Act 1, Scene 3: The Cuuuuuuurse

DIALOG

A big commotion ... a small crowd of people in the streets are chasing a helpless person

Twinton: "Help! Heeeelp!"

Man1: "Don't let him get away!"

Twinton (panting, stumbling): "Help! Please! Someone! Help me! I haven't done anything wrong!"

Man1: "There he is! The cursed one!"

Man2: "He'll blight the crops like the last one did!"

Twinton: "No! no! That's not true! You're all wrong!"

Man3: "The cursed draw fleas and vermin! Do you want the plague at our doors?"

Twinton (tripping, crawling): "I don't even know how I got here! I swear!"

Man1: "No more lies. You and your likes bring rot and ruin!"

The mob piles up on Twinton. He gets beaten up badly.

Twinton cries out!

Twinton: "Aaaaaargh! No! Noooo!"

A single gunshot rings through the air.

The mob falls silent

Abelton: "What the hell are you doing? Back off! Now!"

Man1: "He's cursed! We're just protecting our families!"

Abelton: "By beating a helpless man half to death? You call that protection?"

Man2: "It's the curse of the Hissing Isles!"

Abelton: "Bullshit! Even if that old fairy tale were true, the Hissing Isles are thousands of miles out in the ocean, how do you think he got here? On a piece of driftwood paddling with his feet?"

Man1: "He began speaking in weird tongues, and no longer knew his name! And then he went running around town, trying to spread the curse all around! Someone had to stop him!"

Abelton: "You want to explain that to the magistrate? Because I'll drag every single one of you there myself if you don't leave this man alone RIGHT NOW."

The mob hesitates, then slowly disperses.

Abelton kneels beside Twinton.

Abelton: "Gods ... What did they do to you?"

Twinton (barely conscious): "*GROANS*"

Abelton: "Sorry I wasn't here earlier. This superstition ... this fear ... it's poison. They needed someone to blame, and you were just ... there. You didn't deserve this."

Umberto: "A grim sight. But not unexpected."

Ableton (startled): "Whoa, where did you come from all of a sudden, old Monk?"

Umberto: "I couldn't help notice the commotion."

Abelton (snapping): "And what do you mean, not unexpected? You knew this would happen?"

Umberto: "We know what fear breeds. That's why the Order must be informed if a cursed one is sighted. Had we known, we could have taken him in. Helped him. Protected him."

Abelton: "Protected him? Or locked him away before the mob got the chance?"

Umberto (calmly): "Fear is a fire. We contain it before it spreads. That is our charge."

Abelton: "Contain it how? By whispering about curses and signs and giving those people exactly the reason they're looking for?"

Umberto: "By acting swiftly. You just saw first-hand what delay brings."

Abelton (bitter): "I saw what **ignorance** brings. And I saw what happens when people like you feed it with talk of 'the cursed ones'."

Umberto: "Then help us do better. Next time, tell us early. Let us intervene before blood is spilled."

Abelton (quietly): "Next time ... I'll protect him myself. That's **my** job, the job of the city guard, and not some crazy Umberto for the Order of the one or the other."

Umberto (softly): "Then may the Blinding Star guide your strength. Because you are going to need it."