The Game

A week was all it took for a storm of public opinion to sweep through the capital. The “Red Moon Truth” forum Anna and I created online had grown from a niche discussion zone with just a few dozen posts into a blazing hotspot, generating tens of thousands of messages daily. Anna sat on the hotel carpet, her fingers flying across her tablet. “Aray, look!” She handed me the device. On the screen, a trending thread titled “#RetrialForRedMoon—ClearTheInnocent” was steadily climbing in visibility, the counter finally settling at 10,023,561. “Ten million,” Anna breathed, her voice electric with excitement. “It was only eight million yesterday. After we uploaded the footage from the square protests, it shot up by two million overnight.” I scrolled through the sea of comments. Many were written in bold red text: “We demand the truth,” “No more wrongful convictions.” From outside the window, distant chants drifted up—the third wave of protesters had gathered in the royal plaza, waving banners