When one is the agent of order and civilisation in the universe, one doesn't stoop to negotiate. Especially with nonhumans.
What, after all, was the point of civilisation if not the well-being of citizens?
Let every act be just, and proper, and beneficial.
If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civilised life, it was tea.
If you're going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you should make it a good one.
Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.