Predictably, William had gotten ahold of the broadcast before he even managed to return to the base. He was sending Nova clipped screenshots of the various inflammatory news articles. How annoying.

" I find Diurn's prosecution of the Moyar unreasonable, yes," a clip played that William had sent; it was looped in a meme with feathers and a beak edited onto him, and had a caption that seemed to roughly say something about him being a birdbrain (he was still growing used to Noahl's dialect). Nova wondered if William even realized this was racially insensitive.

Redlin didn't seem to mind, and was lighting up another rolled cigarette as his wife drove.

" You did pretty good," he said. " Really wish they hadn't said that shit about... what's his name, the judge's brother?"

" Any opportunity to publicly shake off his association with me is fine," Nova responded, declining when Redlin offered to pass him the smoke.

" You hate him that much?" Redlin asked.

" I don't hate him," Nova said. " He's just a pathological liar with no moral sensibility."

Redlin hacked and coughed, then turned to look over to Ulgir.

" Babe, what did you put in this?" he called to her.

" The strong stuff 'cos you said you get stage fright," she said, still looking forward to the road.

William sent him another tabloid headline, bright red letters luridly plastered across a clip from the interview.

The Lyena OPENLY Denounces The Imperial Church!! Condemns Cultish Leadership!!

Which was not what he had said. What he had said was that he saw no reason for the church to be involved in government affairs, and that he found the DASS's separation of church and state agreeable.

At least the way they're painting you is positive, William texted him.

Positive on Noahl, maybe. Positive to the common class, maybe.

But keeping things civil with the entrenched nobility had always been difficult, and this would make it worse.

Well, he had Kaama for that.

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