Unforeseen

Two Sides of a Story

The grieving father pointed one weathered finger at the man I now knew to be named Olle, "This man, this devil, has had it out for my boy since he laid eyes on him. They work togeth- they worked together that is, on a fishing vessel, you see, fishing for fanged eels of the west coast. My son had ten years' experience on the ship called the 'Stormrover' over Olle and was his superior. Ever since Olle stepped foot on that boat he's been undermining his superior at every turn! He had threatened Kerr before to knock him overboard to feed him to the eels, and he'd brawled with my son on more than one occasion! If Olle had started one more fight, Kerr would have reported it to their captain and had him fired." Gudbrand shot the accused man a seething glare as his voice rose, "During the attack of the dark elves, they were off the shore, coming back with their haul. In all the chaos and while they were under attack from the elves' weapons, this man took his opportunity and killed my son, knocked my boy overboard into the waters where the eels were dumped and letting them destroy his remains to hide what he'd done!"

Gudbrand took a few heaving breaths as he calmed himself down after proclaiming his accusation. Besides his breathing, though, the chamber was silent, stunned by the violence of the crime described. I glanced at Odin-Loki to see how he reacted to find that his expression was impassive.

Without ever breaking the formal shell of the Allfather, he asked according to the ceremony of the trial, "And have you any evidence to support your accusation?"

Gudbrand looked back up at the Allfather, seeming more confident now as he affirmed, "Yes, Allfather. I have the witness of Finnur, son of Sigurd, and the testimony of Ebba Astadottir who was at the docks when they landed, as well as the knife that Olle used to murder my son."

One of the guards standing behind the accusers stepped forward and presented first to the crowd of citizens then to the court a thin, slightly curved blade that he was holding in a white cloth. The edge of the knife's blade and handle was stained with streaks of something dried and of a rusty black color. Dried blood. My stomach clenched at the thought of being sliced or stabbed with something like that. The guard then walked up to Lady Hariasa, handing her the weapon before taking his place once again.

"Witnesses, stand forth and speak." Lord Foresti waved at the two others standing in the accuser's group before the king and the people.

One of them was the man named Finnur who looked to be only a few years older than me, even though he'd probably been alive for over five hundred years. His skin was heavily tanned like Gudbrand's yet he held his shoulders a bit straighter like a military man and his small eyes were a deep shade of blue that was tinged with pink, probably from tears shed while grieving for the deceased Kerr. The lady known as Ebba was a strongly built woman who looked like she had definitely worked with her hands for a living. She had a proud kind of face, though she was looking nervous now in the presence of the realm's king along with his court and the majority of Asgard's citizens like she wasn't used to all this attention on her.

"Allfather," The younger man spoke up first, stepping forward, "I am a fisherman and was under Kerr's chain of command on the Stormrover. Both of us worked the same net with Olle. We've been fishing together for about two years now, and it is true that Kerr and Olle never got along. Kerr insisted on running a tight shift and keeping things efficient while Olle..." Finnur's words trailed off for a second as he tried to figure out the best wording. "Olle is more of a loose canon. He is argumentative, he goes to swing before thinking, and he doesn't take orders well. He's always been almost late to board ship, he tends to be lenient and admittedly lazy when hauling in the eel. He'd rather cut nets and waste the time and money for their repairs than to wrangle the beasts out like we are supposed to. He nearly lost a finger to the writhing beasts because he wasn't watching out carefully enough. Kerr was... hard... on Olle. He hated Olle's laziness and so he'd put him through the wringer. They were constantly shouting and arguing, and Olle tried to punch him a time or two. The captain just about had it with the fighting. One more reported fight from Kerr and Olle would be off the ship."