Her first instinct was to say yes at once. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour that dulled her brightness, and gave her the quiet moment to more deeply consider.
The truth was that Verity had reservations.
The Senator for Druckenwell had a reputation for legislative action. She occasionally took big swings and had shown herself more than willing to engage in contentious debate when fighting her corner. And when she stumbled, she stumbled spectacularly. The Diplomatic Accountability and Reform Enforcement Act loomed large, lodged as it was under Verity's ribcage, a perpetual wound. The whole business had been an exercise in humiliation. She had later come to understand, at least partially,
Aurelian Veruna
's role in it, though not his motivation. But who had vanquished her and why didn't change the fact that her defeat had been splashed across the political media in spectacular technicolor.
And like any idiot who had burned a hand on a hot stove, Verity regarded the stove that Dominique was now encouraging her to seize with both hands as likely to be very hot indeed.
Her eyes lingered on Dominique's as she considered the proposal.
Her impulse was to agree immediately. It was almost an inside joke between the little trio of women who had built a perhaps unlikely friendship in the viper's nest of Republic politics --
Ayumi Pallopides
,
Dominique Vexx
and herself -- that Verity preferred drafting, editing and debating legislation to almost any other activity. She had to be dragooned to go clubbing. Her Senate recesses were packed with STACREST missions, deep constituency work, and legislative workshops rather than holidays. She loved the job -- loved the
work -- and viewed her single greatest contribution to the health and welfare of the High Republic in her ability to act in the Senate.
So why did her stomach feel sick at the prospect that Dominique proposed?
It's a trap, something in her whispered. Probably not an intentional one on Dominique's part, she recognized instantly, but an animal might break its leg in an agricultural drainage ditch, and the fact that it was an agricultural drainage ditch wouldn't prevent the wolves from devouring the animal disabled inside it.
The best case scenario was that her band of revolutionaries would put their names on record, the reform bill would pass, and Corvalis would ignore it anyway and dare anyone to stop him. Litigation would surely result, which would be costly, ineffective, and revelatory of a schism that their adversaries in the Sith would likely attempt to exploit. The worst case scenario was that her colleagues -- even the ones most inclined to agree with her on the question of the Magister -- would view reform as insufficient, cumbersome, or attempting to retroactively legitimize Corvalis, or all three, and would not agree to the reform.
That would kill the momentum and divide the coalition. Verity was not eager to see it.
Yet she could not simply sit there for the rest of the night and into the morning hours, staring at the Chancellor. She cleared her throat, smiled primly, and said:
"I... I would be open to furthering the conversation. But I need to be candid with you about the difficulties involved." She paused a moment, lifting a hand to smooth a non-existent tendril of golden hair back into her already-immaculate coiffure.
"I have attempted ambitious reform before, as you know. Without reopening wounds -- I cannot help thinking back to the diplomatic reform bill. The lessons learned there are just as relevant here, if not more. This is an even more ambitious reform, and if left to me to champion it would be easy to characterize as another attempt by the calculating Senator Stuyveris to wrap the executive branch in a pretty little ribbon and stash it away in a locking Senate filing cabinet."
There was no accusation in her voice.
"Perhaps that would be fair criticism and perhaps not. But fair or not, the argument would work because it would be useful to enough people."
She shifted slightly in the chair, the silk of her gown whispering over itself as she rearranged it.
"Now, reputational damage I can withstand provided the Republic is strengthened in the end. But I have practical concerns. By now you know, I think, my level of confidence in Ravion Corvalis' respect for the rule of law. Such a bill would, at the very least when voted on, expose the people who have been willing to stand behind me without any assurance at all that the problem will truly be resolved. I would be handing the Magister an itemized list of the Senators he would need to bully, coerce, convince, or otherwise neutralize to avoid the true consequences of his actions."
Her mouth moved as she chewed the inside of her cheek momentarily, then she lifted a hand, index finger extended toward the ceiling.
"And there is the larger problem. I would bet that a significant number of my colleagues don't believe the answer to this particular problem is to legislate the Magister into respectability. Nor, frankly, do I. If he remains in office while we draft reform around him, when he oversteps again, the very reform seeking to prevent it will become part of his defense. At the very least it will muddy the waters. We are dealing with sloppy drafting, he might say, or there is unfortunate but excusable ambiguity in a young office finding its shape, blah blah blah."
Verity's blue eyes lingered on Dominique's significantly.
"That is not how any of us understand his actions." She paused and lowered her gaze again, not wanting to confuse ironclad conviction with accusation of the wrong person, and her voice softened.
"Trust has been broken. A framework could prevent a future Magister from repeating the acts, but I cannot believe we can legislate trust back into the current one."
She lifted her eyes again.
"So, to make an insufferably long story short: Yes. But only once Corvalis is out -- quietly, if possible, and with whatever dignity we can manage. Then I would wish to work with your office and my colleagues on a narrow, high-level framework for the office which we would present as a joint effort so that the more aggressive Senators cannot paint me as coming at you with a hatchet."
She paused, then inclined her chin.
"I will help clarify the office, Dominique. But I won't do it to rehabilitate its present occupant." Verity Stuyveris hesitated a moment, and she was forced to consider whether this would all be easier if she didn't care about Dominique Vexx.
"We really ought to make a clean break while it can still be done with dignity."
