Arandori Dewfeather

Unexpected Twists

“Seeing that you have no way to pay for your husband’s losses, you are hereby sentenced to prison for arson.” The justicar’s voice boomed as he spoke to her.

Arandori stood, stunned. The reality of the decree only setting in once she settled into a cell.

“Fuck. A. Duck.”  Dori had not expected this.  How could she?  She had simply gone to court to finalize the divorce. She had worried he might show up, but not to pursue putting her in jail.  She thought, wrongly, that he would contest the divorce.  Instead, he presented his case to put her away.  How he had laid on everything so thick, even going so far to insinuate she might have thought him to be in the house when she lit it on fire and walked away.

She had not been prepared to defend herself for arson. Sure, that had been a deterrent in her filing for divorce, but obviously, she’d been worried about the wrong thing.  Her ignorance of the court system was the final blow as she stood trying to represent herself.  She tried to counter that she knew he was not there and that she had continued to pay the mortgage.

What a mistake to think that the court would see that he had no real loss.  The Justicar set an amount that Alan was due and her heart sank. She knew there was no way she could pay that.  She had a tiny nest egg, but with trying to pay the mortgage and live, she didn’t have enough to cover the cost.  

Her shoulders sagged as she leaned against the cool wall and wondered how she would get out of this.  Suddenly she stood and approached the cell door and yelled.  “Hey! Don’t I get a call?”

As she and the jailor made their way to the comms, she went through the short list of who she could call. 

She didn’t know how many chances she’d get to make a call, so for that reason, she chose not to call Stellan. Over the last few months, he’d been somewhat in touch, but certainly wasn’t an option for

She really just didn’t want to bring this to Kae.  Not right now.  She knew the woman would help her, but it just didn’t feel right.

She called her one true friend, the one who knew and would help her.  The one she knew would be available to help do something.  Anything.