"Why are you being so difficult with the guards if you truly have nothing to hide?"
Richter did not flinch. He turned his head slowly, his gaze meeting his wife’s eyes with a mixture of practiced sorrow and unwavering resolve. The cool night air swirled around them, carrying the faint, metallic scent of ozone from the struggling power grids of Aethelgard. He sighed, a soft, weary sound that he knew would disarm her, and stepped back to create a physical barrier between her and the tense scene unfolding on their front porch.
"Because, my love, a man’s home is his only sanctuary," Richter said, his voice smooth and laden with an undercurrent of righteous frustration. "If we allow them to trample our privacy simply because there is a flicker in the city’s lights, what stops them from com
