[ Fane listens seriously, but his displeasure is sharp when he hears that these Zenites were released. He doesn’t know what to think about that except for this city’s idea of punishment being wholly too lenient and ineffective, but that sharpness does ebb away as Hayame continues. What she explains is clever of the demon, he’d have to admit, but cruel. There’s no sense of approval for that cleverness that comes through, only a mild anger on her behalf. ]

Is Communion not considered proof?

[ It’s an earnest question, since the legal system of Springstar isn’t something he was aware of at all yet. He’s too blunt and often overly rational to even consider that there might be an emotional reason why she might not want to share such a thing. It’s why he also expects the question to have a simple answer, so he continues. ]

…But to be honest, I wouldn’t give a demon the decency of law. It’s not as if it would respect it. We weren’t pursuing Lohse’s demon to ask it nicely to free her.

[ But he also assumes that Hayame had already thought of this, since he feels it’s obvious, and they’re of similar enough minds, it seems. So logically, there must be a reason why that’s not possible. He’s yet to encounter the opposition to crushing Shards personally, so that doesn’t occur to him, but just thinking about his personal experience… ]

If not execution, then neutralization. That- [ He pauses, and there’s a complicated, difficult emotion, though it’s brief because of how he clamps down on it purposefully. ] That is how my people dealt with those that betrayed the will of our King. My people do not die, so the most extreme of punishments could not be death.