Trial

Igni stood behind the defense's table, looking up at the judge, trying his best to look professional and formal. After several thousand years of life, he had found it difficult to sustain much of the daily going ons and rituals of normal life. He had seen laws change and evolve so many times throughout history that he had begun not to pay attention to them. Not to say that he had become above them or immune to them in any way - but what was the point of fully learning them if he knew they were merely going to change? He had enough trouble remembering everything that was going on as it was. Too many parallels and crossroads. History was a fickle thing.

He could hear the judge speaking, accusing him of some form of -cide, though he wasn't paying much attention. It wasn't the first time he had been accused of some massive crime. It probably wouldn't be the first time. And it wouldn't be the first time if he was found guilty and sent to prison for life. They wouldn't hold on to him for that long, of course - even if they could somehow find a way to imprison him until the end of time, it would only take a couple generations before they forgot why he was in there at all and let him go. He'd had that experience before. He found prison more boring than anything else. The same routine everyday. The same kinds of people trying to prove their dominance over him. And the same failures until he was left alone.

He kept his face facing forward as the judge droned on, though his mind and ears were elsewhere. He was listening to the silence in the audience behind him. Years of practice had helped him to learn to focus his hearing. He honed in on the silence, listening for any breaks in it. He found the conversations of normal people who were willing to break the silence of government affairs far more interesting than the government affairs themselves. There was too much formal language and forced perspective in the government. They wanted to push their own agendas by keeping others from understanding them. It was aggravating.

It took a while for someone to speak up in the audience. A quiet voice, speaking to themselves. "I swear he looks familiar," the voice muttered. "In one of grandpa's old pictures."

Now that was someone he'd have to look into later.