Eve looked at the wall ahead of her.
Seven days.
"What does the hearing actually determine," she said.
"Formally.....whether your claim meets the legal threshold for consideration. Whether you have standing to pursue the succession." Seraphine glanced at her. "In practice...it's a public assessment. Everything on record. Your lineage, your capability, your fitness to rule. Malachai controls two of the five voices on that panel. He'll use them."
"And the other three."
"One is genuinely neutral.....Elder Vassin, been on the bench for sixty years, decides based on evidence and nothing else." A pause. "One is Merchant faction. Cassius's people."
"Cassius who came to us yesterday," Eve said.
"Yes."
"And the fifth."
Seraphine was quiet for a moment.
