“Be gone!” The voice shouted. “You traitors are exiled to the wastes!”
The shadow behind the screen turned and left his visitors to contemplate their wrong. The ambassadors could only stare at each other in horror. They had done the impossible. They had stood up to the Shadow Emperor. Numb, they turned and walked through the icy veils and out into the silent open. The stark emptiness stretched before them. The revolution had failed. The tyranny could only get worse from here. Paradise simply didn’t have room for free thinking. One of the envoys burst out laughing. They were free.