Judgement of Blood
“By the time we caught up with Enju, he had trapped the Blood Witch. She had done all she could to fend him off, and he was not unscathed, but he was driven by the same determination we all had that sun.
We defeated her monsters, and most of us bore little injury to show for it. That sun, every one of us were warriors. That sun, the Twelve had been with us. We were ending the havoc of the Blood Witch. We aided him in her capture.
After being knocked out, the Blood Witch was defeated and helpless. Finally, our battle was over. But our judgment had just begun.
In the Wailer reports, she was arrested a generation ago for a crime that only a monster would commit. She was certainly a monster now as well. But there was aught that did not make sense.
Did she kill many children for alchemy research? Mayhaps, but aside from words on a paper, we had no proof. It mattered not, for the crimes she had committed that sun alone - the murdering of all in the village - was enough for me to want to end her immediately.
In the past, I would have ended her immediately… None of us ended her.
Something more was happening in the Shroud. Others like the Blood Witch had been pursued, and some were even captured. It was possible to cleanse them of their powers. It was possible to question them.
One had been questioned, and his story told of a voidsent that had power over all of these corrupt mages. After all, people in a prison do not disappear into the void for no reason. Something either aided them, or stole them.
The Blood Witch had ranted before that ‘something’ was the fault of the Wailers. ‘All their fault’, she screamed. She acted like someone else was a criminal when clearly she was the one who had been committing the crimes. Mayhaps she was insane. Clearly she was. But that did not mean there was no reason for her madness.
I held back my spear, Anstarra held back… Whatever heavy object she favored at the time. Everyone held back their weapons. Of course, Zanzan was not going to kill anyone. He desires world peace.
We were not going to pass judgement on her yet… We granted her temporary mercy, and I still do not know why. I had changed, and I do not know why. We wanted to find out more, so justice had to be put on hold.
We wanted to find out what turned an Elezen woman into a monster more brutal than the worst that could be found in the Black Shroud.â€
