Chapter 25
I stood at the podium in the library auditorium with Esme, Sorrel, Hannah, and Robin at my side. The camera before us flashed a light as the telecast began. With the blood-spotted paper in my shaky hands and a photograph of Rielle projected behind us, I prefaced with an explanation.
“Dear Citizens. We are here to tell you that Seranack is dead,” I said to the camera’s mechanical eye. “And so is Rielle, the director of the CREIA. Her final speech will soon be printed and distributed throughout the quadrants.”
The girls around me shuffled and shifted their weight in the creaky planked floor.
“At this very second,” I continued, gaining confidence, “the Polity who challenge the order of our time are locked in a fortress of their own making, and we have the key. In the days ahead
