Juliana hmmed, and took a sip of tea. She did not want to get in to a discussion of the causes, either with Jude or with Kieran. She was more cynical than either of them, she suspected (certainly of Jude, but it seemed to her that Kieran was more cynical by circumstance, rather than by disposition — he would have liked to have been an idealist, had his life been different). She was hesitant to put her cynicism too much on display and have to play the role of disapproving aunt, coming in to rain on everyone's parade, so it was best to leave the issues themselves undiscussed.

"The staff in the Minister's office is typically persistent," she said with a slight shrug, to indicate or so I've heard; she had no personal experience of this, since Minister Ross had hired her. "Unless I chose to leave. But I don't think I will, whoever wins." If someone sensible won, she would have to stay in order to ensure they could continue on Ross' legacy in a respectable way — it would reflect poorly on Ross if the next Minister immediately fell on his face, as though he hadn't set them up for success. And if someone else won, she would have to stay — at least so long as she reasonably could, without going insane — in order to thwart them.

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