The Union

Lucia plucked a gla.s.s piece from the checkered board and put it two tiles away.

"Hmmmm, an obvious bait" said Timothy

"Is it?" Lucia smirked.

"I am not yet... certain" Timothy tapped at the wooden board with his finger "But that move leaves an opening directly to your center. I can capture your tower here"

"Then take it"

Timothy leaned forward. Pinching the top of a piece of infantry, he slid it to the side.

"I know a bait when I see one. You are planning something, I can see"

Lucia"s next move was retreating one of her cavalry piece to the side. The move gave her room for five more traps for Timothy. Unfortunately, Timothy took none of the five succeeding baits. She smiled.

"You are good at evaluating risks. How do you do that?"

"I have my ways"

"Oooh, ways. Tell me of this magical ways of yours"

He smiled "Your face"

"My face" Lucia shook her head as she smiled "What of my face?"

"Whenever you are plotting something, I can see it in your expressions. Whenever I spoil you plan, when I take your bait, I can see it all. I know you are better that me at this so I have to win some other way"

"Unfortunately for you husband, defeat has been certain for you five moves ago"

"Is that so? Well I"ll just have to make your victory as difficult as possible"

The next developments saw Timothy"s pieces surrounded. But his defense was good and Lucia had a hard time penetrating to his center. That pesky right tower was always on her way.

"Having a hard time?" Timothy chuckled.

"Said the man who is about to lose"

Sixteen moves later and Timothy had lost his monarch. Eight moves after that and Lucia had secured victory by capturing Timothy"s other pieces- eliminating the possibility of a new monarch rising again.

"As expected" Timothy offered his hand to her.

Lucia shook it but Timothy grabbed her instead and put a kiss on her lips. As if by instincts, Lucia closed her eyes and relished on the experience.

"That was a cheap move" Lucia said after parting lips with him. She then sat on Timothy"s lap and felt something hard and familiar poke on her right leg. Coupled with the look on Timothy"s face, she giggled as she realized the dark intention he has for her tonight.

"Later Tim" She gave him a quick kiss to stop his hands from undressing her "We still need to write letters to Nirvana and Holm"

"That can wait"

"Ohoho how responsible of you, trading important orders for a short while of pa.s.sion"

"Short while?"

"You don"t last too long against me" Lucia teased

"That is false. I can last longer than a whole candle would burn. And I do all the work" He rubbed his hand oh her waist "You know, those letters could wait. I can help you with them later"

"That might be true" Lucia head grew closer to Timothy"s until heavy continuous knocks sounded against the door. It was Magistrate Chen and his wife and Timothy didn"t look happy seeing them.

"Did we disturb you?"

"It"s in the middle of the night" Timothy answered with a meaningful stare at the Magistrate.

Magistrate Chen drew a confused look for a while until he nodded his head in understanding.

"I truly regret interrupting you"

"Regret nothing Magistrate" Lucia said. He glanced at Timothy "The King and I are just writing letters to our a.s.sociates back home"

"Still we disturbed your private time. For that I apologize" He then gestured to the woman beside. "This is my wedded wife, Veline"

"An honor and an opportunity to meet you. And I thank you for bringing my Chen home safe" said the freckled woman who was at least half a decade younger than the Magistrate "I hope our hospitality suffices"

"More than sufficient" Lucia said, remembering how the Magistrate"s faction housed all three hundred royal guards and their horses.

Timothy then spread his arms "Well come on in. This is your house but we shall still welcome you"

Calgarian tea was served along with several other exotic food. There were cakes flavored with honey and nuts and sweetened flowers. Lucia had already dined with Timothy but late night snack was welcomed. The Magistrate and his wife were seated on the other side of the table.

"Business" Timothy said "You are here to talk about business, yes?"

Magistrate Chen took a sip "We have less than two weeks Your Majesty. Although they might try to delay the vote, leave that to me and my faction. What is important now is winning the people to our side"

"You are worried that the Nay vote would win"

"That is so. Most of the Inkish don"t want your rule. Although the Republic would still exist and the Magistrates would still craft laws, the fact remains that the Republic would become a va.s.sal of a monarchy"

"We will preach tomorrow. We will urge them to vote Yea. The Queen and I would personally talk to them"

"That..." Magistrate Chen licked his lips "That might not be enough. Time is running out. We must hurry" He lowered his head "And my principle still stands. I don"t want any dark deeds in this plebiscite. Cheating, coercion, vote buying and those immoral acts"

"It wouldn"t be wise to use such tactics Magistrate. If we cheat or buy votes then that means that the Inkish would still be against us even if we win the plebiscite. The moment we leave Inkit, the whole nation would break its allegiance with the Union. The Queen and I desire them to truly support us"

"That brings me peace. But how are we going to change their minds? The Republic has stood for hundreds of years. Mere two weeks can"t change that"

Timothy looked at her, the signal for her to speak. This was her plan after all. Lucia put the cup down.

"The Republic has its flaws Magistrate. Big flaws that would consume it when the time comes. You know about this"

"Corruption" Magistrate Chen said.

"Yes. Rule of the people, such an outstanding idea. Unfortunately such a system doesn"t work. Maybe in the future it would but not now. I have read about the history of Inkit. The Republic was born out of the valiant deeds of the Mav the Strong, Vepod Ironhands, Berd the Wealthy, Derset Goldtongue and Crod the Just. The five n.o.bles rose in revolt against King Garot and that revolt ended here inside Haubern. Ever since that day, the Inkish ruled themselves. The five Magistrates led the Republic along with their Servuses. But have you noticed Magistrate? How the Republic has changed? It was supposed to be a Republic but now it evolved into an oligarchy. You Magistrates are fine but the problem are the Servuses. The same Servuses get elected every election. If a Servus dies, then their children or other relatives will run in office instead. I asked several of my... spies to find out and it turns out that in the past fifty years, nine out of ten positions of Servuses didn"t change families. This has become some sort of a large and organized political dynasty. Why do you think this happened Magistrate?"

"The people lack education" Magistrate Chen"s expression grew dim.

"Correct, the people lack education. And we can"t educated them all, can we? A person hears a popular name. The person remembers that name. Come election and the person votes for that name. Meaningful discussion about the credibility of a candidate doesn"t happen too often. Why bother discussing such things when the common people are busy trying to find food? There are other more pressing matters they need to give attention to. The common people sing equality and freedom but are they truly free and equal? It is but a mere illusion Magistrate. The powerful families of the Servuses control everything, the people just don"t know and treat it as if the power lies with them. Now let me give you an a.n.a.logy. You have seen boats right? Ships?"

"I have traveled quite far, yes"

Lucia opened her palm towards Magistrate Chen "Imagine you are on a galley, sailing to a distant land. You look above and a dark storm was brewing. Would you rather have the pa.s.sengers make the decisions for the galley or the captain?"

"The Captain of course. The Captain has years of experience in manning a ship and has battled dozens of storms already"

"Dark clouds are brewing in the horizon of the Republic Magistrate" Lucia looked sternly at the old man "When the five n.o.bles forged the Republic it was all sunny and nice. But things change. It would have been alright if the pa.s.sengers on board are all Captains but no, a common Inkish is uneducated. Soon the storm will come and if the pa.s.sengers keeps on making the decisions for the galley, you will all sink"

Magistrate Chen"s sweat skidded on his forehead "But..but how? How can we convince them to give power to monarchs?"

"We will show them Magistrate" Lucia said "We will show them how rotten the Republic truly is"