Jon stepped around the corner of the kitchen table and took the fresh Day 2 defense notice from Elin’s hand, holding it up beside the blood-stained Reset 3 order (#6) so the yellow light of the hanging lamp shone straight through the rag-linen fibers of both sheets.
At the bottom left of each parchment sat the bold, angular military signature of Cael Ardent, Knight-Commander of the Vanguard, accompanied by the round crimson wax impression of the White Rose field seal.
Beside it, in the lower right corner reserved for civil municipal authorization under Crown martial statutes, stood a second rubric written in tight chancellery script:
CERTIFIED AS LAWFUL MUNICIPAL REFUGE UNDER STATUTE IV OF THE HIGH ASSIZE — Witnessed and Counter-Signed by Lady Signe Lorr, High Assize Magistrate in Ordinary.
Beneath the words sat the oval red wax stamp of the two-headed imperial judicial eagle.
“In Harth, the parish constables and the guild wardens won’t turn over the keys to the public grain-bays on a soldier’s word alone while the town gates are still standing,” Jon murmured, his eyes narrowing as he compared the two signatures line by line. “Under the river charter, requisitioning a guild granary for refugee billeting requires the counter-seal of a sitting Assize magistrate or the town bailiff’s full council. That’s why Captain Dain and Dunstan Harl let the farm wagons roll into the West Quay cul-de-sac in the third and seventh lives without asking questions—they saw Lady Signe’s judicial seal at the bottom of the…
