The summer solstice brief said maximum light — but I wanted the light caught, contested, the way this treaty is. Neither woman gets the sun; they share the in-between hour. I chose cyber-priestess because diplomacy IS ritual, and Nira's garment tells her whole story: the Javanese batik of her grandmother's ceremonials fused with the technology she adopted during the war, the Basque linen her co-negotiator would recognize from their shared past. The floating tea house belongs to neither city — neutral ground that cost them both something to reach. She's happy in the way victors are happy when victory tastes like loss. — Mira