[And Cheng enters, looking quite severe. While Devon was taking care of the return message - Cheng was going through several of the documents received. He sighs and takes a chair.]

Times were easier when we were not leaders weren't they?

[Reports from home were not pretty. Nationalist support getting tenuous - between having one of their outstanding figures labelled as a rebel and the many outsider problems this was to be expected, Traditionalists being difficult to move into action given their sympathies to the rebels, the list went on - and that was just the political situation.]

It was easier when the world was just Gucun, and before that - when we did not have any authority at all... when it was just the Chalice.

[He pinched the bridge of his nose... a tiny quirk of his lips. He tried to smile... but failed.]

I could go further... but I think my point is made...

[Nostalgia for the old days...]