From the Private Papers of Vlad Dracula
Sealed Addendum — Adjudicative Archive
Zakiel understands the law correctly.
He does not confuse it with truth, justice, or mercy. He understands it as a mechanism for ending uncertainty. This makes him dangerous, efficient, and irreplaceable.
His infernal heritage grants him emotional insulation that most beings mistake for objectivity. It is not objectivity. It is indifference to suffering when suffering produces clarity. Zakiel does not enjoy pain for its own sake. He enjoys the moment when resistance collapses into compliance and ambiguity is eliminated.
His elevation from battlefield adjudicator to High Judge was inevitable. On the field, he learned that wars do not end when armies fall. They end when rules change. Zakiel ended conflicts by rewriting precedent mid-engagement, forcing enemies into legal impossibility rather than defeat. This pleased me.
The white opera mask he wears is not concealment. It is declaration. He does not need a face when authority speaks through him. His greatcoat bears layered precedents not as decoration, but as warning. Every ruling he delivers becomes another plate of armor.
Zakiel’s mercy is calculated. When he spares an enemy, it is not forgiveness. It is sentence extension. He understands that guilt, once internalized, enforces compliance more reliably than execution. Survivors police themselves better than corpses.
The Court fears him. This is appropriate. Judges who are liked eventually hesitate. Zakiel does not hesitate. He pauses only to measure consequence.
He does not seek truth. He seeks finality.
That is why I trust him with verdicts that cannot be appealed.