Republia Times — The

If you are reading this, the statue has broken. Good. It was meant to break. I designed the flaw myself in ’43, when they forced me to pose for the casting. They thought I was weeping with gratitude for my pardon. I was weeping because I knew no one would believe what I almost died to say.

It was Emrik Thorne, a retired bridge inspector with a bad hip and a worse sense of self-preservation, who first noticed the hairline fracture running from the statue’s bronze collar to the left ventricle of its hollow chest. He reported it to the District Beautification Office, as required by the Civic Diligence Act of ’89. They thanked him for his vigilance and filed the report in a cabinet whose lock had rusted shut years ago. the republia times

The first page was unremarkable. Birthplace: Riverdown District. Education: Military Academy of Applied Governance. Decorations: The Crimson Star, First Class. But the second page—the second page had been typed, then stamped RETRACTED , then typed over again. If you are reading this, the statue has broken

But because the statue has cracked.