The great hall had never felt so large, or so full of teeth.
King Zavan had ordered the quarantine lifted for the hearing, though only the healthy were permitted to attend. This still amounted to a significant number– surviving Deltas in their formal dark blue, a handful of epsilons against the back wall, and Beta Tyler standing at the King's right with a posture that suggested he was personally daring someone to start something.
I stood in the center of the hall. Not at the King's side, not behind him– in the open, because I had asked to be.
"If they're going to judge me," I had told Zavan before we entered, "they should be able to look at me while they do it."
He had regarded me with that unreadable expression, then nodded once.
The formality of it was suffocati
