“Are you?” Iannis asked sternly, addressing Noria directly. She locked eyes with him, and I was both proud and apprehensive at the defiance blazing in her dark eyes. “Are you ready to proceed with this hearing, Miss Melcott?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Noria said, straightening her shoulders.

“Very well.” Iannis pulled a piece of paper from the file on the desk, then briefly scanned it. “Noria Melcott, are you aware that you have been charged with treason against the Federation, and for attempting to commit genocide?”

“I am,” Noria said stiffly.

“And do you have anything to add to the testimony you have already given, which is on record?” Iannis asked.

“No.” Noria hesitated. “Actually, yes.”

Annia glared at her, but Noria refused to look at her sister. My stomach sank, and I had a feeling that whatever she was about to say wouldn’t help her case.

“Very well. What do you wish to tell us?”

“I want to make it clear that even though I don’t support the Resistance any more, I still don’t recognize your authority over me.” Elnos sucked in a sharp breath, and pain flashed in Annia’s eyes. “You have no empathy for the human race, and do not attempt to understand our troubles or needs. Whatever you decide to do with me, you’re still a tyrant. Nothing is going to change that.”

I clenched my hands at my sides, thankful the desk shielded them. Where the hell did Noria get off saying any of that shit? There was a kernel of truth there, but after everything I’d told her, and all that had transpired, she should know better than that by now. And unlike me when I’d arrived here for my hearing, Noria had actually committed crimes against the Federation.

“Noted,” Iannis said, without a hint of emotion. “Now, do you admit that it was wrong to aid the Resistance in producing the kind of weapons they were asking you to make?”

“I do now,” Noria admitted. “I didn’t realize the real purpose they intended to use my device for when I started working on it, or I never would have agreed. That’s why I tried to stop them,” she added, glaring at Iannis.

“That, too, has been noted, and it is the only reason why you haven’t already been sentenced to death,” Iannis said. Noria’s face paled at that, making her freckles stand out, but she did not react otherwise. “Even so, I cannot let you off without any punishment at all. You must either face three years in the mines, or take a legally and magically binding oath not to engage in any sedition or revolutionary activities for the next twenty years.”

I stifled a huge sigh of relief, and did not miss the expressions of relief on the others’ faces. Noria was getting a huge break, and we all knew it.

“Are those my only choices?” Noria demanded.

“Yes.”