She offered them a place in the New Federation.
She hated that it was called that. The Federation still. They had insisted on remembering the past, so that it would not be repeated, but all she wanted to do was return to that past.
The leaders of Elicoor gathered. One by one they arrived at their places around the stone table. They sat there to discuss and she waited.
She was waiting.
She watched them, observed but never commented. She loved the people of the Sanmite Republic best, the mermaids and fairies, and rabbits in boots. They were fairy tales come to life.
The moon rises over the gardens, the cliffs, and all is blue and magical in the night.
She didn't want them to join the Federation; she wanted the leaders to decide against it. She was afraid Elicoor would be lost – its fairy tales giving way to science. She feared for this world of knights and dragons in the Federation. But she had made her choice, so that she no longer had to now. She no longer had a voice in these decisions.
All she had to do was memorize this moment, crystalline in the moonlight, pale and enchanting.
She shivered.