You waited until the interrogations were completed. The result of the investigation came as a surprise to you.

After three weeks of tedious interrogation, you received some results. Early in the morning you were awakened by dwarven warriors. They escorted you to the exit of this stone tower. At the exit you saw a wagon, which was drawn by two horses, driven by one dwarf coachman. This wagon was surrounded by a dozen armed dwarven warriors.

You were **** to go inside this small van. The dwarven warriors have shackled your hands and your feet. The van then set off along the road in a northerly direction.

You could only see a few of the van's small windows, which were covered with metal bars.

After many hours of riding in the van, you saw through the bars the high walls of the dwarven fortress city.

You thought with annoyance: “This is probably the same dwarven fortress city of Dreygrul, which I was supposed to go to along with Jodaz’s caravan. But because of some incomprehensible shit, I ended up in this city as a criminal in shackles!”

As you scanned the area through the van's bars, you noticed that the walls of this dwarven city were built of black granite. You thought that because of such material, the appearance of this fortified city was somewhat frightening and created a depressing impression. You assume that the dwarven architects who built these defensive structures wanted to achieve exactly this result: to instill terror in any possible enemy.

As the van drove closer to the city walls, you saw a deep ditch filled with water that had been dug in front of the high walls. You heard the clanging of machinery. The huge gates slowly lowered.

Finally, the work of the mechanisms invisible to you has completed. The drawbridge lowered so that the wagon and its accompanying armed dwarves could now cross the moat and enter the city.

The van and its accompanying dwarf warriors moved through the streets of the city. You looked through the bars at the streets of this dwarven city. You were amazed at their architecture and appearance, which was completely different from what you had previously seen in human cities.

Finally, the van drove up to some large stone building. The van door opened. The armed dwarf warriors accompanying you **** you out of the wagon. You felt the cold wind on your skin. You shivered due to discomfort, but unfortunately you did not have warm clothes. The dwarf warriors have surrounded you.

One of them told you, using the words of the Orlanian language you know with a strong accent: "Now you go to this building! Quickly!"

You looked at a large stone building that had three floors, some sculptures on the facade, marble columns and steps. You went to the entrance to this building under the escort of dwarven warriors. You went inside the building. You saw a long corridor from which doors lead to separate interior rooms. You saw many people inside. Most of them were dwarves. Some of these persons had weapons in their hands and stood guard near the doors, some moved along the corridor from one room to another, many of these persons carried piles of some kind of scrolls in their hands.

A convoy of dwarven warriors led you into one of the interior rooms. There were many people in this room, most of whom were dwarves.

This room was a spacious hall, in which there were a couple of dozen large wooden benches, a large wooden table and chairs near the far wall. Also in this room there was a large metal cage in one of the corners of the room. You were brought into this cage. One of the dwarven warriors locked the door of this cage. The shackles from your hands and your feet were never removed.

You sat in this cage for about an hour. You were already tired due to the agonizing wait, when suddenly a small group of dwarves entered the room, who were dressed in strict ceremonial clothes, which were covered with some symbols unknown to you. In appearance, these dwarves looked older than most of the other dwarves that were present in this spacious hall.

You thought: “These dwarves probably hold some kind of positions of authority.”

The dwarf bosses sat down on chairs near a large wooden table. After that, everyone present in the hall (except for the dwarf warriors standing guard near the cage and near the doors) sat down on the benches.

One of the dwarf commanders said something loudly. You didn't understand anything from his words. After that, a young dwarf who did not have a weapon approached your cage.

He told you: “Hello. I am an employee of this court. I know the Orlanian language. The chairman of the judicial consortium has instructed me to translate for you the speeches that will be heard during the court hearing.”

So, now it has become more clear to you what is happening: you are in a courthouse, dwarven judges will determine your fate based on local laws.

For the next couple of hours, you had a hard time catching the essence of the speeches being made. These speeches were filled with complex legal terms that were incomprehensible to you. Your dwarf translator did not always have time to translate the speeches of the participants in the trial in full.

Among what you were able to remember were the following phrases said by the dwarven judges: “Ulkin Nordane, half-orc, subject of the Holy Kingdom of Orlania. By occupation, he was a guard of a trade caravan. Charged with the following points of the Code of Punitive Measures: Article 151, paragraph 1 - implementation smuggling of minerals, the import and export of which is prohibited by the laws of the Despotate of Yalann; article 157, paragraph 3 - obstruction of customs inspection by using prohibited magic spells; article 298, paragraph 4 - assistance in carrying out hostile espionage activities."

What you heard surprised you. After a couple of hours of the trial, a break was announced for half an hour. During a break, you asked the dwarf translator about the nature of the charges against you.

He told you: “I read the materials of your criminal case. Based on the materials of your case, it can be understood that you transported a magic ring and magic armor across the border. Complex camouflage charms were cast on these items. When wearing the ring and armor at the same time, magical auras objects produced a mutually masking effect. In this case, it would be very difficult to identify the fact that these objects were enchanted. But you did not wear this magic ring on your finger at the time of customs inspection. Therefore, the magicians who are part of the border guards were able, although with great difficulty, recognize the essence of the spell that was cast on the ring. Upon further research, it was revealed that this ring was inlaid with a mineral called iredisium. This light blue mineral is quite valuable and rare. In this ring, a strong extra-communicative spell was cast on a small piece of this mineral "

You interrupt the dwarf translator: “What the hell is this?”

He replies: “An extracommunicative charms allows you to perceive visual and auditory information at a great distance. Simply put, when this ring was put on your finger, everything that you saw and heard could be seen and heard by a person who had one or more focused Iredisium crystals , enchanted to interact with your ring. That is, everything you saw and heard was seen and heard by someone who was many tens or even hundreds of miles away from you. This kind of enchantment is an effective means of espionage. Therefore, you have serious problems with local law."

You almost scream: “But I didn’t want to spy on anyone! I didn’t know anything!”

The dwarf translator says: "Calm down. You were probably being manipulated by someone unknown to you. Personally, I think the unknown manipulator wanted to use you as a person who would smuggle disguised magical items across the border that were intended for espionage. And then the goal was for the accomplices of these criminals to take these items from you. You have hope for mitigating circumstances. But I must warn you that ignorance does not exempt you from responsibility before the law."

After the break ends, the court hearing in your criminal case continues.

Over the next hour you hear many words and you understand little of what is said. But, thanks to the translator, you caught the meaning of the following phrases of the judge: “The mitigating circumstances are: active cooperation of the accused with representatives of the investigative authorities; unpremeditation of the crimes committed by the accused. The court decides to find Ulkin Nordane guilty. The court decides to impose full punitive measures for Ulkin Nordane confiscation of property and hard labor in the second degree for a period of 5 years. The court appoints mine number 47-D, located in the Grayhead Mountains region, as the place of serving the sentence. At this point, the court hearing is declared closed."

After the hearing is over, you are released from the cell. Dwarven warriors escort you to the same van in which you arrived in this city. You climb into that van again. You hear the coachman whipping the horses. The van is moving again. But this time it is moving in an easterly direction. Through the bars you see the evening cloudy sky.

While the van and the accompanying dwarven warriors are leaving the city, you fall asleep from fatigue.