the importance of what he was saying and his utter sincerity in saying it.
"But I do know that the Republic of Cinnabar has for a thousand years supported her friends and defeated her enemies," Daniel continued. Sometimes those enemies were the friends of the past who'd found the burdens of friendship with the Republic too onerous; but this was a stump speech, not a lecture. "If there's something that the rulers of the Republic should know, they know it. I have no idea how that's accomplished, but I trust the system that has risen from strength to strength for a millennium!"
If the Governor and his advisors