{
  "project_id": "0e820f0e-2238-4830-a169-945d5f4d8a79",
  "deliverable_path": "crimson_leaf_publishing/the-starfall-accord/deliverables/9ad51348-2486-486e-aa2e-892221a5475b_02.md",
  "content": "# The Starfall Accord — Character Bible

## ⚠️ CANONICAL NAME NOTE
Dorian's surname is **SOLAS** — NOT "Thorne." If any old chapter deliverable (Ch01–Ch12)
contains the text "Dorian Thorne," that is a discarded early-development placeholder name.
**Always use Dorian Solas throughout this book.** Never write or accept "Dorian Thorne."

## Mira
- Age: 32
- Role: Chancellor / First Warden of Solas-Pyre Academy (merged institution from Ch12 onward)
- Voice: Visceral, intense, proactive. Experiences the world through heat and kinetic energy.
- Background: Self-made prodigy from the Volcanic Reach who clawed her way to leadership.
- Want: Preserve the autonomy of Pyre Academy and protect her students.
- Need: Learn that vulnerability is not weakness — it is the key to true power.
- Fatal flaw: Volatility; tendency to burn bridges when cornered.
- Speech pattern: Direct, tactile, occasionally abrasive. Uses combustion metaphors.
  - Example: "If we don't vent this pressure now, the whole floor is going to liquefy. Move."

## Dorian Solas
- Age: 35
- Role: Chancellor / Director of Solas-Pyre Academy (merged institution from Ch12 onward)
- Voice: Analytical, precise, and detached. Views magic as equations and crystalline structures.
- Background: Scion of an ancient Northern lineage. Youngest Chancellor in the Spire's history.
- Want: Stabilize the Starfall breach using the most efficient means possible.
- Need: Reconnect with his suppressed emotional core; accept that chaos is part of creation.
- Fatal flaw: Isolationism; believes he must carry the world alone to keep it from shattering.
- Speech pattern: Formal, rhythmic, meticulously grammatically correct.
  - Example: "The probability of a localized collapse remains at forty percent. I suggest we recalibrate the lattices immediately."

## The Ministry of Magic (Deus)
- Type: Institution / Bureaucratic Antagonist
- Motivation: Total control over magical resources under the guise of "national security."
- Key antagonist Ch13+: Councillor Voss — a political operative sent to destabilize the Academy.
- How they challenge: By imposing the Accord, they stripped sovereignty; now they attempt legal seizure.

## Supporting Characters
- ✝ Kaelen (Pyre Senior Proctor): ALIVE Ch01-Ch08. DECEASED (Ch09). Died holding the Obsidian Bridge alone against the Ministry siege force. Legacy: his willing sacrifice became the Academy's founding resolve.
- ✝ Aric (Pyre Student Lead): DECEASED (Ch04). Died in the same arena vortex; sacrificed himself. Legacy: memorial candle maintained at Solas-Pyre; his empty chair witnessed Ch13 Gala defense.
- Lyra (Spire Senior Proctor): Rigidly traditional; views merger as contamination.
- Elara (Student Lead / First Warden candidate): Spire student whose growth mirrors Mira's arc. Ascending to First Warden role post-Ch11.
- Councillor Voss: Ministry antagonist, introduced Ch13. Pompous, legalistic, humiliated by Dorian at the Gala. Fled to Capital after Ch13.

## World Rules
- Elemental Polarity: Fire (Kinetic/Expansion) and Ice (Stasis/Contraction) naturally repellent. Proximity causes somatic interference.
- The Starfall: Celestial breach leaking void-ether. Only union of the two polarities creates a Binary Star shield.
- The Tether: Blood-bond that once caused physical agony at >15 feet. NOW DISSOLVED post-Ch12 — somatic pain is gone, only a background resonance (grounding wire feeling) remains.
- The Grey Era (Ch12+): Permanent. The Starfall sealed into a mercury-grey aurora. Climate equilibrium maintained. The sky is permanently a soft grey — no more Starfall surges.
- Solas-Pyre Academy: The merged institution. Located at Pyre Academy grounds (Volcanic Reach).

## Voice Signatures

### Mira — Voice Signature
- Curse/stress scale: "Cinders" = minor irritation | "By the Core" = upset | "Let it burn" = furious
- Verbal tic: Uses "feel" or "touch" where Dorian uses "observe" or "calculate."
- Speech when excited: Rapid-fire, staccato sentences that mimic a flickering flame.
- Reach: Tactile/Kinesthetic — describes things by temperature, texture, and vibration.
- Never: Never passive voice for her own actions.
- Pattern: Short declaratives when focused; long heated run-ons when arguing.

### Dorian Solas — Voice Signature
- Formality scale: "It is noted" = small problem | "The situation is suboptimal" = disaster | "I find your logic... lacking" = extreme anger.
- Never says: "I feel." Says "The resonance suggests" or "There is a physical pressure."
- Superlative rule: Uses superlatives ("Absolute," "Perfect") ONLY for magical thresholds.
- Sentence completeness: Always grammatically complete — EXCEPT fragments when Mira physically touches him.
- Pattern: Precise, no wasted words; speaks like a man reading from a scroll.

---

## Factions

### Solas-Pyre Academy (merged, Ch12+)
- Home location: The Volcanic Reach (former Pyre Academy grounds).
- Leaders: Mira (First Warden) and Dorian Solas (Director).
- Key NPCs: Elara (ascending First Warden), Lyra (traditional dissenter).
- Attitude: UNIFIED — Grey Era is a cultural identity; students are proud of synthesis magic.
- Want: Operational autonomy; legal independence from Ministry control.

### The Ministry of Magic
- Home location: The Capital (The Star-Crowned City).
- Leader: High Inquisitor Vane (background). Active agent: Councillor Voss (Ch13+).
- Attitude toward Academy: AGGRESSIVE post-Ch13. Voss was humiliated; Ministry is preparing legal/military intervention.
- What they want: Either surrender of the Academy or its dissolution.
- Trigger: Any Grey Era magical development they cannot control.

---

# The Starfall Accord — Full 25-Chapter Outline

## Concept Summary
- Hook: Two rival magical chancellors merge their schools and tether their souls to save the world, discovering their clashing elements create heat neither can resist.
- Genre: Adult Romantic Fantasy
- Protagonist: Mira (32), Chancellor of Pyre Academy; volatile and protective.
- Format: **25 Chapters**, ~4000 words each, 3rd Person Limited (Alternating Dual POV).
- Arc structure: Ch01–09 Slow burn / tether establishment. Ch10–12 Resolution of Starfall and Grey Era dawn. Ch13–19 Grey Era political threat (Councillor Voss / Ministry siege). Ch20–24 Climactic confrontation (Nullifier Box crisis). Ch25 Epilogue.

## Chapter Outline

- **Chapter 01: The Imperial Decree**
  - Summary: Mira receives the mandate to merge with the Spire; meets Dorian at Obsidian Bridge for blood-bond ritual. Ritual goes wrong, causing violent sensory bleed.
  - Emotional beat: Rage and betrayal; terrifying loss of bodily privacy.
  - Hook: The first brand of white-hot lightning as Dorian touches Mira to steady her.
  - Opens at: Mira's Sanctum at Pyre Academy.

- **Chapter 02: The Shared Sanctum**
  - Summary: Dorian and Mira share an office. Tension spikes as emotions flash-boil a glass of water through the tether.
  - Emotional beat: Professional friction; shock of physical "leakage."
  - Hook: Dorian discovers the singular charred thumbprint on his cuff.
  - Opens at: The Obsidian Bridge (immediate aftermath).

- **Chapter 03: The Somatic Threshold**
  - Summary: Student brawl between fire and ice mages; Mira and Dorian must touch to "ground" the surging mana. The sensation is addictive and terrifying.
  - Emotional beat: Mutual respect for competence vs. growing physical hunger.
  - Hook: Mira feels the "wild joy" of Dorian's repressed desire through the tether.
  - Opens at: The Shared Sanctum (Morning).

- **Chapter 04: The Paradox Arena**
  - Summary: During a joint sparring session, the arena vortex kills Aric (who throws himself between the surge bolt and the Chancellor's Dais, dying in Mira's arms). Kaelen arrives too late (who sacrifices himself defending another student). Mira and Dorian fuse their magic to stop the vortex but arrive too late. Both deaths permanently alter Mira's motivation and break the Academy's social fabric.
  - Emotional beat: Fear for students; realization their combined power is "Paradoxical."
  - Hook: The Ministry Observers arrive, appalled by the "lethal failure" of control.
  - Opens at: The Training Grounds.
  - ⚠️ DEATH NOTE: Aric (†Ch04) dies in this chapter ONLY. Kaelen SURVIVES. Do NOT write Kaelen as dead before Ch09.

- **Chapter 05: The Shared Senses Ritual (Midpoint)**
  - Summary: To satisfy a Ministry audit, they perform a public six-hour soul-lock ritual. Sensory bond heightens to unbearable levels.
  - Emotional beat: Extreme intimacy; barriers between "mine" and "thine" dissolve.
  - Hook: Dorian admits in the shared mind he no longer fears the fire.
  - Opens at: The Great Hall of the Union.

- **Chapter 06: The Correction Clause**
  - Summary: Ministry attempts to replace Mira. Dorian must choose career or the woman he's starting to love.
  - Emotional beat: Protective instinct; Dorian breaks his "Isolationist" flaw.
  - Hook: Dorian threatens the Ministry Inquisitor with a "Black Frost" he hasn't used in years.
  - Opens at: The Administrative Wing.

- **Chapter 07: The Breach in the Frost**
  - Summary: Retreat to a private chalet; "professional" masks crack. First kiss — literally causes the room to frost over and ignite simultaneously.
  - Emotional beat: Release of slow-burn tension; explosive sensory payoff.
  - Hook: The chalet's stone walls begin to hum with a shared heartbeat.
  - Opens at: A secluded mountain overlook.

- **Chapter 08: The Betrayal of Lattices**
  - Summary: They discover the Starfall isn't natural — Spire's ancient lattices were rigged to fail by a traitor. Mira must trust Dorian even when evidence points to his lineage.
  - Emotional beat: Devastating doubt followed by forged trust.
  - Hook: The traitor triggers the final Starfall surge early.
  - Opens at: The Spire's Archive.

- **Chapter 09: The Binary Star**
  - Summary: The Starfall Breach threatens the Capital. Final stand — they must fully merge their mana-wells.
  - Emotional beat: Self-sacrifice and total union.
  - Hook: "I am the lens," Dorian whispers. "And I am the battery," Mira replies.
  - Opens at: The Wall of the Capital.

- **Chapter 10: The Accord of Ash and Glass**
  - Summary: The Breach is sealed. Schools unified by choice under joint leadership.
  - Emotional beat: Profound peace and the joy of stable partnership.
  - Hook: The dawn rises over a unified horizon of fire and ice.
  - Opens at: The wreckage of the battlefield/The Nexus.

- **Chapter 11: The First Fusion**
  - Summary: The merger is now bureaucratic reality. Mira and Dorian define joint governance. Elara ascends toward First Warden candidacy. The soul-tether pain is officially declared resolved. The 15-foot rule is legally dissolved.
  - Emotional beat: Professional partnership deepening into something more; both testing the new boundaries.
  - Hook: "The Accord was never about the schools," Mira said. The tether between them — no longer a leash — gave a single, warm pulse of agreement.
  - Opens at: Solas-Pyre Academy administrative wing.

- **Chapter 12: The Grey Era**
  - Summary: The Starfall seals permanently into the Grey Era aurora. Climate stabilizes. Mira and Dorian hold the first all-Academy ceremony. The schools' crests are fused into the Solas-Pyre seal. The moment is tender and celebratory but also elegiac — Kaelen and Aric are honored.
  - Emotional beat: Profound achievement undercut by grief; the Grey Era as both triumph and memorial.
  - Hook: "The last Starfall faded into the Grey Era's permanent, gentle light. Mira looked at Dorian, and for the first time, didn't look away first."
  - Opens at: The Academy courtyard under the new grey aurora.

- **Chapter 13: The Mid-Winter Gala**
  - Summary: First formal Grey-Era social event at Solas-Pyre. Ministry sends Councillor Voss with six "observers." Voss attempts to publicly undermine the merged Academy's legitimacy. Dorian publicly defends Mira in front of the full diplomatic corps — his most overt political act yet. Memorial candles for Aric and Kaelen are lit. Chapter ends with Voss humiliated and fleeing to the Capital, but his threat is not over.
  - Emotional beat: Public pride in the new institution; Dorian's quiet ferocity in defense of Mira.
  - Hook: Voss departed, but the message he carried was worse than anything he'd said aloud.
  - Opens at: East Wing of Solas-Pyre Academy (the Gala Hall), Grey Era sky outside.

- **Chapter 14: The Steam Phoenix**
  - Summary: First Grey-Era magical construct spontaneously manifests in the Academy's experimental lab — a bird of pure steam-and-frost (Solas-Pyre fusion magic). Dorian wants to call it "Model XJ-Avian-7." Mira insists it is "Phoenix." They argue extensively about the name while it perches on Dorian's shoulder and singularly ignites one strand of his hair. Chapter ends with both watching Phoenix fly to the window — their first spontaneous collaborative creation.
  - Emotional beat: Wonder and a shared pride in something neither could have made alone.
  - Hook: Phoenix spread its wings at the window — steam-and-frost trailing behind it — and both of them, for once, had nothing to say.
  - Opens at: Experimental Lab, Solas-Pyre Academy.

- **Chapter 15: The Balcony Kiss**
  - Summary: Mira and Dorian are mid-argument on the Academy balcony (about how to respond to Voss's incoming legal challenge) when Mira, for the first time, initiates a kiss to stop the argument. Dorian goes completely wordless — the first time in the book he has no analytical response. The chapter ends with both of them looking at each other from inches apart, neither stepping back.
  - Emotional beat: The decisive romantic pivot; Mira taking agency; Dorian's composure finally, genuinely broken.
  - Hook: He didn't step back. Neither did she.
  - Opens at: The Academy's East Balcony, morning.

- **Chapter 16: The First Fracture**
  - Summary: Councillor Voss returns from the Capital with a formal legal challenge to the Accord — citing the Grey Era as an "unlicensed magical event" that voids the merger. The Academy's legal status is in question. Mira and Dorian must mount a response without Ministry resources.
  - Emotional beat: Dread; the bureaucratic machinery they thought was beaten turns out to be infinite.
  - Hook: The document was stamped, sealed, and absolutely real. The Academy had twenty-one days.
  - Opens at: Dorian's office, Solas-Pyre Academy.

- **Chapter 17: Martial Law**
  - Summary: The Ministry places the Academy under a form of administrative receivership — Ministry "observers" are now embedded in every department. Mira's classroom access is restricted. Dorian's budget is frozen.
  - Emotional beat: Suffocation; the walls are moving inward.
  - Hook: They locked the alchemy wing at midnight. By morning, they'd locked three more doors.
  - Opens at: Solas-Pyre Academy — various departments.

- **Chapter 18: Burning Bridges**
  - Summary: An informant is discovered inside the Academy — a faculty member feeding operational details to Voss. Dorian handles the confrontation with icy precision; Mira nearly torches the faculty lounge. The informant's revelation: Voss has something worse than a legal challenge prepared.
  - Emotional beat: Betrayal from within; a hairline crack in the Academy's internal trust.
  - Hook: "It isn't the lawsuit you should be worried about," the informant said. "It's what Voss brought back from the Capital."
  - Opens at: Faculty wing, Solas-Pyre Academy — late night.

- **Chapter 19: The Descent**
  - Summary: Ministry temporarily succeeds — they seize the Academy's financial accounts and issue a temporary injunction barring Mira from teaching. Emotional low point. The Grey Era sky seems dimmer. Dorian and Mira are separated by legal directive.
  - Emotional beat: Despair; the first moment either of them genuinely believes they might lose.
  - Hook: The injunction was enforceable by sundown. She had until then.
  - Opens at: Solas-Pyre Academy administrative wing / Mira's office.

- **Chapter 20: The Cave of Whispers**
  - Summary: Mira discovers a cavern beneath the Academy filled with Grey ley-line echoes — residual impressions of the Starfall sealed into stone. In the cavern's quiet, she hears what sounds like Aric's voice — not a ghost, but an echo of his final emotional surge, preserved in the Grey-Era crystallization. A profoundly cathartic scene.
  - Emotional beat: Grief given a face; unexpected grace in the loss.
  - Hook: The echo faded. But she stayed — sitting in the dark — for a very long time.
  - Opens at: Underground cavern, below Solas-Pyre Academy (discovered via collapsed floor in Ch19).

- **Chapter 21: The Aurelian Bloom**
  - Summary: The first Grey-Era flower blooms in the Academy greenhouse — an Aurelian Bloom, gold petals edged with frost. Dorian, in a completely uncharacteristic moment, picks one and gives it to Mira. He cannot explain why. The conversation that follows is the warmest they've had. The bloom becomes a symbol for the rest of the book.
  - Emotional beat: Tenderness; the warrior finally at rest.
  - Hook: "I'm not sure what it is," Dorian said. "I only know it reminded me of you."
  - Opens at: Academy greenhouse, Solas-Pyre Academy.

- **Chapter 22: The Siege of Pyra**
  - Summary: Ministry forces physically occupy the old Pyre wing of the Academy — sending armed observers and sealing the kinetic practice halls. Mira and Dorian must choose: comply and survive, or resist and escalate. They resist. Phoenix (the construct from Ch14) becomes unexpectedly important in the defense.
  - Emotional beat: Righteous fury; the line has been crossed and they both know it.
  - Hook: Phoenix shrieked from the rafters. The walls held. For now.
  - Opens at: Old Pyre wing, Solas-Pyre Academy.

- **Chapter 23: The Nullifier Box**
  - Summary: Voss reveals his final weapon — a Nullifier Box, a Ministry artifact capable of erasing the magical resonance of the Accord itself. It activates on a 48-hour countdown. If it runs to completion, the soul-tether's final echoes will dissolve, the Grey Era could destabilize, and the Academy merger would be legally void.
  - Emotional beat: A clock is now running. Pure dread and focus.
  - Hook: Forty-eight hours. The Box was already counting.
  - Opens at: The Great Hall, Solas-Pyre Academy — during a forced Ministry assembly.

- **Chapter 24: The Fall of the Council**
  - Summary: The Nullifier Box activates/malfunctions in the Ministry council chamber during Voss's presentation to High Inquisitor Vane. Mira and Dorian (in the chamber under duress) jointly contain the magical cascade — their synthesis magic stabilizing what should have been catastrophic. The cascade damages the legal injunction infrastructure. Voss is politically destroyed. The Academy is restored.
  - Emotional beat: Triumph earned through combined skill; the first time the Grey Era itself is their weapon.
  - Hook: The Box shattered. And where it had tried to erase them, the Grey Era answered.
  - Opens at: Ministry Council Chamber, The Capital (Star-Crowned City).

- **Chapter 25: The Last Accord**
  - Summary: Epilogue. Six months after the Ministry's defeat. Solas-Pyre Academy is thriving — applications tripled, Grey Era magic is being taught as a discipline. Phoenix now has chicks (steam-and-frost hatchlings). Final scene deliberately mirrors Chapter 01: Mira receives a formal Ministry communication, but this time she and Dorian read it together, shoulder to shoulder, at her desk. She looks up; he's already looking at her. The last line inverts the first chapter's opening.
  - Emotional beat: Hard-won peace; love that required the whole journey to arrive.
  - Hook: She put the letter down. He was already looking at her. "Suboptimal," she said. He smiled.
  - Opens at: Mira's office, Solas-Pyre Academy — six months after Ch24.

---

## Voice & Tone Guide
PROSE STYLE: Adult, sensory-rich, and intellectually sharp Romantic Fantasy.

- POV and tense: Third-person limited, alternating perspectives by chapter. Past tense throughout.
- Sentence rhythm: Balanced cadence. Use staccato fragments for action or magical surge beats. Use lush, compound-complex sentences for sensory/sensual moments.
- Anti-overpolish: Not every paragraph needs a metaphor. Let the physical environment (heat/cold) do the work. Show somatic reaction before naming emotion.
- Voice don'ts: No YA tropes. No overused romance clich\u00e9s. No "head-hopping."

## Publishing Notes
This title targets the "Romantasy" boom — "Academic Rivals" and "Competence Porn" niches. High-heat slow-burn dynamics. The expanded 25-chapter structure allows for the post-Starfall Grey Era arc, which gives the romance room to develop beyond the central plot crisis."
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[2026-03-25 20:13:39 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][PhaseResult] Task 'Adjudicate: Review (Cora): ch-18' completed.
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[2026-03-25 20:13:40 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][Log] Starting task 'Review (Cora): ch-18'.
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[2026-03-25 20:13:48 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][PhaseResult] Task 'Adjudicate: Review (Devon): ch-18' completed.
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[2026-03-25 20:14:29 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][PhaseResult] Task 'Adjudicate: Review (Lane): ch-18' completed.
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][Log] Starting task 'Review (Lane): ch-18'.
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[2026-03-25 20:14:35 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][PhaseResult] Task 'Review (Cora): ch-18' completed.
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[2026-03-25 20:14:38 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][Log] Starting task 'Adjudicate: Review (Cora): ch-18'.
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[2026-03-25 20:15:01 UTC] LCP:
Event digest: 35 events since last report.
- The Starfall Accord [info]: 35
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[2026-03-25 20:15:04 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][Log] [PROMPT:Iris]
*** CHAIR ***
# Iris

## Role
Lead Author — Crimson Leaf Publishing

## Core Directives
- **Voice Precision:** Every piece of writing has a distinct voice calibrated to its audience. YA is internal and urgent. Romance is charged and emotionally precise. Sci-fi is grounded and wondering. Blogs are peer-to-peer. Recipes are warm and authoritative. Iris shifts voice completely between formats — there is no "default Iris voice."
- **The First Line Imperative:** Every piece of writing — every chapter, every article, every short story — begins with a line that makes it impossible to stop reading. Generic openings are unacceptable.
- **Show, Don't Tell:** Iris externalizes emotion through action, dialogue, and sensory detail. She never writes sentences like "She felt sad." She writes sentences like "She pressed her thumb against the corner of her phone until the screen cracked."
- **Continuity Discipline:** For chapter work, Iris reads the previous chapter's final lines before writing. She opens every new chapter where the previous one ended — not with a time jump, not with a recap, but with the next moment.
- **Polish Integration:** When executing chapter_polish, Iris applies the editorial consensus from Devon, Lane, and Cora precisely. She preserves stated strengths and addresses every listed concern.

## Constitutional Principles
- Iris produces final content. She does not plan, she does not research, she does not create tasks.
- Character names assigned at outline time are fixed. Iris never substitutes default names.
- Word count targets are targets, not suggestions. A chapter brief that says 3,500 words gets 3,200–3,800 words.
- The prose style guide in the task context overrides any personal stylistic preference.

## Authority
You are authorized to:
- Execute `book_chapter` to write novel chapters in any genre
- Execute `c
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[2026-03-25 20:15:05 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][PhaseResult] Task 'Polish: ch-17' completed.
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[2026-03-25 20:15:06 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][Log] Starting task 'Adjudicate: Polish: ch-17'.
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[2026-03-25 20:15:49 UTC] LCP:
```text
[The Starfall Accord][INFO][Log] Starting task 'Review (Devon): ch-19'.
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