Devil's Advocate

Strength in Numbers: Part 1

To Jurian Cornelisen esq.,

Thank you for your swift response. In your last missive, you mentioned the fortuitous location of your office. It is true that location is incredibly important for any business. If I am not mistaken, you were able to afford this building mostly with your earnings defending the alleged Cult of Ghalaunach. It can be surmised that you owe your success to this case. And though it was your clients that paid you, their coin originated from their devilish patron. Do you not consider it amoral to build your career on payments supplied through fiendish means?

Mind you, this is not intended as an indictment of your conduct. In your profession, questions of morality are secondary to questions of law. But we try to unite those concepts, putting ethical laws to paper. In our communications, you mostly speak in defence of the practice of Warlockry, and we were curious how you could morally justify this.

In honoured service,

Annemiek Smalbrugge

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To the esteemed Councilwoman Annemiek Smalbrugge,

I am glad that my ramblings so far have proven insightful. I hope the same can be said about what I am writing now. I also hope you will permit me some surprise regarding your question. Are you asking me whether it is ethical to accept payment for my services? Because if so: Yes. I need to be able to make a living from my cases, if I want to be able to continue doing this work.

But you know this. What you're really asking is 'is it ethical to accept payment from an unethical source'. And that might have been an interesting discussion, if it didn't start with a flawed premise. It seems to be based on the idea that my clients have done something 'wrong', even if they haven't done anything illegal. That in dealing with a demon, they have compromised their own morality in some way. This, I would like to dispel immediately. First by stating that not every spirit is malicious, and that it can be a complex task to differentiate between benevolent and malevolent. But secondly, I do not think my clients are in any position to be judged based on the people they treat with. Such value-judgments should be reserved for people with the privilege of options.

Imagine for me, if you will, the process of contacting a spirit. The uncertainty that comes with performing a barely understood arcane ritual. The need for secrecy born from social stigma. The terror when you first lay eyes upon the unnatural, often monstrous form of your would-be patron. These aren't things done out of idle curiosity or boredom. These acts are born out of desperation. When you are hungry, you aren't in a position to refuse a meal, no matter who made it. I do not always know what drives my clients, so I try not to judge their actions. I ask that you try to adopt a similar outlook, not only in future missives but in policy. Though, for a glance at the desperation some of these people feel, I should probably give an example. The first time I ever got into contact with Warlockry. As you already mentioned, I made a name for myself defending the Ghalaunach Collective in court from accusations of cult activity. But before that, I represented them in negotiations with their patron...
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It began when one of them decided to come to my 'office'. A lofty term considering that in those days, I held counsel from my own apartment. Or perhaps I just slept at my workplace. The line was honestly blurred. At this point in time, I had only just set up my solo-venture. I had thought the time was right, as a contract-lawyer; the discovery of new land across the ocean had set hearts aflame of explorers and entrepreneurs alike, and every day new deals were made regarding the speculative worth of goods that may or may not be brought back by ships that were still being built. But I may have underestimated people's bias, conscious or otherwise, to being represented by a cultural peer. My clients had been few and far between, and most of my earnings so far had gone into paying off my tuition. Hence, my apartment having to do double duty as both office and lodgings. But whatever I may have considered the room's primary function, it stopped being that when my client walked in.