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We put our heads together and recite our mantra

Matter, how tiny my share

Time, how brief my allotment

Fate, how small my roll to play

Self, all that can be mastered

Then, hand in hand, we ascend

—

Hundreds of political adjuncts quiet as we arrive

“Good !” I say to the Optimate army as Daxo looms over my shoulder like an evil Proctor Silence falls Their faces turn toward us in excite as I hen I served Octavia “I hope you’re all rested I’ll be brief Most of you have done this before on the Conscription Accords and that sham of a peace treaty We’ve learned our lesson from those losses: press to the Foruot it now, daht million lives Until then, cancel your fah at that fantasy Daxo has no patience to teach anyone but obsessive-compulsive Martians, and stone-cold political killers “You have only this…”

I toss up a hologram pyramid the size of an assault shuttle, subdivided into e the seventy-one-vote ive me the power over the defense fleets

“Fill This Pyramid,” I say “Te’ve tried to vote Twice, the Vox have turned the screws and denied us the eight Tribunes to call a quoruiven us the Tribunes With ours, we give him a chance”

They rap their knuckles on their desks

“For those of you fresh in from Mars, prepare yourselves Good deood deht No vote is set in stone No word eternal What we gain, we ht to the bone to keep The Vox will use every tactic at their disposal Daxo has given you your assignments He alone channels my will” They know that already “From here to the vote, Hyperion will descend into a fit of political hysteria But ill endure because…”

“Hic sunt leones!” they shout, as is their custo toward that exultant moment I extend iant hourglass Mickey grew froalization of inter-Color reproduction I hold it up, cherishing the vibrations before the stor from my allies, and then slam it down

“Fill This Pyramid!”