The arbitration panel convened notice arrived on the sixth day.
I was at the map table when Cael brought it in — a formal document bearing the seal of the Northern Territorial Arbitration Council, the kind of heavy cream paper that institutions use when they want to communicate permanence. Panel composition confirmed: four regional representatives, plus Maren Ash as the independent fifth panelist Aldric had requested. First session scheduled for eighteen days hence at the neutral arbitration settlement in the central territories.
I read it twice. Set it down carefully.
"Well?" Cael said.
"Maren Ash accepted," I said. "That's the important part."
"She'll be difficult."
"She'll be rigorous," I said. "There's a difference." I picked up the notice and moved it to the organized stack of a
