Court of Ash

At Qadis sits the court that judges dead ships and tainted cargo. It is convened the same day a matter arises, and the pilot is heard before the owner. Not treaty but standing agreement makes its condemnations binding in every port of the western crescent, and custom carries them to the central ports besides. Condemnation at Qadis is condemnation everywhere; clearance there is clearance at Qadis, and does not of itself clear the cargo anywhere else.

The court at Qadis that judges contaminated cargo in the Basin; it sits quickly and hears the pilot before the owner. The Qadis court that judges disputes over dead-ships and contaminated cargo and declares cargo clean or cursed.

Named with it

• Prince-Governor Rashid al-Qadisi · rules Qadis
• Ash Justice Faisal al-Rumi · justice
• Court Clerk Imad al-Fasi · clerk, eleven years on the court

Ties

• works with the Brotherhood of Saint Varo
• the Brotherhood of Saint Varo is present as of right but is formally separate and on cool-to-cold terms
• hears the pilot houses and pilot lodges
• the ash crews give evidence and deal with condemned cargo
• accepted by Valmora, Benisafra and the smaller crescent ports

At the table

Model for other Basin courts. Its findings bind every port of the western crescent by agreement, so a cargo condemned at Qadis cannot be landed at Valmora a week later. Its authority rests on nothing but acceptance and is older than any present state on that shore; no outside authority has ever set a finding aside. Proceedings are public, the book of findings is open, and it declines to theorise about causes. Companies meet it chiefly as witnesses (believed only if specific) and must never help or hurry a proceeding; attendance before it is a standard ten-week commission.