Lezek Apollyon steps forth, raising one perfect hand.
"Indeed, let us see them try," he says, "Lezek Kanis will face one."
Imperus is still as the room absorbs this, and finally relents.
"Very well."
They do not sigh, but everyone present feels an overwhelming sentiment of having disappointed a parent.
The assembly files out and into the old area one room north. Attendants are busily removing paintings and sculptures.
"A gallery?" says Lybar Agnetta, the most renowned physician in a family of supernaturally capable doctors.
Imperus waves a taloned hand.
"I had intended to abandon trial by combat and put the space to some better use," They say, watching a pair of servants ferry away a portrait of the imposing Djuka Ramses, Imperus' late uncle.
Everyone assembles in their appropriate seats. Some of you have been here before.
Lezek Kanis, a thickly set youth with flowing blonde locks and glowing golden eyes, steps into the ring and is handed a remarkably simple claymore. The weapon seems weightless in his large hands, wielded with an efficient grace.
The black-robed figures talk among themselves, in a wholly unrecognizable language. That is curious - House Hulbrad has long prided itself on Scions who could speak a little of every known tongue.
After some deliberation, a rat steps forth. Their snout has clearly been broken and reset with iron pins, and there's a look in their eye which Tristan certainly recognizes. Perhaps even he has looked out over a cooling battlefield with those same eyes.
Solon takes his place at the podium beside Imperus' seat, no higher than the rest but at the centre of the semi-circle, and clears his throat.
"Lezek Kanis, you will test the might of Inquisitor Ramis of the Puzzle," he says. "To first blood."
One of the other Inquisitors hands Ramis a finely worked Lionbrass hammer - one handed to a human, but more a warhammer to the rat.
They exchange words, and then the fighters turn to face each other.
"Triumph here, Kanis," Apollyon says, voice carrying without being raised. "And you will have earned your place at my hand."
Unspoken is the penalty for failure - exile.
Kanis maintains face, but faintly muttered you catch: "Holy Querene, forgive me this violence."
Ramis holds the hammer low, one-handed, facing Kanis with an open stance.
Kanis hefts the claymore over his shoulder and raises his left fist.
A moment passes, the air heavy.
"Fight!" Solon shouts.
Immediately, Ramis reaches under her robe and throw something at the Lezek. In the splitsecond available, you see her sweep her robe in front of her face. The other Inquisitors look away. Kanis catches something small and dark out of the air.
And then there is a deafening sound, a flash of light. Your vision clears in time to see Kanis narrowly fend off a hammerblow to the knee before turning his momentum into a kick right at the rat's face. She's quick, already ducking in low under the leg, drawing a knife to stab him in the thigh.
He pirouettes, bringing his sword around to neatly decapitate the rat - but she raises the haft of the hammer into his path, and with a shriek of metal his sword breaks against it, the power flashing from the steel.
Kanis cannot recover his composure before she rises to her feet, leaving the knife on the ground, sweeping the hammer up from the flagstones to snap his ankle.
Kanis falls with a strangled cry, his light dimming, and Ramis stands over him, panting
"First blood!" Solon declares.
There is a brief explosion of shouting, and applause from the other Inquisitors. Someone voices the idea of cheating, but Apollyon interrupts with a swipe of his hand.
"It was honourable," he says, and looks directly at Kanis, prone and being treated by Agnetta. "I have two sons." he adds, heavy with finality.
There is a pause, as this sinks in, and silent tears roll down Kanis' face.
Imperus stands.
"May we now proceed with the treaties?"