sword.
"You all right, son?" Loghain asked. Tabris nodded. "I hope you got what you needed from that. Hahren Valendrian?"
"Yes, Milord?"
"I leave it to you: what do you wish done with the head? It could be placed above the alienage gates if you want."
Valendrian glanced around himself doubtfully. "Thank you, Milord, but…I think it would be better for everyone if we never saw the late Arl's face ever again."
"Very well." Loghain gestured to Vaughan's former guards, who'd made not a move to stop the execution. "You gentlemen can serve your late master one last time. You - stay here and clean up this blood, and mind you do a thorough job of it. The rest of you can carry the head and body out of here. As for myself, I need to head back to the palace immediately. I'll be catching a few arrows soon, I expect, and may end up making my own date with the headsman's axe soon enough."