"Woah." Lucendez answered, holding up a hand. Montoya looked confused, but Lucendez continued. "Woah, hold it, hold it. That was just a recommendation. Lots of things have happened since then! I'm ... mad! And ... the council chambers have been disturbed! I mean ... the door hinges!" Lucendez pointed to the old door as though to make his point. He realized that wouldn't do, so he paced further.
"I don't have the combat experience that an Elder should have! When I send pilots into battle I need hundreds of battles under my belt. They need to know that I've risked my life and came out of it. Plus I haven't piloted anything bigger than a freighter. Ok, maybe a transport or two, but not even a gunboat." Lucendez started to stutter.
"You don't know me! I might be a spy!" Lucendez grabbed his sword and pointed it at Montoya, "I might have been sent here to kill you. Look at the guards outside!" But he didn't, Montoya just stood there. Lucendez lowered his sword and sheathed it.
He took the full scabbard over to the case and packed it up. "I respectfully decline the position of Eldership, on the grounds it would be inappropriate on a number of levels..." He didn't end his sentence, his thought was incomplete, because there were levels he didn't want to go into. The black box closed and the seam disappeared, becoming the single piece of obsidian-like material it once was.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
