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"Marianne."

"They warned me, Edward. The Admiralty. The Guild. The Trade Blocs. They all said severing ties would break the back of our recovery. And even they missed the most difficult part. It's not just trade. It's severing a part of our shared history. And yet..."	

"And yet you'll do it."

"Yes. They crossed a line. Not in secrets or strategies - we all have those - but in desecration. What they did in Sulsia... what they used people for... that isn't strategy. That's surrender. To madness."

"I read the casualty lists. I saw the footage that Admiral Proctor passed to me. Formidable, Royal Oak...I've not told the families yet."

"Edward... I'm sorry."

"I didn't lose ships. I lost the illusion that humanity could coexist alongside horror."

"The Combine offered us structure when we had none. Energy when our plants were offline. Logistics when our fleets were ash. But at what point does survival stop being life? You've walked this path longer than I have. Tell me, Edward - not as a monarch, but as someone who still believes his people deserve more - how do you lead them away from the fire... when the fire has warmed them for so long?"

"You show them the cost. Not in credits, but in faces. You speak their names. The ones lost. The ones taken. You show them the mothers waiting at docking ports, the children who won't hear the knock at the door. And then - when the silence grows heavy - you speak the truth."

"Which truth?"

"That we are better than what keeps us fed. That survival without soul is just... a slower death. You'll bleed for this decision. They'll call you reckless. But the right thing always draws blood. That's why they pay us in crowns, Marianne - not in comfort."

"I knew you would understand. That's why I came."

"And you always knew the answer. You just needed someone else to tell you."

"Remind me next time to speak to someone less principled."

"Like Prime Minister Evans? He'd offer you a trade deal and a lecture on agricultural tariffs. No, Marianne. You did right. And if your economy buckles, the lion will stand beside the eagle. Quietly, perhaps - but unwavering."