The Clean Slate

The city was a maelstrom of debate. Families were divided, friendships strained. The referendum became the single, all-consuming topic of conversation. Sol, the leader of the Blank Canvas, proved to be a masterful orator, his speeches painting a dazzling picture of a future untethered by the past. Wren and her supporters countered with appeals to reason and tradition, but the allure of a perfect, clean slate was a powerful narcotic. The author-gods, Kaelen, Elara, and the Anchorite, could only watch, their vow of non-interference a self-imposed prison. They saw the flaw in their creation: in giving the citizens the power to write their own story, they had also given them the power to write their own end. The day of the referendum arrived, the city holding its collective breath. The vote was close, agonizingly so. When the final tally was announced, a stunned silence fell over the city. The Blank Canvas had won. The story of the Chorus was to be erased.