The angry girl seemed like she was about to say something else, but it was lost under the boom of Ranger Anna’s amplified voice, as she announced, “All right! The nominations will begin with the, uh, Rapid Return Army?” She didn’t sound as if she approved of the name. Danielle could only wonder whether she knew about the situation with people not believing in the risks of rapid leveling.

  The RRA representative marched up onto the platform, named her candidate, and basically said that she was endorsed by the RRA for 2-point votes and the Game Breakers Military for 1-point votes, and anyone who wanted to get back inside by winter should vote for her.

  “Um, OK, that’s – you girls know you can’t actually get back inside by winter, right?” Ranger Anna said as the RRA representative marched off the platform. “That’s not, um, physically possible. That said, do I have three supporters for this nomination? Raise your hand, and give your name and room number.”

  It took five tries to get supporters from three different rooms, but the nomination went through all the same. “All right, congratulations candidate, please wait there to the left. Sorry, I mean my left – yes, thank you. Next is the Safety in Order Party.”

  The SiOP pitch was basically that their candidate knew what was best for the town. Danielle wondered what the girls who supported her nomination were thinking. The Game Breakers Military went next, and their speech was so similar to the RRA’s that Danielle wondered if they’d actually shared notes. Maybe when they agreed to endorse each other’s candidates? She was pretty sure at least one of the three nomination supporters was the same, too.

  The girl who had cut in line turned out to be from the Six Elements Legal Party, and nominated Ember Stanton, who easily got three supports and had lots of other people who had to put their hands down because they simply weren’t needed. Danielle figured that was the Ember that some people wanted Zephyr to replace in the Systemist leadership group; she hoped the girl herself wasn’t as hostile as her party representative. The candidates seemed to be lining up in front of the tent, where Ember’s height and red hair made her stand out.

  That left the Theocratic Party and the Intelligent Authority Selection Party ahead of Danielle. The next girl up identified herself as the representative of the IASP. She started her speech by explaining her party’s goal of identifying the most knowledgeable Sent available and asking them to take on leadership. “Most Sent who get back Inside want their kids in home tutoring, so this can’t happen to them,” the girl said, “but our Sending has the unique injustice for them, yet privilege for us, of having the children of these older Sent among us, with all the special knowledge they’ve absorbed from their parents over the years.” Danielle suddenly realized she knew where this was going. Unless there were two such girls in building six? How many people like that were actually in this Sending? “Therefore, the most intelligent selection for a town representative in building six is Cassiopeia Stellana,” the girl concluded, “our building’s only second-generation Sent.”

  Three people Danielle didn’t know promptly ratified the nomination – presumably IASP members who knew it was coming. However, there was a bit of a stir, and a long pause, as the IASP girl stood afterward looking out over the crowd, and Cassy didn’t come up. Ranger Anna finally stepped forward. “Cassiopeia Stellana, are you present?” she asked.

  Cassy’s voice came from the crowd. “I didn’t volunteer to represent that party!” she exclaimed. “I’m a member of a different party!”

  The IASP representative leaned back toward the microphone to say, “My party is aware of that. Our nomination stands.”

  “Huh. Maybe they’re not crazy,” Danielle muttered, prompting a chuckle from the girl at the head of the other line.

  The girl ahead of Danielle – by process of elimination, the Theocratic Party representative – muttered back, “no, they’re definitely crazy.”

  Ranger Anna, meanwhile, was saying, “Candidate Stellana, you’ve been nominated. Please come up here. No, you still come up. If you want to convince people not to vote for you, you’ll have to do it during your speech.”

  Cassy reluctantly joined the other candidates in front of the tent, and the IASP girl departed into the crowd. The Theological party girl mounted the stage, and said, “I’m pleased that the Rangers aren’t being difficult about candidates needing to be members of the nominating party, because my party will also be nominating an out-of-party candidate in this building. We have it on good authority that the miracle worker rumored to have stopped a Wolf Pack killing is actually in our building. The Theocratic Party nominates Saint Danielle!”

  Danielle face-palmed as the girl ahead of her scanned the crowd. Clearly, she didn’t even know Danielle by sight, or she’d have realized who she was talking to earlier, when she got in line.

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  “Is – is Saint your candidate’s first name?” Ranger Anna asked, in tones of someone hoping against hope that what they had just heard wasn’t what it sounded like.

  “Um, no, Danielle is her first name,” the Theocratic Party representative said.

  “Do you know her last name?” the Ranger asked.

  The other girl shifted uncomfortably. “Well, um, no – but she has to be here! Come on, don’t hide your light under a bushel!” she called, over-loudly, into the microphone.

  “Isn’t that you?” one of the girls in line asked, prodding Danielle, who was still standing with one hand half over her face, massaging her head. Danielle glanced up through her fingers without moving her head, and saw the Ranger giving her a raised eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” she admitted with a sigh, “That’s me. Do I still get to put in my own party’s nomination?”

  “Oh, ah, yes. Thank you miss, your candidate is found, go ahead and sit down now,” Ranger Anna said, gesturing to Danielle to come up. As with Cassy’s nomination, there were three girls who Danielle didn’t know ready and waiting to raise their hands to support her nomination – apparently on the strength of an overheard argument among the Wolf Pack!

  “You’ve got a zit,” the Theocratic Party girl whispered on her way off the platform.

  “It’s a bug bite, not that I can do anything about it now either way,” Danielle whispered back, and took her place in front of the microphone/speaker box.

  She turned to the crowd, and saw entirely too many people staring at her with expressions of awe. “I would like the record to show that I am not a miracle worker, but I guess I’ll be going into that later,” Danielle began. “I’m here right now on behalf of the Shade Tree Society. As many of you heard yesterday from the door-to-door campaigners, many of the parties ahead of me have goals on behalf of very specific groups, or even have goals that depend on literal impossibilities. The Shade Tree Society nominates member Lauren Benbow, because she is the leader of a hunting party that already unites boys and girls, Christians, Systemists, and non-religious Sent. She has recently demonstrated her ability to organize people with two multi-hunting-party expeditions, one for a larger hunt, the other for an exploration to find the Access Point just to our north, both of which were successful. She will realistically make a good leader for the building and the town because she already is a good leader for her party members, friends, and social network in general. Please give her your serious consideration at voting time.”

  Lauren made her way to the line of candidates as several Society members raised their hands to support the nomination, and Danielle came down to join her. “Told you you’d just end up nominated anyway,” Lauren said.

  “Yeah, yeah, you told me so. I’d say have a cookie, but we’d have to figure out how to make some first,” Danielle muttered.

  “At least I know where to put my votes,” Cassy murmured.

  To Danielle’s discomfort, several girls stepped out of the nomination line when she took her place with the candidates; she hoped those were Shade Tree Society people and not more people who wanted to nominate the “saint.”

  The rest of the nominations took twice as long as the first seven and only ended up with four more confirmed candidates. When the line was empty, Ranger Anna leaned over the side of the platform toward the candidates and said, “All right girls, we’re running a bit late so I’m giving you 90 seconds each. You can come up in any order you like, just keep it short and on-topic, ok?”

  “Me first!” Cassy immediately exclaimed. “I’ll be asking them not to vote for me, after all.”

  The other girls in the candidate pool said things like “suits me,” and “fine, go ahead,” not that Cassy stood around waiting for their approval. She came back around to the steps while Ranger Anna was informing the crowd about the ninety second limit, and immediately stepped forward. Ranger Anna gestured to the candidates for someone else to come get in line, while Cassy gave her speech. The Rapid Return Army candidate immediately moved for the stairs, literally shoving the Game Breakers Military candidate behind her, while Cassy got started.

  “For those who don’t know me, I’m Cassiopeia Stellana. I appreciate the logic that led the Intelligent Authority Selection people to nominate me, however, I don’t believe I am the best candidate nominated today. Most of you, after all, don’t know me! While it’s true that my parents have told me some useful things over the years, I lack important knowledge and connections to the rest of the people in our building and this town. I would be better placed as an advisor. Fortunately, I’m entirely willing to share my knowledge with my building’s representatives, whoever they might be. I would like to endorse Danielle Falconer and Lauren Benbow as candidates who have demonstrated intelligence, leadership skills, and a willingness to listen to good advice when it’s offered. Please vote for one of them instead of me. Thank you.”

  She stepped down to anemic applause, and was replaced by the RRA girl, who proceeded to rant about how the town’s existing laws were “stifling us” and “unnecessarily delaying” the return of the deserving to the safety of the Inside. Ranger Anna repeated her earlier disclaimer about returning before winter being physically impossible, only for the GBA candidate to come up next and go on an even longer rant about the Ranger conspiracy to keep people Outside. She also ignored Ranger Anna’s time-up announcement, and the two patrolling Rangers started moving towards the stage.

  “Ugh, she’s going to get dragged down and make a martyr of herself,” Lauren complained softly to Danielle.

  Danielle frowned. “Let’s see if we can short-circuit that,” she said softly, then shouted, “BOO! Your time is up, get off the stage! BOO! BOO!”

  The rest of the crowd caught on gratifyingly quickly, and Danielle was able to fall silent while the crowd at large booed the ranting candidate off the stage. It still took several more minutes, and there was a bit of name-calling (mostly “conspiracy theorist” and “rot for brains!”) but it ended with the girl storming off the stage on her own, not being dragged off by the same Rangers she was accusing of conspiracy. “Go talk some sense, Lauren, it’s a good contrast,” Danielle prompted, since nobody else had moved.