Path of the Whisper Woman

I barely kept myself from rolling my eyes.

Revenge.

Once again, Ambervale was spouting obvious bits of speculation as if they were dramatic fact. Anyone with half a brain and some inkling of the story of how the Lady Blue was created could guess that she might be motivated by revenge. Getting deemed a failure and then abandoned could do that to a person, much less a demigoddess. The goddess I was most familiar with certainly wasn't known for Her measured reactions.

Perhaps the Lady Blue should have been content with the ocean, but that was the same as saying Heliquat should have been content with Her territory and not thrown everything into a desperate fight to survive during the Era of Night. The goddesses did what they wanted and everyone else had to deal with the consequences.

The Lady Blue seemed to determine to make all of the land disappear one bite at a time; so, we had fight the fish to maintain a place we could live and stop everything from being destroyed because the Lady Blue and Her clashed directly. It was as simple as that.

She wanted revenge. We wanted to live. Declaring the Devouring Blue was all powerful and too strong to fight wouldn't help our goal.

"What is the goal of your research?"

The crowd's focus shifted to me. I had been holding my tongue, trying to be the impartial judge, so that I could come up with a fitting punishment that would satisfy the debt Ambervale's betrayal created, but it felt as if the current questions were dancing around the heart of the matter.

The reverence of Ambervale's features faded into something sour as she answered me, "I already said. To help understand the—"

"Understand in what way? To what end? Who does your research benefit? You can say it's for when the Lady Blue takes over the world, but you don't seem particularly inclined to help us survive, even if such a thing happens. You don't fight and you don't help."

Ambervale was seething by the end of my little speech, but I didn't give her a reaction in turn. If she wanted to be a wave of battering emotion I figured I could be the rock she broke herself on.

"I know better than to fight," she snapped. "The change is inevitable. So, I know better then to waste a moment. I'll learn all I can and then when the time is right my efforts will be recognized."

Ingrasia laughed. It was loud, abrupt, and pitying. Yolanda frowned and gestured for Ingrasia to speak. She did after fighting through the last bit of her laughter.

"She wants be the next Beloved, but for the Lady Blue. Show off her knowledge and deference with a bit of betrayal at this war front and that, so that when we're all dead and gone that crazed shape shifter might recognize her as more than a sack of meat."

All the blood drained from my face. That was step beyond betrayal and well into blasphemy. It was one thing to help to horde and draw them into the delta, to make comments assuming all the goddess's territory would be washed away. That was foolish, idiotic, and betrayal enough. But to think about replacing the Beloved? To ever think she could be on the same level as her or that the Lady Blue could be drawn into such an arrangement?

It spoke of an ego so large and separated from reality that it was difficult to comprehend. It was a miracle it happened even once, and, frankly, our goddess had more experience with humans, even at the time She met the Beloved, than I was sure the Lady Blue ever did. I doubted the Lady Blue noticed what Ambervale was doing and, if she did, could understand it. Life in the ocean had to vastly different than what we had on land.

Never mind the likely fact that the demigoddess like saw us as obstacles at best, enemies at worse. One look at Ambervale's black lips and the Lady Blue's horde would kill her in a heartbeat.

"Is this true?" The Scale sect head's voice broke into my swirling thoughts.

Ambervale lifted her chin. "I know her best. I know her creatures. Who else but me?"

"Know her so well you can't provide one single useful bit of information we don't already know." Tribe Master Toniva scoffed, shaking her head.

"Why would I fight my future people?"

Deranged. That was the only word for it. I didn't even want to begin down the mental loops Ambervale must have followed to even consider that the horde would somehow accept her.

They were fish. Mutated, sometimes ambulatory, but still fish. Perhaps there were more intelligent creatures in the Lady Blue's army, like the rumored conch commanders, but all that I had seen showed that they acted on instinct or the Lady Blue's will, nothing that indicated individual intelligence or will. Nothing like a true people would be.

More than that though, we had spent generations killing each other. That wasn't easily pushed aside or forgotten.

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Ambervale was destroying her life, and hurting countless others, over a foolish conviction. Even if we lost the defensive war and the Lady Blue managed her goal, I doubted she would be able to stand up to Heliquat for long. Or if by some twisted wish, she did manage even that, I doubted even more that Ambervale would find herself by the Lady Blue's side.

Mostly because the Lady Blue likely wouldn't accept some human at her side, but also partly because Ambervale's fate was going to get decided in this trial and I didn't plan on letting her achieve any of her goals. Betrayers didn't get to have accomplishments.

"We have heard your grievances and your convictions." Once again, Yolanda brought the trial back under control. "Now tell us of your actions. All that you've done in this delta."

For someone digging themselves deeper into a hole with every word, Ambervale was surprisingly eager to tell us every sordid detail she had done in the name of her "research". I wasn't sure if she figured it didn't matter since we knew her ultimate goal or she was trying to convince of her logic and join her madness, but she readily admitted to planting the blood crystals, making multiple channels that cut behind defenses, sabotaging supplies and walkways, generally making a nuisance of herself by trying to demand information from as many people as possible about their experiences with the fish, and avoiding providing information that might help us gain an edge over the horde.

When it came time for the others to voice their grievances against her, they echoed all the things she admitted to while also making it personal. The tribefolk mentioned family members and friends they lost or who were hurt by her actions. All the difficulties her sabotage created. Ziek spoke of her hunt and everything she found connected to Ambervale in the delta while Ana leaned into the logistical problems she caused. Ingrasia waved away her chance to speak after saying one good laugh was all the good Ambervale had achieved in the world.

Juniper said that she threatened her home and family and that Ambervale couldn't be forgiven for that. Cascade almost swallowed her after that short tirade, but Juniper's shout stopped the snake right before it caught Ambervale to swallow her down. So she got another dunking in the pool, which almost caused a panic as everyone started to wonder if she'd manage to swim away, but Cascade darted her head back into the water and brought Ambervale up dangling by her foot. The snake seemed pretty mopey at the point that she had to keep hanging onto something she wasn't allowed to eat, so Juniper had her drop Ambervale onto the walkway and Britta had her trussed up with a bit of rope before she could get away. Ambervale already had a rag muffling her words since she had kept interrupting everyone else sharing their grievances against her.

Tribe Master Toniva shared her grievances last, and she did it standing over Ambervale like she was a bug she needed to grind under her heel. That was the angriest I had ever seen Juniper's mother and I wasn't eager to see it again. Every word had been measured and heavy, a stomp squishing the life out of the bug.

She recounted her people's losses, the undermining of their work, and the danger her daughter had been in because they had been forced to awaken the Water Frond Snake. Juniper jumped a little at that last point, like she wanted to protest, but she kept quiet. Tribe Master Toniva finished laying out her grievances by saying, "You will amount to nothing while we will grow. The Lady Blue will never have our home while we live and breathe, and we will do so for generations to come."

Ambervale sat, trussed up with rope, gagged, as proudly as she could. If she had been anyone else I might have been impressed, but instead all I could see was a pathetic woman who couldn't even fathom things not going her way. And all she deserved was pity for her irrationality and condemnation for the pain and trouble she caused.

"The grievances have been declared and heard," Yolanda said. "Such accusations, if judged true, are eligible to consider the accused a death bringer and have the scales balanced on the end of a Peacekeeper's spear."

Betrayal was tantamount to murder in the goddess's eyes then. Something for Her Peacekeepers to cut out before it could spread. Punished swiftly and without any semblance of mercy.

I was tempted to take the sect head's hint and make my judgment then and there, but then the decision wouldn't be entirely my own. I'd just be taking the easiest option and that didn't sit well with me. It also felt like a trap. Despite the Beloved making the final judgment my call, I didn't have the authority to sentence anyone to death. So I considered my choices while everyone waited.

Ambervale couldn't be left to become a problem again later, which meant she'd either need to be so broken she couldn't do anything or dead. The goddess also didn't suffer betrayers getting off lightly. I needed something that balanced the scales but that also didn't veer into something so far above my authority that everyone thought I was trying to become the Beloved with the task she gave me. I knew better than that.

As I considered the betrayer in front of me and the perfectly good pool behind her, my answer came to me. Something that allowed me to punish her while also giving enough room that others couldn't accuse me of stepping into the goddess's purview. It would most likely amount to a death sentence, but at this point, if she died to what I was thinking she would deserve it.

"I have heard everyone present and I have my judgment. Should it be accepted by the goddess, I ask only that She accept my blood offering. Should it be declined I will accept Her will and form a new judgment." I drew in a deep breath. "I judge Ambervale to be a betrayer and death bringer. From this point forward, Ambervale will be completely stripped of all boons and her blessing she received as a mark of the goddess's favor. Let them be rejected from her as she has rejected our goddess." From what I had seen her boons had likely already be suppressed but I wanted to make sure she couldn't swim speedily away and escape the next part of my judgment.

"Second, since Ambervale is certain she will be welcomed by the Lady Blue, let's test her theory. We will take her to the shore where she can fight wave after wave of fish until she's overwhelmed or welcomed among their number. Should she be welcomed she will still be labeled a betrayer and death bringer and treated as any enemy fish should she take a single step into the goddess's territory."

Even Ambervale didn't look convinced the fish would welcome her among their ranks despite all her desperate efforts. I ignored whatever garbled protest she was trying to make and pricked the bless mark on my thigh after unbuttoning the flap on my pant leg. The blood that would have trickled down my leg immediately flaked away.

Yolanda clapped once and the sound echoed out through the delta. "The judgment is accepted. It shall be carried out at once."