The Judge

When Guy's jaw is broken in the scuffle, Walter takes the rostrum—steel-rimmed glasses, ornate book, a sip of wine—and presides over the strange liturgy of the Orphalese, quoting the Prophet to explain why flame spirits tear their world apart. He is less a jurist than a preacher of makeshift theology, binding captives and reading comfort into catastrophe. His authority matters because it shows how quickly the possessed world has grown its own rituals, its own scripture, and its own willingness to tie a man to a chair and call it justice.