At three hours after noon, Magistrate Valen delivered the formal judgment of the High Provincial Court.
The eight hundred citizens stood in total silence as Valen stood beneath the carved canopy of the chancel, his scarlet robes rustling in the chill draft.
“In the matter of the Abandoned Vanguard of Fortress Val-Mora,” Valen proclaimed, his voice ringing through the stone arches like an unbending bronze bell. “This court finds as a matter of proven fact that Clearance Docket Eight-Fourteen-B was conceived, carried out, and approved in bad faith, constituting capital fraud against the Crown and the country population.”
He turned his gaze toward Advocate Kray, who sat slumped at the judge’s table with his hands clutched tightly in his lap.
“Sir Justinian and his companions did willfully desert their command, did abandon one hundred and forty soldiers to starvation behind a lead-welded inner wall, and did unlawfully convert the guard post payroll of three thousand gold crowns to their private use. This court formally refers the criminal charges of capital treason, grand theft, and false swearing to the High Court of Parliament in the Capital for immediate trial.”
Valen took his heavy wooden gavel and struck the block twice. TOCK. TOCK.
