Bramwell's POV
The western node's central member was a man I had met twice.
He was a territorial judge — respected, long-standing, the kind of appointment that accumulates institutional weight simply by aging well. He had been on the bench for twenty years and had presided over eleven exile cases before the abolition, which I now understood had not been coincidental.
His node had four members. Two were administrative officials. One was a legal clerk. The judge was the coordinator.
I arrived at his office with Daren and two oversight body investigators and Lyssa's documentation.
He looked at the file folder on his desk and said: "I've been expecting you for approximately two years."
"You've been waiting that long?" I said.
"I've been watching your reforms pass and thinking: eventuall
