Date: TC1853.10.24–25
Location: Seven Peaks — Council Chamber / Verdant Spire / Workcamp Site / Innovation Forge
Marcus dropped seventy-three pages on the table and said, "I think I've made a mistake."
The council chamber — if they were calling it that now, though it was really just the largest room in the Verdant Spire with a table and not enough chairs — went quiet. Raven looked at the stack of paper. Then at Marcus.
"Explain."
"I started drafting the governance framework you requested. Constitutional basis, administrative structure, taxation, law enforcement, property rights, judicial system, education, economic regulation." He paused. "I modeled it on the Imperial system. Simplified. Streamlined. Removed the worst elements — no hereditary positions, no Ring-based stratification, no celestial exemptions. What's left is... functional. Clean. And completely wrong."
"Wrong how?"
