Part 63 (Patreon)

“So first, let’s hear from the accused.”

There was an awkward pause, as everyone waited. Choru craned her neck to try to see Isolda the innkeeper, but then noticed everyone was looking at her.

Aubrienne cleared her throat, looking at the Cleric. When she got no response, she said, “The foreigner is accused of making false allegations against our innkeeper.”

Choru swallowed hard. It hadn’t occurred to her that SHE was the one on trial here. No wonder the innkeeper placed herself into the stocks so willingly. “Well?” said the Hierophant.

Choru took a deep breath. “After several hard days of travel, and sleeping outdoors, we saw your….er.…fair town, and thought we might be able to pay to sleep in a bed. While Maddie went off to handle some other matters, I found the inn, and spoke to the innkeeper.”

“Go on,” said Aubrienne.

“She was amenable enough at first, but when I asked the price, she quoted me seventy-five gold pieces.  For that dunghea—I mean for that small, austere, not particularly clean lodging, she wanted seventy-five gold for one night.”

“Isolda, would you care to give your side of the story?”

“So this foreign cow paraded up to me with this ‘royal highness’ attitude, and I was as hospitable as I could be in the situation. I said that we do indeed have a room, for 75 gold a night. Look at her! She can afford it. And as you’ve already seen, she’s enough trouble that I deserve it for dealing with her.”

“Good people of Farnfield, you’ve heard the first round of testimony. Make your offerings to Amplocopia, and show us who is righteous by dropping your coin in their coffer.”

Choru watched with anticipation, as a few of the locals stepped up and dropped coins in the innkeeper’s coffer. “Perhaps,” she thought to herself, ”these are just the innkeeper’s friends. Someone will be moved by my story…”

But then, more villagers came, and tossed all of their coins in the innkeeper’s coffer. One elderly woman dropped a single brass coin in Choru’s coffer.

Uril removed the coins from the boxes, counted, them, and presented them to Aubrienne. “Thirty-three to one,” she said. The hierophant nodded to the sheriff, who walked over to Choru. “Sorry, these are the rules. And you have all these armor pieces, so to make it fair, I’ll have to take a lot of them off. Isolda only has a couple layers over there. Don’t worry, I’ll put it in the coffer with your cape.”

The sheriff removed Choru’s boots, her armor, and her shirt, leaving her in a pair of tight leather pants, and a lacy bra. Her thick abdomen came into view. At first, Maddie was annoyed that she couldn’t turn her head enough to witness her companion being stripped. But then, the sheriff came over and started removing her shoes. To Maddie’s temporary relief, her stripping was limited to her shoes and her outer gown. She still had an undergown that was a garment that could easily be worn by itself in public. She didn’t have to give up her modesty.

Aubrienne said, “Do the foreigners have anything to add?”

Maddie spoke up “Look, this is all a misunderstanding. I’m sorry that Choru was rude to your innkeeper. If you let us go we will leave and—“

Choru butted in, “I’m not sure that all of you heard what was happening here. She was going to charge me an exorbitant price for a room, on the basis that I seemed like I could afford to pay. This innkeeper of yours, she’s a cheat! A charlatan!”

The crowd gasped. Aubrienne gestured to Isolda for rebuttal.

“You just heard her. She did it again!” the innkeeper said. The crowd couldn’t contain themselves and order was barely kept as the villagers pushed forward to throw coins in Isolda’s coffer. Even the older woman who had given Choru’s cause a single brass coin threw a piece of silver in the innkeeper’s receptacle.

“Thirty-four to zero,” said Uril. This time, she had an even harder time undressing Choru. While the armor had many straps and was difficult to remove from someone whose body was folded up in the stocks, getting the tight leather pants off her huge hips and backside was an even greater challenge.

When she had finished, Choru was left in a matching red lace underwear set. Maddie whined a bit as she felt her underdress being removed. Her form was now clad only in a red checkered bra and matching underpants.

“Is there anything else the foreigners wish to say? Or do they declare that they have lost?” Aubrienne asked, her hands still on her hips in a position that let everyone know that she was in charge.

“Mercy,” said Maddie, “we surrender.” “We’ll do no such thing!” Choru shouted, “What is wrong with the people in this dungheap of a village! Don’t you know right from wrong? This woman is a thief, a bandit!” Maddie groaned as Choru went on.

“Do you have a response Isolda?”

“You heard her. She’s making my case for me. I have nothing I need to say.”

Again, the crowd went wild, and people pushed forward in a disorderly fashion to drop coins into the box in front of Isolda. Choru’s expression looked terribly afraid as the sheriff went to remove her bra. “Well, well,” Uril said as she removed it, “what’s all this extra padding?” It was true. Choru considered her small breasts the bane of her existence, and had gone to great pains to hide them. But now, here they were, laid bare, in front of an entire village.

“For such a fat woman, you’d expect them to be bigger,” said a voice in the crowd. Choru couldn’t turn her head enough to see who said it, but she was overwhelmed with a feeling of Déjà vu. This was the nightmare she suffered through so many nights growing up.

When Uril popped off Maddie’s top, the difference couldn’t have been more stark. The bra had been barely able to contain her heavy chest. “That’s more like it!” said another voice in the crowd, adding to Choru’s dejection.

“Is there anything more to say?” the Hierophant inquired.

“No, please be merciful” Maddie whined.

“Yes! What is the Hierophant of Amplocopia, the holder of a title I’ve only read about in books, doing in this hygiene-forsaken village? Why aren’t you in some palace, in a respectable city.”

“Oh, goddess. I don’t know her!” Maddie cried.

“That seems to have been directed at me, Isolda, is there anything you want to say before I reply?”

“This is the easiest trial to win I’ve ever witnessed.”

“As you hopefully already know, Amplocopia is the goddess of abundance. Her cathedrals are the fields, the shambles, the docks, the cargo ships, the market stalls… She is as much at home in a farming village as in a city’s chamber of commerce. I am making an effort to judge you impartially, but I think we have an opportunity for a teaching moment here. Isolda here is a businesswoman. Amplocopia wants her to prosper. She charged you a price she knew you could afford. Amplocopia looks out for you, too, though. She’d want you to haggle. Of course, the price that you’d arrive at is nowhere near the lowball figure you offered, but Isolda would profit, and you would lose only an amount you could afford to give up. This is the will of our goddess. But instead of accepting the dance of business, you lodged false accusations of dishonesty and theft. And you demanded justice. According to our laws, you’re the one who has committed an infraction. I know it’s like you and your priestesses of Illuminora to always assume you’re right, that you’re better than everyone, and that everyone else should listen to you and cater to you. But this town, this isn’t some shining city of the realms. This is the real world. I hope you’ve learned something, but the formality of the law requires me to ask: do you have anything to add?”