New Earth City, 1 January

Still, my hands have red on them.

I can't seem to get it off. I suppose that's a good thing. A horrible, good thing.

This blog--it is now all I can do. In a galaxy of blogs, I hope someone will see this and... I don't know what. I'm not sure what to advocate. Perhaps once you've heard the rest of my story, at least up to this point, you'll think of something to do and let me know.

A few days after my last post, I allowed myself to become enveloped a bit by the whole selection mess. It's a yearly thing, but as I said before, it was a big one this year. The good news is that for the first time someone born on the Third Ring made it into office. Well, he's not made it yet, commencement isn't another few weeks. I may go to the CapitalPod to see the crowds that will be too big for me to get close to see the new Pillar, himself.

The big deal here is that a Thirder made it into office. No Thirder ever has. Ever since the Second Ring broke up, it's been tough on the Thirders to get the support they've needed. Resources are scarce and so the entire ring dropped into poverty. It's been that way for a long time and it's tough for anyone out there to get the right contacts to make it it to the main ring, let alone getting far enough in politics. Everyone just assumed Pillar Rose was just not balanced enough. Sure, just to survive on the Third, you've got to be stable, but Rose--he managed to do more. Rose is charismatic--good looking and seems like he knows what he's doing, but he's still like a friend--like a guy you'd have coffee with.

Now the concern among the circles I've been traveling both via the smartBox and in person is that he won't make it to commence his Pillarship. Of course, these kinds of conspiracies are common and after seeing what I've seen since last I wrote, I have to say I'd believe in that conspiracy if I didn't know better. In fact, since last September, the theories I came to New Earth City with have been reinforced and... expanded.

Pillar Rose will be fine. He'll make it to the commencement and he'll be seen as one of the best pillars, Fifth or otherwise, the United Earth Ring has had. See, he's on the inside of all of this. The lightning storms, the Vidi, that old man at the old warehouse, the arrests and detaining at the old warehouse--it's all the very bottom. Rose is the very top.

Or maybe he isn't.

The really frustrating thing is that things were coming together so well--things were getting worse and worse. There was no denying it--but now with a Thirder...

To give us all hope the bad men let the impossible happen. A Thirder as the Fifth Pillar.

They did the one thing that they knew would put us all at ease. If a Thirder could make it that far, then we knew we lived in a fair society, that our system works and, most of all, that we could trust our leaders again.

I've seen so many things... the Ring is dying and will soon be as bad as the Third, if not worth. Money and eco people were talking about how "the game was even" again. The wave of success Pillar Rose rode over to the main Ring on would bring thousands with it from the Third--metaphorically, of course. Many of us in the First don't want their kind here--that would mean more Thirders in positions of power. Not a thing to want. Sure, they're equal, we're told, but they can't know what we know out there on the Third. So, they'll build themselves up there. Of course, in the meantime, we're dropping down--systems are failing. Pay is dropping (not that I'd know firsthand since I'm still officially jobless).

But despite the mess we're facing, people have faith in the future of the United Earth Ring.

And now the red on my hands serves as evidence. The red that got into the lines and wrinkles and cracks in my hands and won't wash out. It's as though I can see my own blood coursing through my veins.

But it's not my blood...

...it's someone else's.

More tomorrow. I promise.