In pictures which predate her beard, Charlemagne is the image of her grandchild Martin in poise as well as face, but a decade in her office as keeper of the Senate’s much-tried civility has so softened Charlemagne that today they hardly seem the same stock. (I know it is strange for me to call any Mason “she,” reader, but see Charlemagne with Jin Im-Jin and you will agree with me.) This is not to suggest that Charlemagne no longer serves the Emperor—the imperial gray band of a Familiaris on her arm proves she is a Guildbreaker still—but while Martin’s ba’pa Senator Charlemagne Guildbreaker Junior now serves MASON on the Senate floor, Senator Guildbreaker Senior’s role in the Empire’s agenda lies in accelerating all agendas, trusting that most changes moving in the world are shaped by MASON’s will.

“Thank you, Member Speaker.” Guildbreaker’s cottony beard puffed as she nodded. “Motion to Suspend the Rules. Given the impossibility of establishing straightforward priority among all the urgent motions, I move that the Chair review all the new motions and improvise an equitable emergency agenda.”

A junior Mason “Seconded!” at once.

“All in favor?”

The Ayes had it.

You must not think, reader, that MASON’s dictates mold the Senate like wax. Sixty-one Masons among two hundred votes is not near a majority, merely enough to steady or to tip a rocking boat.

“Motion to Suspend the Rules passes,” Jin Im-Jin confirmed. “And before we move on, I want to point something out. After we’re done today it will be easy for one or another of you to raise objections alleging that today’s decisions are invalid because we failed to follow one or another procedure. To those already planning such objections I say this: right now this Senate is the only body on Earth with any hope of stabilizing things. People are dying every day in riots which are getting worse, the economy is groaning”—a pointed glance at the still-not-admitting-they-were-striking Mitsubishi—“and we have a better shot than anyone of fixing things. If our authority is undermined, if the public sees us as weak, or squabbling, or impotent, or, worst of all, illegitimate, there will be nothing left but seven very angry Hives and a lot of very vulnerable Hiveless. Yes, we’re on rocky ground as far as procedure. Yes, half the Senators in this room are sudden replacements chosen in questionable circumstances. Now is the time to demonstrate that, in spite of everything, we remain a competent and fair governing body, and that we will solve this. If anyone tries to undermine what we do here today by raising objections to procedure after the fact, you won’t just have blood on your conscience, you’ll have destroyed the best and freest government the world has ever known. So speak now or forever hold your peace.”