[In hushed tones.]
“Look. I need you to trust me. I'll represent us in the meeting. You need to be on hand in case the revolutionaries try anything.”
“I've been in this from the beginning. You can't shut me out of my own movement, Alethea.”
“I'm not trying to. We need representatives outside. If people do anything to destabilise the city, you can step in and be the hero. Give us some credibility. The meeting's just for show anyway. This Council isn't intending to give us anything.”
“Okay. Alright. Are you sure there isn't something I should know?”
“Just. A feeling.”
“Okay.”

-A recording from a bugged room in the meeting halls of the Short List in 678PE.

---

“You would have made your brother proud”

-Anonymous note left among flowers at the foot of Nicholas Russell's memorial.

---

Even more than the bombing of the Council chamber mere months earlier, the assassination of Nicholas Russell marked the true point of no return for the old system. As the re-election of many conservative figures to that ill-fated Council roster might attest, public opinion proved surprisingly difficult for the reformist faction to shift, and the attacks by Liberty or Death alienated as many people as they converted.

This reactionary trend might have continued indefinitely, had violence remained the purview of the revolutionary faction. However, Russell's death at the hands of an outspoken Imperial loyalist turned the tide; allowing the Reformists to regain the moral high ground - even as they floundered in the wake of losing both Rucker and Russell within a year.

Russell stands as one of the emblematic figures of late 7th-century political history, embodying so many of its contradictions and sea-changes. A member of the elite of the old Empire, dogged by the charges of fraud and embezzlement that saw him and his brother committed to b-Exagora, he could easily have been nothing more than a footnote in history, a case-study in corruption. Instead, he became one of the beacons of the new order, a voice for moderation, reform, and change, though he never saw the future he worked for come to fruition.

- From Liberty and Death: A History of Political Change 650-690