Jinghe Year Sixteen, the twentieth day of the first month. Audience Gate Hearing Government Affairs.
After the snow, the chill had yet to fade.
Before the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the officials stood in their ranks, their breath forming mist that stretched like drifting clouds.
The ranks were more orderly than usual that day, and the censors of the Censorial Court had arrived especially early.
The upright officials all wore grave expressions, like eagles gathering their strength, wings folded and talons hidden, their eyes fixed on one spot.
Word had spread the day before.
Throughout the court, every man in purple and scarlet carried a scale in his heart, waiting only to see who would make the first move today.
"Your Majesty."
After the Directorate of Transmission finished reporting routine matters, silence fell over the hall for a moment.
Then a man stepped out from the ranks of the Censorate, holding his audience tablet. His clear voice filled the hall.
"I, Censor Luo Wenjin, have a memorial!"
"I impeach Wei Nisheng, Vice Director of the Office of Clear Governance within the Selection Office, for using the minister's seal without authorization!
"The Zuo Tradition states: 'Only the instruments and names of authority must never be lent to others.'" Luo Wenjin pronounced every word like a strike upon a stone chime.
"The minister's seal is an instrument of authority; Selection Bureau Vice Director is a name of office.
"For a vice director to use a minister's seal means that both instrument and name have been lent to another!
"While Chancellor Shen lies ill, his seal has returned neither to the court nor to the Grand Secretariat, but has fallen into the hands of a mere vice director.
"I ask Your Majesty: who bestowed this seal upon him?
"If it was privately