[Log] Bias
Who: E'sere, Fenley (NPC), Kazimir (NPC), K'rom, Roa, T'zen, Vanya, Ysidro (NPC)
When: Day 6, Month 7, Turn 2, 7th Pass
Where: Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr
What: Ysidro questions Roa at E'sere's trial.
Now is is Roa in the witness stand. Her statement included the following:
Roa's interview would cover the following things:
A recounting of her attack in the baths (she was tripped, tied up, interrogated, drugged, dropped into baths. Her assailant was female and dressed up as a healer with a mask. Her eyes were visible.)
K'rom and N'ka both sought her out to share concerns with Roa over E'sere's conenction with Leyron.
Later, K'rom told her and Tavaly that he'd been introduced to Donavon by E'sere. Aida confirmed that Donavon was one of her kidnappers.
She was made aware that both E'sere and Donavon pegged Peria as the attacker, but Peria's eyes didn't match up with her assailant's.
When Roa spoke with Penny and G'thon, she realized Aivey was around during both of their attacks as well as present when Sian was killed.
The wound on Aivey's shoulder lines up with the gash on the tunic T'zen got from E'sere.
Aivey's eyes match up with the eyes of her assailant.
Aivey confessed to killing Sian and Luren, attacking Roa, T'zen, Issa, G'thon, Jensen, Ashwin, Luren, Riann, E'sere, Penny, and Ginella when Roa spoke with Aivey in Aivey's cell.
Aivey had a wound to her belly that she said she got from Luren when she attacked him. (When Luren was found, his own blade was bloodied and there were some blood drops trailing away from the body.)
"Weyrwoman," Ysidro begins as once more his chair scrapes back. E'sere watches him a moment, then the goldrider on the stand steadily, as he has for every other interview. "Weyrwoman," Ysidro repeats. "You are a victim of the woman who stands accused beside my client, yes?" A gesture to point out Aivey.
Roa sits in the chair, ankles crossed, hands in her lap, back straight. Her own eyes remain more on Ysidro than E'sere or Aivey. "I believe so, yes," she answers simply and softly.
"And are you aware that my client E'sere is the son of High Reaches' former Weyrwoman Lexine?" Ysidro persists with the obvious questions for a moment, though he seems very intent on the answers.
"Yessir," Roa responds, "I am aware of that fact."
"Did you and the former Weyrwoman Lexine recently use your gold dragons to interrogate my client's Morelenth?" Ysidro asks next.
T'zen is among the audience again, arms folded, looking a bit smug, as he watches Roa. The testimonies connecting E'sere to the kidnappers and similar attackers have shifted his expression here and there, but he remains stubbornly smug.
"It was Vasyath who interrogated Morelenth, sir," clarifies the little weyrwoman. "Tialith and I were only there to verify that there was no misrepresentation on either Vasyath and Lexine or Morelenth's and E'sere's end. We listened. Tialith did not question."
"But if you, Weyrwoman, are a victim of my client's alleged cohort, and the former Weyrwoman Lexine is my client's own /mother/," Ysidro says, "do you truly believe either of you is far enough removed from the situation to interrogate my client's dragon in a legitimate and /unbiased/ fashion?"
"I believe, sir, that we were not at E'sere's ledge as victim and mother, but as weyrwomen of the Reaches. We are both capable of dividing those two aspects. It was necessary to do so, so we did so." Roa tips her head a bit to the side and seems about to say something else. But then her mouth closes and she simply waits.
Ysidro's brows arch in patently disbelieving fashion, but he bites back the first remark that springs to his lips. "Do you, weyrwoman." Not a question. Then: "Dragons, as I understand it, do not lie, weyrwoman, but what is to keep their riders from conspiring to lie about what passed--unheard by any harper advocate--between dragons' minds?"
The little weyrwoman's brows draw down. "I'm sorry sir, I wasn't aware...did Morelenth or E'sere claim that any such thing had happened?"
"Can you answer the question, please, weyrwoman," Ysidro requests briskly.
Kazimir clears his throat. "Weyrwoman, please, I'll have to ask you to only aswer the question, rather than posing any of your own."
Berated from two sides, Roa dips her head in quiet acceptance. "The dragons themselves could do so, sir. They would not keep quiet about such an injustice and the word would quickly spread through the weyr. One would hope, also, that the integrity of the riders would keep such a thing from occuring."
"Have any dragons, weyrwoman," Ysidro queries, tilting his head slightly, "come forward, having been told by Morelenth that his rider were guilty of any of these deeds?"
"None that I am aware of, sir," Roa concedes, "But a dragon is motivated to protect his rider. In the same way he should decry if myself or Lexine had lied, I do not imagine he would freely share any misdeeds performed by his rider."
Ysidro asks, "Could the direct order of one or more gold dragons pressure another dragon into silence on a matter?"
"Yes," Roa begins with a slow nod, "but it would be incredibly hard, and not necessarily possible, i such silence would endager his rider's life."
"I've no doubt, weyrwoman, it would be difficult," Ysidro notes. "What I would like to know if it is possible. Yes or no, if you please. Can a queen dragon force another dragon to do things he may not otherwise want to do."
"Yes," Roa says simply, "A queen can."
"Thank you, weyrwoman. Nothing further." Ysidro dips his head to Roa once, then returns to his chair.
Fenley rises and peers over at the weyrwoman. "Weyrwoman Roa, did you or, to the best of your knowledge, the weyrwoman Lexine, withhold any information when you interrogated Morlenth?"
"No, sir," a curt shake of Roa's head and a slight relaxing of her shoulders, "We did not."
"I see," says Fenley, "Did you, or to the best of your knowledge, the weyrwoman Lexine, lie during or after the interrogation with regards to what you learned?"
Another sharp shake of Roa's head. "No, sir."
T'zen frowns, watching Roa closely, and then the back of E'sere's head.
"Did you, or to the best of your knowledge, the weyrwoman Lexine, impart any commands onto Morelenth that would keep him from speaking, had there been any mistreatment or subversion?" Fenley has resumed his slow pacing.
Again, the shake of her head and Roa's soft and simple, "No, sir. We did not."
K'rom sits back in his chair, listening to Roa's testimoney intently, and watching the harpers as well.
Fenley nods in return. "No further questions."
Kazimir peers over at Roa. "You may step down."
The little weyrwoman rises from her seat and steps down to settle back into the audience.
Vanya's eyes watch as Ysidro sits down, and seems almost pleased about something for a moment, but quickly schools her expression into passivity once more as Harper Fenley concludes his questioning of Roa.