“Your Honor, we have medical records showing that the defendant exceeded all authorized protocols and caused deliberate harm to a minor child,” she said. “We have photographs of the child’s injuries, the removed implants, and the defendant’s own logs admitting she increased pain levels to break the subject’s resistance.”
She laid out the evidence piece by piece—photos of Elo’s scalp, scans of the implants, printouts of Miss Calva’s logs. Dorian’s lawyers countered with arguments about consent forms and disclosed side effects.
“The child’s father signed full consent,” they said. “All procedures were disclosed. Monitoring was disclosed.”
“Not torture,” Ariston’s lawyer said. “Pain thresholds and behavioral conditioning were buried in legal language, but nowhere did the authorization allow this level of harm.”
The judge scanned the documents, face unreadable.
“I’d like to hear from the child,” the judge said.
Elo’s heart pounded. Ariston squeezed her shoulder.
“You don’t have to,” he whispered.
“I want to,” she said.
She walked to the witness stand. She looked very small in the big wooden chair. The judge offered a gentle smile.
“Hello, Eloin,” the judge said. “Can you tell me what happened?”