Jasper decided without hesitation. The ceremony would not be postponed.
He told me himself, in the corridor outside the ceremonial hall with twenty minutes to midnight and the intelligence report in his hand. He said, " Whatever comes next, this happens first. The threat is contained, the battle is over, and we are not going to let someone’s last attempt at disruption take this from us.
I looked at him. I said, " Agreed.
He looked slightly surprised. I think he had expected an argument. I had spent enough energy arguing about the situation. Tonight, I was done arguing.
The ceremonial hall was the same.
I walked into it and felt that fact in the specific part of me that kept records of things that had cost something. The same stone floor. The same high windows through which the same mo
