He can’t be dead, Lexi immediately and frantically assures her own mind. They wouldn’t summon you here to tell you that he’s dead. You would have been notified at home. He’s not dead.

“Well has been in scarce supply for longer than I wish to detail,” she says evenly, maintaining her composure.

Stru nods, the gesture jostling every sagging inch of skin protecting his skull. He seems hesitant to speak his next words. The tension between his seat and Councilwoman Burr stretches thinner and thinner with every passing moment of silence.

“We have no choice but to revoke your Gen’s franchise,” she finally says, bluntly, almost impatiently.

There’s no remorse in her voice.

Stru’s face sags impossibly, lower than she’s ever seen it, as he looks to his right.

It’s as if Lexi has lost any ability to discern her native tongue. She looks between the varied faces of the Council. Lexi blinks several times, the motion serving the same effect as toggling a great switch. It allows her to brush away the din of emotion and focus on the practical staked to the road before her.

“My husband has been missing for less than a month,” she begins. “Surely this is… to say the very least, premature—”

“New evidence has come to light, I fear,” Stru informs her, sounding genuinely sympathetic.

Councilwoman Burr remains unmoved. “This Council has received a dispatch from the Protectorate Ministry. They have sufficient evidence to support that Brio Alania was neither abducted nor the victim of an ill fate. This evidence suggests he has fled beyond Crachian borders with the intention of defecting to our enemies. Such is their conclusion.”

“Please. Councilmembers. I should very much like to examine this ‘evidence’ for myself.”

“That’s quite impossible,” Burr informs her, and Lexi is certain now there’s something akin to actual pleasure behind her words. “The Protectorate Ministry will not allow such sensitive material to be examined in an open Council session. To do so would expose the agents who risked their lives in service to the nation to obtain it.”

“I have the utmost respect and admiration for the agents of the Protectorate Ministry and the perilous work they do across our borders. I would never risk our nation’s security for personal benefit. For the very survival of my Gen, however, I must insist I be granted the basic right to defend my husband against such charges.”

Councilwoman Burr begins to respond, but Stru raises a spotted hand to silence her, drawing a look from the younger woman as sharp and ill-intentioned as a dagger striking from the shadows.

“Lexi,” the old man begins, “I must speak frankly with you now, and it is my hope you’ll know what I have to say is unaccompanied by malice of any kind.”

She only nods.