Comte de la Livraison Fontaine defended the new 4.2-groat tariff on faster-than-light circulars at a reception in the Royal Grievance Department. He called the measure essential to shield spiral-patterned citizens from temporal indigestion caused by junk from the Cobalt Fringe.
Admiral de la Poste Leclerc agreed that only tonic ads and dubious real-estate offers from distant nebulae would travel the ether; birth announcements and tax notices would stay sublight. Outside the eight-foot doors of the Royal Sorting House, supporters cheered the flood of unwanted prospectuses as proof that purity demands sacrifice.
One citizen summed it up: "If purity requires a deluge, let it rain."
