[Lauchenoiria]

Main Bedroom, Hale Residence
25th February 2021

Councillor Jennifer Hale sat on her bed, sobbing. She hadn’t managed to get out of bed yesterday, and her personal assistant, Emma Woodward, had come to see if she needed anything. Jennifer had asked Emma to take a seat, and then proceeded to start sobbing on her bed as Emma sat there awkwardly, watching the crying Councillor.

“Councillor…”

“Please don’t,” Jennifer shook her head. “Don’t call me that. If you must address me, call me by my name, I don’t… I don’t want to hear that title.”

“As you wish, C… Jennifer,” Emma said. “Can I get you anything?”

“A time machine?” Jennifer asked hopefully.

“I… think that may be quite difficult.”

“Then I’ll settle for the downfall of the Sanctarian and Kerlian governments.”

“Um…”

“Not that I particularly have anything against Sanctaria, but if their government collapses then nobody will be around to enforce the Haven Accords or the TRC verdicts and then… I don’t want to be on the Council, Emma, I don’t want to be part of this!”

“Jennifer, what happened with that Aurora, it’s LOM’s fault, not yours.”

“That’s just it, Emma!” Jennifer threw her hands up in exasperation. “She would never have been beaten to a pulp in LOM if we hadn’t sent her there! Everything the Council has done for decades has caused harm. And we’re all complicit in it. My mother, my sister… they were both terrible people. That’s why I ran away from home at the age of thirteen. No teenager does that unless she has to. I almost died countless times, and that would’ve been preferable than being on the Council all those years.”

“I know you didn’t have a choice,” Emma replied softly, reaching out to take Jennifer’s hand. “I know you want to be in Lauchenoiria… you want to be Sonja Viratnen, not Jennifer Hale. But very few of us in life have choices. Since joining the Council, you’ve changed it, you’ve changed things, made them better. You’re not complicit in the harm, you’re helping to end it.”

“No, Emma, I’m not,” Jennifer said, pushing her away. “Listen to me. I was happy in Lauchenoiria, I was doing good. Here, I am continually being tested, pushed, having my morals questioned and being slowly corrupted piece by piece. The longer I remain here, remain on the Council, the less of me there will be left. But I can’t leave this godforsaken country thanks to the TRC.”

“Jennifer, you’re not changing. You’re still the brilliant, wonderful person I have the pleasure of working for.”

“I am, though. The way I’ve compromised my principles for the benefit of the Kerlian state… my literal job is to work for the good of the Kerlian state, but far too often that is in conflict with what I know to be right. I have no choice but to betray either my principles or my country day-in, day-out. Do you know how that feels? It’s horrendous. I cannot and will not do this anymore.”

“C… Jennifer, what do you mean?”

“I refuse to go to the Council Chamber. In fact, I refuse to leave this house until I can get out of Kerlile. I’m done, I won’t play this game.”

“Jennifer…”

“I mean it, Emma,” Hale said sharply, sitting up and looking her in the eye. “I will not work for a country that does that to people. I’m done, I’m out, goodbye. They can try to force me, sure, but not without breaking their fundamental principles. We do not set foot on each other’s land without permission.”

Emma sighed, nodding and standing up to leave. It was useless trying to argue with Councillor Hale when she got this way. Besides, she’d learn soon enough that most of the Council did not respect the sanctity of the other Councillors’ land, and hadn’t for many years. If the Council wanted to force Hale to join in, they would.