Location:Imperial City — Jade Spire: Ministry Corridor, Nursery, Emperor's Private Study, Third Sublevel
Date/Time:TC1856.08.25 – TC1856.08.27
The seventh one took eleven weeks and cost Kael a man he liked.
Deputy Warden Oris Hale was sixty-one years old, had served three sovereigns, and had never in four decades of service been accused of anything worse than pedantry. He was also standing between Kael and the Bureau of Roads, which held the transit authorizations for the entire eastern quarter, which was where the eighth name on the list had spent the last two years quietly approving the movement of things nobody counted.
Hale was clean. The brooch had never so much as warmed near him. That was the problem.
"You're retiring me," Hale said.
"I'm recommending you for the Provincial Assize. It's a promotion in every respect that appears on paper."
