Theodore asked about the Council and Raan informed him that they're busied at the moment, meetings as usual, they started an hour before they got there, and won't reconvene for the evening until the next.
Raan instinctively noticed the uncomfortableness in Theodore, telling him the Council can't do anything to him without a trial, and they know they can't win against him. He's allowed his own personal council to fight for him, like anyone else.
Even they knew better than to mess with the laws.
"But I'm sure you're not here for anything of that nature," Raan summed the extent of Theodore's visit and he admitted that he needed parts for fixing the machine that his father took.
As per their nature, the TARDIS had no name, just a machine, nothing more, the only reason it had one's because of his father.
Curious, Raan asked about it, and Theodore said it came back into his life after leaving some time ago after his father sent it away.
"I'd never heard of a machine with a mind of its own," Raan found it interesting that the TARDIS had a level of sentience, something unheard of in their society, and Theodore responded he's unsure of the extent, but he knows it desperately needed repairs. They're fortunate it survived this long as it has, but that time's coming to an end.
Nodding, her golden looped earrings bobbing in the silent breeze, Raan mentioned that it wasn't in the best condition when the Council voted to send it for scrapping.
They thought it a waste of time, wanting to harvest the precious metals from the machine just before they destroyed it completely, but the intrepid Medie intervened and stole it from the scrapyard on that faithful day.
"Are there any more like it?" Lila inquired if there's any more, but Raan replied Medie's was the last one, the rest destroyed when the Council saw little interest continuing the project.
The cumbersome nature prevented them from destroying it sooner, but Raan pointed out that it proved beneficial.
She doubted the Council even realized the machine worked, despite languishing in the scrapyard for so long.
Only when Medie stole it was when they finally realized it worked, they didn't know what to do with that fact, but Raan speculated that the Council would've remained against keeping it intact.
"I don't suppose you know what became of the parts, do you?" Theodore inquired if Raan knew what happened after the Council sanctioned the destruction of the machines.
Shrugging her stout shoulders, Raan replied that she doesn't know exactly, but it wouldn't surprise her if the Council simply had them stripped and reused elsewhere.
Frowning, Theodore sheepishly asked if Raan knew where to start and the Time Lady pointed him towards…
Neither can say it outwardly, but shorthand, Raan told them that they ought to ask Layne, he's known to keep the intact components from the scrapped machines, of course Theodore needed to convince him, Layne's possessive over the parts since he gotten his hands on them through sheer luck.
Even the Council couldn't convince him to turn them over for other uses, he's set in his ways, and they can't do much to compel him, because of his seniority.
Raan doesn't know if he's willing to share them with Theodore, but she thinks once Layne hears how Theodore wanted to fix the machine, perhaps he'll help him. He never saw the machines intact, only the remains.
"He's taken to the library these days, perhaps you'll find him there," Raan recommended Theodore and Lila check there first, Layne's probably looking for schematics for whatever drew his attention today. Doubtful there's any for the machines, the Council had them destroyed once they deemed the machines useless.
She bid them farewell, needed elsewhere, and Theodore led Lila on the trek through Gallifrey towards the library.
"She seems nice," Lila commented that Raan didn't look down on him like he's told her about the others, but Theodore pointed out, Raan knew his great uncle and father for decades, pointless to suddenly turn on him for being half-human.
Lila replied, "Fair point."
Walking through the wide halls, filled with statues, looked like a cathedral the more Lila looked closely at the marble walls and statues.
Statues erected in recognition for the people who've impressed the Council immensely enough that in death they're honored, the greater the impression of them, the fancier the statue, one given golden trim, another given both gold and platinum trims.
"I'm guessing your dad's not getting one, is he?" Lila asks Theodore about the chances the Council erecting a statue of his father's likeness, to which Theodore replied that he doubted it. It's hard impressing the Council and his father certainly wasn't impressing them, even with his role as general during wartime that ensured them winning the war against the Daleks.
It's hard explaining the layout of Gallifrey, it's a good thing Theodore remembers how to get around, because Lila couldn't make heads or tails what the map tells them, since it reads like a stereo manual.
Theodore tells her that they're in the gallery, they needed to make their way through towards the gardens before they reached the library.
Unlike areas in their world named after famous people, it's different here, nothing's named after anyone, everything's given the bare minimal.
Everyone knew exactly where everything is and it didn't matter to them that the library doesn't have a name, they know where it is, and that's all it mattered.
There's no other library beside it, thus it's no concern for them.
If not for Time Lords having names, it'd get harder talking to anyone here, something Lila noted, as she wondered about the banished Time Lords.
Theodore said the Council reserved the right executing them if the crimes they committed exceeded the strictest laws, but they typically reserve that right for extreme cases.
Having no prisons, it's either execution or banishment, fortunately there's stays of execution, but it's slim chance getting out of an order.
Otherwise, they preferred banishing convicted Time Lords from Gallifrey.
Stripped them of their names, achieved titles, everything about them marked away with a felt quill, and no one speaks of them ever again.
Their achievements reduced to vague notations, nothing more, and everything else a fleeting memory.
"And, what if they worked to turn their lives around, trying to get back in the Council's good graces?" Lila grew curious about the justice system, wanting to know if convicted Time Lords that haven't ate lead saw reintroduction into their society.
Thoughtfully thinking to himself, Theodore answers that the Council's stubborn, once they move to convict, unless there's an exceptional reason, they almost never let anyone they banish back to Gallifrey.
"But what if this convicted Time Lord was framed, a setup, a scapegoat when they don't want to admit they're wrong?" Lila brought up a good point about the chances of innocent Time Lords ending up convicted for crimes they didn't commit, unable to plea their innocence due to the structure of their justice system.
His large hands in his stitched pockets, Theodore responds that with their telepathic capabilities, corrupt Time Lords couldn't escape justice for long.
Her arm interlocked with his as they're walking, Lila pointed out that Theodore's able to block Hammond any time the aloof giant's annoyed with him. Always a possibility that a Time Lord uses the same trick to evade justice.
As they passed statues of the founding members of Gallifrey, Theodore answers that the Council aren't like civilians, they've trained to scope minds of their fellow Time Lords. They're stronger telepathically than his father, but handicapped specifically to prevent misuse, as Theodore explains.
For the Council using their telepathy, they needed to join in union, all sixteen members, in person, if one's absent or none of them in the courtroom, they can't do it, and they can't use someone else.
Only those sixteen members, no one else, and if one dies, their replacement undergoes the same training.
A second replacement on standby in the event the chosen replacement's unable to complete their training.
Note, Theodore says they're only replaced when they've died, when members become inducted into the Council, it's permanent. There's no absconding from the position unless impeached due to crimes.
All sixteen members will inevitably die during their hold in the Council and only then will new members take hold until they inevitably die themselves.
Any suspicion about a death forces the Council on ice until the investigation starts and concludes by a third party.
It's not a position one took lightly, there's ramifications if someone gets cold feet about joining the Council.
Once the training starts, there's nothing short of death freeing them from the position, which Theodore hinted that there's instances where members, unable to handle the position, sought suicide as solace.
"I'm guessing the president can't change that, can they?" Lila summed that the president couldn't enact changes that would've alleviated these problems and Theodore confirms that the president acts as a figurehead for the Council.
They can petition for changes, but it's a difficult process, and even then, the president risks their petition failing.
The only person that has any power above them's the Prime.
The Prime's a rare case of a Time Lord stripped of their name, but in this instance, it's part of the governmental structure.
Acting neutral's part of the job, thus during conflict, the Prime works to meditate issues without bias, the idea that without a name, the Prime doesn't risk influence from the Council or anyone outside the government body.
Becoming Prime's harder than becoming a member of the Council, since any indication that the Prime's no longer neutral means they no longer have the absence of mind for meditating issues. They're not executed or banished, unless their lack of neutrality inadvertently causes chaos, deaths, destruction, so on.
Theodore summarized it in a way Lila understands, the Prime's essentially a Vulcan. Subdue behavoiur and all that without the pointed eyebrows and ears.
It's known that the Prime undergoes extreme forms of training preventing influencers from entering their mind and goes further suppressing their natural biases.
All in the name of becoming neutral.
They become a shell of their former selves, their names forgotten as they've lost them, and it's not a position anyone takes because of the costs associated with becoming the Prime.
True, people on the Council remain until death while the Prime abdicates once their position's compromised, but the Prime doesn't get their names back, their lives, friends, family, they don't get those back once they abdicate.
The Council keeps those, but not the Prime.
The Prime gives up everything for the position in the name of neutrality, that losing it's as much of a death sentence to them than if they're implicated in crimes.
Former Prime, provided they haven't committed crimes, typically become shamans after abdicating since civilian life isn't an option for them.
Nothing religious in tone, that sort wouldn't work in the Time Lord society.
Shamanism seeks going back to the roots of the society, before the technological advancements that made them prosperous.
The Council doesn't disregard them because of it, but they hardly showed any recognition.
"Man, how did they survive this long?" Lila commented that the stringent nature of the governmental body wouldn't worked back home, simply because there'd be no way people would've taken the idea of someone stripped of everything that made them a person for a role in the government.
Nodding, Theodore commented that it's part of the reason why his father left, the nature of it all, it's suffocating.
"I get your governmental body, but what about something like, I dunno, cops, any enforcers of the law?" Lila continued her curiosity in the Time Lord society.
With their laws, surely, they have officers upholding them when the Council can't cover every dome.
There's hesitation in Theodore before he mentioned that there's no officers, not in the way Lila's familiar with, instead the enforcement of the laws comes in the way of everyone pitching in.
"Basically, neighbors tattle on each other," Lila looks at him with bemusement as the aloof giant affirmed that, basically.
With everyone capable of reading minds, it shouldn't be surprised that everyone enforces the laws on their own, the thought in the back of their minds that if they do something, everyone's going to know.
"Another reason why he left?" Lila summed.
Nodding, Theodore replied that, yes.
Walking endlessly, they found their way to the library entrance, taller than any architect Lila's ever encountered in her life.
The moment they stepped through the archway into the library proper, Lila's greeted by a familiar sight, aisles of bookcases, taller than a skyscraper, filled to the brim with books.
It's like Basil's library, but without the books only containing biographies, hungry shadows, and a spidery alien.
"Well, where do we begin?" Lila wearily asks Theodore how he planned to find Laney.