Tultamaan: “So, then, why did you feel it worthwhile to assault Vaareng? As I understand your Position in this Expedition, you are a Guard. I flatter myself to say that I understand your Position very well, for I am Captain of the Guards, and you report to me. Were your injuries caused, perhaps, by Defending good Vaareng from some Terrible Danger enough to so badly Ruin a Drake?”
Gyovanth: “You know I wasn’t.”
Tultamaan: “What, then, were you doing?”
Gyovanth: “Taking my just and customary revenge upon the drake who committed adulteries against me, who turned my wife from submission to hatred!”
Tultamaan: “The Former Drake is Vaareng, I suppose, but the Latter Drake is clearly Yourself. Still, upon your forelegs we see the Unimpeachable Evidence that you are Truthful in this regard. You did indeed take a most Distinctive and Unmistakeable Revenge upon Your Own Self.”
Gyovanth: “You distort my words! It is Vaareng and Jaraswat, not myself, who are the adulterers!”
Tultamaan: “From previous testimony we understand that Vaareng was rather more of an Innocent and Eager Victim in this regard. Your Former wife manipulated him with a Few Words and a Flick of Her Claspers. She seduced him out of the Mintwall Shield, after all.”
Gyovanth: “She seduced, he seduced, it matters not! The fucking occurred! I am allowed my revenge!”
Tultamaan: “Custom allows you to bite the Seductor of your Wife. But this Custom is Unimportant to the point of Meagreity in Two Important Respects. First is that the Needs of the Exploring Company are Paramount over minor personal annoyances. Second is that Custom does not give you rights over the Seductor of your Ex-Wife.” (This is a bit specious, since the seduction occurred before she was divorced in anything beyond mere truth.)
Gyovanth: “That is specious! The seduction occurred before any signs of the so-called divorce had occurred!”
Tultamaan: “It has been Thoroughly Established that you are unable to perceive Important Signs and Clues. You need not Exert Yourself Further on this point. The salient concern is the First. You were planning to badly injure a Very Useful Member of the Expedition. We fret somewhat less for the result, viz., that, instead, you managed to badly injure a Refractory and thusly Useless Member of the Expedition. Though neither cause nor effect makes you Much of an Asset. Well? What say you?”
Gyovanth: “I was asserting my traditional rights. That is a statement! Not an excuse! No excuse is needed!”
Tultamaan: “The first point is established without any particular rebuttal, or even much awareness of why we might Care About The Matter. Now, for the second point. There was a bit of a tumult in the Portal-Head, at which you and Jaraswat and Vaareng had a Battle. You were the Instigator of this Battle, were you not?”
Gyovanth: “Jaraswat had designs upon my wife, and bitten her without permission! Was I to tolerate such insults? Of course I leapt upon him — I would have thrashed him save that the situation became overcomplicated!”
Tultamaan: “We regard this as an Affirmative Answer. An Incorrect Answer, as the clever Roroku was the actual Instigator. But it was you, not she, who turned the battle from Verbal to Physical.”
Gyovanth: “What? Are you saying that my wife tricked me? Ignominious! If I had my forelegs I would battle you now!”
Tultamaan: “I don’t have mine. Clearly you are afraid of a Fair Fight with the drake you so often and so accurately term a Coward and a Weakling. Which is failing worse now, your Bravery or your Strength, I wonder?”
Gyovanth: [an unreportable and probably somewhat vulgar comment.]
Tultamaan: “Possibly so, but I should resolve to enjoy it if it somehow occurred. For your part, we have stated that you started the physical part of the battle. Do you disagree?” When he doesn’t use spurious capital letters [which are spoken particles in Grand Draconic — BB], he is at his most dangerous.
Gyovanth: “Of course not.”
Tultamaan: “Then there is no dispute that you are the one most responsible for the destruction of all of those instruments and implements.”
Gyovanth: “What? No! I wished to destroy Jaraswat, not the equipment!”
Tultamaan: “Destroy Jaraswat, copulate with Jaraswat, it matters nothing. You chose a course of action for the event, and as a natural and predictable consequence, much of value was destroyed. You will be responsible for replacing it.” Ah, this is not simply a kangaroo court. It is an attempt to recoup some immense losses from Gyovanth’s substantial horde. Gyovanth and everyone understood that instantly, being dragons.
Gyovanth: “I shall never pay from such an extortion!”
Tultamaan: “Ah, you wish to depart from the Expedition instead, and somehow slither invisibly through half of Hove hoping that the Mighty Dragons of Jyothky and Ythac do not discover you to exert their Justice? Such things could happen. Of course, even if they do, you will get no Honor from the Expedition; rather the opposite. I am sure you have a vast litany of Impressive Deeds to your credit that I am somehow unaware of, such that a few minor blots would barely be noticed? Like Losing Your Wife and then Running Away From No Actual Danger.”
Gyovanth: “I am not a coward! By the Narnu, I shall pay as you extort!”
A brief pause of two or three hours was taken while the matter was arranged and made irrevocable. The estimate of damages was quite impressively high, and I believe that two routine sorcerous tools were replaced by far superior creations of Lliashatheny.
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