135 - You Who Are Condemned
It had taken almost three hours before Fencer had recovered enough to be sentenced.
The procedure to reattach her horn had been a success, with House Call reporting that although she’d need to be monitored going forward, it looked like she’d make a full recovery. The news had left Lex feeling particularly bitter; although he refused to begrudge anypony for recovering from a crippling injury, the fact that Fencer would be fine while Pillowcase had succumbed to his wounds galled him deeply.
After that, it was simply a matter of waiting for her to awaken from the anesthesia she’d been placed under. Having left word with the nurse assigned to watch over Fencer to inform him once she’d regained consciousness, Lex had instead busied himself with overseeing the preparations to leave the shelter. But his efforts were half-hearted, barely paying attention to the minor logistical problems of how to transport the various materials they’d unloaded from C. Shells’ ship across town without any sort of wagons or carts.
Instead, he’d spent most of that time thinking about how to punish Fencer.
In theory, criminal justice was a simple affair. All he had to do was hand down a sentence that served three purposes: to deliver proportionate retribution, serve as a deterrent to others, and rehabilitate the offender. But now that the crime was murder – and Lex refused to consider Pillowcase’s death as being anything else – the situation was far more complicated. Given that pony life was absolutely sacrosanct, Fencer could not be executed for what she’d done, which meant that the issue of proportionate retribution would need to be approached obliquely, rather than directly. And that was simple compared to the issue of how to rehabilitate somepony who quite clearly had no remorse for what she’d done.
And that wasn’t even getting into the issues of practicality involved in punishing her. While C. Shells’ crew were almost finished building a rudimentary cage, Lex had no illusions that throwing Fencer in there was anything other than a very short-term solution. Incarcerating her for any length of time simply wasn’t something that could reasonably done under the current circumstances, not when that still required that she be provided some basic level of care that would put a drain on his extremely limited resources.
He was still mulling the issue over, having withdrawn to the wider warehouse where their supplies were being moved, when Sonata came up to him. “Lex.”
“Hm?”
“Fencer’s awake. Well, actually she’s been awake for a little while, but now the nurse is saying that she’s, like, not all grogged out and stuff.”
Nodding, Lex looked over at the medical area, pulling himself out of his thoughts. It was time. “I want you to assemble everypony out here.” The warehouse was a better venue for a public sentencing than the relatively cramped quarters of the shelter. “Make sure the rest of Fencer’s group is up front.”
She nodded, but instead of going to convey his orders lingered for a moment, biting her lip. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she blurted out, “do you want me to enchant the rest of them?”
His brow furrowed. “What?”
Sonata hesitated for a few seconds, as though attempting to speak was causing her some sort of distress, but a moment later found her voice. “Before, when you wanted me to make Fencer tell us where Pillowcase was, she mentioned that she wasn’t alone when she attacked him, right? So…I was thinking that if I enchanted the rest of her friends, I could make them admi-”
“Enough.” Lex held up a hoof, cutting her off before she could go any further. When she stopped talking, he gave a sigh. “I’ve decided not to punish anypony else in Fencer’s group for what happened to Pillowcase.”
Sonata let out a breath she’d been holding, surprise and relief written all over her face. “For realsies?! I was totes sure you were gonna be all ‘you’re all guilty!’ on them! And I mean, they totes are for what they did, but I was worried about how that’d make everypony see you, so I’m really glad you’re not gonna do anything to them and, come to think of it, why aren’t you gonna to do anything to them?”
“Because it wouldn’t be just,” answered Lex, utterly unperturbed by her sudden outburst. “Fencer confessed to having harmed Pillowcase of her own accord. I had you use your magic on her only because he was in imminent danger and we needed the information she had about him.” He had to resist the urge to sigh, since he’d explained that part to her at the time. “What I’m about to do to her is because of that confession, as well as what she did once we arrived at Pillowcase’s location. But the situation with the other ponies that came here with her is different.”
Sonata tilted her head. “Different how? I mean, I’m super glad you’re not going to throw books at them or whatever it is angry judges do, but I kinda thought I’d have to talk you out of it.”
“None of those ponies has given a confession the way Fencer did,” replied Lex, choosing to ignore that “talk you out of it” part of what she’d said; she did NOT talk him out of anything, ever! He simply took her views into account, and occasionally made changes based on the rare nugget of wisdom that she sometimes stumbled into. “According to what Cozy said, they all denied their complicity, and while I have no doubt that many, if not most, of them are lying, there’s no way to conclusively determine who was there and what they did. Criminal punishments can only be handed down on specific individuals for specific acts of wrongdoing; I can’t just punish them all under the presumption that they’ve all done something wrong.” Even though I’m sure they have, he added silently. “Likewise, I can’t convict somepony based on nothing more than magically coercing them to give testimony against themselves. It creates serious ethical problems.”
“Ohhh.”
Her exclamation was enough to make him frown, not sure how much of that she’d understood. Deciding to put it out of his mind, he started walking back towards the shelter. “Once you’ve gathered everypony out here, I’ll bring Fencer out and publicly condemn her for her crimes. After that, we’ll set out.” Although it had grown late, the length of midsummer days meant that there were still several hours before the sun went down. If they made good time he felt confident they could reach the edge of town before nightfall. The sooner I can put an end to whatever madness is going on there, the better.
A few minutes later he was standing in front of Fencer’s cot, staring at her. Severance, he idly noted, was maintaining its vigil, still floating over her diligently before he telekinetically grabbed it and placed it on his back. For her part, Fencer avoided his gaze, looking off to the side listlessly. Outside of the medical area, they could hear the sounds of everypony leaving, and it was only after the sounds of hooffalls faded that Lex spoke, his voice as cold as ice. “Pillowcase died.”
Fencer nodded weakly, still not looking at him. “I know. The nurse told me.” Her voice was soft, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the lingering effects of the anesthesia or a reflection of her state of mind, before deciding that he didn’t care.
“Get up. It’s time for you to pay for what you’ve done, murderer.”
She winced slightly at that, but moved to obey, weakly crawling out of bed and onto her hooves. Lex started to lead her from the shelter, but a sudden impulse made him turn, heading back to the small alcove where Pillow’s body had been left. That entire area still had yet to be broken down and packed up, and he was suddenly curious what had become of Cozy.
As he drew back the sheet hanging over the area, he saw that the answer was nothing. She was still lying on the floor where Sonata had left her, but now a blanket covered her body. More notable, however, was the other pony in the room, with Aisle looking up as Lex entered. Frowning, Lex glanced at the sheet-covered body of Pillowcase before looking back at Aisle and the slumbering Cozy, unable to help but find their current arrangement odd. “What are you-” He paused as Aisle started frantically gesturing for him to quiet down, scowling as he lowered his voice. “What are you doing here? I gave the order for everypony to gather in out in the warehouse.”
“I know,” murmured Aisle, “but I didn’t want to leave Cozy here all alone. I mean, I didn’t want her to wake up by herself and see…” He trailed off uncomfortably, looking at Pillowcase’s body before looking down at Cozy, one hoof reaching down to gently brush a strand of her mane out of her face. “Can you give her a few more minutes?” He looked up at Lex, his face sorrowful. “Please? Just a little bit longer before she has to wake up and deal with everything?”
Lex was silent for a moment, then turned his back on the pair. “You have five minutes, then I’m sending somepony to come and retrieve the two of you and the body.” He heard Aisle give him a soft thanks as he left, but didn’t bother to acknowledge it. He suddenly wanted this done. A cold look was the only order he gave to Fencer, who fell in behind him as they walked out of the shelter, her head down and ears folded back.
He made his way toward where everypony had gathered, huddled at the open space at the end of the warehouse. Although he could hear the crowd speaking amongst themselves, their voices died off as they noticed him, turning to regard him and Fencer silently. He frowned slightly as he noticed more than a few wearing expressions that seemed to indicate nervousness, but that couldn’t be right. There was no reason for them to be nervous after all. He must have just misread them, the same way he had so many times before.
When he got within fifteen feet the crowd, Lex stopped and surveyed the assembled ponies. Sure enough, he recognized that pegasus stallion that had challenged him earlier at the edge of the gathering. Further down was that fat little earth stallion, and the rest of Fencer’s gang were also there, just as he’d instructed. Glancing back, Lex saw that Fencer herself wasn’t looking at them, her eyes remaining focused on the ground.
Sonata broke away from the others to trot over to him. “Okay! Go ahead and do that whisper-spell thing, and I’ll start translating for you.”
Lex paused, then shook his head. “Not this time, Sonata.”
She blinked. “Huh?”
“I’m going to speak to everypony directly. This is too severe to have what I’m about to say softened by someone else.”
“Oh no.” Sonata shook her head. “Nonononono. Lex, that’s like, a super bad idea!”
“Sonata…”
“I’m really serious! This is, like, a totes heavy situation, I agree, but that’s why you don’t want to do this yourself! You’ve gotta let me make you seem less…less…you!”
“Sonata, I’m doing this on my own.”
She pouted, changing tactics. “Don’t you trust me to do a good job?” Hopefully that’d get through to him; she knew he had a tendency to get seriously ticked when she questioned his devotion to her, but it was a risk worth taking if it stopped him from doing this.
But to her surprise, he didn’t get angry. Instead, his features softened ever so slightly. “I trust you,” he said, his voice lowered enough so that it didn’t carry to the nearby crowd of ponies, still watching intently. “Now I need you to trust me. Step aside.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, before finally closing it and reluctantly stepping to the side. Lex nodded at her once, then took a single large step forward, eyeing the crowd. For a long moment, everyone was silent, and he had the distinct impression that the longer the silence went on the more weight his words would take when he finally broke it. Eventually, he spoke. “As most of you know by now, Pillowcase, a fellow survivor retrieved earlier today by myself and his wife, Comfy Cozy, has died.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd, but fell silent as he spoke again. “His death is not just a tragedy, it’s a crime. It’s a crime because he wasn’t killed by starvation or disease or some monster. He was killed by another pony. This pony.” He raised a hoof to indicate Fencer, who recoiled as though he’d struck her, still not looking up. “For this, she will be punished severely. But before that,” he turned then, looking at Fencer as he addressed her instead of the crowd, “you’re going to tell everyone here why you did it.”
Now Fencer looked up, meeting his eyes with a horrified expression growing on her face. “What?”
“You’re going to stand here and look everypony in the eyes and tell them why you killed Pillowcase,” insisted Lex, his voice leaving no room for argument. “And once you do, I’m going to curse you,” he continued, his eyes turning green as purple contrails sprouted from their corners, “three times over.”
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Hey everypony!
Just a quick announcement to let you all know that there's going to be a brief hiatus in updates to Lateral Movement while I go on vacation. While I'm very proud to have posted a new chapter every three days for over eight months straight, I need a break to rest and recharge my batteries so that I can keep up that schedule going forward. As such, there'll be no new chapter this coming Friday or Monday. Regular updates will resume next Thursday, August 24th.
I'll try to keep up on responding to comments, but after tomorrow afternoon I'll likely be offline for several days. In the meantime, I hope you all will be looking forward to more of Lex and Sonata's adventures when I return!
Curse her? Isn't the only thing he can use to curse others Elfshot?
Hmm, three curses...well, I did some homework this time so I'd at least know what I'm talking about and boy there sure a lot of them
Some of them have appropriately poetic themes if placed on Fencer, such as Parched and Ravenous so Fencer could feel what Pillow felt though I doubt Lex would use them since it would risk her dying from the effects and put a drain on his resources. Also, Fencer would have likely experienced that when she was kicked out of her original group so using those two curses would be a moot point.
Of course, I have no idea what sort of curses Lex knows how to cast so it could be anything so long as it doesn't kill Fencer or put any strain on their limited resources. Also, I like how much integrity Lex is showing by following the law in the currently lawless city instead of trying to use his power and authority to punish the ponies from Fencer's group. While a tad impractical given the circumstances, he has to reestablish law and order in his domain sooner or later.
I look forward to what types of curses Lex will place on Fencer after she 'confesses' her crime as well as the fallout...after you come back from your vacation of course. Have fun~
Pathfinder has some very intresting methods of implementing curses and their equivalent, butI can only remember one Fault as its abusable to a bonus on top of the bonus you get for taking a Fault.
Three curses, delivered Sinster Thrice.
Truth. Obey, Hedonism.
8369345 Yes, but remember that we've already established that he can use his metamagic theorems on his witchcraft abilities (i.e. his dark magic).
8369405 Curses (such as the bestow curse spell) are one of the few areas in Pathfinder where the rules explicitly leave open possibilities beyond what's directly outlined. Given that, there's a wide range of options for what Lex could do to Fencer.
8369372
I believe you're referring to the list of curses that Pathfinder has, yes? Those are good, but as I noted in my preceding post, they're not the be-all end-all of what he could do, thanks to the options for the basic bestow curse spell being explicitly labeled as being variable. So Lex's options are far more than what's listed on that page.
You're thinking along the right track.
Classically, a curse was supposed to meet out poetic justice (typically when someone was going to get away with something otherwise...though they work just as well for perceived injustices, which is why you also find classical stories where curses are laid by bad guys, rather than aggrieved peasants or other powerless people), which is what Lex is looking to achieve. But at the same time, he doesn't want it to be so burdensome that it becomes a chore for him, or other ponies, to have to deal with. He wants Fencer to suffer for her sins, but there's a line that he refuses to cross (particularly since, as you noted, he still regards her as being under his authority). So he's going to need to make a bit of a balancing act in what he does to her.
I'm glad you liked that part! Lex is very cognizant of the fact that he's operating under difficult circumstances, and that he has to find a way to follow his own moral code while still being effective in his endeavors. While he clearly believes that the rest of Fencer's companions deserve to be punished, he recognizes that simply believing that isn't sufficient to justify doing anything about it. Things like this are why he came up with his moral framework in the first place, since he doesn't believe in intuiting his way through issues of right and wrong (mostly because he's incredibly bad at doing so).
There were other issues I could have had Lex raise here as well, such as his recognition that, in all likelihood, every survivor has done something immoral, or even criminal, since Vanhoover fell apart. Trying to prosecute them all would raise severe issues of practicality (both of investigating and of issuing so many punishments), nebulous concerns of ex post facto criminal charges, and what degree of duress they were operating under. Ultimately, although it's a bitter pill for him to swallow, he knows that there's only so much he can conclusively determine, let alone accomplish. Given that he's a perfectionist, he hates that, but there's no other alternative except to walk away from the entire situation, and he won't do that.
Thanks!
8378113
Yep, as far as I can tell, I am going to be doing a chapter a day until I catch up.
8378132
It is a horrible feeling, isn't it?
Right on!
8378121 Awesome!
Given that I'll be resuming my usual update schedule soon, that means you should be completely caught up in about two months.
8378148
I just realized, did you actually do the math for that?
8378568 Roughly so. You had about forty-five chapters to do, and if you did one a day I'd write another fifteen chapters during that time, so yeah, about two months.
It's less now, though.
8383255
I meant Lex. Since his communication spells aren't working.
8383660 Oh yeah, that does make more sense, doesn't it?
i am now up to date on this amazing story.
and i will defiantly be watching for installments being posted.
i am wondering what Lex has come up with for a curse to punish Fencer with?
8384427 Thanks for the kind words!
The next chapter will be up very soon!
8385183
She is still going down the path that will hurt people(ponies), even though there is a better way. Yeah, it's cruelty.
8385362 Cruelty is typically defined as attempting to cause pain or misery as a goal unto itself, as opposed to simply a byproduct. Though, it should be noted, that can be deliberately done in conjunction with another goal. In this case, however, Fencer's goal (which has been hinted at before) is one that makes it questionable if she'd be able to achieve it any other way.
That doesn't excuse her actions in any manner, of course, but for what it's worth she doesn't seem to be trying to cause pain or suffering for its own sake.
More empty caves, but the Warriors found some old beer. Guess what they did with it?
8388663 I think I can hazard one.