The vote started at eleven and ran long.
Nobody was surprised by that. The legal framework had been in circulation for three months before today, reviewed and argued and sent back twice for language adjustments, and there were people in that chamber who had been building their opposition since the first draft landed on their desks. They had things to say. They said them. The chamber gave them the floor and the time and the formal record of their objections, because that was how this worked, that was what made the passing of it mean something, the fact that the opposition got to speak and was heard and was outvoted anyway.
Lyra sat in the formal gallery and watched it all.
