[Apharsites: Trial]
It doesn't look like any courtroom you've ever seen. It doesn't look like any courtroom anyone's ever seen. Because Angua went for practicality, not for authenticity. She gatehered dining and kitchen chairs from as any empty apartments as she could and just hashed them together with what tables she could add
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"Ladies and gentlemen," he begins, "let me lay this out for you. What we have here is a man, a leader, a prince. A man who has seen us through this wasteland at great personal cost to himself and to those closest to him. A good man; a strong man.
"What we also have is a woman, this good man's sister, in point of fact. Also strong, in different ways; no one here will deny that. A woman of breeding and cunning, of guile and intelligence. A woman who comes from a strongly patriarchal society but has nevertheless managed to maintain position and name.
"You're gonna hear from some people who are gonna tell you, though, that this intelligent, cunning woman has a grudge. A grudge against her brother reaching back far before they both arrived here, but continuing to play out in this new place. You're gonna hear that she has a history of turning that cunning and intelligence toward backhanded pursuits, underhanded dealings, and back-alley plots.
"And then you're gonna hear about another woman. Strong, like these siblings. A woman who has stood against the vampires and the Magog as viciously and as fiercely as anyone in this colony. A woman who is carrying hope within her. Twin children -- the first children to be concieved in this place. Children that, like it or not, will be a symbol, that even in the midst of all this death and destruction and desolation, there is hope; there is life.
"And finally, you're gonna hear how this woman and her children were the victims of a heinous attack. How someone coldly and calculatingly engineered an attempt on the lives of those twin children; an attempt that very nearly resulted in the loss of twins and mother. You're gonna hear the circumstances around that attack. The timing, the method, the results of the investigation.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you're gonna hear how this woman--" Rube breaks off and whirls around, stabbing a finger toward Azula. "This cunning and intelligent woman, this strong-willed and strong-minded woman, nursing a grudge against her brother, deliberately and without remorse, engineered a plot to strike at him, not directly, but through the womb of his lover -- through the lives of the children that he fathered."
Rube holds that a moment, catching eyes with everyone in the jury, one at a time.
"Cunning. Intelligent. Remorseless. And it almost worked."
One more small silence to let the jury consider that final statement, then Rube turns and goes back to his seat.
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