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‘Unix B’lob, do you understand what has transpired here today?’
Unix stared impassively at the judge without saying a word, just like he had for the duration of his trial. Days of witness statements and evidence, and finally the verdict and sentence, all met with that same blank stare. He barely even blinked.
The judge, an unusually tall elf who hunched in her seat, sighed heavily. ‘Very well. Take him to the Deeps.’ Two gnomes took Unix by the elbows and steered him, none too gently, out the door. From the viewing gallery, Holly glared after him. Although many charges had been laid against Unix, his attack on Holly Short had earned him the most years in the Deeps. His partner in crime, Bobb Ragby, had been similarly sentenced just yesterday. The two, Holly was glad to know, would not share a cell.
In the Deeps, Unix was shoved unceremoniously into a cell already filled to bursting with gnomes, sprites, elves, and pixies. Dwarves usually got special cells with walls and floors they couldn’t burrow through, and goblins of course went to Howler’s Peak. Despite the overcrowding, a space immediately formed around Unix. He had a reputation, and he deserved it. He smiled slowly, the first expression to cross his face in days.
He sat on the end of a bench, the other inmates wordlessly shuffling away. Unix began to shrug, wriggle, and stretch, as though plagued by muscle pain, although his face merely retained that faint smile.
After several minutes of this, having gained the puzzled stares of his fellow inmates, he slowly reached a hand behind his back, and pulled from the scar tissue where his wings used to be a small blade. Very shortly, he shared his cell with only corpses.