Trial: Meeting the Different Faces

[Matalina]

The Brig was not a fun place to be.  There was no windows, no candles, and there was very little in her room.  She had tried to kill herself after all, so they limited everything in her room.  There were no blankets, pillows, there wasn't even a bed, just brick walls, smooth. 

 

Cari had yet to be fed.  They probably didn't care too much to waste their food supplies on criminals.  She didn't expect much if and when it ever did come.  As if her thoughts had cued them, a young boy strangely familar brought Cari her food.  He slide it on the floor through the iron gate.  At least she could see her captors.  Cari had never been good with names, but the boy recognized her as well, she could tell by the look on his face.

 

"You killed my friend."

 

Cari nodded.  "I didn't do it."

 

"You were caught in the act."

 

Cari smiled.  "Yes and no.  It's hard to explain to you Jesse."

 

"So you do remember me? What I do to you that made you do this?"

 

"Of course I remember you, and I didn't do it because of anything anyone did."  Cari took a bite of her food and what passed as water.  It tasted aweful, the whole lot of it.  But she was hungry, she at the miniscual peices of meat as well. 

 

"So why did you do it?"

 

"I told you I didn't do it.  I'll show you, but not show you who did it."

 

Cari pushed Marosa to the front, there was an obvious change in demeanor.  From the warder to the seductress.  Marosa swayed to the door of her cage.  "My, what a lovely peice you are.  Maybe you can let me out of here or come in with me, either way I can treat you well." 

 

Cari

 

[Matalina]

It was obvious that this woman was crazy, but he knew her, he knew some of the things she did.  What he didn't know was why she was here.  "That's easily faked, multiple personalities, particularly like this with you showing me.  I'm not an idiot."

 

She really was out of it.  Insane.  Thinking that she could pass off as someone else in her mind.  But the woman's smail faded and slide into a frown.  A quick wave and then it was gone. Another change and Jesse blinked.  There was something obviously going on here.  She was either really good at this or it was real.  Jesse wasn't sure.  Jesse knew a little bit about this woman, her so-called training in a merchant guard and her past with his family.  He wasn't sure what to beleive.

 

Jesse

 

[Matalina]

Marosa smiled and it faded into a shy smile.  Kayla waved and quickly pushed May to the front.  There was little difference between Cari and May but she softened.  "Kayla is shy.  I am May, the other one before Kayla was Marosa.  We are real.  Cari is the main persona  and the shadow is the killer.  We don't understand it.  It is part of us but isn't.  Most of us exist from some trama or another that Cari has gone through, the least of which was torture.  I would introduce you to Meeghan but she is the byproduct of said torture and you won't get much out of her but continual sobbing."

 

May handed the body back to Cari.  "And so you have it."  Cari took the last swallow of her water and pushed the tray back to Jesse.  "Wouldn't want myself to kill myself with a cup now."

 

Cari moved back into the shadows of her sell and slide down the wall to sit.  She could still see Jesse standing there just watching her.

 

Cari

 

[Matalina]

Jesse still wasn't sure what to beleive, but he took the tray that was pushed back.  She was the killer, but how could a killer be so normal.  Normal isn't the right word for her, she was definately  not normal but from the look of her she was normal.  She wasn't overly agressive, nor was she unwilling to admit she did it.  She knew she did it, she didn't feel bad, but she didn't say she didn't do it with out right denial.  She said someone else did it, but it was a part of her.  How could that be?  How could she beleive she was multiple people.

 

Jesse pulled a chair opposite the door the prisoner sat and sat down himself.  He watched her.  Watcherd her with careful eyes.  He wasn't sure what to think of her.  She looked so normal.

 

Jesse

 

[Matalina]

Cari wasn't sure how long it had been day and night didn't change in the cell she was in.  Nothing changed, her guards only changed enough so that Jesse could sleep.  He seemed to have taken it upon himself to watch over her night and day.  Cari was glad that at least it was him and not someone who could identify her as Matalina.  She hoped there were few in the yards that could do that these days.  She could only hope

 

Cari fell asleep in the corner of her cell.  She was exhausted.  Her sleep was fitful as memories emerged from the surface.  It was strange that now these dreams would manifest themselves, but then again it didn't.  Visions from Meeghans point of view emerged and Cari whimpered and talked in her sleep.

 

"No, don't hurt me, I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

 

She screamed as visions of her guts came out of her body.  "Please, stop."

 

Voices came and Cari answered in her sleep.  Meeghan whimpered and cried in her sleep. 

 

Cari

 

[Matalina]

Jesse had just taken up guard again when he heard the prisoner scream in pain and terror, he looked in on her and she was sleeping fitfully in the corner.  A dream, nothing more.  Jesse sat and listened to the situation. 

 

This was definately not the woman he had met days before.  She was scared, she was afraid and she was giving into whatever her captors wanted.  Surely she couldn't be this good in her dreams?  Was there really something wrong with her? 

 

Jesse was not sure if he wanted her to pay for her crimes or if she really wasn't the one to blame.  He wasn't sure at all

 

Jesse

 

[Quisalas Selene]

Jasine had gone over the information from Kynwric, combing over the grisly descriptions of her crimes and most specifically the way she had been caught.  There was no doubt whatsoever that this woman had killed Audie, and the idea that she had killed Audie and not the others was just too incredible to give any real legitimacy to - even when he was being as objective as possible.  There was just too much evidence otherwise.  How did you defend someone who was caught red-handed murdering someone?

 

He shoved the doubts aside as he knocked firmly on the door to the cells.  Master Bryon had given him this task and he would see it through to its completion.  Right now, he had to meet this woman and talk to her.  It was not a task he was looking forward to.

 

The door was opened and he slipped inside and saw Master Jesse sitting in a chair watching the woman's cell.  He'd been told by Kynwric that Jesse had taken the majority of the watches over the criminal and Jasine wondered if the man had been close to one of the victims.  Busy with training and guard shifts and Thera, Jasine hadn't made very many friends among his fellow Tower Guards that weren't trainees alongside him.  And even though his training had brought him almost even with Master Jesse, he still considered the man to be his mentor in many ways.

 

"Master Jesse." He dropped into a brief bow and turned his gaze into the cell.  The huddled lump in the corner must have been the woman he had come to speak to. "What can you tell me about her, Guardsman?"  He kept his voice low, as much out of kindness to the woman as to a small hope that he could postpone having to actually speak to her.

 

 

Jasine al'Thorin, Public Defender

[Matalina]

Jesse wasn't surprised to have to answer that question but to someone who he had trained at one point that was a bit discomforting. He wasn't surprised that there was going to be a defense.  "I'm sorry you have this task.  She admits to it but doesn't.  It's really strange."

 

Jesse gestered towards Cari.  "Her name is Cari Namere.  She is a friend of my family on my mother's side.  She has been trained to kill though I hadn't thought it was to this extent.  She never seemed an out right murderer when I'd met her in the past."

 

Jesse nearly laughed.  "She claims to have others in her head.  She even so much as showed them to me.  And up until last night I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth."  He sighed.  "But last night she was dreaming, and talking in her sleep, and the things that came out of her mouth were not anything that I could beleive could come from her, the cold hearted killer. She was afraid, no, she was terrified.  One of the so called personalities told me she had been tortured, I think she was remembering that."

 

Jesse

[Quisalas Selene]

"Have others in her head?"  He blinked and considered the possibility and what its implications could be.  He was no expert on Tower law, he would have to speak to Master Bryon about what this could mean.  Perhaps it was something that the Yellow sisters could prove, or even cure.  They said anything short of severing or death could be cured by the Ajah.  He would need to make time to speak to the Sisters at the Infirmary as soon as he could.  They would be able to fill in a lot of the questions he had about it, and might even be able to give their own testimony from when she was healed in the Infirmary.  If there was anyone who could tell whether a woman was lying or playing false, it would have to be an Aes Sedai.

 

"Torture can snap the mind." He spoke softly, his gaze resting on the woman he had to defend even as he spoke to Jesse.  "But having bad dreams of being tortured doesn't prove that she has more than one person in her head.  She could remember being scared and hurt and still be the cold-blooded murderer who has slain our fellow guardsmen."  He heard the edge in his voice and tried to soften it.  Objective, he must be fair and objective and leave his own feelings aside.

 

"Has she been asleep long?  If you thing she won't wake soon, I have more questions for you.  I don't want to talk about her if she'll be listening, though."

 

 

Jasine

[Matalina]

Jesse looked over at Cari.  "For all I know she's listening now.  She's good at hiding things, very good.  I mean she got around the Tower Yards with out an issue.  From what I know of her history, which isn't much she's never been to Tar Valon before.  Maybe once, yes once, to fetch my cousin's body."  Jesse wondered how much people remembered of Tayln's accident. 

 

"Cari was trained by mercanaries that's why my uncle hired her.  To help protect the ranch, it also helped she had some knowledage of horses too."  He smiled.  "But that is neither here nor there.  We can move over here out of ear shot so she can't hear us so you can ask your questions."

 

Jesse

 

OOC:  No one can find out Cari = Matalina just a reminder.  Too many issues involved that Raeyn and I would rather not bring into play lol.

[Quisalas Selene]

"I find it incredulous that she could have been new to Tar Valon when these murders started.  When was the last time you saw her before the murders, Jesse?  Perhaps she's been among us studying and perfecting her strategies for months, even longer."  He spoke to the man quietly as they moved away from the cell but never left sight of the woman.  There was a chance, not even all that slim, that the woman could be faking her sleep and was hearing them speak now, but he didn't want to leave entirely.  As much as he was stalling from meeting the woman properly, part of him desperately wanted her to rise and speak and damn herself, make his job impossible and unnecessary.

 

"That still leaves the question of why.  Has she said anything about why she's been killing Tower Guards?"  He took his gaze from the huddled sleeping form and met Jesse's eyes.  There must be a reason, and if that reason was a group targeting them, would they send another assassin now that this one had been caught?

 

 

Jasine al'Thorin

Not quite Sherlock

[Matalina]

"I haven't seen her in years.  I didn't even see her when Talyn, my cousin died here in the Yards.  I only knew she had come and gone after the fact.  We meet briefly before I came to the Tower.  And by that I mean for many a few hours.  She was with my Talyn's grandfather and I was meeting him for dinner.  That was the first and only time I've met her, but Talyn spoke of her often from letters from him family."

 

He wasn't sure what any of that had to do with him but he knew she hadn't been in Tar Valon since Taylor had died.  "All I know is that she hasn't been here since Talyn died, and that was at most 2 years ago."

 

"As to why she killed she hasn't spoken of anything.  But I think that she beleives that it was this other persona of hers who did the killing she never said anything as to why this other one was killing.  I can't imagine why she was targetting guards.  Except maybe for the challenge of it all, but that's my own speculation not anything she's said to me."

 

The woman started to stir.  "Maybe you should ask her these questions, I think she's waking up."

 

Jesse

[Quisalas Selene]

Jasine nodded to the man.  He'd run out of stalling tactics and he knew it.  He gave another nod to Jesse, this one almost a dismissal, and moved over to the cell.  He was within a long arm's reach of the bars, but didn't think someone Cari's size could touch him from inside.  He was probably being overly cautious, Jesse would have mentioned it if she had been actively violent or aggressive, but there was no reason to lay a bet that didn't need to be risked.

 

He didn't know what to call her, so he spoke without giving her the formality of an address.  "I've been assigned to defend you in these trials.  I don't expect to win, and I'd be lying if I told you that I wanted to win this particular battle, but honor and duty bids me to do my best, and I will."  He paused, looking over her to see how his words had registered.  Who was she now?  How would he be able to tell?  "I need you to tell me about the murders and why you committed them, Cari.  I'll also need your full name, birth place, and year of birth."

 

He didn't get out his notes, he didn't want to be distracted by record keeping to miss the nuances of the conversation.  He didn't know how cooperative the woman would be, but he would have to be paying attention to her if he was supposed to be seeing signs and evidence of her having multiple persons in her brain.  He tried not to get ahead of himself, but he couldn't help but wonder what he would find out from the sisters in the Infirmary about this affliction and how much proof could be provided by them of it.

 

 

Jasine al'Thorin

[Matalina]

So now they decided to have someone talk to her.  At least there would be a trial.  She smiled at his words.  His honesty was something Cari had not expected.  "I've been assigned to defend you in these trials.  I don't expect to win, and I'd be lying if I told you that I wanted to win this particular battle, but honor and duty bids me to do my best, and I will.  I need you to tell me about the murders and why you committed them, Cari.  I'll also need your full name, birth place, and year of birth."

 

It was an odd sort of feeling, Cari started with the lie that came naturally now.  It had been 10 years of telling the same lie, it was second nature.  "My name is Cari Namere, but it was not always that.  I was born Cari Laenael.  I took the name Namere four years after my finacee died.  His name was Devon Triad.  I am 40 years old, you figure the dates I don't know more than that.  I was born in a small town in Cairhein to Flan and Rita Laenael.  My mother died in child birth and my father died in a fire."

 

When Matalina had died Cari had come up with a reliable lie to tell.  She normally didn't have to go into too many details.  But almost every single detail was certifiably correct.  Glen and Cari had made sure that the records were all in place.  That was her start with contacts win the governments of Cairhein.  Birth Certificates and Death certificates were all correct.  Only hers needed to be inserted in the system.  Rita and Flan were real people with a daughter, and Devon Triad was a real man, Glen's brother to be exact.  It was all a story.  But it was real to Cari now.  It was part of her life, it was her only life.  No one could know she was a former Warder, and very few people still living knew that fact. *You make it sound so real, it's a lie.* And you'd rather she claim to be Matalina Gaidin to Raeyn Sedai, released to go off hunting things for the Great Lord. *Well, no, we'd die immediately then* -Then let's the lie be the truth, I don't want to die.-  Cari smiled at her internal thoughts.  She didn't care really if anyone thought she was mad, it was already the case anyway.

 

Cari sat back in her cell.  There was nothing comfortable about it, but she made it seem so.  Like she meant to be here, and there was no better place to be in all the world.  This was the attitude that got her fired as Mistress of Trainees to begin with.  The irony of it all.  Her life in Tar Valon was over and her she sits with her life in peril in the very place she grew up.

 

"I wish you luck in defending me.  I was caught killing that girl.  But that was the only girl I really killed." Cari smiled.  "Yes, I'm sure Jesse's already informed you of my words to him, so I won't hide anything from you.  I killed the girl to eliminate her suffering.  She had been tortured and even after healing those things would not go away.  It was a mercy killing, and the only reason you caught me.  But I suppose that was a risk worth taking now that I am back in control, for however long I am to live now."

 

"You want to know about the murders.  What do you want to know?  I saw them all, I felt them all but I personally did not commit those murders."  Cari smiled with a horrific gleam in her eyes, but it was gone as quick as it had come, as she had grasped the void. Her voice went cold and quiet.  "Each murder was done for the pure joy of it.  The shadow wanted to challenge itself.  Killing the best of the best gave it a special kind of pleasure.  But it never tortured the victims, it as over quickly and quietly.  The last was not so, it had wanted to hurt the girl and in doing so was not playing to its strengths.  I was able to finally get control back."  Cari laughed, "only to find myself here.  But I'm sure you doubt my claims and there really is no way to prove to you that what I say is true.  I can show you but you probably wouldn't believe me anyway.  I am certifiably crazy my dear defender and I am glad you have no delusions of winning this case.  I will give you whatever tools you need to do your job, honor and duty are priority and I will help you as far as I can when it comes to that."

 

Cari

 

 

[Quisalas Selene]

To say he was stunned by her lucidity would be an understatement.  He hadn't been willing to allow himself to think of her as a person, as a reasonable and sentient person who would speak clearly and with such apparent openness.  She admitted to each of the murders once again, if only admitting that it was her hands and not her awareness that had done those dark deeds.  He noted all the details of her identity, it was not really in question.  Jesse had identified the woman and her words worked well enough with his.  He would have someone dispatch a pigeon to Cairhien to verify the details, but chances were good that the investigation and perhaps even the trial and sentencing would be complete before they heard back on it.

 

"You are literate?"  At her nod, he continued. "I will want you to write up a statement explaining your affliction and stating in your own words the way this... all transpired.  Was this person you refer to as The Shadow acting alone?"  He paused briefly and then clarified, "other than the... rest of you."  It was incredibly awkward talking to a person who insisted that they were more than just one person.  "Your account of what happened and how your affliction works will be paramount in your defense.  If you are found to not be responsible for the murders because of The Shadow," he felt odd talking about the murderer as if she was not in front of him in the cell, "I would still not have you be free.  You've shown that she can take control of you, which means it could happen again.  That must not be allowed."  She said she valued honesty, and he was going to be honest with her.  "But if it is possible to fix you, I'll see that you get that chance."

 

His stomach had turned over when she said that honor and duty were priorities for her as well and wrapped tightly within the void already, he felt the sensation as distant.  He was glad he'd adopted the void before coming in here, if he hadn't he would surely have paled then.  How could such a creature know of and respect honor?  What would she understand about duty?  Within the void he could almost feel her heartbeat, and what he had learned of truth-telling in his time in the yards gave him the impression that she wasn't lying, which worried him almost as much as having to defend her.

 

After talking it over briefly with Jesse, he decided to trust the woman enough to give her a writing board and pen.  If the woman managed to kill herself with the pen it would only simplify Jasine's life.  He settled down in another chair near Jesse to write down the notes he needed to take from his conversation with Cari and start to put together the questions he would be asking of the Yellows in the Infirmary.

 

 

Jasine al'Thorin

[Matalina]

Cari thought about slitting her wrists with the pen.  But it wouldn't do much good, there was always a chance to escape, however remote it was.  She could only hope that the Great Lord saw that her life had more meaning than letting the Shadow capture her and remove her from his services.  Cari was sure that Bel'al would not interfere, it was not his turf after all.  Cari could only hope that words would reach the Black Ajah but she could only hope they would try to free her.  She had no delusions that she would be free again to see her children. 

 

Her children would need to be given word.  Cari wasn't sure if Jesse would do it or not, but Cari started scribbling first a note to the children.  "I am sorry my dears but I have been caught and cannot say more, but I may not be making it home to you.  I love you all deeply and will see you when next our threads cross.  Your mother."  She wrote two separate notes, one to send to Jeffery Kincaid in the Black Tower and one home to the twins and Fawne.  She could only hope that they would reach them.

 

Cari then started to write down what she had seen, heard and felt.  How things were in her mind.  How the shadow gained control was only touched upon.  Cari didn't mention the man she had killed before the shadow had gotten out.  She had not been charged with that murder, it was not part of the Motive of Operation and she was thankful for that.  She was not sure she could explain away that one.

 

Cari folded the two notes in half and wrote the name of her contact in Cairhen on one to send to the twins and Fawne at homeand the name of a contact person in Tear for the Black Tower as well as Jeffery Kincaid Namere on the outside.  So they would know who it went to.  She didn't try to hide it.  She put them on top of the board and pushed it through the prison bars.  "Jesse, if you could see that my children get these notes.  And for you a detailed description of what happened, how it happened.  You will probably not want to read it in the darkness of any room or alone, I did not spare any details."  There was no reason to lie, but she had every reason to make them fear her.  She enjoyed that probably more than the killings that the Shadow had done, she had enjoyed them, but she knew they were wrong and unwarranted and it has now cost her her life.

 

 

[Matalina]

Jesse took the notes offered to her family, he wasn't sure if they'd actually go out, but he would at least make sure they knew what happened to her, she was a friend of the family after all.

 

Jasine asked a few more questions and then left off to continue his investigation after asking Jesse if he would take the stand in her trial if necessary.  He only agreed grudgingly, she had after all killed a friend of his.

 

****

 

Jasine and Eqwina spoke about her findings and Eqwina agreed to take the stand at Cari's trial.

 

Eqwina found evidence from a probe with the One Power that she definately has some mental issues.  While she could not assertain the exact manifestations of it, they are evident in the scan she made.

 

This is a summary of events that have not taken place to finish up this thread so we can move on.