Chapter 149: HOW MUCH POWER DOES THE WARDEN GET?

DIANA’S POV

When the plenary resumed after recess, the most dangerous word in government waited on every desk.

Emergency.

Diana had learned that people became creative whenever the word appeared near authority.

Counsel Mael distributed Blackharrow’s revised four-page proposal.

Daric had apparently wanted nine.

Diana considered four sufficiently dangerous.

The presiding secretary read the first request into the record.

"Blackharrow seeks immediate preservation of specifically identified defense-related records, shipments, contractor accounts, material batches, and transfer documents while an ordinary access request is reviewed."

Queen Amara looked toward Raigoro.

"So the first measure preserves the records without requiring another Crown to surrender them to Blackharrow."

"Correct," Raigoro said. "Possession remains where it is unless separate authority permits otherwise."

Severin added, "And preservation does not automatically give Blackharrow the right to inspect them."

"No. Inspection would still require the appropriate authority."

The first measure drew relatively little resistance. A Crown could keep a record from disappearing without giving Blackharrow possession of it.

The second measure placed the morning’s technical agreements into a shared procedure. Astevan specialists, portable equipment, and joint wardstone testing were already moving under terms discussed before recess.

The third request brought more attention.

The presiding secretary read:

"Limited emergency access where delay creates immediate material risk to the Ashen defense."

Across the central working sheet, one question had been written in large letters:

WHEN MAY THE WARDEN ACT BEFORE ANOTHER CROWN AGREES?

Nothing beneath it was simple.

Belland wanted private merchant records protected unless Blackharrow could show a specific defense connection. Westmere wanted faster intervention when strategic stone, foundries, or fortification material were involved. Merovia wanted medicine and food shipments kept moving during investigations unless the goods themselves were evidence, while Valence wanted royal military depots distinguished from ordinary commercial stores.

Asteva wanted the strongest review mechanism.

Diana could not decide which objection irritated her most because several were reasonable.

Severin spoke after Queen Amara.

"The Warden exists because the Gate sometimes requires decisions before five governments can gather around a table."

Raigoro nodded.

"Urgency does not justify turning the Warden into a standing investigator inside five sovereign states."

"I agree," Raigoro said. "Emergency authority should remain exceptional."

Raigoro’s agreement did not end Severin’s objection. It narrowed it. alive yes please I want that.

Severin touched the proposal.

"Then the question is who decides that an emergency exists."

"Initially, the Warden," Raigoro said. "The decision is subject to review afterward."

Severin asked, "Review by Blackharrow?"

"No. The review would proceed under Concord procedure."

Queen Amara leaned forward.

"By the time that review happens, Blackharrow may already have entered the warehouse."

"Yes," Raigoro said. "That is the risk created by allowing action before another Crown gives consent."

Amara regarded him. "That is a large risk."

"It can be."

Amara looked like a ruler imagining Blackharrow officers entering a Belland merchant house because one Warden had decided waiting was dangerous.

Fair.

Prince Emmon turned to Counsel Mael. "Suppose the Warden acts and the review later finds that he was wrong. What remedy does the affected Crown have?"

Mael answered within her registered portfolio. "The affected Crown may challenge the grounds, seek exclusion of improperly obtained evidence from joint proceedings, claim compensation for unlawful seizure or interruption, and trigger review of repeated emergency use."

Severin caught the final point. "And repeated use itself becomes grounds for review?"

"Yes," Mael said. "An emergency power used routinely stops being exceptional."

Raigoro let counsel answer.

The discussion moved to thresholds: specific physical evidence, verified strategic-material mismatch, current witness testimony, active destruction of records, imminent movement of suspect defensive goods, and recent intelligence supported by independent corroboration.

Daric disliked several restrictions. Diana could tell because his pen became increasingly violent.

Tavia challenged two transport provisions.

Julius Renn wanted the magical-material threshold rewritten because, in his opinion, whoever drafted it did not understand the difference between contamination and deliberate treatment.

Counsel Mael looked at him.

"I drafted it."

Julius remained undisturbed.

"The phrase remains wrong."

Diana lowered her eyes.

Professional government was exhausting.

The argument continued until Severin returned to the larger problem.

"Every safeguard in this document assumes the Warden recognizes when his own judgment has become the risk."

The chamber quieted.

Raigoro answered, "Which is why review cannot belong to the Warden."

Severin inclined his head. "On that point, we agree."

Severin looked across Blackharrow’s delegation before turning toward Diana.

"With respect, Duchess, may I ask you something?"

Diana adjusted the chalk between her fingers.

Raigoro left the question to her.

She nodded.

"This morning, when Merovia raised the delays caused by repeated inspections, you argued for a procedure each Crown could verify for itself."

Diana nodded. She remembered exactly what she had written.

Severin continued. "So let me apply the same principle somewhere less comfortable. If one man can act before another Crown consents, should the safety of that power depend on who the man is?"

Diana understood where he was going.

He had taken something she believed and moved it directly beneath Raigoro’s authority.

"Would you make trust in the Warden part of the safeguard?"

If Diana agreed, Severin could use the answer against Raigoro. If she disagreed, she would contradict a principle she had defended elsewhere.

Raigoro left the answer to her.

Diana hated him slightly for that.

She thought while the chamber waited.

A Valence legal adviser finally began, "Perhaps Her Grace means..."

Diana kept writing.

She had not finished.

The adviser stopped when several people turned toward him.

The interruption made her answer easier.

TRUST IS NOT A SAFEGUARD.

She continued.

EVEN WHEN THE PERSON IS GOOD.

Raigoro read the second line.

Diana kept writing.

WRITE THE LIMITS.

Then:

WRITE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY ARE BROKEN.

Only then did she lift the slate.

She turned first toward the Valence adviser who had attempted to finish her answer.

He looked away.

Then she showed the room.

Severin read the full answer. "Then on the question of safeguards, we agree."

Diana disliked how calmly he said that.

She added:

ON THAT.

Prince Adrian covered a cough with one hand.

Raigoro wisely said nothing.

Severin inclined his head. "On that point."

Diana could respect a man’s argument without deciding she liked him.

Politics apparently required remembering the distinction.

Her answer gave the drafting discussion somewhere useful to go.

Emergency action required written grounds recorded at the time it was used. Any seized or inspected record required an independent copy. The affected Crown had to be notified within a defined period unless immediate notice would endanger an active operation.

Repeated emergency use would trigger automatic review. Eligible cases had to fall within defined categories rather than vague claims of defensive relevance, and the authority itself would expire unless renewed by the Five Crowns.

Nothing in the proposal allowed the Warden to rewrite local criminal law or arrest foreign subjects outside existing treaty provisions.

Several people seemed less concerned after that clarification.

Daric did not.

Diana suspected he was joking.

Probably.

By late afternoon, the shape of an agreement existed.

The language still required work, but every delegation now had something concrete to review.

Blackharrow would probably leave the summit with broader authority without receiving unrestricted access.

The practical benefit was narrower. If evidence connected to the Ashen defense was in danger of disappearing, Blackharrow might finally have a way to preserve it while governments argued over who had permission to investigate.

Diana understood Severin’s concern.

She understood Belland’s as well, along with Merovia’s and Valence’s.

A worse Warden could abuse the same authority Raigoro intended to use against sabotage. Raigoro had never denied that possibility.

The limits existed for whoever held the office after him as much as for Raigoro himself.

The presiding secretary called for overnight drafting. Each delegation would review the revised language before a proposed vote the following day.

She cautioned that late technical amendments affecting the emergency-access provisions might require a restricted working session that evening, before the draft could be finalized.

Progress.

Diana’s head hurt.

When the session adjourned, the delegates spilled into the outer corridors with the particular exhaustion produced by spending an afternoon defining one word.

Alma joined Diana near the Blackharrow passage.

"You did well."

Diana gave her a look.

"I did not say you enjoyed it."

Better.

They continued down the corridor.

Behind them, Counsel Mael was informing Daric that he could not add obvious attempts to destroy evidence to a treaty without defining obvious.

"Everyone knows what obvious means," Daric said.

Mael replied, "That belief explains most bad law."

Diana had to concede the point.

Then a woman laughed somewhere ahead.

Diana stopped.

The sound came from beyond the next arch, young and familiar enough that memory reached it before Diana placed the voice.

Another sentence followed.

She could not make out the words.

Alma stopped beside her.

The laughter came again, carrying memories of breakfast halls and music rooms, of a younger girl calling for attendants while the world answered more quickly than it had ever answered Diana.

Alma whispered, "No."

A woman in red crossed the far end of the connecting corridor.

Diana saw only her profile, the gold in her hair, and the familiar turn of her head.

It was enough.

Diana knew her sister.

She had spent the road preparing for officials who might remember Selena, but Selena herself had never entered those preparations.

Selena was at Concord Hall.

And Selena’s name was still written on Diana’s place card.