Lenora's POV
The council voted six to ten against the investigative authority expansion.
Which was a better result than I'd expected, given where we started.
I had watched the faces, as promised. The ten who voted against split into three groups: those who were philosophically opposed to expanding oversight authority (two), those who were politically nervous about the optics (five), and those whose own territorial governance structures would likely not survive independent investigation (three).
The last group was the most important.
After the session, I had a quiet conversation with Ellina, the capital observer.
"The three," I said.
She looked at me with the measured patience of someone who has been in governance long enough to recognize a conversation being initiated carefully.
"I
