Renna did not lower her hands. She kept them open at her sides through the whole of it, palms out, the posture of someone who understood exactly how close she was standing to a decision none of them could take back.

"Six months ago," she said, "someone approached me. Not Obsidian. Someone claiming to represent a faction within the eastern community who wanted the broadcast work shared more widely than the coalition council had approved. They said the consent framework was too slow, too cautious, that hybrids like me were dying in territories that hadn't been cleared for distribution yet while the council debated procedure in meetings I wasn't invited...