Bound-Acolyte Thorne Vey

Thorne Vey apprenticed to a void-priest named Halvar, whose practice included binding-pacts the Dominion's central authority has declined to recognize for two centuries. The pacts are real in the sense that the parties who hold them are parties the Dominion does not officially admit. Halvar entered one in his youth, completed most of its terms, and died with one term pending. By the structure of the pact, the remainder descended to the apprentice.

Thorne is twenty-eight. He has carried the pending term for six years. He has not executed it and he has not refused it. He works at the edge of the Dominion, taking jobs that do not require him to choose, and he consults retired priests on whether a pact binds an apprentice who was never party to it. The opinions are mixed. The Sealed Verdict is named for the question. He has not opened it.