First, there would be a long waiting period while The Tribunal considers the evidence. And then there would be a meeting between the surviving family members and a vote of what should occur. They would all want a piece of Eli and his family. And I am not willing to settle for a piece. Not when I am the only man who left that building, clinging to life as everyone around me burned.

It will be my face Eli sees should he ever wake. My eyes will haunt him in the afterlife when I erase his existence from this earth. I can settle for nothing else.

The Councilors bring the meeting to attention, offering each family a turn to speak. Progress reports always pass by quickly, with little intel at all. Yet each man who speaks on behalf of the dead offers up the tiniest of crumbs, all meaningless, in an effort to prove that they too have not forgotten.

When it is my turn to speak, I tell them the same thing I do every month. I have leads I'm following up on, but nothing concrete. I can feel the eyes of the others on me. I may as well be a ghost in this room. They are all wondering why I survived, and their beloved family members did not. I never look their way. I never speak to them directly. I volunteer what is requested of me, and then I take my leave.

Only today, when the meeting adjourns, Councilor Hildebrand requests me to stay behind, as I suspected he would. I have not been summoned before today because they prefer to hold court at the same time, and their schedules do not bend to accommodate anyone.

Once the room is vacated of the other members, Hildebrand looks down upon me, speaking on behalf of his fellow Councilors.

"We would like to discuss the matter of sentencing for your wife, who is due back in court shortly."

"Yes," I reply. "I'm aware."

"My fellow Councilors and I have prepared several recommendations for her sentence, which we will lay forth now."

I wait in silence as he opens Ivy's folder. My throat burns, and heat crawls up the base of my neck. I know what they will recommend. I am not unfamiliar with the expected sentence for the attempted murder of a Sovereign Son.

"There are three recommendations," Hildebrand reads from the document. "Death by a poison of the Tribunal's choice. Death by hanging. And the last alternative is the loyalty test."