Dead? That probably shouldn't have been so shocking, since she had been sick for a while, but it was still unexpected.
"She was apparently already dying when they arrested her. Some form of cancer. If it is any comfort, she was in pain for months even before being arrested, and her return to the modern world of medicine didn't help much with that. She died yesterday, but she had been incoherent for days." Leann said. There was no emotion in her voice, either for pity or joy.
"Well, I for one believe that she will face a much harder judge now," one of the others said. "She would most likely have gotten the death penalty anyway. This was faster and saved us a lot of trouble."
"The agents explained that most of the others would receive many years in prison, depending on how many specific instances of violence they were able to pin on each of them. But Arthur and Philip face the death penalty. The scop faces life for use of illegal substances. Her name is apparently Ava."
"I'm not surprised about Philip, but a little surprised about Arthur. He wasn't that bad."
"Not that bad?" Audrey said. "Didn't you hear what he did to Carl Harding, the old man who led an escape attempt? He burned him alive. I've just come from meeting his family. I suspect that is the main thing they will charge him with."
"Yes, the agents mentioned that."
"Did they say anything about Ædven?"
"She's apparently in a nursing home. They are still not sure if she is just confused or if the shock of being arrested triggered early onset Alzheimer's. Either way, she probably won't be going to jail."
"I don't have a problem with that. She really didn't know any better,"
"I agree. I almost felt sorry for her, when they led her away in handcuffs. She must have thought the FBI was a warring tribe or something."
They spent the rest of the night discussing the trials to come. The next day, the agents returned and asked if some of them would be willing to testify. Audrey reluctantly agreed, mostly because she felt she had to, since she had agreed to be the inside person in the first place. Besides, Nora would have to be there as well, so she wanted to support her friend.
The next few weeks went by in a blur. The agents now came almost daily, to prepare them for the trial and explain how the procedures worked. Audrey almost regretted her decision several times, but she knew that she had to do this. She had to hear for herself that the people who were behind this would be suffering for it. The FBI assured them that there was no way this wouldn't lead to a conviction. Even without their testimonies, most of them had confessed. Even Philip. Audrey had been surprised at that but understood why when she heard that he had wanted to brag. The agents assured them that they didn't have to listen to their testimonies, if they didn't want to.
Then the day came. The first day of the trial. And the day when Audrey, Leann and the others would see the faces of their captors for the first time since they had been taken from the castle. In the end, only a few of them had chosen to testify, all of them among those who didn't have any family. Audrey understood the others perfectly. The trials would be public, and her face would be known by everyone quite soon. She didn't look forward to that part, but if all went according to plan, she would have somewhere else to go soon.
The moment she saw Philip, she wondered if she had made a mistake. She had expected hate, but what she saw was lust. She had almost forgotten their last encounter. She wondered if Philip was going to mention that. She wouldn't mention it first, but she wouldn't deny it either. She couldn't be seen lying under oath. That would be one of the few things that could throw out her entire testimony. He should still be convicted, but if they managed to get her seen as shady, since she was the one procuring the video, that could be questioned too. But it was unlikely. Yet she couldn't help but worry a little, as she saw the lust in his eyes.
His eyes never left her. Arthur seemed to have equal amounts of hate for all of them, as did most of the other churls that were sentenced for abuses of various kinds. Ava, the scop seemed to have given up. Gone was her melodic voice and charisma. Audrey was disappointed. She had admired the scop, more than almost anyone. It really had all been a lie.
Audrey made a point of being in the room when the accused tried to defend their actions. Arthur tried to blame most of it on the woman, whom he called Elfgifu, like she had heard. They allowed that name, as she had refused to give any other, and the DNA test hadn't given any hits. Audrey noticed that there was a glint of anger in Philip's eyes every time someone used his name. She would make sure to call him that exclusively in her testimony, in the hopes that he wouldn't be able to control himself and be removed.
When the FBI lawyer asked whether Arthur had removed the chains and the punishments when Elfgifu and Philip were away, he had to admit that he hadn't.
"But that was because I knew she would return," he insisted. "My plan was that as soon as she was gone, I would stop with the unnecessary punishments and make the place more like it was intended to be from the start."
"And would you have released the people that you had trapped there?" Arthur tried to avoid answering that.
"I would have stopped the tours and not taken anyone else by force."
"What about those already taken by force?"
"They all adapted eventually."
"So, you claim that they would all have chosen to remain there, if given the choice?"
"I wouldn't presume to know what others would think, in a scenario that never had the chance to occur."
Then came the part Audrey had dreaded. The details about the escape and then punishment and burning of Harding. Arthur didn't deny burning him alive. But he tried to claim that it was a way to exercise his religion. But the FBI had prepared for that answer. When asked what part of his religion asked for human sacrifice, Arthur started explaining his version of Anglo-Saxon beliefs. Audrey rolled her eyes as she now heard the inconsistencies. The lawyer stopped him and asked how many times he had performed sacrifices to those gods. Arthur said during each Blotmonath, and other festivals, like the summer solstice. Then the lawyer asked when Blotmonath was, and Arthur said December. Then the lawyer, barely unable to smile, asked why Carl had been sacrificed in March, if Blotmonath was in December. Arthur fumbled and tried to say that it was an exception because of the escape attempt. The lawyer asked if he had sacrificed humans during the other Blotmonath. Arthur had to say that he had not, as the FBI already knew that. So, really, it had nothing to do with the ritual of Blotmonath at all.
Philip didn't say much during his testimony at all. Audrey had thought he would at least use this chance to brag about his deeds to the whole world, but then she remembered that this part wouldn't be shown on TV at all. The FBI had all the reporters removed during this part of the trial. Philip had already gone through this with the FBI and saw no need to go through it again to amuse the court, as he said. The FBI lawyer didn't press it. Maybe he didn't really want him to go in detail about all the things he had done either.
The only thing Philip denied having done was smaller details. He cared about whether a dead theow would be called accidental or a murder, for instance. He meant that the woman who ran and broke her neck because of the heavy metal collar on it should be called an accident, or even a suicide, since he hadn't forced her to run. There were a lot of smaller things like that, and he seemed annoyed that the judge didn't even let him finish the argument. As long as a person was forcefully restrained or held in captivity when they died, it was murder. When Philip started that argument for the twentieth time, the judge didn't even let him begin, just told his defender that he would grant a short break so he could explain to the client how the law worked.
When they came back from break, Philip didn't say another word. And his eyes never left Audrey. She didn't look at him at all, but it was impossible to completely ignore his eyes on her. During the break, Nora asked if she was okay. Audrey just nodded.
"He's staring at you like a hungry beast," Nora whispered.
"I know. But I can't let him get to me. That's what he wants. He can't do anything to me now."
"But why is he staring at you specifically?"
"I was the one who tied him up, that last day, remember? He was awake the last time I went in to check on him. He's probably angry about that."
"Why did you go in and check on him?"
"Because then no one else would be sent. If someone released him, I would have been in trouble."
Nora didn't have time to ask again as the procedures continued. Audrey and the others didn't have their testimonies until the next day, but Audrey wanted to be here to hear if there were any details she needed to highlight, to counter things they had said.