the altar in front of the dais, brought the microphone down to head level, and cleared her throat. “I have to apologize,” the Head Sister said, her voice amplified over speakers throughout the room, giving it an otherworldly echo, “first, because of the delay. Along with marriage and childbirth, the Sequencing Ceremony is one of the holiest days in a girl’s life here on the Riåдuarökзh. They should not have had to wait. But, as you all know, the circumstances have been…unprecedented. Which brings me to my second reason for apologizing. The First Daughter has been the one to present the Sequencing Ceremony for thousands of years. Unfortunately, she is preoccupied with the…events, currently happening. She is in the same line as the First Mother, and that is why she is a kind...

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