text: [Themes: family friendly, dystopia, science fiction]
  
  "Key." Haven't you earned a year of luxury from your lifelong toil?
  
  "As you wish," Tangor sneers and leads you into the gilded chambers. Aides escort the blustering occupant out, not even allowing him to finish dinner.
  
  You quickly get used to the pampered life. You receive fine gifts from foreign dignitaries and officials wanting your support - including a golden lyre. Playing it brings back memories of the crushed dreams of youth - the brief hope you could become a musician when you showed affinity for music, followed by hollow despair when the examiner declared you unfit. But now, as a first-tier official - would there be a possibility to get re-evaluated?
  
  You muse on this as you spend your days in comfort and splendor, enjoying fine food and soft sheets. The callouses on your hands begin to heal.
  
  Every time you vote on a council proposal or attend a diplomatic banquet, your social credit score rises. Eventually, you realize you have gained enough not just to be matched with a spouse, but to move to the head of the list if you choose to do so.
  
  You realize as the months pass that you will need to decide the course of your future, as your position could easily be lost as soon as the next lottery winner is drawn. Should you pull strings to find a beautiful first-tier lady to wed, so you cannot be sent back to 8th tier no matter what? Or, perhaps you could try and achieve the musical dreams of your childhood - though there is no guarantee your playing is good enough to merit a top-tier spot, being a musician would be better than returning to the kilns.
  
  As the next lottery approaches, you consider how to spend your last guaranteed months of ease and splendor.
  
  > Hand select musicians for the court
  As Key, you hold the power to propose re-assignment of anyone in the kingdom, within reason. It is one power that brings others to 'gift' you frequently or attempt to sway you to reassign themselves or their friends or connections. But you cannot reassign your "future" self, so there is no way to ensure you will not be returning to the life of a potter when a lottery winner eventually replaces you.
  
  But perhaps there is a way to build your influence, so that when your own time of reassignment comes you will be in a better position: choose several promising musicians in the second and third tiers to replace a few current court musicians, thus ensuring you have 'grateful men on the inside' who can sway evaluators to place you as a musician in turn.
  
  It is not difficult to find the candidates to replace, by listening carefully over the next few concerts: a few of the court musicians are aging, and their reflexes slowing. One woman you recognize as among those who failed you at your 10-exam. A particular violinist has a tendency to ignore the conductor and overly sustain her notes.
  
  Selecting suitable musicians from the lower tiers proves harder, however, as you cannot just go "listen to them play" as you please. You could use the general information available to you as Key to find replacements who play the correct instruments and use your own power to promote them, at the risk of backlash, or perhaps you could approach Dissonance for aid. You would rather solve the matter yourself and not become dependent on other officials, but if Dissonance helps you could work in the right to be on a candidate selection team, personally.
  
  > use general data to replace the musicians
  It seems unwise to trust Dissonance in this matter; you want to keep your little power as close to yourself as you can. You use the central computer entrusted to Key to sift through the data on musically inclined citizens in the top tiers, some of which seems overly personal for your needs. (On a whim, you look up yourself, and realize they have a strangely specific knowledge of your personal tastes, political votes, and even fights - even a lost tooth at school when you were six.)
  
  It's somewhat difficult to determine the relative skill of any two people in the same tier, especially as those below 1st tier cannot participate in international competitions, so you look instead for indicators that those chosen will be more likely to aid you in the future: hardworking, high social credit, not shy, civically engaged, no marks on their records, and no older than age 50. Those with young children, who would benefit the most from a jump in tier, you put at the top of the list. And one - an unmarried female, very pretty, who plays the cello - you keep in as a certainty.
  
  Once you have your shortlist, you match the current first tiers with the 2nd and 3rd tier replacements who seem closest in their job-type, to minimize repercussions.
  
  Then, the paperwork! It takes a few weeks to write up your plan and the 'justification' for it. No vote or presentation to the other officials is required, but you do double-chek with Tangor that everthing is in order before you submit the final swap to the central machine.
  
  The musicians all receive their "new orders" on the same date a few weeks later. The 1st tiers are naturally upset - but are escorted down to their new homes in lower tiers before they can complain to any of their own connections about it. And their replacements are naturally elated to have had their hard work and talent recognized by the social increase in class. A few even come to meet with you and become part of your inner circle - not all five, as you had hoped, but even three who recognize and credit you with their promotions are enough.
  
  The cellist is unfortunately not among those, but she does come up on your eligible match list a few months later. Naturally, you choose her of the candidates to propose to, and she accepts your request. The rest of the orchestra plays at your wedding, and it sounds grand indeed.
  
  Now, no matter if you have half a year left as Key or ten, you are guaranteed a position in the 1st tier for life. And if you use the time you have left to become proficient in an instrument yourself, perhaps you can join your new bride alongside the Court musicians in the future - a dream even more compelling than the luxury of being Key.