President Miranda Thornewood let out a deep sigh as she shuffled some papers around her desk. It was rather astounding how saving Panem required so much paperwork. She hadn't gotten into politics for bureaucracy, yet it seemed to rear its head everywhere she turned. Nautilus did more than ser fair share of it, which Minerva appreciated. But there were some things that she just had to handle herself. Which was exactly what she was doing when someone knocked on her door.

"Come in." She said, and Dax Zephyr slinked into her office.

"Director Plume said you wanted to see me." he said.

Miranda cursed silently to herself. She did want to see him, and had told Nautilus such. But there were so many various wheels turning in her head that she had almost completely forgotten about it. She was going to have to talk to the physician completely unprepared, which was a bit of a dangerous prospect.

The position of President was a precarious one. She was always one sign of weakness away from disaster. She avoided this by carefully curating how every single one of her subjects saw her. Over her time as president she had become adept at projecting strength and inspiring fear. Her idealism, her compassion, and her plans for a better Panem would all be used against her if she ever let anyone see them. So she hid that all behind an icy exterior and project an aura of control.

However, Dax was smart enough to see through her artiface. His intelligence was one of the reasons that he was so valuable, but it meant she had to make extra certain she was completely in control during all of their conversations. This sudden visit left her forced to improvise. She enjoyed thinking on her feet most days, but there was too much riding on these Games for her to take much joy from it.

The mini quell was always meant to be of particular importance. While she hid her idealism from the public, she never let it fade away. Panem was on the brink of extinction, and Miranda knew she needed to save it from itself. She and Nautilus had a plan, a brilliant and intricate plan that she was absolutely certain would work.

Except much of the ground work that was supposed to be laid out last year simply wasn't. The Hunger Games was a variable she couldn't completely control, and the outcome of the 93rd Hunger Games were not exactly in her favor. She could have had a much worse Victor, and the rebellion she wished to fan the flames of did take hold in several districts. However, her chosen tribute died in the finale, and her main source of income had died shortly after the Games ended. Miranda's plans for Panem were still in progress, but she was playing catch-up to a certain extent.

Not that Dax knew any of this. It was crucial to her machinations that he didn't, at least not yet.

"Yes. I did." She said, her voice neutral and disinterested, "I wanted to talk to you about this year's games. It's quite an important year. And we can't have any more… accidents."

Minerva focused on Dax's face when she said the word 'accidents', looking for any sign that he knew more about the incident than he let on. Sure enough, his brow crinkled slightly. It was small, small enough that even with her keen observation skills she may have either missed it or dismissed it as general fear. But it wasn't merely panic that she saw on his face. It was the look he got when he was trying to lie to her. She hadn't been anywhere in the area when Mr. Wren died, but the man had many enemies. Most likely his death was not the combination of bad luck she was led to believe. And now she had a reason to suspect he knew what truly happened.

"I'm terribly sorry about that." he answered her. "I promise it won't happen again. There are new security measures in place. And I promise that when a Victor is brought in, I won't let them out of their sight."

"Perhaps the problem is you have only one set of eyes. I'm assigning you an assistant." She continued, allowing the subject to drop. She would find out the truth behind her patron's death. But for now she had other matters to deal with.

"An assistant?" Dax asked.

"Yes." Miranca continued, "An associate of mine has a brother who is interested in medicine. He's young, not even in college yet, but the experience would be invaluable to him. And then you could go to the bathroom or what have you without fear of them waking up without you."

The physician shifted his weight uncomfortably. "That sounds less like an assistant and more like you want me to babysit."

He wasn't far off, but Miranda wasn't going to let him know that. Her voice took on a sharp tone as she spoke to him,"That isn't all that far of a stretch for you, is it?"

Dax looked down at the ground. "I suppose not, Madame President."

"Splendid. I'll tell Helios to report to you tomorrow morning." She said, then went back to her paperwork. Dax stood there awkwardly for a moment before seeing himself out.

When she was certain the doctor was well out of earshot, she placed her work neatly to the side and rung a number on her telephone.

"Hello?" a masculine voice answered.

"Councilman Nicolby." She said, her voice dripping with honey, "It's been such a long time since I've been able to talk to you. How have you been?"

"Madame President?" Juarez's tone instantly changed, "I've been well. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I heard that your brother Helios wants to be a doctor. If he's interested, my head Victor's physician has a position open for him."

"He does. That's… that's wonderful."

"It is." Minerva confirmed, "He can start tomorrow if he's interested."

The junior councilman sounded absolutely flabbergasted, "Thank you Madame President. I don't know how I can repay you."

She smiled to herself. Juarez Nicolby was a talented politician with a great head for social situations. But he was relatively new to the game, and sentences like that were proof of it. "I'm sure I'll think of something. I look forward to seeing you Councilman."

She hung up, and went back to her preparations. She was still far behind where she wanted to be, but Minerva had to admit she was still doing quite well for herself.

AN: Hello everybody, guess what? That's the final prologue chapter! Which means next time I update, we're going to be introducing the tributes. Are you excited? I'm excited. A list of the tributes will now be on my profile, so go ahead and check that out. Thank you for reading!