Quoted By:
You observe Will Games, the figure in white, loudly conversing with his interviewer, the drone journalist:
Drone Journalist
(speaking as the holodrone cameras whirl around in a livestreaming frenzy)
- Now for someone who needs no introduction: fresh from the latest exploits of his asteroid diving extreme wingsuit expedition, just off the rimward aphelion of Berceuse, we turn to Paribus Philanthropy's Founding Member and most famous trillionaire, William Games. Bill - if I might call you that - can we get a preview of what you will be advocating during the conference here at the Verdant Sanctum?
William Games
- Ha, what a rush that was! You have seen nothing like it. Weaving through a maze of asteroids, a canyon of circumstellar debris glinting across the Void, intersecting with the paths of planets themselves... Any of those space rocks could have punched a hole faster than you can breathe or blink. But they didn't! You know, it made me feel like we are all, you know, part of a great cosmic resonance. Like the heavens have laid out all the paths for us already... It is really like what Paribus always says. We're All Equal Beneath The Stars.
(The Drone Journalist is a bit uncomfortable, she tries to steer him back to the topic)
- Er... okay. And as to the conference, Bill? The Discourse Of Salt And Iron? What is the view of Paribus Foundation, regarding the Scholarch's proposed reforms demanding the abolition of the Apportioned Monopoly upon commodities such as the Salt, and the Iron? Will the demands of the Near War lead to greater tithes, or can these reforms reduce the already onerous burdens upon the Lowborn denizens of the Underdistrict? Would not these very reforms bring the strictures of Apportionment and the very existence of Lex Mercatoria itself into question? Why is technological advancement segregated between Highborn and Lowborn at all?
(William Games, laughing dismissively)
- Ha, ha well you know this conference is covered under - what do they call it again? - Caitiff House Rules: I can either tell you what was said, or who said it, and not both. It would be premature for me to comment on that given the Discourse remains ongoing. But hey, I know how you holojournalist types love gossip! Here is a strange rumour I heard. Have you noticed that the Lady Praxagora has not appeared for quite a long while now? I heard Scholarch Sleer has prepared quite a controversial spectacle for the opening festivities of the Great Certamen. You see, the Scholarch is sponsoring a contestant, some desperate underdistrict pit-fighter or slave combatant - it is all very whimsical and romantic - except this fearsome slave warrior, this gladiatrix (I should say), she- she looks exactly like the Lady Praxagora herself! I have not seen her, but I have heard the resemblance is really quite striking...! It will be such a delicious scandal, maybe it will entice the Lady Praxagora to make an appearance herself, and finally emerge from her seclusion!
