Take Responsibility.

[wordsmithery]

The ride up to the courtroom occurs, as before, after an allotted period of time for investigation; the elevator waits patiently for you at each floor - third, second, first - before sending you upwards and on your way to the courtroom high above. As always, the trip is a smooth one; granted, after everything that the morning had been, any small comfort that fact may bring is likely not helping much. There are three less of you this time around, a fact reflected in the podium circle standing in the middle of the room; Alani, Milla and Chiyuki have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black and their portraits in greyscale keeping a watchful eye over the rest of the trial circle. There's still no one present in the lectern above; however, once everyone has found their place in the circle, the Wordsmith's voice can be heard throughout the room. "I can see that matters are beginning to seem dire for you, Apprentices. I am sure that you all cared for Sympathetic in some measure—all except the guilty party. And now it falls to you once again to determine who that is. For your own sake as well as Sympathetic's, hold her killer accountable and have them take responsibility for their actions." Twenty-four Apprentices remain. We'll see how many remain at the end of the day.

Comments

[introspects]

...

[ Listen. She really hates to ask this but-- ] What were you trying to make bombs with earlier, Varric-san?

[neverheardofhim]

Making bombs is... putting it a little too... [Vague motions.] I never got far with it. Estelle could probably tell you that much -- at least with what I was doing in the chemistry lab. None of it looks or behaves like what I'm familiar with.

Elda or Phi could say the same in regards to my experiments during the first week.

[foundfate]

[So can Watanuki, actually!]

He almost accidentally made chlorine gas that first week, I doubt he knows enough about the chemicals here to make a bomb. And if he stumbled upon it, he would have blown himself up first.

[introspects]

That's--that's true.

[ No blowing yourself up, smol dad ]

I--I just had to make sure.

[neverheardofhim]

Covering all the bases. I get it, Sunshine. [No harm, no foul.]