Chapter 55
Richard
The inner chamber was colder than I remembered. Not by temperature–by energy. These men and women had built kingdoms with their silence, and today they brought that silence to me in layers.
Folded, intentional, sharpened.
I took my seat at the head of the long oak table. Every page in the packet before me had been vetted, revised, combed for missteps. Every policy line was technically sound. That didn’t mean it would
survive the room.
“Shall we begin?” Elder Thorne asked, his voice gravel and suspicion.
We began.
For the first forty–five minutes, the discussion stayed where I expected: tax reform, pack subsidy ceilings, border security updates. But David was waiting. I could see it in how still he sat, how he only flipped pages he already knew by heart.
He struck just after a round of proposed adjustments to the southern territory patrol budget.
“There’s a growing concern,” David said, “about internal bias within your administration. Namely, the influence of your newest intern.”
He didn’t look at me. He didn’t have to.
“She’s a political science student, not a policy architect,” Elder Soren muttered.
“She’s a child,” another added. “One with unusually broad access.”
My jaw tensed. I did not rise to meet them. I spoke evenly.
“Amelia’s insights have helped refine three key proposals currently under elder review. Her presence is noted because her work merits it.”
David leaned back in his chair, smug. “Noted, yes. But what does it say that she is the only civilian consistently allowed behind these doors? What conclusions might the public draw?”
“From what I’ve seen,” Elder Rhee cut in sharply, “she’s the only one who asks the right questions.”
Silence spread like wildfire. David’s expression flickered, and for once, he shut his mouth.
I stood before the conversation could move on.
“Excuse me a moment.”
Outside, Amelia was pacing the hall. Her eyes snapped to me as I opened the door.
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“I didn’t mean to become a liability,” she said quickly.
“You aren’t.”
My voice was firmer than I expected. “You’re the reason I still believe we can win this the right way.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t speak. I could see the question behind her lips. The one neither of us could afford to ask.
I didn’t answer it. I just nodded once and slipped back into the chamber.
Amelia
The summit was shifting. I could feel it in the way people spoke more carefully, the way even the air in the estate felt weighted. Today was the final round of policy discussions with the council elders. Richard was meeting them behind closed doors, and I’d been given a carefully curated sliver of
access.
A curated sliver… and complete responsibility.
My job was to organize the agenda and verify that every piece of supporting documentation had been reviewed, formatted, and digitally logged. The folder I’d been granted access to wasn’t thin, but it was redacted within an inch of its usefulness. Still, I printed what I could, cross–referenced older drafts, and made myself indispensable. Emma sent over an encrypted batch of old budget audits that she’d managed to recover from the internal server. I annotated them until my fingers cramped.
The archive room was always colder than the rest of the estate. I’d brought tea, forgot it, and found it again cold as stone. I was thumbing through a 1994 policy amendment on elder appointment reform
when the door creaked.
I turned.
Adam stood in the doorway, clearly startled to see me. He was holding a binder–not from the section I’d been working in.
He recovered quickly. “Didn’t expect anyone in here.”
“Same,” I said, too flat to be polite.
He cleared his throat. “I was just looking for formatting templates. For the campaign output reports.”
“Those are digital,” I said. “We haven’t archived physical copies in two years.”
He gave a sheepish smile and backed away too fast.
I waited until I couldn’t hear his footsteps before pulling out my phone. I messaged Emma:
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Just ran into Adam in the archives. Said he was looking for formatting templates, but didn’t log anything. Can you keep an eye on him? I’m tightening document access just in case.
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