The woman in councilor's attire walked straight toward the hovercar outside the assembly building. As she reached it, a man in a black suit opened the door.
Dorothy settled gracefully into the back seat, seemingly unaffected by the little incident that had just occurred.
"Miss Dorothy, several of the family elders are extremely displeased that you decided on your own to take action against District 25. They've already come to see me three times."
The woman in the front seat spoke. She looked at Dorothy through the rearview mirror, choosing her words carefully.
What she described should have been an urgent matter requiring immediate attention. Yet Dorothy seemed oblivious to its seriousness. She opened the refrigerated compartment and took out a bottle of red wine.
A drone inside the car took the bottle from Dorothy. She picked up a glass, and the drone uncorked the wine, pouring the clear liquid down the side until the stemmed glass was one-third full.
The woman in the front seat seemed to be waiting for Dorothy's reply, but Dorothy merely swirled her glass gently and asked:
"Did you turn them away?"
The secretary-like woman hesitated for a moment before answering:
"I did."
"If you turned them away, doesn't that settle it?"
Dorothy took a sip of wine and spoke with a soft laugh.
Still seemingly uneasy, the woman dressed as a secretary added:
"Within the family, they..."
Before she could finish, Dorothy interrupted:
"If it were Noel, she would never say something like that to me."
The woman trembled involuntarily and immediately realized she had said the wrong thing. Before she could salvage the situation, however, Dorothy continued:
"Perhaps you haven't been with me long enough... there's something I need to tell you, and it's the most fundamental principle you must follow from now