The city awoke to news of Judge Halden's death.
They said his heart failed. They said the stress of his office consumed him. The healers claimed age and indulgence had finally won. Yet the servants whispered of smoke in the room, of the stench that clung to the sheets no matter how many times they were washed.
By noon, the rumors spread. Some swore they heard him screaming in the night, though no one else stirred. Others whispered he was cursed, that his sins had found him.
I walked the streets as I had many times before, my hood low, my eyes on the cobblestones. Yet now the air around me was different. Shopkeepers leaned closer when customers spoke of Halden. Beggars muttered prayers as if a god had struck him down. A group of young men near the tavern swore it was justice at last.
The Judgment Screen followed me like a shadow. Faint, always lingering at the edge of my sight, waiting. The list of names had not grown shorter. If anything, it pulsed with hunger.
That night, as I sat alone in my room, I felt the weight of it pressing down. The power was mine. No court could stop me, no guard could bind me. But as I stared at the glow, I felt my hands tremble.
I killed a man. Not with knife or poison, but by will alone. The image of Halden's blackened veins, his clawing hands, his scream, it replayed in my skull until my stomach churned. I washed my hands again and again, though no blood stained them.
And yet… beneath the sickness, there was something else. A pulse of satisfaction, deep and steady, like a drumbeat in my chest. For the first time, the scales felt balanced.
On the third night, the storm returned. I woke to the thunder shaking the shutters. The screen blazed before me, brighter than before. Another name glowed at the top, the letters etched in fire.
Merek, Prosecutor.
Crime: Perjury. Bribery. Fabrication of evidence.
Victims: 47.
I gritted my teeth. I saw Lira's face. I saw the smirk Merek wore as he shredded the truth in the courtroom, twisting words into chains.
The voice returned, low and resonant in my skull.
Judgment waits for no one.
I sat in the dark, rain pounding the roof, my heart clashing between terror and desire. My hands curled into fists.
Halden was only the beginning.
And Merek would not be the end.