I managed to sneak out of the dome chamber before mid repast. There were now latch hooks next to most of the doors I might use at the shrine. Foyuna had been busy over the last rotation and a half since my last visit.

The nice thing about the layout at the Crystal shrine was the circular design. Assuming I remembered the nearest hallway door out of the dome, it would never be a long walk to my room. There was now a plaque with my name on the door. I let myself in. The too-tall table and chair were gone, replaced by a low table and a Coyn-scaled armchair on a dais three steps up. There were also three of the large storage chests like the ones Wolkayrs made for my bedroom back in Aybhas, which doubled as seating for any Cosm who might visit. Foyuna had been busy while I recovered from the attack in Black Falls.

I kicked off my ankle boots and draped my travel bag, the overtunic, and my belt on the armchair. I climbed the stair to the bed, feeling a little tired and a bit frayed around the edges by the entire Convocation. There’s something very uncomfortable about being the only small person surrounded by giant magic people. I needed some time to myself to pretend the world was just one scale with just one human race. I don’t remember falling asleep.

“Oh Great Grumpy One,” Kamagishi was shaking my shoulder. “Time to wake up.”

I opened my eyes and peered out from under the blankets.

“Before I head back to Is’syal,” Kamagishi was leaning over me, “I was hoping I could get a decision and some approved paperwork on what you want to do with the two who attacked you in Black Falls.”

Aylem was sitting at the foot of the bed. Lisaykos, and Foyuna were sitting on the storage chests. Imstay was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. I guessed my recovery time alone was over for the day. Damn Cosm.

I managed to sit up, "what happened w...with the Voice who used me like a football and wanted to stomp me to death?"

"She's under a charm of eternal sleep at the Citadel in Is’syal, and so is the trainee who assaulted you," Lisaykos explained. "As a revelator, it's your decision as to what happens to them."

Aylem added a caution: "Emily, this culture has no permanent prisons. Most big crimes end up at the Shrine of Galt for judgment. Punishments are usually some sort of death penalty because no jail can contain a conscious silver hair. Usually, the families of the guilty are also executed to prevent additional murders in the name of vengeance. The families of your attackers already tried a revenge attack and have perished as a result. You only have to decide about the two who assaulted you.”

"Can I decide to let someone else decide?" I was uncomfortable with the responsibility of deciding who to execute and how to do it.

"No, you can't delegate this power unless you are deemed mentally unfit to do so," Kamagishi smiled with sympathy, knowing how much I hated this.

"W...what's the punishment? It's death by exhaustion, isn't it? Because of the sacrilege?"

"Trainee Moyuxkol committed sacrilege," Kamagishi replied quietly. "The Voice committed the more serious crime of murder or attempted murder of an exalted or holy person. The punishment is being dropped into an actively-erupting Great Crack."

I must have flinched because Kamagishi added: "It's a very fast death, unlike death by exhaustion or death by birds. It's much quicker than being burned alive and kinder than being buried alive."

"Are you sure about that, Kamagishi?” I wasn’t feeling charitable about being forced into this decision, especially right after being woken up from a nap. “Have you ever interviewed anyone who died that w...way as to w...whether or not they felt pain?"

"No, Emily, people don't come back to life to tell us...about...," she stopped with a look of embarrassment. Then her expression changed to one of admonishment. "Did you...?"

With a straight face, I wondered out loud: "I guess it all depends on w...whether the nerves for pain w...were faster or slower than the disconnection between mind and body at death due to the molten lava, which is 14 to 18 times the temperature of boiling water." I paused long enough to look at her gobsmacked face, "the temperature depends on the composition of the lava, mind you. Did you know, Holy One, that molten rocks are corrosive and act like strong acids on the materials they come into contact w...with?"

"You...," Kamagishi was searching for words, looking a bit vexed with me.

"I w...wasn't killed in the attack at Black Falls," I pointed out while she was still reeling. "It w...was an unsuccessful attempt, so w...why is it murder?" I could tell I didn’t want to talk about this because my w-stammer was back.

Aylem explained: "There is no difference under Foskan law, Emily, between murder, attempted murder, or being ancillary to a murder. What's important in Foskan law is intent. Intending to murder you and failing is the same as intending to murder you and succeeding. The difference here is that we can be sure about the intent to commit a crime because we can compel the truth through magic. Emily?"

"Yes?"

"I know you don't like being put in a position where you have to decide on capital punishment but you shouldn't take it out on Kamagishi," Aylem gave me her best 'you-can-do-better-than-this' look.

"Y...yes, you're right," I admitted. "Sorry, Kamagishi. I shouldn't take my discontent out on you. The customary punishment for sacrilege is death by exhaustion, y...yes?"

“Yes.”

“Kamagishi, does intent matter in the crime of sacrilege?” I saw that I had caught her by surprise. She frowned as she thought about it.

Aylem answered before Kamagishi could sort out a reply: “You might remember that under Foskan law, willful ignorance is a form of intent, Emily. Moyuxkol willfully chose to ignore multiple lines of evidence that you were not a deceitful Coyn out on a joy ride with an equally deceitful griffin. Most of that evidence was overt. You wore a Mugash mantle with a gold thread sigil. She blew it on that one alone.”

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“Beyond a doubt,” grumbled Lisaykos whose shrine was insulted by Moyuxkol’s lack of regard for another shrine’s livery.

“She chose to ignore the fire opal tablet that I gave you,” Imstay remarked, in a voice I had never heard before from him, one full of reason and consideration like a judge rendering an opinion in a summary judgment, “especially since it had its own case and belt hook, both custom made for your belt. Last, at her stage of development, she should have been able to feel that you had god marks, one of which is also visible. It’s impossible to miss Galt’s eyes. There is one last thing she failed to do, which adds to the willful ignorance. She never stopped to ask who you were despite the god marks, the mantle, and the tablet, and she refused your request to speak to her superior in the shrine hierarchy."

“Kamagishi?” I looked at her wanting a confirmation since this was a new concept for me.

"You would not have seen willful ignorance in any of the statute books because it's an interpretation. The subject is covered in the rubrics for lords and judges, and I do not know if you’ve read those,” Kamagishi explained. “Regardless, it is indeed considered a form of intent.”

“And Priestess Voice Druyudros? Was that also willful ignorance?” This was an important point for me because if Druyudros thought she was saving a trainee from a rogue Coyn, then it mattered in terms of intent from Druyudros’ point of view.

“To quote Oytwee, the camp master of the Singing Shrine’s Coyn, she came at a run out of the trainees’ camp and never even slowed down,” Imstay said.

“What if she thought Moyuxkol was in danger from me? I did have a knife at the trainee’s throat.”

"She could have levitated you away, or put you to sleep, or used the Voice of Compulsion on you," Lisaykos said with a sour expression. "She could even have tried to talk to you. Instead, she chose to apply contempt before investigation. She did not follow a prudent course of action, which would have been to neutralize you without harming you and ask questions later. She's a silverhair so she had the capacity to act prudently. Because she did not, this looks like willful ignorance to me. ”

“Well, then,” I made my decision. “Trainee Moyuxkol was badly-raised but she is just old enough to know better. Regardless, she is still a child in terms of maturity, but Foskan society has not the means to attempt the remediation of someone like her, complicated by her capacity for magic, which would make remediation risky. The path of least evil is to execute her using an instant death charm."

“Do you not want the public retribution of death by exhaustion?” Kamagishi looked troubled. “How will people know that a just punishment was carried out if they can not watch the means of death?”

"Putting her to death deprives her of her greatest possession, which is the rest of her life," my stomach was feeling sour from all this revenge and retribution crap. "What purpose does death by exhaustion serve other than to prove that I too can be needlessly cruel? I disapprove of cruelty with no purpose other than to wallow in the power to harm someone else. I will not do it. It diminishes me."

Everyone but Aylem was gobsmacked. I didn’t care. I was the one who had to live with myself and sentencing Moyuxkol to death was bad enough.

I moved on to the Voice who used me as a football: “Priestess Druyudros had an obligation as a priestess and a noble to be an example of one who acts thoughtfully and follows the rule of law. She failed in both endeavors. She stated her intent publicly that she meant to kill me. If not for the intervention of one of the Corps of Wraiths, she might have succeeded in stomping me to death when I survived hitting the ground after she kicked me. She will be executed by being dropped into an erupting Great Crack. I do not like this means of execution, but it is Foskos’ rule of law, not mine.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I sat still for a moment until the nauseous feeling passed. "Do I have to w...witness the executions?" The thought of having to watch someone be thrown into an active volcanic vent left a bad taste in my mouth as I had to swallow some stomach acid back down.

"Usually yes," Kamagishi explained, "however, you are still under Lisaykos' care. Because her orders are for you to rest, you are not obliged to witness the deaths."

“Well, thank the gods for that,” at least I could get this behind me now. “Alright, do I need to sign any documents, Kamagishi?"

“You only need to seal the document stating your sentencing for the records. The priestess recorders will then issue the penalty orders for the officials at the Shrine of Landa,” Kamagishe walked over to the table and picked up a magic recording scroll.

“You recorded this?” I stared at the scroll as she removed the magic pen.

“Of course I did,” she gave me a good-natured smile. “I’m glad I did so since you made a firm decision here. Otherwise, you would need to repeat your decision a second time so a scroll could record it.”

“I don’t have a seal, Kamagishi,” I pointed out something I thought was obvious. The least magical Cosm could impress a seal with his or her aura. It was the most basic act of magic and out of reach for me.

"You don't have a seal?" Kamagishi's jaw dropped. "We need to get you one."

"Do you realize that's nonsensical?" I pointed out. “I think you are forgetting something here. If you do get me a seal, I still can't impress my aura into the w...wax because I'm a Coyn. The one thing even the least magical Cosm can do is beyond me. So w...what's the use of my owning a seal? Documents are authenticated with an aura-bearing seal. I will never be able to authenticate any documents since I can’t use a seal that way. That makes it a w...worthless lump of metal from my point of view."

"What did you do before when you had to seal documents?" a confounded Imstay asked.

"Before today, I have never needed to seal anything, Imstay King. Remember, I didn't live in Foskos before a year and a half ago."

"You are right. We overlooked the fact that Coyn can not impress an aura." Imstay pondered with a frown, biting his finger. "How do we deal with this?"

"That's easy," I shrugged. "I'm still under Lisaykos' care for chronic fatigue. The short-term fix is to have her sign for me."

"It will have to do for now," Imstay decided. "We certainly have enough people who can attest to Emily suggesting it. What's your opinion, Kamagishi, legally?"

"Attestation is valid if you have one high priestess, or a king and queen together, or three lords, or seven priestess recorders of Galt. We have enough of the right people to attest that Emily asked Lisaykos to seal the document for her."

The situation made me want to scream. I felt like taking the books of law and pounding Cosm heads with them. None of them realized that under Cosm law, I had no rights as a Coyn. Foskan law assumed that all Coyn, flying horses, griffins, and roc eagles were property, and property has no rights. The only reason I had any standing under Foskan law was because I was a revelator.

If I was an ownerless Coyn and not a revelator, the law would give me to the Shrine of Surd, which runs orphanages and old folks' homes for the destitute and the ownerless. For Coyn who are abandoned or forfeited property, the Shrine of Surd runs training schools for those who can learn a new skill. Once trained, they will be sold. For those who are disabled or otherwise unsalable, the Shrine of Surd has supervised establishments with workhouse-type facilities for those who can do some work, and care facilities for those who can not. The system was not sophisticated, but it eliminated the sight of both Cosm and Coyn poverty from polluting Cosm eyes.

The Foskan system had an additional weakness, a bad one. No laws prevented a private owner from abusing or killing his slaves of any race. Thinking about all of this, I wanted to kick everyone out of my formerly safe space at the Crystal Shrine and go back to sleep until my stomach felt better.

It occurred to me that I could kick them out and go back to sleep, so I did.