The Scales

The Scales governs Carthis’s ports and commercial districts from the arbitration floor at Cadran Exchange. Every bonded quay and counting house of standing seats a voice. Its oldest rule holds that a dispute presented from one quay has not been fully presented, so both positions must enter the proceeding before the matter can close. The process is slower than the yards prefer and gives its judgments unusual trust across the Embrace.

The Arbiter presides over that process and alone may declare a dispute finished. During the term, the officeholder may neither trade nor own a share in any concern that could appear before the floor. The restriction gives rival quays a neutral closer without placing their commerce under a house that profits from the judgment.

The assembly administers local permits, charter courts, contracts, tariffs, and commercial proceedings. Its records allow an obligation to remain enforceable after cargo, ship, and signatories leave the moon. A Carthan charter seal carries recognized commercial authority, but it is not a sovereign Velyrian seal and does not let the Scales rewrite external obligations reserved to Velyr.

The boundary lies in the charter itself. Velyr granted the instrument about ten centuries ago, when Carthis was still largely farmland, House Aurethane holds it, and Carthis may neither amend nor withdraw it. The Chairs may revoke it by vote, and the crown may withdraw it alone. Neither has done so; no revocation has reached a recorded session or even a surviving draft. The dormant power remains in the archive beside the charter.

The Scales consequently governs a major mercantile crossroads through an authority it did not create and cannot secure against every Velyrian choice. Its competence makes revocation costly and unlikely. It does not make revocation impossible, which is why reminders of the charter’s ownership retain force even when no one proposes to use it.