On the tenth day of winter, the great bell of the town church in High Redoubt tolled nine times to announce the arrival of a royal courier from the capital.
A royal carriage bearing the crossed sceptres of the King’s Bench drew up before the claims office. An Imperial Pursuivant in a gold-stitched velvet tabard stepped down. He carried an iron metal tube sealed with the heavy Golden Seal of the Realm.
The Pursuivant entered the office, removed his velvet cap, and bowed respectfully to Hester Quill and Tomas Reed.
“Tomas Reed, Master Tax clerk,” the Pursuivant announced, unrolling the royal parchment. “I deliver the formal Ratification of the Sovereign Council. His Imperial Highness the Regent, having received the transcripts of the High Court of Military Court trial and the approved metal rubbings of Bastion-Nine, hereby ratifies the Commoners’ Iron Line Pension Charter in perpetuity.”
The Pursuivant placed the heavy gold-wax document onto the table. “The fifty-thousand-crown trust is entered into the Great Book of the Realm as an unchanging constitutional debt of the Crown. No parliament or prince may revoke it.”
As Tomas laid his hand upon the royal parchment, the system slate flared into blinding bright glare, chiming with the clear, triumphant tone of a cathedral bell struck in sunlight, recording the permanent constitutional enactment of the 2,400 Commoner Pension Decree and the binding of Seal 32 to his master ledger.
