Intriguing. I'm enjoying thinking it through.
The initial set-up tries to deal with the wonderful implausibility of it all, so while I'm considering the bigger picture I'll just poke at a few smaller things:
- Why is the bunker designed for four, rather than five? I read Shakor's "CONCORD does not always call these summits" and Roden's response to the Empress' statement that she arranged the meeting as suggesting that they are usually called by CONCORD and this is an unusual one. In that case, am I reading too much into "here" and "Just the way it's always been done", in assuming that leaders have met at the same location before? With no Jovian reps, even back at the beginning?
- "At these words, Empress Sarum and Sanmatar Shakor broke each other's gaze for the first time in several minutes." Did the "white-eyed" Sanmatar finally have treatment for his Defiant-respecting blindness? Is he now using implants to see? Back in
Silent Furies he was written as functionally blind, but here he's engaging in gaze-play and head-turning with the rest of them.
- Jamyl as "Empress Sarum". Isn't the Amarr custom that the ruler leaves their House and takes their inner circle to join the
Emperor Family, taking over the imperial estates and appointing a new heir from their old House? Do we see other emperors addressed by their (previous?) House name? I'm only now learning about Amarrian matters, and this has puzzled me.
- Do I get to call Shakor a Midularite now?