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“Prostitutes”

“Control”

“He knows about the emissaries?”

“He couldn’t”

Sevro watches Dancer’s wool toga billow in the wind as he boards his shuttle “I liked the bastard better in armor”

“So did I”

DINNER IS SERVED SHORTLY AFTER Daxo and Mustang arrive from Hyperion withwooden table covered with candles and hearty provincial Martian dishes spiced with curry and cardahters, makes faces at them as they eat But when the air cracks with a sonic booht, looks at the sky, and runs off into the house, urging his children to stay put He returns a whole half an hour later arm in ar, touching a white napkin to a bloodied, split lip My old friend Victra, iemstones, beanant with their fourth daughter “Well, if it isn’t the Reaper in the leathery flesh Apologies, oodman I’m dreadfully late”

Her long legs cover the distance in three strides

I greet her with a hug She squeezeson the head and slides into a chair, doloo Pax and Baldur, who’ve been huddled conspiratorially at the far end of the table Both boys blush furiously “Will one of you handsome lads pour Aunty Victra some juice? She’s had a hellish day” They scrarab the pitcher Baldur wins, and, pleased as a peacock, the quiet Obsidian lad solelass “Daot docks full of freight that’s ready to ot all spiced up by a Vox Populi s out of more than half the ships in my Luna food haulers and hid them”

“What do they want?” Mustang asks

“Aside fro conditions…the usual tripe They say it’s too expensive to live on Luna with their wages Well, there’s plenty of room on Earth!”

“How ungrateful of the unwashed peasants,” my mother says

“I detect your sarcasnore it in honor of our recently returned heroes There will be enough debate later in the week Anyway, I’m practically a saint Mother would have sent Grays in to crack their ungrateful skulls Thank Jove the tinmen still bloody any Vox they see”

“It’s their right to bargain collectively,” Mustang says, reaching down to wipe a bit of huest, Diana “Written in ink in the New Compact”

“Yes, of course it is Unions are the heart of fair labor,” Victra ree upon”