Chapter 76

Aria's POV

The bridge, it turned out, required paperwork.

Enormous quantities of it.

I'd known intellectually that formalizing a second hub would involve documentation. Governance frameworks. Shared standards written down in language precise enough to mean the same thing in two different territories. Protocols for when disagreements arose between hubs. Protocols for when those protocols failed.

Knowing this intellectually and living inside it were different experiences.

"This clause," Beth said, setting a page down on my desk with more force than necessary, "has been revised eleven times. Eleven. It now means something almost entirely opposite to what it meant in the first draft."

"Which version is correct?"

"Both....