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​CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: "The Orientation"

last update publish date: 2026-04-11 16:55:04

I arrived at exactly nine.

Not early — early would have communicated something about the weight I was giving the meeting. Not late — late would have communicated avoidance. Nine exactly, in the clothes I had worn for the council session's second day, with the specific professional composure of someone arriving for a meeting they had been requested to attend and had no particular feelings about.

Aldren was already in the room.

He had a document in front of him — a prepared list, which I register
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