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As you confirmed, you hanged me.” “I did.” “The Ordnances of Correct Appreciation, volume seven, article eight hundred and forty-two second subsection,” Ivarn reels off, hoping to all available gods that he’s remembered it right. “Once sentence of execution has been made then, for whatever reason, should it be remitted and no matter which step in the procedure has been attained the…” Losing his thread, panicking briefly, then the words coming back to him. He always had a fine memory for texts. “The prisoner shall not subsequently be sentenced to a further execution but only such commuted sentence as… well, you can look up the rest, I’m sure.” Hegelsy stares at him, trying to work out if he’s furious or amused or some new and unnamed emotion partaking of both. “You are offering a legalistic defence?” he demands. “It wouldn’t have swayed the Old Duke,” Ivarn admits, still outwardly casual. “But it is the price of seeking to perfect the world that you must have rules for everything. I am afraid I cannot be sentenced to hang again.” Been there, done that. “Well, this is regrettable.” Hegelsy’s mood is restored, and Ivarn doesn’t like that. “Get rope!” he shouts to a subordinate. There is already rope, because they’ve learned to anticipate him. “String him up,” he says. “I am here to negotiate!” Ivarn squawks. And then, as they seize his arms and take his stick and fit him with a new collar, “You can’t! Your own laws!” “I’ll just have to do you off the books,” Hegelsy informs him. “I’ll just have to ask for a full score from within, instead of nineteen. Consider this entirely extrajudicial, Maestro Ostravar. A whim of my own. I shall be sure to censure myself later, in my report.
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