Matias’s Supernatural Justice [Windermere]
Date: 2025-07-08 13:02
(Matias’s Supernatural Justice [Windermere])
[Tue Jul 8 2025]
A Musty Basement Seminar Room/span>/spanThe seminar room occupies a windowless corner of the basement, its low
ceiling supported by exposed pipes that occasionally emit soft clicking
sounds as they expand and contract. Fluorescent lights cast an uneven glow
across rows of worn wooden chairs arranged in a horseshoe pattern around a
scratched oak table. The walls, painted institutional beige decades ago, bear
water stains in the corners where moisture has seeped through from the earth
beyond. A chalkboard spans one wall, its surface bearing the ghostly remnants
of equations and symbols that resist complete erasure no matter how
thoroughly cleaned. The air carries a persistent mustiness mixed with the
faint scent of old books and chalk dust. In one corner, a narrow door leads
to a storage closet where outdated projectors and boxes of yellowed papers
gather dust. The room’s only ventilation comes from a grate near the ceiling
that occasionally releases cool drafts carrying hints of damp soil and
something faintly metallic./span>/spanIt is about 80F(26C) degrees. The mist is heaviest At Birch and Blackstone/span>/spanNemi says “Building north of the building with the gym“
Kai rolls his eyes and slouches down further in his seat when Matias bring sup ethics, he folds his arms across his stomach and lets his eyes slip shut.
“Oh, I’m Hester,” Hester tells Sophie, but before anything else Matias’s voice booms. Hastily, she faces the front again and there’s a rustle of pages as she prepares to jot down notes. Mention of ethical red flags gets her peering around the other faces, waiting for someone to pipe up.
Jenny realizes class has begun and sits back up in her seat, starting to write down in her notebook
Nemi says aloud after tapping her ears before she sighs softly, looking down at her paper as she starts taking notes immediately after, having made sure to not interrupt as she starts recording thats said.
“Yes, sir. I stood beneath the arches for hours the other day- you… You can ask Miss Justine,” Lola offers as she hurries into the class and finds herself her usual place at the front, waving to Kai when he enters shortly after her. “Hi, Kai,’ she says sweetly, a greeting with dimpled cheeks before she turns back towards the front. She’s also rubbing a visible knot on top of her forehead where it looks like she’s been struck- there’s a little blue bruise, but otherwise she seems to be doing quite well. When the class starts, however, she hurries to pull out her little mushroom-shaped notebook and its matching #2 pencil, shyly falling silent.
(fix) “Yes, sir. I stood beneath the arches for hours the other day- you… You can ask Miss Justine,” Lola offers as she hurries into the class and finds herself her usual place at the front, waving to Kai when he enters shortly after her. “Hi, Kai,” she says sweetly, a greeting with dimpled cheeks before she turns back towards the front. She’s also rubbing a visible knot on top of her forehead where it looks like she’s been struck- there’s a little blue bruise, but otherwise she seems to be doing quite well. When the class starts, however, she hurries to pull out her little mushroom-shaped notebook and its matching #2 pencil, shyly falling silent.
Alhambra starts to write down notes in her notebook quietly, once Matias starts to speak.
Shay says “Gods, that took a fucking while…“
“Hey Lola,” Kai returns the greeting as he gets settled into his seat, his eyes still shut.
Justine enters quietly, closing the door behind (it lets out a creak) and finds a place in one of the backeats.
“Hey,” Jasper greets Shay and Justine,
Justine dips a nod to Jasper, whispering. “Hello.”
Shay is already shuffling in, squeezing himself into one of the backseats right before Justine. He greets Jasper with a smile and a polite nod. “Sup, Jasper, has class started?”
Sophie says quietly, “The ethics of that is a bit..self evident wouldn’t it be? Disturbing but contextually consistent with the era.”
Justine leans slightly forward, positioning a leather bound notebook on her crossed legs.
Mercedes lounges behind the group of students in a seat with one leg tossed over the other, making notes in her little black journal. She wiggles her fingers over at Justine as she enters.
“It just started,” Jasper tells Shay with a glance at the board. “Starting with execution and harvesting for magic, like sacrifices.”
Justine glances back at Mercedes over her shoulder, giving a discrete wave.
Derek makes his way in casually, fashionably late as he seats himself towards the back of the seminar room, unfolding his phone and slipping out a stylus pen to take notes.
Shay’s faint curl of his lips betrays what he feels when he hears that from Jasper, head only bobbing once as he simply says, “I see,” his focus turning straight ahead to the professor.
Justine shrugs her bag off her shoulders, dropping it down and pulls out a can of dr Pepper, cracking it open with a fizz.
“It probably depends on who’s dealing with whom–” Hester starts to comment, intensely staring at the board behind Matias. However, Derek’s entrance distracts her rather thoroughly. The blubbery one blanches as white as a sheet, and she buries her nose into her notebook instead.
Matias listens to the room before nodding a few times to various student. “The ethics as they say are moot. It was a difficult time.” and then turns back to the board. “So fast forward from ancient unnamed civilizations to the original sorcerors and great mages. During this time Supernatural Justice is again pragmatic. Outright death is less common, the sophistication of the eras magic means bloodletting and even things like group casting are efficient enough to achieve wonders. Now crime and punishment often comes with fleshforming as a punishment. A severe enough crime and you become material to be fleshformed into the creations of the Great Mages. As noted the monsters in the mists are fleshformed but it is also theorized that vampires and werewolves are fleshformed as well. Their existence potential derived from ‘justice’ inflicted on both a supernatural and mundane population.” and then looks out to the room. “So which is worse. Death to feed rituals for serious crime or being an experiment but alive at the end of it? Anyone here ever thought of what it would be like to be a minotaur or kobold?”
Arriving fashionably late, Roberta slips in at the back– Not a student, but a member of the faculty, she doesn’t make excuses or interupt, but instead settles herself at the back of the room to observe Matias teaching.
Sophie asks with a furrowed brow, “Depends, if they know of their life before being changed.”
Derek scribbles idly on his phone screen as Matias speaks, a mixture of notes and doodles, among them a sketch of a kobold that’s depicted with a goofy expression. He leans an elbow on his desk, cupping his chin as he contemplates the question posed.
Jenny raises her hand opening her mouth to speak “I guess it depends on what I get changed in-” cutting off as she bends over clutching her head seemingly content to stay in that position over her desk for the moment
“A cruel experiment would be worse than death. Does that mean most monsters were once human?” Jasper asks Matias with a glance at himself. “And did their minds end up becoming more primal and animalistic throught the time?”
Nemi nods in agreement with Sophie. “At that case like Sophie said If I did I’d just head into isolation somewhere… I mean, some people fine happiness in an isolated life hunting and living in a log cabin. I’d imagine I could still live in a cave somewhere and manage- Or die… And yeah… also depends what-” She says before looking over and raises an eyebrow at jenny before continuing. “What I’d become-…”
“I-it probably depends, sir?” Hester speaks more quietly to Matias, a quiver in her voice. But yes, she’s still mouthbreathing. “S-some days, it’s not too bad to ehm, live as a minotaur, I feel. If you’ve got your mind still, it’ll be kinda painful but if you don’t remember, you might happily live as whatever you become?” The ginger rambles on, eyes down and tucked behind her notebook still. “But imagine if ehm, an old lady just takes away your nose and mouth…”
Nemi nods softly. “I bet I could live a content life somewhere in Alaska as a minotaur just living in the deep wilderness….”
Hester bobs her head hurriedly when Nemi and the others share similar sentiments.
“I would just say, Professor, that even in ancient times the idea of death for everything seems stupid for two reasons. One, it means that if you’re going to steal, you might as well kill and everything in between. If there’s no degrees to the punishments you can receive, then that makes all crimes or insults or whatever equal, which is bad. Two, I don’t know if it’s about ethics but it sounds like killing everyone for everything would have an impact on population growth which isn’t great,” Kai declares and then goes on, “I think that would suck sir and I’d probably be trying to get back into a human form via fleshforming, if that’s even possible.”
Matias writes on the board underneath EXECUTION // HARVEST the words FLESHFORMED // EXPERIMENTED. “Fleshforming changes the physical body. Fate crafting changes the history. So most likely yes, unless they were fate crafted to believe they were a kobold. Then that would be more or less killing them… Fleshformed creatures can procreate. The monsters in the mists may some small percentage be humans that were changed but most are descendants and thus are simply what they are.” When Kai speaks up there is a long look at the young man as he points out, “Supernatural Justice expands over time. The cruder the magic, the harder it is for Justice. I do not believe ancient human sacrifice was for all crimes but certainly significant crimes. I believe historically thieves were branded or maimed in some way rather than sacrificed. Unless they tried to rob a particularly influential figure.” There is a look around the room again with attentive slate-grey eyes before he returns to the lecture in his baritone voice, “Now obviously there are those who used criminals, but the Great Mages were hardly uniform in their approaches. Many used trusted servants, confidants, and allies. Instead of the riffraff they choose the best and brightest to be fleshformed. This means that we have a situation wherein the punishment for crimes was also considered a desirable gift to some.”
Shay chooses, perhaps wisely, to leave that question unanswered for himself, while he’s busy scribbling down bullet points of notes on his college book.
Derek lifts a hand, before he speaks. “I would rather die as I am, then be made into some experimental mockery,” he supposes, then moving back to rest his chin on his elbow, before caveating, “Assuming, of course, there’s no chance of reversing it and exacting revenge.” with a slight smirk, letting out a soft puff of air from his nose. His eyes track to Kai, then back to Matias. “A trend of ‘death for all punishments’ does tend to lead to a sort of ‘all-or-nothing’ extremism.” he supposes softly, before he leans back in his seat and continues to listen, scribbling at his phone screen.
Kai turns in his seat and waves at Derek, then faces forward and shuts his eyes after he’s done piping up.
Jenny shakes her head sitting up straighter “I’m… fine.” she doesn’t seem so sure of it herself but gets back to writing in her notebook
Sophie asks as she taps a pen to her lips, “Wouldn’t it only be a desirable gift if what you were crafted into was..desirable? Powerful? Strong? Wise? An improvement?”
“I don’t think I would mind being a centaur, or a satyr, or similar,” Lola says, blinking her eyes slowly in thought of just what it would mean to be so fundamentally changed. “But then again, if it’s against your will, or if you lose more than just your shape when you get changed… It might equate to far worse than just fleshforming as a punishment, right? What if you lose all of your friends?” she asks, hugging herself faintly as Cain takes a seat nearby- she notices him immediately, smiles, and even waves in the mountainous man’s direction.
“So for everyone who claimed they could live being fleshformed if they had their memories. If you were fleshformed by someone you looked up too. A leader, a close friend, maybe a parent. You did not get a choice, but it was a reward. Would the context of it not being a punishment change your opinion on the matter?” Matias wonders before clarifying, “Keep in mind this is the era prior to True Fae and Gods ascending. This is still the era of experimentation and advancement so even the ‘gift’ of fleshforming instead of ‘justice’ could be… Undesirable.”
Justine seems more absorbed into her phone, texting constantly, but she does occasionally look up toward the board to try and catch some of the discussion.
“Experiments against one’s will is much of a punishment,” Jasper speaks, his mellow baritone faltering a bit while he frowns. “A fleshformed person would end up an outcast and hunted if they are undesirable by society.”
Hester peers warily at Cain when he joins the seats down in the front, but remains safely (?) behind the barrier of her notebook. Listening in near silence as the rest of the class speaks, she adds some furious scribbles to a page. “I feel like as long as you’re -something-, it’s not exactly over for you but ehm, some would prefer to die, some would prefer to be fleshformed. I guess just do the opposite of what they’d want for justice to be served?” she squints up at Matias again. “Wait, maybe I’m getting confused…”
Nemi nods softly as she writes in her notebook and nods again after she finishes her notes for what was said.
There’s no word from Cain as he slips into the room unhurriedly. Well, there aren’t any words, but with his size, the very floor creaks under it – loud enough to cause a liiiiittle disturbance. He makes his way to the front of the seats and then stares at one for a long, long while. As if he can’t comprehend how he’s supposed to fit in it. “Hells.” he drawls out, Mississippi accent thick, before he just goes for it and crashes into the seat. The seat itself groans like a damned soul burning in the depths of hell, but somehow, fortunately, doesn’t break. He settles in to watch Matias curiously from beneath his wireframe glasses.
“I suppose it depends on how you were raised,” Lola says to Matias then, raising her voice and her hand as she speaks. “If you were raised in a place where free will and freedom of thought are the norm, you might not be as appreciative as someone like myself. I was raised in what I know now to be a cult setting, and if from birth I was told that being fleshformed into a centaur was the greatest gift I could receive from Myconelle, I never would have questioned it! I would have looked forward to it anxiously, or… Even begged for it,” she explains, her voice eventually going soft and silent.
Matias nods in agreement with Jasper, “Often fleshformed beings are to fulfill a goal. Demons for war. Angels for servitude. Werewolves and Vampires to be advisors and warriors. Though again, their status as fleshformed species is contested. Gods and Fae were for power to ascend, most of them were self created to our knowledge. This means when your ‘reward’ of fleshforming came it was often to shape you to the fleshformers desires and intentions, not necessarily something desired or accepted by society.” and then to Hester, “In this case fleshforming was used as a punishment or justice for crimes but also used to reward those close to great mages. So on one hand they viewed it as something to be used to punish on the other hand they viewed it as a reward.” When Lola speaks up there is a look back over his shoulder, “Often views on Justice and Punishments are cultural. Have you changed your view on whether you would -want- to be fleshformed Miss Lovelace, now that you have been on earth?” and with that question lingering he turns back to the board and writes THE TEMPLE — Supernatural Justice by Naturals. “We continue on in our timeline. From the earliest rituals to the Great Mages and now enter the anti-supernatural religious warriors. After the creation of Hell in a war between acended Gods, the Temple arises. Supernatural Justice is now not only mete’d out by Great Mages but also by normal humans.” he turns to face the class. “We enter the error of memory manipulation, ritual binding of powers now achieved by neutralizers, and soft punishments. Execution and fleshforming and the like exist but things are broader now. There are shades of grey and in those shades we enter the meat of the discussion. The alteration of a person or being. Not just the revocation of freedom, but the direct change of their personality or memory or even the suppression of their innate supernatural abilities… Have we progressed forward ethically. Is this better than death or experimentation or have we simply broadened the ethical concern with unending what ifs?”
Sophie gives Hester an encouraging smile, “That’s a good point. It’s a little hopeful but we need that in this world.”
Sophie takes a measured breath before speaking, her tone softly inquisitive. “It depends on whether you define ethical progress as minimizing harm or maximizing control,” She adds in, “We’ve moved from visible, irreversible changes to more subtle violations – altering memory, personality, even power – without always leaving a mark. That feels less like justice and more like containment.”
With Cain’s predicament with his own seat, Hester looks to be rather punchably pleased that, for the first time, someone has it a little worse than she. A snortle is stifled when the large man’s chair creaks. However, cupping over her mouth, she spares the briefest of glances towards the back of the room before shooting her beady eyes back onto Matias. If anything, an appreciative smile makes its way to Sophie before she breathes again, “I feel like the buffet is just ehm, bigger. And more people have more opinions lately.”
Justine frowns, gaze flitting from Derek to Roberta. “Can they really?”
“I…” Lola starts, but does not finish, her eyes downcast now as she thinks on her past, her present, and perhaps even her future now that she has traveled to Earth proper and gotten to experience life outside of her Colony. She maintains her silence, casting her gaze aside to where Cain struggles to fit in a chair. She giggles, then quickly hushes and covers her mouth with a dainty hand.
Derek lifts a hand after a moment of quiet discussion amongst his peers onwards the back of the room. “In a way, it’s more ethical because, when it’s all said and done, the subject of said… alterations has been liberated of the quibbles with said issue. They have found themselves in a circumstance where they agree with what has been done,” he stakes out, evidently as a way of driving conversation forward with a curious look.
Sophie turns slightly in her chair, regarding Derek with a thoughtful tilt of her head. “That assumes the agreement is real,” She replies calmly. “If someones mind has been altered to accept the punishment, that consent is retroactive and manufactured. Its neat, but it’s not clean.”
“The buffet is bigger.” Matias echoes the sentiment before pointing his chalk at Hester, “In a sense the supernatural world has expanded. Supernatural powers have been refined and grown. Thus more supernatural specific punishments are available in the era that the Temple rose in. So yes. As for opinions, I suppose you can say the humans thought Godlike beings that created Hell and then sealed it off from all other worlds probably needed to be judged for that whoopsie.” he says in a resonating baritone of a voice before casting his gaze over the rest of the class. “Alright post-modification acceptance. I have been altered and I am accepting even appreciative of my correction. Dystopian but practical. That which you can live with is better than that which you cannot.” he turns to the board and writes WHAT IS WORSE THAN DEATH? and beneath that WHAT CAN YOU LIVE WITH? “Important questions to be answered. I believe there are many that view death as something that is final and this undesirable. Better to live in some form that is not constant torture than to be dead. Others value the integrity of their person more than their life to a degree. You will see these themes progress when we make the next jump.” and then looks out for any other answers from the room.
Justine bites the end of her ballpoint pen, shooting a confused side eyed glance at Roberta.
Jenny looks slooowly down to look down at her phone as it keeps buzzing. Her notes forgotten for the moment.
Lola also seems rather preoccupied with a buzzing phone, her eyes darting between the screen and Kai.
Kai keeps a neutral expression as he tries to subtly tap away at his phone.
Nemi nods softly, eyes darting over to Jenny before she focuses back on Matias as she leans back and hums softly as she writes notes down.
Hester shifts uncomfortably in her seat but there isn’t really much room for it. Idly fanning her round face with her notebook, she ponders a little more with a thousand yard stare, but doesn’t seem to have anything else to say on this. Just nodding to herself, nodding with a wince at her phone, too. With a *swat*, she covers it with her notebook.
Matias begins walking towards the class seats as he looms over both Jenny and Lola. “A practical example perhaps. Do I kill Miss Lovelace and Miss Fields. Add several decades on to my lifespan?” he raps his knuckle on Jenny’s chairback while walking towards Lola now. “Do I put an impression on them to always prioritize class over texting?” then standing behind Lola he holds out his hand. “Do I snoop and look at their messages?” his fingers makes a subtly grabby hand indicating he would like Lola’s phone. “Do I make a scene and a point using it for my lesson plan and hope embarassment is sufficient to avoid it happening again?” and then to everyone else. “Votes?”
“Kill them.” Roberta votes shamelessly.
Nemi hums softly as she raises a hand. “Well that would depend on why, but judging to their reactions the situation lies more personal rather than a time sensitive situation.” She states with a soft nod. “Lesson plan maybe?” She votes for loosely with a smile as she notes something down after.
“If you do the third option, will you read them aloud?” Derek supposes with a Cheshire grin.
“Sir don’t take her phone, it’s my fault! I put out an apology that Miss Kane required and it’s kicked up quite the fuss in the chatroom!” Kai declares to Matias with a little grin.
“If you kill me you are more likely to have a shorter lifespan…” Jenny says over to Matias her hand gripping her phone with white knuckle grip as she lets out a growl before regaining her composure “But if you want to read my smut. Go ahead.”
“For my punishment, I think you should read the apology I put out in order to embarrass me further,” Kai suggests to Matias with a straight face.
“Oh I suppose we can just kill Mister Ashford then.” Matias says without missing a beat as Kai tries to take the blame. “Does anyone object?”
Mercedes squints around the room curiously before pulling up her phone to investigate.
Nemi hums softly. “I’ve never met Sylvia…” She comments loosely.
Kai lifts a finger, “To kill over causing a mere disruption in the class would be very unethical, Professor Matias, wouldn’t it render almost all infractions equally lethal and cause absolute mayhem?”
Roberta just offers a -what-are-you-gonna-do- shrug of the hands with a glance over to Kai.
“I would rather be fleshformed into a Minotaur than pass you my phone,” Lola tells Matias honestly as he grabs for her phone, her face entirely deadpan as the blonde witch suddenly stands, clutching the device to her chest. “Death before dishonor, sir- Oh. Or kill Kai, I can accept this,” she decides, turning to look at Kai in all of his martyrdom with a little giggle in his direction.
“Surely a plea bargain is in order – just read the highlights from his phone.” Derek supposes between Kai and Matias with a grin. “Aloud.” he reemphasizes.
Justine grins, eyeing Kai’s back, one foot pulled up on the edge of her seat. “Clever little shit.”
Alhambra frowns a bit as she glances around the room, pausing in her note taking.
Sophie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, “I don’t want to know what’s on anyone’s phone. I think the punishment, shouldn’t punish us as well.”
Matias lets out a quiet sigh. “Miss Lovelace can stay after class for a punishment. Along with Mister Ashford. Miss Fields since you offered me your phone you get a pass. I do not need to read your literotica smut.” he informs Jenny before making his way back towards the front of the class. “And I will not fall for reading some wildly inappropriate thing for the class. So back to our timeline. We progress and skip quite a bit I should not, but for times sake, we progress to the Venetian Treaty. Supernatural Justice is generally codified for a very narrow thing. Violation of the treaty. We do not do eye for an eye, we do an eye for three eyes. Punishments are threefold the violation made. This can be from death to modification to maiming to monetary. Have we improved at all ethically from prior eras?”
Mercedes slowly lowers her phone from her face as her eyes flit to Kai, expressionless.
Hester had been rather caught up in a mini-panic attack but she blurts out her vote, “Fleshform their hands so they don’t have fingers for texting??”
“Yes sir, I believe we have!” Kai nods at Matias after he finishes talking and slouches down, he checks his phone, “I have a thing at four but otherwise I can stay after class, also.”
“If I had such prowess as fleshforming. I would not be a Professor.” Matias informs Hester while moving to the board and writing VENETIAN TREATY // HOSPITALITY // OATH on the board.
“Is anyone unfamiliar with the Venetian treaty or the concept of a threefold punishment?” Matias asks as if it just occurs to him some of the students… don’t know things.
Justine me slowly raises up her hand in response to that.
“Yes sir, I’m very ignorant, please explain those things to me!” Kai declares, his hand shooting into the air after he speaks, for some reason. He then drops it again.
Nemi shakily raises a hand and sighs.
Derek lets out a groan after Matias announces that he will not, in fact, be dictating text messages to the class. He leans forward and scribbles on his screen with his stylus, evidently note-taking, then leaning back for a moment as Matias poses his question, and he gives a tilt of his head, as if surprised by said question.
Jenny does put her phone away and gives a nod at the question Matias asks going back to writing in her notebook now that the phone has stopped buzzing.
“In the Colony we had tenfold punishments,” Lola says to Matias quietly, seeming to accept her fate of needing to stay after class for her judgment. Still, she participates, explaining: “If you steal an apple, your hand is cut off. If you kill one of my friends, I kill ten of yours,” she explains, a very archaic and extremely aged manner of crime and punishment, but it seems the Venetians aren’t so different from the crazed mushroom cultists of the Other.
“Well, this is intense,” Shay deigns to comment, from waay back in the backseats, having sunk comfortably in his own chair with his arms folded over his chest whilst he observes.
It takes Hester a minute to realize what’s happened and is happening. Beady eyes blink fast at Matias before she slouches back behind her notebook. For the moment, she waits and watches the raising hands across the room.
“Based,” Kai nods to Lola after she explains her Colony’s system.
“Any of you that are in factions or societies and do not know the Venetian Treaty. Please inform your ranking members you need to be sent to remedial education before they let you on any further operations.” Matias says with all seriousness and a chiding inflection to his brazilian accented english. “The Venetian treaty supercedes the Byzantine Accords. It established that in all places except the city in-between that exposure of the supernatural resulting in harm to signatories be punished. It established a concept known as a Venetian Oath which is a promise or giving of word to do something or not do something. So if I were to give my Venetian oath to end this class on time and failed to do so. I would be punished. Probably with having my time wasted three times the amount I failed to adhere to the oath. This is so supernatural organizations and beings who are essentially above natural laws can be held accountable. You must prove a violation of course… Finally Venetian Hospitality is the promise that someone or a group is safe in a location for a time. Meant to facilitate meetings and alliances or treaties between groups that are hostile. Generally the threefold punishment is always an inverse of what the violation is. However if the punishment is contested or there is a lack of believe a violation occurred a council of three is selected. Two from the wronged party and defending party and one randomly selected from all signatory groups. This is our modern supernatural justice system the formal organized one and not vigilante based.”
Sophie drops her phone briefly and clears her throat and listens.
“What are the Byzantine Accords?” Kai asks, his hand comes up before he asks this time at least.
Sophie comments to Kai, cutting as if on auto, ” The Byzantine Accords were an earlier set of supernatural laws focused mainly on territorial boundaries and conflict avoidance among factions. Less comprehensive than the Venetian Treaty, they lacked the strict punitive measures and formalized councils. Essentially, they were more about keeping the peace than enforcing justice.”
“Hey good job,” Kai nods to 2soph in approval and grins a little as he glances down at his phone.
Matias is about to answer but then Sophie chimes in and his eyebrows perk up. “Points to Miss Callum, she is correct and elaborative.”
Kai holds his hand up again, “I heard you need to have a witness when making a Venetian Oath, is that true?”
Hester sticks her tongue out the corner of her mouth and rushes out notes, trying to catch up with all of the keyword drops from Matias. Sparse brows lift in surprise at Sophie when she answers Kai, and she writes that stuff down, too. “Ehm, if we’re not part of any ‘gang’ like Miss Kane calls them, sir, are we expected to follow the Venetian oaths? And uh, are we protected by them or maybe not?” she wonders aloud, raising her chewed-up pen.
Matias checks his watch, “Five minutes.” and then looks to Hester, “No if you are not a signatory of the treaty formally. You have no rights under the treaty because you are not bound by it.”
Sophie taps her pen on her lips and writes out a few more notes.
“Does the Treaty exists to also prevent witch hunts, especially from humans?” Jasper asks Matias with a tilt of his head. “And has there also been cases where false evidence was fabricated to wrong the people so they can be punished?”
Jenny squeezes her eyes shut, leaning forward and putting her face in her palms. Abandoning her notes for the moment but she does manage out “Ugh – People should very much know about the treaty..”
Hester widens her eyes slowly, murmuring to her notes, “I dunno if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…”
Nemi raises a hand and clarifies. ” Witnesses of both sides act as proof the oath was made, recordings and such also help. And of course false evidence has been made before its another version of legal proceedings, I imagine someone in the past was dumb- or clever enough depending on views to try it….”
“Any other questions? Also if anyone wants to discuss this in further depth MyHaven is ProfessorM or you can seek me out during office hours.” Matias says to the class before commenting to Jasper, “The Venetian Treaty by definition does not make mistakes. So any instance of false evidence leading to a punishment is consider correct. When this is the only thing between bedlam and some semblance of order it does not really do to have it be infallible.” he explains and then says, “As for prevent witch hunts. The Venetian Treaty came into existence after the Hand lost Rome. It was a turning point where the most powerful supernaturals had moved off world and the remaining did not want to challenge humanity. So it was pragmatic.”
Shay shoots a hand up right after
Shay shoots a hand up right after Matias’s prompting of questions. “Everyone keeps talking about this Venice. Are they an organization as well? How powerful are they that they can keep all the others in check?”
“That makes sense,” Jasper replies, slowly nodding his head. “Otherwise, without it, it would just be destruction and persecution between humans and supernaturals.”
Matias checks his watch again and says in a resonating baritone of a voice, “Alright. That is ninety minutes and as you know I prefer my classes short. Next week no class. I will have open office hours for people to come discuss previous lessons with me or if they want tutoring or advice on their personal education or studying.” then he points to Shay, “Yes Mister Kerrigan? – Venice is powerful but all signatories abide the treaty in self interest. So yes Venice can enforce but all signatories generally self enforce if they want to retain signatory status and thus protections and rights.”