For ten full seconds after Seyun finished speaking, the only movement in the hearing chamber was the slow curl of animal fat smoke rising toward the vaulted limestone ceiling. Then Hall Mistress Soran reached into the wooden seal-casket beside her bench and lifted two heavy box-shaped tablets of stamped hall bronze. The binding recovery warrants used by White Heron’s inner council to demand evidentiary records from subordinate and allied houses across the river province.
Osen Tal saw the bronze warrant tablets in Soran’s scarred fingers. Then, his calculated composure broke into urgent motion. He stepped squarely onto the white chalk line beside Seyun. That turned his face full into the lantern glare so the Hall Mistress couldn’t miss a single syllable on his lips.
“Hall Mistress, I must register a formal jurisdictional objection before you press your thumb-seal to those tablets!” Osen said, his voice sharp and rapid in the stone vault. “Neither of the records named by these two witnesses belongs to White Heron Hall or to the town registry of Oran. The young fire spirit’s original holding log rests in the Aperture Court’s regional storehouse under Judge seal, and Ash Reed’s check fire logs were impounded under Court charter check rules the week after the winter ceremony. By country compact, both documents are the sovereign property of the Aperture Court.”
