Chancellor Lina Soh watched not the holo itself—she had already seen more of Starlight’s demise than she could bear—but the people observing it, the way they clung to one another and wept. They felt this loss as keenly as she did. Truly, she thought, we are all the Republic—and never more so than in this moment of shared tragedy. Sorrows could bind people even more closely together. The natural bloodlust for revenge that would follow: That could be shaped, tamed, turned into common purpose. That would be Chancellor Soh’s task in the days to come. For the moment, however, she, the most
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