Enlightened Empire

"I appreciate everyone calming down to consider the issue in a calm manner," Brym joked, as the servant put away his pistol again. "Although your support of the crown is a great compliment and similarly appreciated, I would like to speak for the king myself. That is my job, after all. And while Official Qirao"s interjection wasn"t exactly polite, his question is still a justified one, as Lady Guanca said herself. Everyone should be fully informed about all aspects of the copper crisis before we rush into any decisions."

All this time, Brym had limited himself to a dry explanation of the core reasons for the copper crisis. However, after Qirao had put the blame on Saniya with harsher and harsher words, Brym had found it necessary to react. It was time to point the finger.

"Now then, I"m sure everyone has been wondering what Saniya has been doing with all the copper we have bought from Cashan so far. While I believe this to be a fair question, it would normally be considered top secret information. However, the circ.u.mstances are special, so I would rather compromise the southern kingdom"s security somewhat, and convince everyone of the truth instead. Like this, we will also avoid any more slander in the future."

Brym"s gaze focused Qirao as he addressed him. Lord Ogulno"s servant only scoffed in return.

"No matter what you may think, Official Qirao, Saniya has not thrown the copper back onto the market. After all, why would we want to cause such a crisis in the first place, or exacerbate it? Instead, the crown needed and still needs the copper to fulfill its obligations as the protector of the southern kingdom. Over the past six months, we have built new, larger caliber cannons from bronze. Since King Corco is responsible for the safety of the kingdom"s borders, he needed to field enough cannons against another potential attack from the northerners, as well as against the new threats from foreigners in Port Ulta. As everyone may be able to surmise, we needed ma.s.sive amounts of copper to build all those cannons."

All at once, the people at the table looked to be in deep thought. No doubt their spies had told them one or two stories about the copper-coated cannons Corco"s soldiers had been lugging around the countryside over the past months. Just as Brym had said, they had been placed into the various beacon towers along the Narrow Sea"s sh.o.r.e and all the way up to Qarasi castle. Though of course, none of the spies knew that under the thin sheet of copper, the cannons were made from iron.

"But that"s not all," Brym continued. "On top of the cannons, the king planned to have all future ship hulls produced in Saniya"s new shipyard coated with copper below the water line. According to masters within our laboratories, such a coating would protect the ship from rot, barnacles and corrosion from the salt water. The copper even improves the ship"s defense where it counts the most. Such a large undertaking will require even more copper, something the crown is already preparing for with its large copper storage. In fact, if King Corco hadn"t stored away so much copper in this very castle, the crisis would be even worse than it is right now. I believe this explanation should clear up any misunderstandings. Unless there are any more complaints or suspicions towards the crown?"

Confronted with Brym"s unusual, aggressive gaze, Official Qirao shrank back in his seat, unwilling to reply.

"Good," the former merchant concluded with a clap of his hands. "Now that we have established that the fault for the crisis doesn"t lie with Saniya, let"s observe the other possible culprits. First off, the commoners. I"m not sure how we would punish them even if we wanted to. Apart from practicality, I don"t believe punishment can be justified from a moral point of view. In the end, all they did was spend the wealth they already had, something that is perfectly within their rights. Also, a handful of commoners would never be able to affect the markets to the degree it has been affected. Such an honor would lie with someone more n.o.ble, I believe."

At this point, every last gaze had followed Brym towards Lord Ogulno"s. Ready to strike the final blow, Brym"s tone turned sharp to match the occasion.

"According to our own conjecture, House Ogulno has aggressively and maliciously expanded its mining operations and thus reduced the copper prices. All of this has been done to ruin House Villca"s finances and retain Kapra"s monopolistic position in the copper market. That alone wouldn"t be too bad an indictment. After all, economic battles between lords are preferable to outright war, and Lord Ogulno may not have known what catastrophic results all the copper in the market would cause. However, as soon as the crown became aware of the falling copper prices, our finance department foresaw the imminent disaster. In response, we sent out missives to every estate within the southern kingdom to prevent or prepare for the fallout. Yet faced with this warning, House Ogulno only increased its output of copper. Even after Lord Ogulno had received several direct missives from his king, with advice that he shall cede his mining operation or risk damage to every treasury within the southern kingdom, Lord Ogulno remained silent. Only now – with representatives from every estate of Sachay demanding answers as a united front – has Lord Ogulno deigned it appropriate to send his own official to explain his irresponsible actions. If we cannot fault House Ogulno, then who can we fault?"

"Outrageous! House Ogulno protests!" Again, the servant jumped up to complain, Apparently, he hadn"t learned his lesson from last time, but the other officials were quick to remind him.

"Sit down, little servant boy!" Guachimine shot back. "Have you not made enough of a joke of yourself already!?"

"House Ogulno cannot be held responsible for the entire crisis! Not by itself! This is slander!" Qirao replied. Although the other lords stood up as well, eager to start another war of words, Brym calmed them once more.

"It"s fine, I will defend my position," he said with a wave of his hand to reduce tension, before he turned to Ogulno"s servant again. "Official Qirao, you may not like it, but if we want to solve this crisis, we need to look at the facts. We have just established that neither the crown nor House Villca can be held responsible for the rising prices. In fact, we were the first to warn the other estates of the brewing trouble. And with the introduction of the new certificate notes, we have shown everyone a path out of it as well. However, even those notes have been banned inside Kapra, as if the lord was trying his d.a.m.nedest to ruin the southern estates. Does Lord Ogulno plan to rebel, is this the plan? Because if he doesn"t, he is making himself awfully suspicious for no reason."

"Official, presumptuous accusations towards a lord of higher status than yourself are not proper conduct either. These actions could also be misconstrued as sowing division," a calm voice from across the table interjected. For the first time in a while, Lady Guanca had spoken up.

"Governess Saqartu, while I respect your words, as does everyone in this room, there seems to be a need to be forceful with House Ogulno," Brym replied, unshaken by the woman"s status. "With repeated well-meant messages and offers for meetings, King Corco has tried to make Lord Ogulno aware of the crisis. This could have been handled in a private fashion, with no damage to House Ogulno"s reputation. However, since Lord Ogulno has proven stubborn beyond reproach, we had no chance but to employ more forceful methods, as unfortunate as that may be. Beyond direct accusations in front of the entire south, nothing seems to work. Not to forget, to the best of our knowledge, Kapra has caused this mess, and someone needs to be held accountable. Unless House Saqartu wishes to confess and share the blame with House Ogulno, the case seems clear. Or does Official Qirao wish to defend his position again?"

"All House Saqartu asks for is some leniency," Guanca argued before Brym could focus on Qirao again. "After all, we are all estates of Sachay, and all of us need to cooperate if we wish to face the threats around us. There is no reason to be vindictive, even less so with family."

As soon as Lady Guanca had announced her partic.i.p.ation in the meeting, her goals had been clear to everyone. After all, as the sister of the current Lord Ogulno, she would always be partial. Still, in the face of an overwhelming amount of facts, and with House Saqartu just as hurt by the copper crisis as every other estate, she seemed to accept that her brother wouldn"t get out of the issue unscathed. Thus, she had to settle for the second best outcome, much to Brym"s glee, who was happy to sell a favor.

"Of course, Governess", he said. "King Corco has no plans to charge his uncle with any undue fines purely out of vengeance. We only want to resolve our troubles and strengthen Sachay"s unity before the northerners are done squabbling among each other."

"In that case, House Saqartu has no further complaints."

"Governess," Official Qirao"s meek voice called out for help, but the lady only tapped the table with her long nails once to silence him.

"Official, I am unsure why my brother would send someone with such a poor temper and lack of etiquette to represent him. I would suggest that you accept the facts, and your punishment with them. After all, brother has always been too greedy for his own good. May this be a lesson for the future."

"Understood." The defeated Qirao lowered his head to the lady at one end of the table, before he turned to Brym at the other. "How can this crisis be resolved then? What can House Ogulno do?"

"Simple. First off, every estate"s treasury has suffered significantly since the copper has depreciated in value. House Ogulno is to compensate all other houses for their losses in this crisis."

"Impossible!" Qirao burst out again. "Copper is worth almost nothing now! House Ogulno owns the copper mines and has lost more than most! At this point, Kapra is losing money by simply operating the mines! How will Lord Ogulno feed his servants if he has to give away every last bit he owns?"

"That"s something Lord Ogulno should have considered before his greed created chaos for the entire south."

"Official Brym," Guanca reminded. Again, Brym wouldn"t make things to hard on her. After all, House Saqartu was an important trade partner to Saniya.

"Of course, as promised to Lady Guanca, we can reduce the payment to the other lords somewhat, to lessen the burden on House Ogulno. Once the crisis is resolved, copper will appreciate again anyways, so the issue is not as bad as it seems at the moment. The exact cost will be determined at a later point during the meeting."

While Qirao still looked pale as a sheet, Lady Guanca nodded her head in satisfaction. Even if the fine was reduced, the burden on House Ogulno would still be huge. However, at this point, the governess only cared about preserving her house"s reputation as the head of the southern estates and couldn"t consider her brother"s wealth, or happiness. Qirao was on his own.

"However, in return for this favor, House Ogulno will have to agree to some basic ground rules in the future," Brym continued. "House Ogulno will not mine copper above a certain amount, to be determined by this meeting, and will allow supervision from the king to enter his mines. We need to guarantee that the commitment is upheld after all. On top of that, House Ogulno will cease all of its overly harsh tariffs and lift the bans on all of Saniya"s very legal products within the walls of Kapra. Should House Ogulno fail to comply to these demands, every estate in the south will be happy to reply to the tariffs in kind. I wonder how the estate will survive without any food. Sale of fertilizer would be impacted by this as well. No copper sales and back to almost no farming. House Ogulno shouldn"t consider that a better alternative to supervision by its king, the rightful administrator of the southern kingdom, right?"

Although Qirao was still pale, at least he wasn"t shaking anymore. With a bow of his head, the official accepted his fate.

"House Ogulno accepts responsibility and agrees to the terms laid out by its fellow houses, yet hopes for leniency."

__________________________

"Official Brym, you wanted to see me?"

The young lady bounced into the Brym"s office with the energy of a child, to belie her n.o.ble appearance. Though of course, Brym never judged others for the masks they put on.

"Ah, Tamaya, please have a seat."

Once she had plopped down on the chair across from Brym"s desk, Tama crossed her legs and lazily leaned back.

"How did the meeting with the officials go?" she asked.

"Quite well," Brym replied with a sly grin. "Under the pressure from every other estate, Ogulno"s official had no choice but to give in. Even the old governess gave up support after I placated her a bit. I think all she wanted was to show her estate"s importance in southern politics, and maybe call our bluff a bit. In the end, she realized we weren"t bluffing and held all the cards. With the support from the other lords, we even managed to get our certificate notes accepted as legal tender anywhere in the kingdom."

"That sure sounds like you had a fun time. Guards told me there was some screaming in the small salon. I really would have loved to be there myself."

"Well, I"m not sure getting screamed at by a disgruntled warrior is all that fun for most people."

"Most people have no idea what proper fun is anyways." Tama waved him off. "We are done then? From the sound of it, our goals are accomplished."

"That they are. In no small thanks to the generous support of the ghost warriors."

"Not to worry, they were orders from Corco after all, and this sort of disinformation work is quite fun every once in a while. It reminded me of our duties during the succession war, spreading rumors and such."

"It"s a shame I was stuck in Porcero during that time and couldn"t really help. It"s certainly a story I want to hear more about at some point."

Brym leaned down and opened a drawer on his desk. Over his time here, he had stuffed his desk with all kinds of paraphernalia, depending on his guest"s preferences. For Tama, he pulled out a bowl of hard candies, and placed them on the table for her.

"Maybe when I find the time one day," she said and s.n.a.t.c.hed the bowl without a word of thanks. "For now, I would like to know if there is anything left to do before I call my men back from the markets and borders."

"Well, for one, you could tell your guys that they can stop spreading rumors of collapsing copper prices, and they can stop blaming Ogulno as well. I"d rather they spread some calming rumors so the prices bounce back more quickly. At this point, our tariffs on precious metals have been going on for a while already. It"s only a matter of time before everyone starts to see through our tricks."

"It"s always exciting when a plan comes together just on time, isn"t it?" Tama said and threw another hard candy into her mouth.

"Yes, precision is a wonderful thing. We managed to force the bankers under the wing of our central bank, bound the southern lords closer to Saniya"s economic system, punished House Ogulno for their actions and even managed to introduce paper money into the world. Honestly, big bro always comes up with the strangest plans. How did he ever consider this many angles at once?"

"Well, it"s what one would expect from a king, right? And your role was significant too. Are you sure you are not praising yourself?"

"I was barely involved in the conception," Brym explained. "I excel more in execution anyways."

"That much I have seen for myself. I"ve never seen a commoner play this many n.o.bles at once and get away with it." Tama hid her smile behind her bowl of candy.

"Well, I do have my own experience in that regard." While Brym"s thoughts drifted back to his time as a merchant and a.s.sistant scam artist in Arcavia, Tama"s face had turned serious again, though the candy in her mouth didn"t help her image.

"What about your other guy? Do you want him back?"

"Alyn? No, you can keep him. He"s made a lot of enemies when he threatened the bankers into coming to the meeting. I don"t want to punish him for following my orders, but he"s better off when he"s away from the public eye for a while. Also, I thought you wanted someone to free you from administrative work anyways."

"Ah, yes. Thank you for that." She sighed in an exaggerated manner. "Can you imagine anything more drab than paper work?"

"Maybe that is the one matter we can"t agree on today."

"Maybe not," she said and looked at the neat stack of doc.u.ments on Brym"s table. "I shouldn"t impose on you any longer, so you can get back to your precious paper. Please tell me if there"s more ploys to be spun. I am always up for some fun."

With a wink and a smile, the Medalan beauty stood up and left the study, the candy bowl still clutched in her arms. Although Brym picked up one of his doc.u.ments, he looked back up just in time to see her leave. Through his new gla.s.s windows, he watched her disappear into the busy crowd of accountants within the finance department. For a while, he simply sat there and watched his colleagues do their duties, as he neglected his own. With the new windows, he could see the workers of the department clearly. They had become people again, no longer mere shadows. Somehow, he felt one step closer to a home. Maybe, he thought, it would be here.