The Rogues Who Went Rogue -
Chapter 128
Maddock explained, "You have, but you may not have known what you were reading about. The courts didn't call the victims 'hybrids. Because they were merely infants, almost no description was given about them to protect their identities and families. Cases like Re V, Re Q..." Pellethia asked in disbelief, "Those were hybrid cases? From the way the ambiguous way the judgments were written, it sounded as if the victims were children who were victimized and subsequently killed for being...different, like being homosexuals."
Maddock nodded. "That was the whole intention to mislead future generations."
"My father ordered this?" Pellethia asked in dismay.
"Not...exactly. But objectively speaking, he did... influence it. You see, Your Majesty, anyone loyal to the emperor knew better than to do anything that may even minutely villainize their ruler, so everyone involved found ways to...walk around the problem." Pellethia scoffed depressingly. "A cover-up is a cover-up. My father knew about this and he did nothing to stop it."
Maddock glanced at Saxum once more before he murmured to Pellethia, "He never wanted them dead. We really tried to find him. But we couldn't. Kosh felt...if the matter didn't die down...it might even cost him his throne, and consequently, your throne. As much as he was thinking about himself, he was thinking about you too, Pellethia."
Pellethia's eyes watered with tears of rage when she spat, "Hiding from history to secure the throne...is NOT the best example to set."
Maddock then spoke to her more gently than he had ever done during her reign, "And what would you have done if you were in our shoes, when the Forest of Oderem kept you out, when the hybrid massacre started before you even knew about it? I gather that you may have decapitated me for my own mistake but apart from that...would you have tried anything else that your father hadn't already tried to rectify the situation?"
After a long moment of contemplation, Pellethia replied in an angered whisper, "I know that I wouldn't have been able to sleep another night if I hid the truth."
Maddock smiled sadly. "None of us slept well after that failure. None. Not me, not the late vigils, and especially not your father."
Pellethia knew her father suffered from severe insomnia but she always thought it was due to work and missing her mother. She could never imagine that it was because of this.
Maddock then started speaking on his own accord, "Kosh...really did regret what he ordered. He admitted that he was blinded by the thirst for revenge, that if he could've just let one bad person live, many innocent creatures would have survived."
The former viscount turned to Saxum again, who was staring at the ground as he took this all in. Maddock cleared his throat to get the leader's attention, and with nothing but guilt and sincerity, he said, "I'm sorry. On behalf of everyone involved, I must tell you...there wasn't a day that went by that we didn't think about what happened, how we could have done better, how we could have done right. The error still haunts me to this day. I am terribly sorry."
Saxum swallowed a lump in his throat before he asked in a low voice, "You loved my mother?"
"Y-Yes, but it wasn't meant to be, as it turns out."
"Can you tell me more about her?"
That question took everyone by surprise. Shouldn't Saxum want to kill Maddock? Maddock instinctively shot Pellethia a nervous look, and the empress got the message.
She faced Saxum and said, "Saxum, I'm going to use my Authority on you to know what's really inside your head. This is not an attack. It's a precaution, alright?"
Saxum nodded in understanding. Pellethia's emerald eyes shone when she channeled her Authority and began her questioning, "Do you want to kill Maddock?" "Yes and no."
"Elaborate on that."
"Yes, because it was his mistake that killed my birth family. No, because...it was a mistake. My mother couldn't be seen, and my birth father was...sadly, not a good person...neither am I." His head lowered for a brief moment before he continued, "I can relate to the thirst for revenge and be...blindsided by the rippling effect of that. I am...not optimistic about my future after what I've done, so with whatever time I have left, I want to know something about my mother. Anything."
Pellethia wanted to help him, but after what he did...it was impossible. Her own people had been calling for justice ever since the first abduction took place. When word got out that the lost ones were found, there was relief only for a few hours. Now, the public wanted justice for those whose anatomies had been tampered with.
Saxum was right. His future was bleak. The law didn't take misunderstandings as a defense. No legal system did.
"Alright. We'll have that arranged." That was all Pellethia felt sure of saying to Saxum.
After Saxum was escorted out by three vigils to have him sent to the dungeon, and Maddock tagged along to tell him everything about his mother outside the cell, the royal family members were left alone in the room.
Pellethia turned to Lucianne and asked sadly, "How would you have done what father did differently?"
Lucianne murmured, "I don't know if I would. After Maddock's unfortunate error, every other route available to Kosh seemed to have only led to either a dead end or a disaster." She went over to give Pellethia a hug as she said, "Your father did everything he could, Pelly. He tried his best. None of us are perfect."
Pellethia then asked everyone, "If we tried Saxum, and if he is sentenced to death...would we just be following in father's footsteps?"
Xandar gave that some thought before saying, "Not the way I see it. Kosh had no jurisdiction to order Heros's death because Rosalie's death was within the lycans' jurisdiction. In our case today, Saxum's army harmed both our species, not just at Bordure but also in the hideout of the Forest of Oderem. We have reason to try him."
Octavia added ominously, "Not just a reason, but a duty. We owe it to the lives that were lost. He can never be freed, not after what happened. Whatever he did, no matter how sympathetic his past is...amounts to attempted massacre, treason, amongst other things. Even if we did let him go....there's no telling if he'll survive whoever's out there ready to kill him if they know who he is."
Greg murmured, "He's too deep in, crossed too many lines. He and the dead triplets practically led this whole thing that took this many of us to crack down. There's no way to help him."
Pellethia could only say, "Let's hand this over to the justice system then."
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