Dorian Vale gave Nox until midnight to accept the Crowncast invitation. The national channel showed the offer every hour between casualty reports and sponsored-match replays, always with the same line beneath it.
{ Unlicensed territorial holder invited to answer public concern regarding medical tolls. Failure to appear will be treated as refusal of accountability. }
The wording was built to make absence look like guilt. It also offered a studio where Vale owned the cameras, the audience, the delay, and the version of any answer that reached the rest of the country.
Nox read the invitation once in the Citadel's route room, then passed it to Vasa.
"What does he actually want?" he asked.
"A confession with your face attached," Diana said from the relay table.
She had not slept much since the hospital gate opened, and her hands moved constantly over the patched transmitters.
