Chapter 130 The Tribunal
ARYA
Mordecai’s tribunal began on the first day of the new month.
The chamber was formal. The seating was arranged to emphasize the structure of judgment rather than the collaborative arrangement I’d preferred for governance work. Seven tribunal members, representing every major species and every significant political faction, with an eighth seat for the independent chair.
Bardon had agreed to chair it after all, despite the complications of his connection to me. The alternative candidates had all had more problematic connections to various parties, and the council had concluded that Bardon’s known relationship with the Moonborne line was at least fully visible and therefore accountable.
I was not on the tribunal. I was a witness.
This distinction had been important to me and I’d said so clearly during the planning process. I had a conflict of interest so direct and so multiple. He was my ancestor, he’d helped rescue me from the void, I’d spent time imprisoned with him, I had a legitimate interest in the outcome of both his punishment and his potential cooperation and pretending otherwise would have corrupted the proceedings before they began.
What I could do was testify. Fully and honestly, to all of it.
Mordecai had requested to speak before the formal charges were read. This was unusual. Bardon had put it to the tribunal and they’d agreed by five to two.
He was brought in under the full security protocol. Bound, escorted, and seated before the tribunal with the stillness that I now recognized as his baseline state.
He looked at the seven faces of the tribunal. Then at Bardon.
Then at me.
“I would like to address the Moonborne heir directly,” he said.
“You may address the tribunal,” Bardon said firmly.
“I’ll address the tribunal through her.” He held my gaze. “You know what this process is and what it isn’t. You know that nothing these seven people decide will restore what was lost or adequately account for what was taken.” He paused. “I’m not arguing for leniency. I’m telling you what I told you in the void. That the record should be complete.”
“The record will be complete,” I said. “That’s why we’re here.”
“Then I’ll say this for the record.” He looked at the tribunal. “I killed people. Many people, over many decades, in the pursuit of power that I convinced myself was necessary and that I’ve had eight centuries to understand was not.” He said it without emotion, without performance. Just a fact. “I’ve described the specific crimes I’m aware of to the investigators. There may be others I don’t remember. The void makes memory unreliable over centuries.” He paused. “I helped the Moonborne heir escape the void. I gave information that prevented the Reclaimed from scaling their operations. I’m not describing these things to mitigate what I did. I’m describing them because the record should be complete.”
Bardon made a note. “The tribunal thanks you for your statement. The formal proceedings will now begin.”
The whole process took eleven days.
I testified on day three. The full account of my experience in the void with Mordecai, his attempts to destabilize my sense of reality, his eventual cooperation, the anchors and the escape and everything that had followed. I answered every question the tribunal members asked without deflection and several that they hadn’t thought to ask but that seemed relevant.
Elara Voss testified on day six. She’d agreed to full disclosure as part of her cooperation agreement and was following through regardless of personal cost. The tribunal heard about the Reclaimed’s origins, the funding structure, the political faction’s involvement, and the decisions she’d made along the way.
She was in the middle of that testimony when she said something that made the tribunal chamber very quiet.
“I want to be clear about one thing,” she said. “The research was real and the need was real. The approach was wrong. The compromises I made were wrong. But the problem of void-displaced persons, the impossibility of retrieval under existing frameworks, that problem was real and it was being completely ignored by every institution with the resources to address it.” She looked at the seven faces. “I don’t say that to excuse myself. I say it because if the tribunal’s response to this is to simply terminate the research and consider the matter closed, then the next person who tries to address it will face the same institutional indifference I did. And may make the same choices.”
The silence held for a moment.
Then one of the tribunal members, a wolf Alpha from the northern territories named Brecken who’d been quietly thoughtful throughout said. “What would you recommend instead?”
And Elara gave an answer that was specific and detailed and had clearly been prepared.
I caught Mira’s eye across the chamber. She was seated in the witness area, watching her mother.
She looked proud. Something in her expression said as much.