"Death." Mija shouted, raising her hand eagerly. She had a vibrant smile on her lips, acting ignorant of the circumstances in the room. "I vote death."

Elder Grace rolled his eyes, like many others.

"Young lady, we are not taking a vote," he said, in that old wise voice of someone that had seen too much.

Mija lowered her hand, but she still said loudly, "I am not wrong. If she doesn’t leave him, she is going to die. Anybody with eyes and proper judgement can see it. You elders must be blind. After all I have seen, I am wondering why other tribes hold foxes in high regard. You guys are a mess. If he was a white snake, he would be ex-communicated by now."

The elders shifted, their judgement of Sienna turning into personal judgement.

Sienna rose her chair, a pan gleaming in her hands. She stepped closer to Cuthbert, her voice low but carrying undeniable authority. "You take advantage of loopholes in the law to hide. You use your money to buy protection from the elders. You take advantage of your wife’s fear and silence to cause pain while keeping your freedom. But today, you answer to me."

The guards waited for her next orders. Sienna’s eyes swept the room, daring anyone to challenge her. The elders avoided her gaze. Her mother-in-law seethed, as usual. Winona trembled, hope flickering in her eyes.

Sienna lifted her pan high, then lowered it slowly, deliberately. Her voice was calm, almost casual, but it struck like thunder. "Timothy, prepare a set of divorce papers and bring my stamp."

The room froze. The elders gasped. Lady Cadelaria’s eyes widened in horror. Divorce was not just a scandal, it was something that affected status, lives, assets. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Sienna’s order hung in the air, heavier than any blow. "The office of women and children has the right to recommend a divorce between a couple if there are signs of violence and danger to a woman and her cubs in the home. Even without consent of the couple, the office can send the papers to the court and the couple can fight the divorce using the law, to prove the relationship is healthy and they have a right to be together."

Her eyes flicked to her mother-in-law, "You should have done this ages ago, before one woman died, one lost all mobility and a third needed to have surgery on her jaw two times." She looked at Winona. "Timothy peeked into your medical records. Six surgeries in six years of marriage and sixteen trips to the hospital for different injuries and broken bones. Your two children have also made a few questionable trips and had more broken arms than any normal cub should. This man did not have you chained to a bed. Why the hell didn’t you leave sooner?"

Winona squeezed tears from her eyes. Before she could get a word out, Mija jumped in.

"If you say he promised not to do it again or you love him, I will slap you with my tail."

Again, Timothy had to pull the snake beast woman back.

Sienna, meanwhile, sighed. "Lady Cadelaria, your record for failing to protect your people continues to grow. You should have initiated the divorce, whether Winona wanted it or not. The law should have decided if the violent marriage was worth saving. Instead, you kept a young woman and her cubs trapped in a cycle of violence to please a rich donor." She pointed to her mother-in-law. "Shame on you."

She returned to her chair, leaning back and relaxing. "I want silence until the papers arrive. If anyone says a word, they get the pan."

Elder Vinira growled.

All the elders were thinking the same thing: there she goes with the pan threat again!

Elder Tomlin geared up to say something.

"Clothes off, on a livestream." Sienna added.

Tomlin’s beard shook! Cadelaria huffed in shock. Even Cuthbert, wisely folded his lips, storing his anger inside.

Sienna achieved her silence, which she relished. Thirty minutes passed in tense silence before the papers finally arrived. The elders whispered among themselves that it was madness, but Sienna’s glare was enough to keep them from outright defiance.

The three lawyers Timothy had plucked from the refugees followed, their tails stiff, their ears twitching nervously.

Sienna crossed her legs, looking over the papers. Everything was in order. "Put them on the table. Make him sign."

Cuthbert’s face was a mask of fury. His ears stood tall and stiff, his jaw clenched. "You dare," he barked, his voice trembling with rage. "You dare extend your authority into my family, my name? Do you know how much I donate to the tribe every year? Do you know how many charities I sit on? Do you know that I have a cousin of a cousin of a cousin who married into the royal family 120 years ago?"

Sienna leaned forward, "Brother, if you have to conjure up such a long history, then its not worth remembering. Also, I am not stopping you from contributing to the tribe, you are a fox after all. By law you must contribute. The divorce will not strip away your roots.

You should thank me because it is a way of protecting your lineage. It saves you from eventually going to jail for murder and at the same time, gives your children an opportunity to grow up safely and give birth to more Cuthbert’s. If they dies at your hands, this will not happen. Do you want to cut your lineage short? Do you want to be a sinner in the eyes of the Cuthbert ancestors?"

Everyone in the room blinked.

"So shameless." Cadelaria murmured. She was forcing him to divorce and claiming it was for his good! Where was the logic in this?

Elder Grace just laughed.

The guards pressed Cuthbert down, forcing the pen into his hand.

"If he refuses to sign, cut his fingers off." Sienna ordered. "We are in a hospital, as long they are kept on ice, they can always be re-attached later on."