Li did not sleep well that night. Ardlac held him and soothed him whenever he awoke from short bursts of sleep, just as Li had held him when he had struggled their first night back in Solaris. Li hoped his meeting with the court would go well and that he would be believed. He was certain Ash's voice would be heard by the magistrates, but what if they insisted on bringing Catanere to Baylay? Would she even come? What would happen if she refused? What would happen if she came? Li did not want to endure seeing her again and hoped it would not be required of him. He also hoped his sentence would not be extended if they chose not to believe the truth. Surely they would only require him to complete his final months, not remain with the Gryphon longer than originally sentenced.

When the time at last arrived, Li walked once more with Captain Mond and Ardlac through the city of Baylay to the office of the magistrates. This time, they were escorted deeper into the building, and seated on a bench before a large desk placed on a platform. Li knew the purpose of the arrangement was for the accused to feel intimidated by the magistrates towering over them, and he certainly felt that way. Beside the high desk was a smaller one where a clerk sat prepared to take down the important notes of the meeting, and a guard dressed in a green-and-gold uniform stood at each of the three doors.

The magistrates were already seated at the desk, three middle-aged men with unreadable expressions. When Li, Ardlac, and Captain Mond were seated, the one in the middle spoke.

"Captain Mond, you are here to lodge a complaint over a criminal being sent to serve a sentence on your ship that they should not have been given. Please explain, for the record, the precise reasoning for this complaint."

"I am Captain Mond," he began. "It was brought to my attention early in our cruize that our newest addition, Lishalnir, had not been given the opportunity to explain himself to a truth-knower when he was tried for murder. He was subsequently found guilty of this crime and placed on my ship. I judged by his expression that it was possible he had not committed the crime for which he was serving on my ship."

"Why did you not immediately return to lodge the complaint at that time?" another magistrate asked. "Why did you wait until his sentence was nearly complete?"

"The privateer fleet is watched carefully," Mond replied. "If I returned so soon for a trivial matter, according to my superiors, I would be reprimanded. I have still returned several months earlier than expected and have already been questioned by my superiors about the error in judgement. However, I do not take lightly to being given innocent people as criminal laborers."

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"Very well," the first magistrate said with a nod. "Lishalnir Ginmon, you were tried for murder and found guilty. It appears the wife of the murdered man gave evidence against you. You were found with the body and covered in his blood. You offered no evidence in your defense then, do you have any to offer now?"

Li nodded. "I do. I gave no argument then because I was too shocked by my experience. If it will be permitted, I have brought an Asir with me who is willing to summon the spirit of the man who I am accused of murdering. Will this be permitted?"

The central magistrate nodded. "Yes. Please introduce both Asir and spirit for the record."

"The Asir's name is Ardlac es Tyrinae," Li recited, still unsure if he would ever properly pronounce Ardlac's entire name despite the number of times he had already practiced it. "The spirit is that of Asherain Coston."

The magistrate motioned to Ardlac, who took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A moment later, Ash's ghost stood between them and the magistrates.

"I am here to tell you of my murder," Ash declared, looking only at the magistrates. "It was not Lishalnir who killed me, but my wife, Catanere. I had told her I wished to end our marriage as I was unhappy and we had no children. She took poorly to this, as it would cause her to lose her partial ownership of my estate and the income from the crops grown there. I did not expect her to react with violence, but she took a loose brick from the hearth and beat me with it. She had struck my head before I realized what she was doing, and was immediately unable to fight or flee. She left my body for my dear friend Lishalnir, who oversaw my accounts, to find, and arranged to return to the room after he had done so. She roused the estate, crying about my murder as if she had not been the one to commit it. From there, you know the rest. A murder has been granted the estate she has no right to."

"Thank you," the magistrate replied. The other two looked terribly uncomfortable in the presence of a dead man, but the central man seemed almost at ease. "I assure you this will be rectified."

Ash nodded. "Thank you," he said, then vanished.

The magistrates spoke quietly amongst each other for a few moments, then seemed to come to an agreement.

The central magistrate sighed. "I regret that this has taken place," he began. "The spirit's testimony will be taken as truth. The wife, Catanere, will be brought to trial in the presence of a truth-knower. Once all is settled, the land will be confiscated from her and sold. After the final payment to workers and clerks, the remainder will be sent to Lishalnir as payment for his mistreatment. He is not required to serve any ship of the fleet unless he wishes to, and he is free to return to the status of a citizen, complete with voting rights, immediately. The court that tried the case first will also be reprimanded for the failure to provide a truth-knower and for forcing a trial through simply on the word of an apparently grieving widow."

"Thank you," Captain Mond replied, and Li echoed it.

It seemed things were finally changing for him.