Regarding My Recent Execution

[oog: written in a neatly flowing brush script on a rather grubby, blood-smeared piece of parchment that bears with it a stale odor and a few smudged fingerprints]

Let it be known that although I am an admitted criminal I have now paid the price with my head at the hand of Lord Gideon Weaveforger as deemed just and fair by the Count himself. I have been stripped of my weapons and the colours of my land and deprived of my freedom of travel until such time as my Lord deems their return earned and appropriate. I will do everything in my power to rebuild trust with the citizens of Travance but I do not expect forgiveness.

I ask you all to consider that, because I have already paid for my crimes and Justice has already been carried out, any further attempts on my life or attempts to hold or question me against my will would themselves be considered crimes under our laws.

If you still feel personally aggrieved in regard to my actions I suggest you speak to Lord or Lady Blackthorne.

Ketryn,

Despite your crimes, despite your punishment, and despite your reasonable unwillingness to forgive yourself, know that even now you are worthy of redemption. More often than not, townsmembers focus on the terrible and tragic events in the past that either befell them or they themselves committed, rather than the light inside them. You can choose to believe me or not, but that light even exists in you, dimmed though it may be at the moment. Your moral failings do not define you as a person and they never will.


--Nalick

Citizens of Travance, please allow me to further expand upon this situation as to shed more light upon this subject.

My patient Ketryn had been suffering from supernatural delusions brought upon her by the malpractice of one Doctor and was allowed continue by the negligence of another Doctor. The moment that this information had been brought to our attention Doctor Darkwood and myself acted quickly to remedy this problem before it could persist. The operation to remove the supernatural affliction was a success. The patient is now fully cured of what had ailed her previously and has now returned to her normal state of being.

Her actions were brought upon by her state of duress. I have seen similar situations where others were hypnotized and forced to act against their wishes, harming allies and loved ones. This situation is one in the same. Though the loss of lives is not something we should downplay in any way, the blame should be on the shoulders of the negligent Doctors, not on the patient who had suffered from the afflictions.

Kaladonia stands beside Alisandria in this regard. Should any crime befall Ketryn, I will personally attend to those who perpetrated it, alongside Lord & Lady Blackthorne.

Travance often fights against injustice and extremism. Let us not perpetrate it ourselves.

By my hand,

In Loez, you murder someone, you are executed. In Londwyn. Selendrias. Glangsdale. Should you somehow be brought back, you are ever afterwards treated with just suspicion and carefully monitored. In Travance, you are sent to bed without supper, then patted on the head and given a cookie. Why is this? What makes a person who lives here so vastly different and deserving of special treatment? When every single lowly peasant or brigand is treated the same, I will consider retracting this, as it is truth, and thus should be heard.

Those before have spoken of laying blame upon others, and that moral failings do not define a person.

Wrong.

That is exactly what defines a person. Imperfections and failings are what differentiates one from the countless other mouth-breathing sheep in the world. Why take that away, unless to make the one just another mindless follower, no more unique or capable of thought and independence than a homunculus?

If trust is immediately handed to one without thought or reason, if it is not earned, what good is it? Let the trust have meaning. Have value. Or the next time, perhaps you will find that trust pinned to your back with a dagger when the "poor little victim" backslides or relapses.

Food for thought.

-S

S,

We both know that Ms. Shiverthorn's punishment was more severe than going to bed without supper.

That said, we do agree on something. There is indeed nothing about anyone who lives here in this town, that makes them more deserving of special treatment than those anywhere else. Where we part ways, is in how each of us believes that man or that woman should be treated after serving his or her sentence.

What message does it send, that after serving your sentence, you are still treated as a criminal, that your dignity is still kept in a locked chest on a high shelf?

Imperfections and failings have a role in shaping who you are as a person, but not completely. What I am suggesting, is that someone guilty of murder emerges from a jail after time served, viewing themselves not as "So-and-so the murderer," but as themselves. Honestly, what would make the relapse more likely is the endless torment they receive upon their exit from prison.

Society would be better served and safer for it, treating that person with love.

--Nalick