Luz reached the town and, once she found a judicial office, entered it without thinking twice. Contrary to what the Bat Queen had told her, the authorities were very kind to her and within less than an hour she found herself before the judge.

The judge was a huge man, so much so that he looked like a gorilla; his shoulders were as broad as a wardrobe and his arms looked like tree trunks from how thick they were. He wore a white uniform decorated with golden buttons and on his face he had a strange mask similar to the face of a bird, completely gray, which prevented any feature of his face from being seen; on the back of his head he had a black hood. According to the guards, this was necessary because the judge had to maintain an air of mystery and authority, and therefore no one should see him as a person but as the representation of the law; and since he could not be seen as a person, he could not even show his face. The only parts of his body visible were therefore his arms and hands, which were almost completely purple, a sign that they had not seen sunlight for several years. The judge didn't have a name, as that would also have made him more 'human', and as a result everyone simply called him Warden Wrath.

Luz felt quite in awe when she saw him; her bravado faltered for a moment and she thought maybe she'd be better off listening to the Bat Queen. The Warden Wrath seemed to be ready to destroy anything in his path as if it were made of cardboard. But when he finally spoke, his voice, although made thunderous and hoarse by the mask, was rather reassuring: "I was told that you want to report a scam. Is that so?"

At those words Luz regained some courage and so, despite the threatening aura of the Warden Wrath, she replied: "Exactly, your honor", and she began to tell him what had happened.

The Warden Wrath seemed rather aloof at first, but the more she explained the more interested he became. He took a keen part in the story: he asked how she had met Adrian and Terra, how they had convinced her to go with them and how they had carried out the iniquitous fraud; he had the name and surname of the marauders written down and had Luz describe their appearance; he sent guards to inspect the place of the crime and look for witnesses, obtaining more and more confirmation of what the puppet told; then when finally Luz finished by demanding justice, he said: "Everything you described is very serious. According to the law of this country, the expected punishment is five years of imprisonment, or the payment of five hundred gold coins. Knowing this, Do you still want to file a complaint?"

Luz thought there was something strange about that request: why did the Warden Wrath want her to reiterate something so obvious? But that didn't stop her from replying, "I do, your honor!"

"So be it, then" the Warden Wrath said, and then he seized a bell and rang it; immediately two guards entered the room. They were so similar to each other that they seemed to be twins: they had the same height and build, and they wore the same black clothes with white bands and the same gray triangle-shaped mask on their faces. The Warden Wrath pointed to Luz, "She was deceived and robbed of five gold coins. According to law of the town, the crime is punishable by five years in prison. So take her and throw her behind bars, as it's obvious she can't afford to pay bail"

"What!?" Luz exclaimed, but before she could protest one of the two guards covered her mouth and the other held her down, and they dragged her into prison as if they were carrying an ash branch; there they opened one of the cells and threw her in, and then they left. "No! Stop!" Luz screamed as she rushed to the bars. "Why am I the one being imprisoned!? I'm the victim here!"

"Then why are you surprised to be in prison?" a voice asked behind her.

Luz turned and realized that she was not alone in the cell: there was in fact another girl sitting on a cot. She seemed to be around her age, and in height and build they were also very similar, although she definitely looked more athletic; her hair was green with blue tips, and almost looked like fins, two of which were slightly longer than the others. Her skin color was lighter than Luz's, though only slightly, so much so that she could easily pass for a member of the Noceda family. Her eyes were completely black with golden pupils, a rather unusual combination as it should normally have been the other way around. "Who are you?" Luz asked her, then remembering that she was talking to a prisoner, she added: "And what crime did you commit?"

The girl shook her head: "My name is Vee, and I haven't committed any crimes. Just like you, I bet"

"Vee?" Luz repeated. From what she knew, people normally had a first name and a last name. "Just Vee?"

"Yes, just Vee. I don't have a last name, my... family doesn't use one" the girl replied with a slight tone of resentment in her voice.

Luz narrowed her eyes suspiciously. That girl definitely had something to hide. "Why do you have golden pupils and black irises? From what I know it should be the other way around" she asked her.

"Why are you made of wood? From what I know you should be made of flesh" Vee replied bluntly.

Luz took the dig and realized that using an aggressive approach right away wouldn't get her anywhere. So she decided to be a little sweeter: "Okay, sorry, I was inappropriate. I'm Luz, Luz Noceda. So, since it looks like we'll be spending a lot of time together, how about we get to know each other better?"

"You just want to know why you were put in jail, right?" Vee grumbled. "I'll tell you even without you trying to be my friend. You don't need to be a hypocrite"

"I'm not being a hypocrite! I really want..." Luz was already about to say 'I really want to be your friend', but while she was still thinking that she already felt her nose tingling and a shiver ran down her spine. In the end she opted for a half-truth: "... I really want to get to know you better". And it was true, since she was quite interested in that strange girl, although obviously her main goal was to get out of the cell. At least that way her nose didn't get longer, and Luz couldn't help but sigh with relief at seeing it stay at its normal size.

Vee raised an eyebrow at that behavior. "You're weird, you know that?"

"I'm a living puppet. I guess I was born to be weird" Luz replied.

Vee was silent for a second, then suddenly she let out a giggle. It was the first time she had smiled, and Luz had to admit that she looked really cute doing it. "You know what? I know that in reality you just want to use me to get out of here, but I have to admit, you're really funny"

Luz felt a little guilty hearing those words, but she tried to ignore it. Vee seemed like a nice person, but Luz had learned the hard way that it was best not to trust strangers even if they seemed kind and smiling. She would never let her guard down so easily again. "I'm glad you at least find the situation funny. So? You said you would explain to me why they locked me in the cell"

"You're a stranger, right? No, you don't need to answer, it was a rhetorical question. You obviously don't know how things work in this damned town" Vee said. "Here, everything works in reverse. The victims are punished just for being victims, and the criminals are free to do as they want. This is why everyone has become poor and only some are now very rich and live in the large buildings in the center of the town"

"What? But this is an injustice!" Luz exclaimed. "Who is the madman who decided this?"

"The master of the town. They call her the Inspector, because she periodically gives the order to search the whole town to find valuable things. And if she finds them, she takes them" Vee explained. "Until about a year ago, the Inspector was a good woman who was very careful about respecting the law. But then she changed: she let greed consume her heart and so she established that all crimes became legal and that those who were oppressed were punished. In this way she was able to send her guards to steal anything they found and she didn't have to deal with the oppression because anyone who tried to protest was thrown in prison as a victim and therefore guilty. Only the smartest of the town, those criminals who knew how to hide valuable things for a living, managed to keep their money; and since they were criminals, they were rewarded for it and are now part of the high society of this town"

Luz didn't know whether to be more shocked and outraged by what she was hearing. "How can this... Inspector be so cruel?"

"Greed makes you evil. That's the way things are, I didn't decide them" Vee replied. "Tell me, what crime did you suffer to be thrown in here?"

Even though she didn't trust her cellmate at all, Luz still told her what had happened to her. Vee laughed when she learned that she had believed that a money tree could grow, making the puppet turn red with anger and embarrassment, but as soon as she realized that she had been inappropriate she apologized to her; and when she heard how much Luz had been hurt by Adrian and Terra's betrayal, she seemed truly sorry. She wanted to tell her that she had really been naive, but she preferred not to twist the knife in the wound. "I'm sorry" she told her in the end. "But don't worry, there's a way to fix everything"

Luz's eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Yes. Just plead guilty" Vee replied. "I told you, in this town the criminals are out and the innocent are in prison, so all you have to do is say that you are a criminal too. All you have to do is ask to speak to the Warden Wrath again and you tell them that you just expressed yourself badly, and that in reality you were the one who wanted to defraud Adrian and Terra and that at the last moment they discovered the deception and fled. They will release you immediately and will rush to capture them immediately"

Luz bit her lip. "Well... I'd rather not lie. I learned the hard way that telling lies is a bad thing"

Vee shrugged. "Whatever, the choice is yours, not mine. But I warn you: sincerity will not get you out of here"

"If it's as easy as you say, why haven't you left already?" Luz asked her suspiciously.

A shadow passed over Vee's face. "Because I don't want to, that's why. There's nothing for me out there and just like you I'm too stupid to abandon sincerity. And besides... I feel safer here"

Luz noticed very clearly that Vee's body had trembled slightly. "Safe from what?"

Vee glared at her. "Mind your own business! I told you how to get out, you might as well stop pretending you care about me!" she growled, lying down on the cot and turning away.

Luz felt that there was something strange in Vee's voice, and she felt sad that she thought that she didn't care about her... but on the other hand she got very angry when she heard Vee's sour tone, and in the end, as usual, her 'bad side' got the better of her and she shouted: "Fine! Go back and stare at the wall, then! I'd rather stay silent than talk to someone as fussy as you!"

Vee didn't react, so Luz also turned away and went to sit on another cot. But very soon, the silence became oppressive. The cell was cold and the only source of light was a small window in the ceiling, and there was no sound other than the dripping of a little water from a crack in the ceiling. In all that silence, there was nothing left that Luz could use to keep her thoughts in check; the weight of what had happened fell on her like a boulder. Tears began to form in her eyes as she thought about Adrian and Terra's betrayal and the fact that she had lost her gold coins, and above all the guilt of having broken the promise she had made to Eda for nothing. And it didn't take long before she started to feel a bit of guilt towards her cellmate too: sure, she had responded badly, but after all Luz had been a bit inappropriate herself...

In the end she couldn't bear the silence any longer and looked again at Vee, who hadn't moved from her cot and was still in the same position as before. "Hey" Luz called out to her. "Look… sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have asked. If you don't want to talk about it… that's fine. But I want you to know that I'm not pretending. I really want to… to know you better"

There was a few moments of silence, then Vee finally turned to look at her. "Apology accepted. And... I'm sorry if I overreacted" she said. "But trust me, you'll be better off knowing as little about me as possible. So don't try to get to know me better"

Luz cocked her head slightly to the side. After what had happened she was no longer so foolish and arrogant as to think she was capable of truly understanding people, but looking at Vee she still had the impression that the reason she didn't want to talk about herself wasn't because she had done something bad. Her expression and voice seemed more... broken, as if something bad had happened to her. "Okay" Luz said. "If you don't want to talk about yourself, though, we can talk about something else. After all, we're going to spend the next five years together, so... we might as well keep each other company, right?"

Vee looked surprised. "Are you serious? You really don't want to get out of here? You'd rather not tell a little lie than be free?"

"Trust me, I have my good reasons for not telling even the smallest lie" Luz replied. "And then... I want to get out, but not like this. I don't like having to pretend to be a criminal to get justice. I feel like I'm contributing to a wrong system"

Vee looked at her for a moment, then she let out a giggle. "You're really strange, but at least you seem conscientious... even if only a little" she said, and Luz couldn't argue with that last part. "Okay, then we'll spend the next five years together. So, how do you want… hey, what is it?"

Luz looked up to where Vee was looking and saw that the head of a one-eyed red cardinal was poking through the small window of the cell. "Hey, I know you! You were with the Bat Queen!" she exclaimed, recognizing it. "What are you doing here?"

The cardinal chirped and moved its head in different directions. It seemed very happy to have found her. "Would you like to help me?" Luz asked again. The cardinal moved its head as if to nod. "Great! You're a friend!"

"Why did a Palisman come looking for you?" Vee asked.

Luz was surprised. "Palisman?" she murmured, and with some difficulty she climbed up to the window and touched the cardinal, discovering that she was indeed made of wood. "It's true! I thought it was just a common bird. How did you know?"

"Um..." Vee seemed to panic for a moment. "I just have good intuition... and good eyesight"

Luz frowned; she didn't need great perspicacity to understand that this was just an excuse. But Vee seemed rather uncomfortable, so she decided to investigate another time and returned to talk to the red cardinal: "You have to go to the woods, there you will find a house and... no, you can't talk, you won't be able to explain anything to Eda. Wait, I'm there! Go to the woods and look for my friends, Willow and Gus! They said that they'd get to me once they're done talking to Hooty, they'll be about halfway there by now! Willow's a cricket and Gus is a spider, you can pick them up with your beak and bring them here, and then I'll explain the situation to them and they will take care of going and warning Eda!"

The red cardinal nodded and flew away. Vee looked at Luz with wide eyes. "Are you friends with a cricket and a spider?"

"Even an owl with an extendable neck perpetually stuck in the door of a house, technically" Luz answered.

Vee was silent for a moment, then she shrugged. "Okay, I'll give up on how weird you are. More important, did you just send a red cardinal to get a cricket and a spider?"

Luz didn't understand. "What is the problem?"

"You know that red cardinals are insectivorous, right?"

"Uh... well, that's a Palisman though, I doubt it eats insects..."

"And your friends know it?"

Luz fell silent, then she scratched the back of her neck guiltily. "I better get ready to apologize to them for the scare they're about to get... assuming they don't die of a heart attack on the spot"

In the original book, after being robbed of his coins, Pinocchio goes to ask for justice and talks to a judge (who is actually a gorilla), who after listening to him has him thrown in prison because he was cheated; this is because Collodi, as usual, had made the story a metaphor of how institutions and authorities penalize the weak and the victims. Furthermore, in the original book at this point Pinocchio simply remains in cell for four months, and is then released under an amnesty. Clearly this didn't work well with my story, especially since Luz has allies here (Gus, Willow, etc.) who wouldn't let her stay in prison that long; so I decided to create an entire story arc of my own invention. Therefore the next chapters you will read will be entirely by me; it will also be the first real invented narrative arc, since unlike the other chapters added which were just one or two at a time, this time I will add many more. I will take advantage of this both to better delve into Luz's growth and to introduce many new characters of The Owl House, one of which we have already seen in this chapter. By the way, the fact that Luz meets Vee in the cell is a reference to Roberto Benigni's film, where Pinocchio meets Lampwrick in the cell (obviously Vee is not Lampwrick, I just used the same narrative device to introduce her). Tell me in the comments what you think of this arc completely invented by me. Also, let's see if someone of you is able to predict who will be the new characters introduced in this arc! I wait for your answer in the comments!