The Magistrate's voice continued its relentless march, a rhythmic grinding of gears that seemed to strip the air of oxygen.
The remaining charges were read in a compressed, brutal sequence, a torrential downpour of criminality that spanned decades.
The manipulation of the imperial food supply was detailed with clinical coldness... how grain silos had been redirected to satisfy personal debts or to starve rebellious factions into submission.
The attempted coup of three years prior, previously dismissed as a series of unfortunate "security lapses," was laid bare as a calculated strike against Soren's burgeoning autonomy.
Fabrication of evidence, bribery of high-ranking officials, and a pervasive, multi-layered sedition that had woven itself into the very fabric of the government.
The weight was crushing. Each charge, individually, was enough to warrant a traitor's death; together, they formed a mountain of evidence that felt impossible to scale.
