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The Hundred Years War Gamble

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Chapter Three

Trials

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Earth -414 IR1. Rouen English Monarchy

Lancastrian War (1415–1453)

(20th of May 1431)

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Rouen Keep Main Court Hall

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- We were almost there, sighed Jane while looking at the score of dead guards and clerics lying around. A few yards more and they would never have known how we did it.

- If we go on being as efficient as just now, they won't either, said Maureen with a smile while cleaning her blade with the special tool she needed to not cut her fingers while doing it. Mono-filament blades were superb high-tech fighting tools when in the hands of skilled swordswomen, but they were also high maintenance and supremely dangerous even for the most skilled sword masters.

Joan who had assisted to the fight was still flabbergasted. She had spent these last months amongst fighting armies, and she had seen people die in front of her. But never in such an arrogant manner. The fight had been short, less than a score of seconds, and it had ended with everyone on the other side literally cut into pieces.

Some of those who had been in the front row had even been cut to ribbons.

The head guard, the one with the sergeant crest, was lying around in five different pieces. And the two bigger pieces were his beheaded torso and his abdomen with his legs still attached.

Both his arms had been cut in half by the cut that had slashed through his upper abdomen.

And the two women who had taken on the fight hadn't even been hit once.

For months now she had been witness to lots of things on and around battlefields. But never before had she seen such a scaring episode of wanton and detached slaughter.

All three of her escort frowned at the same time for no apparent reason.

For a few seconds she wondered if, when the voices were speaking to her, she had reacted in the same manner.

The guards' attention downstairs has been raised, said Fluffy to Maureen, Sun and Jane. They don't have a clear idea of what they heard and what happened but they have recognized their colleagues battle cries and, now that there is only silence, they are worried. Everybody is awakened and gearing up. Those who were already equipped decided not to wait to have the whole garrison at their side. They are moving as we speak. They will have the possibility to stop us before we reach the secret passage.

- Well, said Maureen while shooting an icy smile in Joan's direction, since they come from alone it is clearly God's will to see us clean up this cesspit.

She shot a wink in Jane direction.

- Time to do some real cleansing.

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The last guards had turned around and had tried to flee.

The only difference with the rest of the garrison was that they died killed from behind.

For the sixth time this night, Maureen took out her blade reajuster and, with great care, began to clean and realign her sword.

Some others who survived?

Apart from the members of the ecclesiastical court covering in the corner?

Indeed.

Three guards are hiding in different cells. They hope we won't have the time, or the will, to look for them.

Show us the way, we wouldn't want to be unfair in our enterprise.

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They were all huddled in a corner most of them scared to death and were looking at her while Joan was pleading for their survival…

- Those men are Priests, Deacons and Bishops, they were doing their duty.

- They are nothing of the sort, cut in Jane! Those men are the worst sort of politicians and they were making a parody of God's justice. They all knew that, once God had shown his preference, they had no reason and no power to refuse His decision. You never lied to them, and they still chose to believe that the English Regents' commands would be able to overcome God's will!

She shot a dark look at the group of ecclesiasts and adjusted the volume of the sound the nanos flying around could produce to high and directed the whole wall of sound towards the group of judges..

- Some of them don't even believe in God!

The sheer power of the sound literally crushed them against the wall.

- They are crooks who have spent their lives serving Mammon and their lust for power.

She pointed at the desiccated remnants of Denis Gastinel, one of the most virulent Priests present at the Keep, who had shown more courage than brains.

Seeing only Joan and Jane staying alone with them in the great Hall, he had unsheathed a sword and had tried to jump Joan.

He visibly hated her enough to risk God's wrath.

Which he had gotten immediately.

Fluffy's intervention had been fast, spectacular, entertaining in a very bad manner and very enlightening for all those who still had doubts about what was going on.

She lowered the sound's volume back to normal. The men were cowed and none of them would try anything more.

- They deserve to see their souls sucked out of their bodies like we did it for that piece of garbage… We all know that those souls won't ever reach God's vicinity! Those souls deserve just to be erased once and for all!

She pointed an accusing finger in the direction of the huddled-together men.

- They used God's name and the Church's image to attempt to discredit you and, even if they were still reluctant yesterday, they had already decided that killing you would be the best! They pretend to speak in God's name, and they use their power and might to work against God's will… They are like those other Clerics in Jerusalem who chose to ask the Romans to crucify His Son just to have the possibility to go on playing God's voice…

- They were just charged to determine the truth, insisted Joan…

- By breaking your hands and whipping you to death?

- Men are fallible. They make mistakes, especially when they are under pressure. The King of England wanted them to disapprove me.

Jane frowned even if she was quite satisfied by Joan's attempts to protect the men facing them. It showed that she cared, and Jane was sure that caring for others was a primary quality for true servants of God. But there was a story to get over and she needed these men to be convinced of the Maid's truthfulness.

Luckily for the whole bunch's survival apart from whipping and the 'mild' hand torture thing, Joan hadn't been molested.

Had she been raped those men's head would already been on spikes on the keep's walls and Maureen would be on a wild hunt in the city to get the heads of the hundred other men who had already been part of the so-called Ecclesiastical Court.

Maureen's sense of humor was totally inexistent when it came to raping women and molesting girls.

- The King of England is nine years old and has been told stories where you are a fire-breathing witch. I doubt very much that his reactions were based on reality. His uncles used his juvenile fear of the Devil to make him swallow false facts.

She pointed an accusing finger at the members of the Inquisitive court.

- But these men, without any exception, are all mature men and what's even worse they all pretend to be priests, beacons or doctors of canonic law! They should have seen the truth and accepted God's last attempt to answer to the poor people's prayers to bring back Peace and prosperity on these lands.

Here her eyes wandered to look at Cauchon who was sobbing in the corner holding his right crushed hand in his laps. Maureen's handshakes hadn't been gentle! The crushing of so many bones into powder had made a soul-wrenching noise.

But it had also convinced the whole bunch of terrorized Prelates that, even if they looked like women, they weren't ones…

She took a long breath and stood up.

She slowly walked to the corner where Cauchon was whimpering.

Showing not the least trace of solidarity the rest of the group, eleven men from thirty-two to sixty-seven years of age, moved to the other corner of the Court Hall.

She stopped in front of Cauchon.

- Montrez-moi votre main (Show me your hand).

Cauchon did not react.

The next command erupted in his head like a volcanic eruption.

Show me your hand! Now!

He snapped of his despair and lifted his bloody stump towards Jane.

- I don't do it because I like you, Pierre Cauchon. I do it because I need you aware of my questions. As of now you are hurting too much to be of any use. So, show me your hand and be prepared to suffer. Because if feeling your hand being crunched was hurtful, its reconstruction without anesthesia will be worse. Are you ready to get back a functioning hand or do you want to stay a cripple to the end of your days?

He didn't retract his arm and a golden light appeared around Jane's hands and she placed them around Cauchon's bloody stump.

- Be careful to put your tongue out of the way and grit your teeth. It will hurt…

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She was about to finish when Maureen and Sun came into the Court hall with three more totally terrified guards.

- Those are the last survivors, said Maureen while pushing the man she was dragging in the corner where the others were huddled together.

Her frown went in Jane's direction.

- Why are you healing him? He's guilty as sin…

- I need him aware of my questions, dear. And once his hand is back to normal, it will just give you the possibility to crunch it anew. Should you be in the mood to, of course…

Maureen's frowns disappeared to let a predatory smile appear.

- There is that, indeed!

The golden light slowly disappeared, and Jane took a step backwards.

- That's it, said Jane. Your hand is healed. Should you want to keep it in working order you should very much try to not, again, anger my sister. As you've seen she's a lot stronger than she seems and since those three guards are the last survivors not bound and gagged of your whole garrison, you can probably surmise that she's also a lot more dangerous than she looks. It's just us and you and a lot of prisoners who won't come to your help whatever you hope.

She pointed at the box where Joan had been seated during each and every step of the trial's proceedings.

- I suggest that you take the seat of the accused…

She looked at the rest of the Prelates.

- And even if you didn't really show a trace of solidarity with him, you should take hold of a few chairs and sit with him. It doesn't look like it, but your trial has already begun and since she's the only one amongst us who seems to feel empathy for you, she…

And here she pointed at Joan.

- …Will be your Counsel for the defense.

Her finger wandered until she was pointing at the distorted remnants of Denis Gastinel.

- And that's what you are risking, gentlemen. It's no longer your life that is threatened, it is your soul you are risking here. Should she fail to convince us that you are not liars and apostates, you'll all look like Gastinel before we are done.

She shook her head and moved towards the Head Judge's bench.

- Let's see what arguments you can find to convince me that it was legit to torture God's Envoy to push her to disavow her oath, shall we?

She sat and looked at Joan.

- Joan of Arc, you have shown mercy for those torturers by defending them. I thank you for your kindness and I offer you the chance to save the souls of all or some of them. What will it be? Speak, I'm all ears…

Joan didn't hesitate for a second and stood as erect as possible for a small woman like her.

- None of those souls deserve to be destroyed. Not only do those troubled souls deserve at least another chance to do it better, but I will try to convince you that, whatever falsely they had done while embracing the mission given by their rulers, they don't deserve to be punished.

- Good, acknowledged Jane, you'll defend them all. With which one do you want to begin?

- I'll begin with Aubert Morel… He's amongst those who are still alive the one who fought most for me and my survival. There was another one, called Jean Duchemin, who is not present, and both of them, from the very beginning, refused to let me being killed on the stake.

- They thought you innocent?

Joan shook her head.

- I don't believe so but they were against killing me. They were in favor of putting me in a monastery until the end of my life.

Maureen, who was at the door, frowned and grumbled very audibly.

- I'll explain why I believe that their position was the most protective for me, said Joan. And you'll easily understand their thought process…

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During a recess, Maureen and Sun had walked to the Northen wall to get a better idea of what they could hear happening on the outside of the keep.

- We should just open the gates, said Sun with a smile. If they see just two women waiting for them they will rush to meet us. If we meet them side by side, they'll be all dead in no time.

Maureen shook her head.

- You are of the bloodthirsty uncaring sort, aren't you?

- There is a law of battle I will never forget and it says that the only soldiers you won't meet again are the soldiers you've already killed. That's the only truth that matters when you are living and dying by the sword.

Maureen frowned at her daughter in law and shook her head.

- Jane wouldn't like it at all. Those are regular soldiers.

- Regular English soldiers, agreed Sun who had studied with gusto what the British had done to China to destroy the Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century. She wasn't a huge fan of anything English outside of her direct family.

- If we don't open the gates, they will get ladders and climb up everywhere! And we will be sooner or later surrounded. Opening the gates would just let us choose the battlefield. And this is a keep. It has been built to give defenders a real advantage. If we get them to go for the frontal assault, they are dead…

- You are right, but, if their commander isn't a perfect idiot, some will get ladders while we are killing their mates in the gatehouse.

- Still doable with our armors and weapons.

- I agree, especially if we do it in a real spectacular manner. But if we are trapped, anything could happen. And even if we are very difficult to kill, the possibility still exists. Especially for Jane and Joan. We've got Joan and we've slaughtered the torturers that manned the keep. We have done what we came for. So, it just means that, if we don't intend to kill all the soldiers that are currently in Rouen, now is the moment to get out of here.

Sun looked at the amassed troops and made a speedy reckoning in her head.

- We've got around two hundred soldiers out there. Let them get at us on a battlefield we have chosen, and it is still doable…

- I won't deny the possibility to win a skirmish against them, especially if we do it bloody and spectacular enough to make them rout! But it'd be risky, probably too risky. Let's go and tell Jane about the situation.

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