Tavi opened his eyes and looked at her. She stood over him with her legs planted in a wide, confident stance “Chala, do the Marat have a word for ‘diplomacy’?”

Her green eyes began to look almost luminous as her anger grew. Tavi could feel the heat of it pressing against him, simmering inside him. “This is not a time for humor.”

Tavi narrowed his eyes at her. “You disagree with what is happening to M—To Fidelias.”

“I do not know Fidelias,” she replied. “I know Marcus. He does not deserve this.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, he is guilty of treason, and the law is clear.”

“Law,” Kitai said, and spat on the deck as if the word had carried a bad taste. “He has fought loyally for you for years.”

“He has lied to me for years,” Tavi replied, and considerable heat burned in his own reply. “He has betrayed the trust of the Realm. He has murdered innocents, Citizens and loyal freemen.”

“And risked his life countless times on the field with us,” Kitai snapped back.

Tavi found himself hurtling up off the bed, his voice rising unbidden to a bellowing roar so loud that it made him see stars. “HE TRIED TO MURDER MY FAMILY!”

They both stood there for a moment, Tavi breathing heavily. Kitai looked him up and down, then slowly arched an eyebrow. “Of course. Your judgment is clearly unbiased, Your Highness.”

Tavi opened his mouth to reply, then forced himself to stop. He sat back down on the bunk, still breathing heavily. He stayed that way for a full minute. Then he looked back up at Kitai, and said, “Yes. He hurt me personally. But he did that to a lot of people. Even if the law didn’t mandate an execution, it would be a form of justice to allow him to be sentenced by those he had wronged.”

“No,” Kitai said. “It would be a needlessly bureaucratic form of revenge.” She paused, and added, with a faint wisp of wry humor, “Which, now that I think on it, is a functional description of Aleran law in any case.”

Tavi rubbed at his forehead with one hand. “It had to be this way. If he had run, I could have let him go. But he didn’t.”

“So you will waste him.”

Tavi frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“He knew what would happen to him if he stayed,” Kitai said. “Therefore, he wanted the outcome.”

“He wanted to die?”

Kitai frowned pensively. “I think... he wanted balance. Order. He knew that the things he has done were wrong. Submitting himself to sentencing, to justice was...” She shook her head. “I cannot remember the Aleran word.”

“Redemption,” Tavi said thoughtfully. “He wanted to confess. He knew he would not be forgiven for his crimes, but by choosing to act as he did...”