Declan spent the first month analyzing the regional situation with the kind of meticulous attention that suggested he understood this trial would determine whether he possessed the capabilities The Court required for Sovereign authority. The political coalitions developing in three countries were genuinely popular reform movements, organizations built by citizens tired of corruption and economic inequality, movements that drew support from people who had experienced the consequences of unchecked corporate power and governmental dysfunction. They were not ideologically aligned against The Court specifically because most people did not know The Court existed. They were aligned against the corruption and inequality that The Court's operations had created, against the concentration of power in hands that served corporate and governmental interests rather than public welfare. If they achieved power, they would implement policies that reduced Court influence not because they knew about