The formal arbitration complaint took eleven hours to draft.
I started at dawn, alone at the map table with Cael's complete intelligence package, the territorial law codex that Elder Coran had produced from Ironveil's archive — a thick, worn volume that smelled of age and careful handling — and three cups of tea that went cold before I remembered to drink them. The complaint needed to be precise in a way that went beyond ordinary precision. Every claim documented, every piece of evidence cross-referenced, every legal standard met so completely that the arbitration panel would have no procedural grounds for delay or dismissal.
Mira was extraordinary at managing situations from within. The complaint needed to be constructed so that there was no situation to manage — just the plain, documen
