"Seemed to be in working order." Grogek flashed another grin.
Renwa nodded. "I will begin sending you recruits tomorrow."
"I'd profess my undying love, had I the capacity." Elunara sighed. "I am ever so bored."
"Well, we don't really get your kind of mission out here. What we did was tricky enough."
Elunara shrugged and got out of bed. "I'd say it paid off well enough." She patted Grogek on the back.
"That it did." Renwa started to reach out, but then nodded. "Which brings me to the other reason I'm here. We're holding the trial today."
Elunara looked up at Grogek. "So much for staying in bed."
He snorted. "As if you were going to."
They stood in assembly, the prisoner chained to the post. His name was Dak, and he already had a major chip on his shoulder.
General Renwa had been talking, but Elunara just stared at the man.
"I don't know why we're bothering with this farce. Everyone knows you're just going to hand me over to the orc, regardless of what anyone else thinks." Dak interrupted.
"We may be far from home, but that does not mean that we will not uphold the rules of justice." Renwa frowned at the man.
"It's not like anyone would have missed the whore anyway." Dak sneered as he glared at Elunara.
With a sigh Elunara put her hand to her forehead. "This again?" She heard Grogek growl, but ignored him."You know what?" She asked. She turned to the crowd. "You really want to know what? Stop pretending "whore" is going to upset me."
"Elunara..." Renwa cautioned.
"No, seriously. It's not like you'll deploy me on any more missions." She put her hands on her hips. "Grogek does not need me as a leash any more. Even you know that. I could be sent out, but no. NO one feels comfortable enough to risk Grogek getting just a little bit jealous that I might fluff someone else's dick."
Grogek snorted, but kept his face neutral.
She turned back to Dak. "My codename? Is "The Whore". It is." She rolled her eyes. "I even picked it out! So call me by my codename, go right on ahead. That's just fiiine by me." She flipped her hair back. "As to why we care to carry out what you call a farce, is so that by time we're through with you, they'll have to take a goddamned number as to who gets to punch you in the nuts first."
Renwa slapped his hand to his face. "Damn it, she got started." He muttered.
She tugged her papers out of Captain Jordan's hand. "Exhibit A! From day one that we put Grogek in charge of the trainees, you were one of the people most pissed off. Don't believe my handiwork? That's fine. I've worked for thirty years refining my ability to capture miniscule detail in my art work. I didn't notice you, didn't care. I drew everyone, and quite frankly you weren't alone in your distaste for the situation, but that much doesn't matter." She flipped through the papers and showed them to the crowd. "For the past few months I have been faithfully recording every moment of every day, because I'm bored out of my mind. No one asked me to draw these, but it's what I do. It's my second favorite activity, and we all know what activity number one is!" She called cheerfully.
"As each day passed, Grogek has earned the respect of all of his pupils. Beating the living tar out of them and turning them into better recruits, more capable of surviving this harsh world. There's a holdout here and there, but you sir are so obvious it's sad." She tossed the papers back to Jordan. "Still I didn't notice you. I didn't care to. It's not MY job to make you like the Orc."
"Exhibit B!" She gestured to Grogek's axe, which lay against the pedestal. "Grogek hasn't seen the point of keeping his axe in our room for a couple of months now. None of you twits can actually pick the goddamned thing up! He sharpens it on a schedule because he's a well disciplined leader. He has trained the best the Iron Horde has to offer and his very removal from their grasp was quite the strategic mark on my point." She grinned. "Anyhow, every single one of you twits knew where the blade was and it was free for tampering, sadly. But who would have thought someone would tamper with it? What could they do? Rust it? Maybe? Wasn't even on the mind!"
"Exhibit C!" She plucked a small hallowed out stinger off the table "The actual poison that really fucked up my week, was found in your barracks, hidden under your mattress!" She carefully sat it back down. "But wait! It could have been put there by ANYONE!" She turned to the crowd. "Except, here's the thing; you're the only person in the entire town who has spent any time in Gorgrond. Even more interesting, your mother was a rogue alchemist. I should know. I met her." She frowned and shook her head. "I have actually run a few missions with her. You see, when I figured out who you were, I sent her a little note."
Renwa straightened up. "You did what?"
"Exhibit D." She said almost quiet. She tugged the letter out of her shirt and opened it up. "Dear Elunara, it's so good to hear from you. We haven't worked together since... well that thing with the Deathwing cultists was it? I'm glad you're doing well. I've been worried since I hadn't heard from you in so long. As for your question, yes I did hear from Dak recently. He was asking for advice on how to handle an unknown poison. I gave him clear instructions. In fact I'm glad he's taking on the family legacy. Hopefully he won't be as careless as his father. Good man, little clumsy. I hope you remain well. My love, Jine."
Elunara turned back to Dak. "Which shocks you more? The fact that she gave you up? Or the fact that she sends me pleasant greetings?" She handed the note to Captain Jordan. Turning back to Dak, who was now speechless, she continued. "Here's the thing, Dak... you could have killed anyone. It could have even been yourself. However..." She picked up another sheet of paper off the desk.
"Exhibit E." She held up the paper. "Grogek here is, again, a well disciplined taskmaster. He keeps schedules, and at Renwa's request, he began to write down those schedules. You weren't up for training for the week; you were on patrol duty for the next 4 days. You wouldn't even be in his line of sight. You knew that someone would see the biting end of that axe, and you cared not who. Just so long as you weren't there. The perfect crime with the perfect victim."
"Had Grogek nicked himself on a freshly sharpened blade, as is his habit to test the sharpness, then he would have died." She laid her hand softly on his arm. "If he cut a trainee, as he has done in previous training exercises..." She looked at the group of nearby trainees. "They would have died." She moved back the center of the area. "But, even better, if I had challenged Grogek to a spar, like I'm known to do when I'm bored senseless... then I would have died. In fact, I almost did." She held her arms wide. "What you didn't count on you useless twit, is that Grogek knew the antidote." She twirled on the crowd. "Oh, sure, if he had been cut, then maybe he would have been way too out of it to save himself. But I would have figured you out, and no one would have any idea what happened to the remaining pieces of your body." She growled low in his face.
She turned back to the crowd, ever cheery. "So now, we have evidence that points in your direction, AAAAND the LOVELY fact that when we caught you, we have no less than 12 witnesses nearby who heard you yell about it. But, hey let's not act lawful, shall we?" She fluttered her eyelashes.
"To recap, you tried to cause Grogek to kill someone. Let's let that thought hang out there shall we? Himself? Me? Or some random training accident? Oh, but why would you DO such a thing?" She looked dramatic. "Simple." She straightened out. "It didn't matter who died, so long as it ended with Grogek being removed from town."
