#38Ianus Bifrons

Token #38 Ianus Bifrons witnessed the signing of the Kethavrine Compact from the threshold arch of the Auric Vestibule, one face toward the delegations, one face toward the door they would eventually flee through. He said nothing. His prayer beads clicked forty-seven times before the ink dried. They have continued clicking since. Dark alloy poured into command's every seam and joint. Auric filigree pressed into seams along the jaw, the brow, the place where two faces meet and refuse to become one. The crown harness locks rather than rests, gripping the skull the way a treaty grips a century: completely, and with the expectation of future violence. Four amber-rose eyes stay half-lidded. They have already processed what arrives before it arrives. Regalia among the Sovereign courts rule through display. Ianus rules through position. Every threshold, every termination and inauguration within the Obsidian Courts passes through his witnessing. [Bifrons Regalis](https://maximals.shape.network/token/758) administers the eastern transition rites; they are family in the way that mirror-shards are family, sharing origin, disagreeing on reflection. [Victorina Serpentis](https://maximals.shape.network/token/589) conveyed a coiled offering after the Gilt Collapse — salvaged from the Drowning of Iaret, its provenance logged before she crossed the floor. He accepted without opening either pair of eyes wider. He filed it alongside [Sibilla Cineraria](https://maximals.shape.network/token/2504), whose reliquary ash he consults on matters the courts consider resolved. The courts consider very little resolved. Both faces wait for whichever side moves first. The arch runs cold beneath the hand — dark alloy, skin temperature, the exact chill of a negotiation that has never formally concluded.