12th bell
67th Spring 518
A tall thin building with a large banner pinned in front
67th Spring 518
A tall thin building with a large banner pinned in front
The event wasn't as easy to find this time. Perhaps it was due to fact that it wasn't that important - everyone already knew the murder had happened, so there wasn't that incentive for the city to share. Perhaps it was because people didn't want to go - they had seen the dead body, poked at it, thrilled in the gruesomeness of being near a corpse, but the excitement of solving the crime was over. Either way, it didn't matter. Those who wanted to find the building would reach it in good time while those who didn't weren't drawn to it like they had been before. Only a few stumbled across it by accident, but it was easy enough for them to turn and leave without making a fuss about it.
There were plenty who did want to come, despite it all. News of the questioning of suspects had spread swiftly through the city. There had been whispers in the streets, posters on walls and notes slipped under doors. While each seemed to be different in the exact message, the date and place was always the same: the 67th, seven days after the funeral had been paraded through the city, in a building that would carry a banner and would appear tall and thin from the outside, but be a single crowded room if one entered.
It was rather an odd location, but it served its purpose. Everyone could stand in it, no matter who came (the room didn't seem to expand, but the space must have shifted when they did, because the room never seemed to have a spare spot before they entered) and everyone was able to hear the the witness or suspect standing in the stand at the front of the room.
The stand was tall enough for everyone to see, a simple wooden platform with a fence on three sides and a staircase leading up from the fourth. The fence had a little piece of wood nailed to the front, to serve as a stand for papers, and somewhere to bang the little hammer that was rested on it. Perhaps it was strange to give the subject the gavel, but Alvadas wasn't normally known for its exactness in law and order.
Currently, however, the only thing in the room that could be heard was a faint murmur of whispered breaths. The gavel would be unnecessary for now.
Dotted through the room were the Speakers, other members of the greater public, Cravens, shop owners, neighbours. Unlike the crime scene, there wasn't a small group designated to lead - instead, they had all pulled back to be form the crowd.
It wasn't working. Nothing had happened for almost half a bell now and people were being impatient. No one knew what was meant to happen, no one wanted to ask for fear of appearing stupid. Finally, some feeble voice called up from the crowd, a voice lost in a sea of faces that couldn't be placed. "Call someone forth! Ask them what you want!"
And there they were. The simple instructions. So simple they seemed to need more explanation, resulting in the general continuation of silence. But there was nothing more to say. If tried - if someone called another person forward, simply by shouting their name out - that person would come. There was little explanation behind it, but they would suddenly find themselves pushing through the doors and walking onto the stand. Once there, there was nothing forcing them to speak, but the questions would come and answers would be expected.
Those who wanted to prove their truthfulness would simply swear on Ionu.
There were plenty of people within the city to ask what they knew. Some might have been involved. Known things that others didn't. Examined the crime scene in a different way. They didn't have to be believed guilty to be called to the stand, or considered witnesses.
But it was the city's chance to share their secrets all the same.
OOC information :
