Chapter 1
The air inside the United Nations General Assembly hall was cold. It was sterile, recycled, and smelled faintly of floor polish and old money. It was a stark difference from the air in Oravia, which always smelled of pine resin, wet earth, and the metallic tang of the copper mines that the rest of the world so desperately wanted to strip clean.
Marek adjusted the cuffs of his suit. It was Italian, bespoke, and cost more than a miner’s annual salary, but on him, it looked like a costume. He felt like a wolf squeezed into a collar.
He stood six-foot-three, his shoulders broad enough to block out the view of the delegates sitting behind him. His hair was thick, black, and swept back, though a few rebellious strands fell over a forehead lined with tension. His jaw was set in a permanent clench, and his eyes were dark, heavy-lidded, and sharp. He scanned the room not like a diplomat, but like a soldier assessing a battlefield.
“Make them see us, Marek,” his father’s voice echoed in his memory. The President of Oravia had been drilling this moment into him for ten years. “For a decade, they have treated us like a gas station on the map of Europe. Today, you make them realize we are the engine.”
Marek sat down behind the placard that read ORAVIA. It was the first time that name had been placed on these desks.
A nervous aide scampered up to his side, holding a black earpiece.
“Minister,” the aide whispered, trembling slightly. “The translation channel is set. You speak in Oravian into the microphone. The translator in the booth will convert it to English for the floor. When they reply in English, she… uh, the translator… will send Oravian back to your ear.”
Marek snatched the device and shoved it into his ear. “I know how it works. Just make sure they don’t mistranslate my insults.”
He tapped the mic.
There was a crackle of static, and then, a voice filled his right ear.
“Audio check. Can you hear me clearly, Minister?”
Marek paused.
The voice was cool. Clear. It flowed like water over smooth stones. It wasn’t the robotic, flat tone of the usual interpreters he dealt with back home. This voice had a texture to it. It was calm, professional, but with a strange, soothing cadence that instantly lowered the spike of adrenaline in his chest.
“I hear you,” Marek grunted in Oravian.
“Understood,” the voice replied in Oravian, seamless and instant. “We are ready when you are.”
The session began.
For the first hour, Marek sat in silence, his leg bouncing under the table. He listened to the representatives of larger nations like France, the US, and Germany talk. To him, the English speeches were just a drone of noise from the floor, but the voice in his ear translated them into crisp Oravian.
“Global cooperation… resource allocation…”
To Marek, it sounded like theft wrapped in fancy paper.
Finally, the moderator turned to him. “The Chair recognizes the representative from Oravia.”
Marek stood up. He didn’t look at his notes. He looked directly at the representative of a massive trade conglomerate nation who had just spoken about ‘developing Oravia’s infrastructure.’
Marek leaned into the mic, his anger flaring. He spoke in Oravian, his voice rough and gravelly.
“You talk about development?” he sneered, his hand slamming onto the table. “You don’t want to develop us. You want to hollow us out! For fifty years you have come to our mountains, taken our copper, taken our lithium, and left us nothing but holes in the ground and poisoned water! You think because we are small, we are stupid? You think we will beg for your crumbs?”
He glared at the room, breathing hard, waiting for the outrage. He expected them to bang their gavels. He expected security to step forward. He expected the American ambassador to look offended.
Instead, the room went silent.
The American ambassador adjusted his glasses and nodded slowly, looking thoughtful. The French delegate took a serious note in his journal. The British representative looked at Marek with newfound respect.
The Chair leaned into his microphone and spoke in English. Marek watched his lips move but understood nothing until the voice in his ear spoke.
“The Chair acknowledges the Minister’s point,” Clara’s voice said in Oravian, calm and steady in his ear. “He says your call for an equitable partnership is noted and valid.”
Marek blinked.
Equitable partnership?
He hadn't said that. He had basically called them thieves and parasites.
He frowned, confused. He tapped his earpiece, thinking maybe the signal was bad. “I said we are done being exploited!” he barked again in Oravian, louder this time. “If you want our metal, you pay our price, or you freeze in the winter!”
Again, he waited for the backlash.
Again, the room simply nodded in solemn agreement.
“A bold stance on economic sovereignty,” the voice in his ear translated as the British delegate whispered to his neighbor.
Marek sat down, utterly bewildered but flooded with a strange sense of victory. He didn't know what was happening. He had screamed at them, and they were nodding. For the first time in history, the world wasn't laughing at Oravia. They were listening.
And in his ear, that cool, calm voice returned. “The floor has moved to the next agenda item, Minister. You can relax now.”
It sounded almost proud.
High above the assembly floor, behind the tinted glass of Booth 4, the "On Air" light flickered off.
Clara exhaled, her fingers loosening their grip on the console. She took a sip of lukewarm water, her throat dry.
She looked down through the glass at the small, dark figure of Marek. Even from this distance, she could see the tension in his shoulders, the way he attacked the room like he was ready to fight every single person in a suit.
She adjusted her glasses. She had the job she had wanted since she was twenty-two. And she had just saved the man she had loved since she was sixteen.
“Wow,” the translator in the next booth, a man named David, scoffed as he packed up his bag. “That was intense. I thought he was going to throw a chair. These warlord sons are all the same. Arrogant snobs who think screaming is diplomacy. You had your work cut out for you, cleaning up that mess.”
Clara didn’t look up from her notes. She neatly organized her pencils, her face an impassive mask.
“He isn’t a snob, David,” she said softly, her eyes drifting back to the figure on the floor below.
“He’s passionate.”
