" Throughout my questioning, the Dharma Raja stood by my side, a silken shadow against all this light. I believed in myself, and with Amar supporting me, my decision was invincible.
“How could you be so cruel?” exclaimed one. “No wife in his mortal life?”
“His wife would not be reincarnated with him. I will not give him another.”
A woman with a white veil, whose skin glowed like dawn, shot me a trembling smile.
“And what about his brothers? Did they not also partake in his crime of theft?” retorted another.
“They did,” I said.
“Then why must he endure a whole life as a human when his brothers live less than a year in that realm?”
“Because they were accomplices. Not the instigators of the crime. It was he who committed the most wrong. It is he who must live the longest.”
The deva beside me stomped his feet and lightning flared behind him.
“And what say you, Dharma Raja? How will you defend your queen’s decision?”
I remembered holding my chin high, surveying the crowd with the tasteful indifference of one who knew she was impervious. And I remembered when that moment fell with his next words:
“If you doubt her, then I propose an agni pariksha. Fire will always tell.”
The devas and devis nodded approvingly to themselves. A trial by fire. Humiliation burned through me. I dropped my hand from his and the world broke between us. "

― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)