She had been traveling in Essyrn that day and had arrived from boat earlier that week. Some ocean travel did her well, the salty air soothing to her skin and awakening the traveler's spirit within. She on her way from Serendipity, all the way down to southern nation of Essyrn. She was always fond of Essyrn, being one of her and her father's most frequent of places to travel (that, aside from the jungles, of course), so when her river boat let her off within the city limits, she was surprised to see the streets were in utter chaos.
The people were in an uproar and cheering in their native tongue,
'Hang him! Let the foreigner die!' And as she pushed her way through the crowds to see what all of the hullabaloo was about, she found herself lifting a delicately gloved hand to her lips as she gasped at the sight of a rather scraggily looking man- definitely foreign, due to his ripe red skin (sun burned, no doubt), a wild mane of untamed hair, and a thick beard growing across his face. And those eyes, as she peered back at those eyes that caught her for just the briefest of moments, it reminded her of the wild jaguars of the jungle, and for a moment, she forgot herself as the crowd continued to roar around her like a thriving serpent.
It was then the man was asked, in common tongue, if he had any last requests. The man, who was about to hang (as evident by the noose hung loose around his neck) cast his wild eyes towards the piggish man and spat directly upon him.
"OPUS DEY!!!!!!!" he cried with the ferocity of a lion. "YOU HANG HIM AND YOU WILL HAVE YOUR JUSTICE! I WAS FRAMED!!!" he roared, voice bellowing even about the roar of the crowd. Miss Warner had to place her hands over her ears, but even she caught the name.
"Opus Dey?" It took just a fraction of a second for the name to register- and then she realized the connection and found herself suddenly pushing through the crowd. Opus Dey! Did he really say that name? Her heart was drumming inside her ear and it felt as if the wall of people just weren't budging.
"Please.. excuse me.. I must get through!"
But no matter how hard she tried to get through it, she just couldn't make her way over there fast enough as the hang man approached as the piggish man from earlier gave a gesture.
"Opus Dey means nothing here!" And he went on sputtering angrily in his foreign tongue. "Then he shall hang from the neck until he dies!" he decreed. And just as Beatrice was pushing her way closer, she heard the declaration and cried out,
"Wait!" but she saw the hang man's arms reaching for the lever and most unbecoming of her (and of a lady in such proper skirts!) she threw herself at him,a nd cried once again in his face,
"Wait! Please!" she said, fringes of her hair coming free and falling in loose tufts about her face. "I know the man who's name he cried. I... I know Opus Dey!"
The hangman paused to look at her, then over at the piggish man, who growled and spat more Essyrnian words at the man, then he looked at the woman.
"We care not for Opus Dey! Did you not hear me? This man is to hang!"
"What is his crime?" she asked, breathing heavily as her chest rose and fell, her cheeks and skin flush.
"The worst crime of all- Stealing from the Temple of Hakeshna!"
And as he pointed at the man who now hung before them in judgement, the crowd roar for his blood.
But even above the roar,t he man's voice thundered above the rest.
"I WAS FRAMED! GOD DAMN HIM! GOD DAMN OPUS DEY!!!!"
Her mind was in a whirl, the sea of people coming closer around her, making the scene dizzy and chaotic and it was soon becoming too much to bear. She felt her throat clenching up, her heart pumping in her ears, and just as the man was about to signal for the lever again, she cried out,
"Wait!" And again, there was a pause as the irritated spokesman turned to glare at her.
"I... I can prove his innocence! I... I can prove whatever happened here was because of Opus Dey."
The man, who's nose was crooked as a rat's snout, looked down at her, then over at the man in the noose.
"Are you saying you want to help this pig?" he said, shaking the shackles that bond him. "That you actually want to help this filth?"
Licking her lips, Beatrice looked from the pig-man back to the one to be sentenced to death before she straightened out her shoulders and said, "Yes."
"Well, that's too bad!" he went on with a laugh.
And then he gestured for the man to pull the lever-
So he did.