[POV: Sofia Lanka]

"Is the vintage to your liking, Caelum? It’s a rare selection from the southern estates, salvaged before the frost took the vineyards. I thought, considering the gravity of the Sovereign Protocol, we might at least dine like the royalty you claim we are before you turn the rest of humanity into a collection of silent circuits."

Sofia sat at the head of the obsidian dining table, her posture as rigid as the glass spires surrounding the palace. The room was bathed in a sickly violet hue, the artificial light of the Glass City reflecting off the silver cutlery with a clinical sheen. She looked every bit the...