Originally by: Revan Neferis

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I'm leaving the meeting now. There are people all around, lights flashing, things like that. It's strange. With everything that's happened in the last few weeks, all I can think about is how newspaper cameras still have flashes that could blind you from a hundred yards.
That's all I can think of, along with thinking about how that's all I can think of. I feel a bit light-headed, like I'm drunk. There's someone behind me, pushing me through the crowd and down the onix steps. I can barely keep my balance.
Somewhere, way in the back of my mind, I'm aware of the fact that the mob around me is shouting questions. They're not all directed at me, but some are. There are members of Verisum Family behind me, pushing, pushing. I can hear their voices, droning on with æNo comment, no comment.' Jeserat's voice isn't among them, but that's not surprising. I wonder if he's thinking it.
Down ahead is Mind Games, my elite spaceship.
There are concord keeping the crowd away, letting us get to it. Every now and then the roar of the scene leaks through the cotton that seems to be stuffed deep into my ears, and it's overwhelming. But then I'm shoved forward again, tipped off balance, and I'm underwater once more.
I look up, past the spaceship at the docking port, and I see people. The people gathered are the real ones. Not reporters or dignataries or concord, but normal people, without a job to do here, or a professional agenda to carry out. Reisha had told me about them, these people who gather outside courts to see scenes like this. She had talked about them as though they were rodents or insects; pests. But I understand them, a bit. Their faces are mixed, one big blur of approval, disapproval, sympathy and malice. Some think I'm a bad person, some think I'm a wonderful person. Some don't care, they just want to see me walk out. That's fine, I suppose.
A voice floats up from the crowd. 'She's irredeemable! Kill her! She's irredeemable!'
Irredeemable. The word shakes me, almost jolting me out of the strange fog I'm in. Then, suddenly I am at the Mind Games, and someone is smiling to me inside. "He". although "he" was never allowed access to the court, I knew "he" was there waiting for the result.
'So, it starts? You told them your decision?'

Revan takes her comm pad and issues the message:

- The war against CVA shall end in 24 hours.
We proceed.

She reads the sealed letter again. a particular line: ...I know full well what I am asking you to do, and the price should be inconsequential compared to the reward.

* ends transmission.

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