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Proxima is shaking, even after June steps backward outside of Ash. Ash hugs Proxima, scaring her at first, but assuring her that it’s him. Dione and June grab Sunstar, who is staring at her family, unsure if she’ll ever see them again.
I don’t know if she will either.
“We have eyes on you in here too,” Dione says. “Do the right thing and support your wife.”
They all fade away, and for the first time since being held captive, I’m left alone in the outside world with good people. But I can’t let them know I’m on their side, no matter how scared they are. Zenon is watching us this very moment, and if I even so much as apologize for all the harm I’m about to cause their family, they may not live to see it.
I’ll go onstage and debate the Senator with all the scripted lies I’ve memorized.
I plan on sneaking out one great truth while on national TV.
Fifty-Three
The Debate
NESS
“Welcome to the third and final debate.”
Tonight’s moderator is Hugh Cooper, a news personality who has been very critical of the Senator in the past and will hopefully challenge him tonight when I can’t—when Sunstar would. He explains that none of the questions for the segments have been shared with the candidates in advance. He requests silence from the audience throughout the evening so everyone present and watching from home can focus.
“Please welcome the Democratic nominee, Congresswoman Sunstar, and the Republican nominee, Senator Iron.”
I cross the stage, meeting the Senator in the middle for a handshake. He’s exuding so much confidence in his presidential suit, knowing this debate is in the bag. I’m tempted to drop this costume now and expose him, but when I turn to the crowd and find Ash holding Proxima close, I continue to cooperate instead for their well-being.
The Senator and I take our places behind our podiums. There’s a notepad with three pens. Sunstar is a diligent notetaker, a behavior I’ll be expected to keep up. Darkness falls over the audience and there’s only a time clock that’s visible. It’s a small mercy so I don’t have to watch Proxima quivering anymore.
“I’d like to start off this evening talking about the economy,” Hugh Cooper says. “In the last debate you both shared your views on the decline of available jobs, and I want to ask what you will do to ensure growth so those living in this country will thrive in it. Senator Iron, you’ll go first in this segment. You have two minutes.”
“Thank you, Hugh, and thank you to Doherty University for graciously hosting us,” the Senator says, masking his disdain for this pro-celestial campus with a smile.
He immediately talks about the great honor he’s had working alongside the laborers in New York and traveling to meet others across the country, expressing their heartbreak at spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on education only to find themselves shut out of dream jobs by celestials who can do the job in the snap of a finger. He cites one of our propaganda videos about a construction worker who can no longer support his family after being replaced by a celestial with advanced telekinesis.
“Power shouldn’t come before passion,” the Senator says.
“Thank you, Senator. I’d like to ask the same question of Congresswoman Sunstar. How will you improve the economy?”
Sunstar’s plans to increase minimum wage and create higher taxes for the wealthy is a country I’d love to live in, but instead I work the lines written for me. How celestials should continue to invade markets outside of their interest and collect payments originally allotted for manual laborers. The Senator is quick to counter, right on cue, about how many Americans are in debt and without homes because of unavailable jobs.
The gloves stay off from that point forward.
On the topic of wand violence, the Senator defends everyone’s right to bear arms since he considers celestials to be walking weapons. For health care, the Senator deflects how many celestials aren’t insured because of their powers and instead advises for broader guidelines that would allow better coverage for properties damaged by gleam, and he completely doesn’t mention how that would suit his donors and raise taxes on everyone else. He dismisses the idea that underground camps have made their way into our country, designed to hold pregnant celestials hostage throughout their pregnancies to prevent the children being born under the skies and reaching the full potential of their powers.
I’m not some bystander in the audience. I’m one of the two liars on this stage.
I’ve been tasked with portraying Sunstar as someone who is cracking under the pressure of her campaign, especially in light of the Silver Star Slayer’s videos, and I argue back with an aggression that Sunstar hasn’t once demonstrated in any of her debates. When asked, I don’t condemn specters as a whole, stating that there are good, well-intentioned people who seek out power to further their lives, and I applaud the risks they take, especially those who are older, given how blood alchemy isn’t always kind to their bodies. I want to warn everyone, no matter their intentions, that becoming a specter isn’t worth it, but I’m too busy not offering sympathies as requested by the Senator to those who have lost their children because of gleam cross fires.
I can’t imagine that the celestials currently holding seats in government aren’t cringing during this entire debate. Maybe some of them will even be suspicious, having worked with Sunstar and shared her views for how she would shape the country. But between the Senator presenting himself as a grounded candidate who will be remembered as strong and me fighting back—sure to get Sunstar labeled as unhinged—it’s impossible to believe anyone will expect anything except the Senator taking the White Hous
e next month.
Hugh Cooper regains control. “We’re wrapping up shortly, so I’d like to shift and ask you, Congresswoman, about your recent announcement of your plan to abolish the Enforcer Program and put an organization you’re calling the Luminary Union in its place. What would you say to Americans who are nervous about relying on powered guardians?”
I don’t know all of Sunstar’s intentions on this since only one video of her talking about it has been shared with me, but I suspect she simply wants to stop seeing people in her community killed by enforcers who use wands charged by celestial blood. I can’t push this message, and may the stars have mercy on me.
“The Luminary Union is designed to protect the public, but namely the extraordinary celestials who are the backbone and heart of this country. It is time that we become the authorities and leaders.”
“So you’re giving even more jobs to celestials,” the Senator says. “And leaving our citizens disadvantaged against those with power. This vision for the future is bleak and will only lead to more Blackouts. I promise no one wants to receive the call that I did telling them that their child was blown up because of a power brawl between Spell Walkers, whom you not only won’t condemn, but would bring into the fold of your new division. Can you really look me in the eye and tell me in front of the American people that the terrorist group that killed my son should become our new law enforcement?”
