I stood there in front of the captain, as he nervously asked me once again why I had done it.
He did not seem able to grasp the meaning of my words when I told him once again that I had to stand by my word.
Obviously, the concept of honour and respect of the given word was extremely foreign to a halfling merchant, but I still found it surprising that he was so unable to understand my actions.
I would never break my word, and I had given my word to the pirate.
That very morning, Tyrion had looked at me and said:
"There are things I cannot do and I fear must be done. Do what you want with him, but get the information we need. The elves' lives depend on this. I'll be on the other side of the ship, out of ear range."
And he had walked away.
The priest had looked nervously around and simply muttered something about looking for something upstairs.
Adolfiel had held my stare and simply had said she would prevent the rest of the crew from coming below deck.
So after they had all left I slowly walked to the pirate's cell. The same pirate that had enslaved and killed my people. He had sold me to work and die in the mines. He had tried to kill all of us on this very ship. And he had almost succeded.
I knew that he would try to retain his pride, to remain defiant and to steal from us the only thing he had left, the information about the elves. He had lost everything and would seek at least some form of revenge.
I could only do one thing to stop that from happening.
I would make a deal with the devil.
I came in fully prepared to offer things that would have appalled my friends, because it would have meant betraying them.
After hearing my proposition, he proposed his own deal.
Sometimes, different minds reach the same conclusions. The pirate knew we needed the info, and he wanted something from me.
His deal was simpler, faster, very much his style.
If he gave me the information I needed, I would save him the trial, torture and hanging that was waiting for him in Marshport. He had no doubt that he would be hanged because he knew he was a thousand times guilty.
I accepted and gave my word.
Without hesitation, he told me who had the elves, why they had been taken, where and where I would find at least some of them. And stood there, waiting for me to do my part of the deal.
He knew I would not break my word.
And I didn't break it.
As soon as the rest of the group learnt about my actions, hell broke loose.
Tyrion threw a fit, gave a looooooong speech about morals, justice and ethics and walked away.
He came back later with a piece of news, he had made a formal accusation against me in front of the halfling captain.
For murder.
Technically, we had become his employees in the moment the pirates had attacked his ship.
I was bound again by my word and by accepting this contract I had to respect the halfling's word as justice.
Without a second of doubt, I accepted the trial. To do otherwise, I would have broken my word.
All this I explained once again to the halfling captain, but it was obvious that he did not like the responsability, he wanted nothing to do with it.
He had already proven to be too much of a coward to do justice himself on the pirate and now he had to decide on my future. He had heard everyone else's statements, but there was actually no dispute about what had happened. He had to punish me as he saw fit.
I stood there while the captain made up his mind, waiting for judgement.
I would not break my word.
