[Mkguild] A Day in the Life VIII

[Jack Moore]

AN: More of this story, almost done now. When I started planning this story, this scene was hard to figure out hhow to write.
A Day in the Life - VIII
 Marnie didn't speak to Tibble or me once. She mumbled to herself, she pulled at her dress and never once did she acknowledge her arrest. I left Marnie quaking in a cell, all alone with her actions. I didn't pretend arresting her had accomplished anything.
 You locked up someone who will never kill again. I started up my stairs. Tomorrow there will be more thieves, more killers and all you've done is taken a good person and shoved her in a cell.
 "It doesn't matter what I want." I reminded myself. "This is justice."
This is the price we pay as members of the Watch. We live knowing we may have to arrest friends or family in the name of law. You do it because you want to protect Metamor Keep. And that is one of two reasons I love my place in the Watch.
 I love Metamor Keep. I was born here to a mother who died just inside of the city. That was twenty-six years ago. In that time I have gained a name, a faith and a love for this odd place. 
 And I gained a place in the Watch. The Watch is ignored because it isn't glamorous like say the Long Scouts. We don't have great adventures outside the Keep, we never go hunting for enemies.
 We exist in the background keeping you safe. Our thanks are the knowledge you can sleep in peace. Our payment is a sense of order in the Keep. That has to be enough.
 I arrived at the door for my little hole in the wall. I have two reasons I love being on the Watch. The second was inside. I pushed the door open and a gray-black blur greeted me.
 "Hi mamma!"
 "Hey baby." I crouched and let my son could crash into my arms. He nuzzled his furry face against my tabard. I scratched his ears until they twitched with joy.
 "We just got done eating dinner." Mrs. Aubrah said. "He heard you come home before I did."
 "You did?" I cried.
 "I hear good." Kaysar giggled. 
 "Yes you do." I kissed his forehead. "Have you been good today?"
 "Yeah! Play checkers?"
 "I think your mother needs to eat first." Mrs. Aubrah said. "She's had a busy day."
 "But I'd love to play after." I said. "You can go ahead and get the board." Kaysar let out a squeal and ran off, tiny legs churning. My son is a spotted civet unlike me, though he had no spots right now. Those would come with age.
 Every time I saw him run, knives of fear stabbed me. "He looks really thin doesn't he? Maybe he needs to eat more." His fur was pale gray with three black stripes, the center going from the back of his head and down his tail. 
 "It's normal for him to look that thin." Mrs. Aubrah said, her dark eyes full of sympathy. "He's a healthy young boy, I promise you that." I nodded. "You're still worried aren't you?"
 "Yeah." My son opened the chest where I stored the checkers board. When he learned in, his little body vanished and his tail wiggled over the top. He's so happy, he can be that way forever. He never has to leave this room. 
 "Can I fix you some dinner?" Mrs. Aubrah asked.
 "Uh thanks. I need some." I stood up. "It's been a really long day." She had already started fixing me a plate of stew.
 When you work on the Watch, you work long hours because the Watch is perpetually undermanned. When you'll be home is never consistent, today was actually an early day for me. If you have children but no spouse, someone needs to watch them.
 Mrs. Aubrah is a pale gray binturong, a creature that looks like a cross between a squirrel and bear but is apparently a type of cat. She had been Kaysar's wet nurse when he was an infant. Now she was a combination of nanny and housekeeper who I owed a great debt to.
 "You look exhausted." She said, setting a plate down. I collapsed onto my stool and nearly into my dinner. The heat from my fireplace warmed my aching bones and the stew was fantastic. Moments like this I relish and I was about to ruin the mood with the next thing said.
 "I feel it." I said. "I had to arrest a friend today. That's never fun but it...today it was really hard." I bit into a meat chunk and a piece of pepper. "I also got cursed at, got an apple thrown at my head, had someone use a slur I despise, pretty lousy day all around."
 "You had to arrest a friend? Wow." Mrs. Aubrah smiled and her honey-colored eyes were warm. "You can rant if you want too. I can listen, I've no where else to go."
 "Thanks." I sighed. "I would really like to but I'm not supposed to discuss arrests with non-members of the Watch." My tail thumped against the ground. "I suppose it won't matter though if I ask you a question."
 "I enjoy questions."
 "If someone has been beaten and abused for years and is living their own personal nightmare, is it right to arrest them for murdering their abuser?" My tail now beat at a steady rhythm. "What's the correct thing to do there?"
 "You don't ask easy questions do you? Uh may I sit?"
 "Please." Mrs. Aubrah pulled out the other stool.
 "After careful consideration I've decided I don't know what I'd do." I snorted. "I'm glad I don't have your job. Watching Kaysar is enough for me." Her long whiskers began to tremble. "You arrested this person though?"
 "What person? This is all just a question I wanted your opinion on."
 "Okay, okay, would you have to arrest this hypothetical person?" Mrs. Aubrah tried to lean back, only to nearly slide out of her stool. "Okay wow that's not a good idea. Well I suppose they broke the law didn't they?"
 "Yep she's a murderer." I said. "For that she deserves to be arrested and tried."
 "Executed?"
 "Banished." I said. "She'll be sent out of the valley, something she's not done for years. She'll go from self imprisonment inside of her home too banishment in the outside world." And how is Marnie going to survive? I looked over her shoulder.
 "This hypothetical woman is someone you're afraid for." Kaysar now had the board set up and was playing by himself. I watched him.
 "Kaysar looks happy."
 "You're afraid for this woman." I sighed.
 "Yeah I am." I finished my stew. "But there is nothing I could hyp-hypo-hyp" I frowned. "What was that word?"
 "Hypothetically?"
 "Yeah. There's nothing hypothetically I could do." I said. "When someone breaks the law, I have to arrest them. That's justice; it's unbiased and punishes you for what you've done." Mrs. Aubrah barked a laugh.
 "That's hardly justice to me. If someone is punished for killing their abuser how can anyone call that justice?"
 "I don't...I don't know." Marnie's eyes were afraid when I locked her in a cell. She couldn't look at me, she focused on the floor like she wanted it to open up and swallow her. She mumbled to herself the entire time, so quiet I couldn't understand. Marnie's entire life was over in one stupid moment. "What I do know is for justice to be fair it has to be unbiased. Everyone needs to be treated the same, the high and the low and be punished accordingly for their crimes."
 "Yes but if they only did something bad because they were pushed to it they shouldn't be punished." Mrs. Aubrah said. "Or at least not the same way. In any other situation your hypothetical murderer wouldn't have done anything wrong!"
"This isn't any other situation though, it's this one where she did murder. Now she has to be punished." I scrapped against the bowl. "Even if I feel bad for them I have to follow the law. If I can't do it, what's the point of having a justice system? I just have to remain impersonal."
 "Justice is impersonal but justice is not a person. You are human, no matter how many scales you have. You seriously want to tell me this doesn't hurt? You don't feel bad arresting a friend?"
 "I didn't say that. I can stand for justice, or I can stand for what feels good. Joing the Watch was my choice. I can't make an exception just because I feel bad for someone or they're my friend." I swallowed. "I can't. I'll have to live with this course of action." 
 "If you can do that I hope it works. But is it that easy?" Mrs. Aubrah's whiskers dropped. "Can you just divorce your emotions from your day to day life? You'll feel something eventually."
 "Not if I just don't think about it." I said. "There are other things in my life that need attention and when I do become Justicar I'll run into situations like this all the time. Got to stay emotionally distant and I'll be just fine."
 "May I speak freely?"
 "Go ahead."
 "You're being thick headed if you think that." Mrs. Aubrah said. "I speak with love but you are. You can't just stop feeling things unless you turn even more cold-blooded. Feeling sorrow over this is normal and in time you'll get over it. Feeling sorrow will not be compromising your sense of justice."
 "I don't agree." She shook her head.
 "Yes I know." Mrs. Aubrah scooted out from the table. "I'll pray that the gods help you." Pagan or not I could use the prayer. "What else is on your mind? Anything good happen today?" That bull. What was he?
 "Maybe." I said. "I....I don't know. Sorry my mind is distracted."

"It's fine honey. Did you enjoy the stew?"
 "It's fantastic." I said. "I wish I could cook like this...maybe I should try again. I did like cooking when I had time for it."
 "Janelle the last thing you cooked we had to cut with a knife." Mrs. Aubrah said.
 "What's wrong with that?"
"It was soup!" I am not a good cook. "Now I have to get going but I'll be back tomorrow but you know that."
 "I do. Thanks Mrs. Aubrah." I escorted her out and then checked out my son. He was currently on his belly playing with the checkers board. I sat down beside him. "So who is winning."
 "Black!" Kaysar giggled as he moved with black pieces over white. "Black got three kings." I scratched his ears again.
 "Want to play a game?"
 "Yeah!"
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