Chapter 62| Seven Judges
The Council chamber dwarfed every other room Allen had entered within WHRIB headquarters — a vast, circular hall where seven elevated seats arranged in a perfect ring surrounded a central platform bathed in stark, clinical light, each seat occupied by an Inquisitor whose severe, formal robes carried subtle variations denoting rank and specialty.
"Party Fallen Crown," the centermost Inquisitor announced, voice carrying easily through the chamber’s precise acoustics. "I am High Inquisitor Voss, presiding officer for this Council review. You stand before us today regarding an anomalous growth pattern, a month-long unexplained disappearance, and, according to your submitted reports, contact with a previously undocumented dimensional pocket world. That is an extraordinary set of claims, Hunter Veton. I trust you understand the burden such claims carry."
"I do," Allen said, stepping onto the central platform with careful, deliberate composure, his wives falling into position around him. "And I intend to meet that burden as thoroughly as this Council requires."
"Then begin," Voss said simply.
Allen recounted their journey methodically, deliberately avoiding embellishment even where the temptation existed to make their account sound more impressive — the S-rank rift’s sudden, violent formation; their disorienting arrival in the Wasteland; first contact with Ashkar’s people; the revelation of an ancient, unclosed tear slowly killing an entire world; the eighty-year-old failed expedition against the Devourer; the alliance forged between two fractured peoples; the Wailing Leviathan freed from its corrupting bond.
The Council listened with varying degrees of visible skepticism and cautious interest, several Inquisitors exchanging low, murmured commentary at particularly extraordinary details, until finally, once Allen’s account concluded, a stern-faced Inquisitor near Voss’s right spoke up.
"Department Inquisitor Chen," she introduced herself briskly. "Your account is compelling, Hunter Veton, but compelling narrative alone does not constitute verified fact. What physical evidence do you offer in support of these claims?"
Myria stepped forward at Allen’s subtle nod, presenting the carefully documented artifacts they’d carried home — Ashkar’s Ancestor Blade, its ancient, unfamiliar metallurgy immediately drawing sharp, focused interest from several Council members; a small sample of Elf crystalline technology, still humming faintly with contained resonance energy no Association scholar had successfully replicated; Mother Ash’s original bone token, still carrying its faint, distinctive warmth.
"Preliminary analysis of the blade’s composition alone should prove illuminating," Myria said, voice carrying the same sharp, strategic confidence she’d once used to command S-rank raid parties. "No metallurgical process currently documented within Association or WHRIB databases produces this particular alloy structure."
Chen studied the presented artifacts with visible, growing interest, passing the crystalline sample carefully toward a technical specialist seated near the chamber’s edge for immediate preliminary scanning.
"There is also the matter of the anomalous power itself," High Inquisitor Voss continued, attention shifting fully toward Allen. "Our own preliminary assessment, cross-referenced against your Association evaluation records, shows growth entirely inconsistent with any documented bloodline awakening or ability cultivation pattern. F-rank to what our latest readings suggest may now be approaching S-rank threshold, within a span of mere months. Explain this pattern to us directly, Hunter Veton. Not through diplomatic phrasing. Directly."
Allen felt the weight of the chamber’s collective attention settle heavily across his shoulders, and chose, deliberately, to meet it with the same honesty that had carried him through every previous crisis.
"I carry a system," he said. "Two, actually. One rewards genuine acts of care and sacrifice made toward my registered dependents — my wives. The other multiplies those rewards, sometimes dramatically, based on the depth and sincerity of the bond involved. I don’t fully understand its origin. I only know it activated the first night I arrived in a house my family had discarded me to, alongside four women my family had similarly discarded."
The chamber fell into charged, considering silence at the admission, several Inquisitors exchanging pointed, unreadable glances.
"A power tied directly to emotional bond and genuine sacrifice," Voss said slowly, testing the concept’s weight. "That is... not entirely without precedent in our oldest, most fragmentary records, though such accounts have always been dismissed as legend rather than verified phenomenon."
"The Desert Elves recognized it immediately," Vivian added, stepping forward with quiet, steady confidence. "Their oldest texts describe something they called ’Investment-bound’ power. They believed it was the only force capable of standing against the Devourer, based on records predating even their own civilization’s split from the Barbarians."
Chen’s sharp eyes studied Allen with fresh, calculating intensity. "You intend to return to this pocket world, then. To finish what you started."
"We made a promise," Allen said simply. "To people who have waited eighty years for a genuine chance at survival. I don’t intend to break that promise simply because it’s politically inconvenient for this Council to process."
The chamber fell into another considering silence, longer this time, several Inquisitors conferring in low, private murmurs while Voss studied Allen with an unreadable, weighing expression that made the weight of the moment settle even more heavily across the room.
"This Council will require time to properly deliberate," Voss said finally. "Given the unprecedented nature of your claims, and the physical evidence now warranting thorough independent verification, we will not render judgment today." He paused, gaze sweeping across the assembled Council before returning to Allen. "You will remain within Geneva pending our decision. I trust that arrangement is acceptable."
"It is," Allen said, though the uncertainty of an open-ended wait settled uneasily in his chest regardless.
"Then this session is adjourned," Voss announced, and the chamber began stirring into motion, Inquisitors rising from their elevated seats, murmured conversation rippling through the vast hall as Fallen Crown’s extraordinary case began its slow, deliberate journey through whatever judgment still awaited them.
Marlowe escorted them back through the winding corridors afterward, her earlier brisk formality softened slightly by something that might have been cautious approval. "That went better than most first Council appearances I’ve witnessed," she offered. "Voss rarely grants extended deliberation time to cases he considers immediately dismissible."
"Is that meant to be reassuring?" Irene asked, some of her usual bluntness returning now that the immediate tension of the review had passed.
"It’s meant to be accurate," Marlowe said simply. "Reassurance isn’t really within my professional purview."
Once they’d been shown to guest quarters within the WHRIB complex itself — considerably more austere than their previous hotel accommodations, though comfortable enough — Allen finally allowed himself to exhale the tension he’d been carrying since stepping onto that central platform.
"That’s out of our hands now," Myria said, settling onto one of the room’s simple chairs, exhaustion evident beneath her usual composed exterior. "All we can do is wait for their verdict."
"How long do you think that’ll take?" Everlyn’s notepad asked, concern still evident despite the session’s cautiously positive outcome.
"No way to know," Myria admitted. "Council deliberations of this scale could take days. Possibly longer, given the unprecedented nature of everything we presented."
Allen glanced around at his wives, exhaustion and quiet uncertainty mingling across each of their expressions, and felt the familiar, steady resolve settle back into place despite the daunting uncertainty still ahead. "Then we wait," he said. "Together, the same way we’ve faced everything else."