General Aliekin’s visit was delayed enough that Regina had privately wondered if it would ever happen, or if she’d be visiting the Gnomish Confederation again before he finally came to Cera. However, he did eventually arrive, and it went more smoothly than Regina had feared.
Obviously, that didn’t mean there were no issues at all. A lot of the — mostly human, of course — courtiers in the city were less than well disposed toward the gnomish general. Or dictator. For the moment, anyway. That was, of course, not what most people minded about him, even though it would have been first on Regina’s list in other circumstances. He was essentially her vassal now, though, so she had to protect him even from hostilities from her own subjects.
He seemed to take it in stride, at least. Regina wondered about his reasons for avoiding the city until now, but he did still have a lot to do in his own country. Aliekin had always struck her as more of a general first and politician by necessity, although it might have been an impression he cultivated on purpose. Still, he was better than the alternative. And he’d been quite cooperative.
“Preparations for the next election are underway,” he told Regina that evening, at dinner.
It wasn’t a state dinner, or at least not a very formal one; there were degrees of formality to these things, as she’d learned. Currently, he and most of the people he’d brought with him were eating with Regina, her inner circle and a selection of officials and nobles from the Empire, though mostly Cernlia given their location.
“That’s good to hear,” Regina responded with a genuine smile. “You have finalized all the changes you had planned, then?”
It was a topic she had a personal interest in, and had kept up to date with.
Aliekin nodded, also looking pleased. “The basic structure will be the same, we have only added an amendment to make the position of Head of the Executive Council more meaningful, giving it broader authority, so there will be a single leader for the Confederation. They will be elected from among the members of the council in a second vote after it is confirmed, and I imagine the factions will all present their candidates in advance to gain voters. We’ve also made some revisions to the way voters are registered to ensure every citizen of the Gnomish Confederation has a say, regardless of their affiliation with a faction.”
Regina nodded. “That all sounds very sensible,” she said. “Your people are voting on these changes now? And what about the judicial reform?”
“The referendum will be held with the election itself, for logistical reasons,” Aliekin said. “Arranging two major votes so shortly after each other would be a major organizational challenge, and since the number of seats in the Executive Council hasn’t changed, there wouldn’t need to be a new election even if the referendum fails, anyway. The voter registration is actually procedural and can be implemented by the government directly.”
“That seems potentially ripe for abuse,” Regina observed.
The general gave her a thin smile. “That is why from now on, all changes will have to be passed by referendum as well, once the reform is implemented. As for your other question, the reform of our justice system is still on its way and far from completed. There will most likely be another referendum to confirm a major reform in half a year or so, giving the justices of the new High Court the power to dissolve the Executive Council and call for new elections if its leaders should seem to abuse their power, as my predecessors did.”
Regina nodded again and took mental notes. She was going to watch the political developments in her new protectorate with great interest. And consult with Aliekin and others more extensively. Their experience could be very valuable in trying to implement something even vaguely resembling this in the Empire proper. “I assume you will stand for election?” she asked for now.
Aliekin was actually silent for a moment, before he inclined his head. “I considered it at length,” he said. “But yes, I have decided I will be aiming for the position of the Head. I simply cannot run the risk of having someone else who is less inclined to support the reforms elected instead. Or, gods forbid, someone who would try to back out of our treaties.”
Regina nodded and smiled briefly, acknowledging the vulnerability he showed in even mentioning that possibility. She still wasn’t entirely sure just how truthful he was about his motives, but in the end it didn’t really matter if he acted out of personal ambition or not. She preferred to work with Aliekin rather than an unknown.
“I understand,” she said. “Just between us, I wouldn’t mind if you were reelected. But of course you understand I still need to be sure it’s a free and open election.”
“Open?”
“Well, secret, of course,” she amended. “No one should have to reveal who they vote for. But open to everyone.”
“That is the intention, Your Imperial Majesty,” he said, a little drily.
At this point, the conversation of the others close to them trailed off. Janis turned back to look at Aliekin after a quiet but heated discussion with Max, while Lady Florance asked her opinion on the food. She was here in place of Kiara today, who couldn’t make it to this dinner because of urgent business in western Cernlia. Her family still held the Lyns march, after all.
Regina hadn’t talked much with Florance Lyns recently. She still felt things were a bit too awkward between them. And she had the impression they were mutually avoiding each other, where it was reasonable. It helped that Florance was occupied caring for her baby. She’d mostly kept out of politics, probably not because of a lack of interest, but because she thought it was safer. Still, the lady had always been polite, even to a fault, and they were easily able to make small talk. Even mostly withdrawn, Florance was the queen mother of Cernlia. Although, not having been a queen consort, she didn’t rate that title officially, or the title of dowager queen, apparently. And she was still a star of its social scene. Especially since Kiara was busy governing and June didn’t have much interest, many of the traditional social and ceremonial duties had fallen to her. Regina wasn’t going to complain.
Stolen story; please report.
They had a nice conversation about the food — having curry was a nice surprise, even if she wouldn’t have expected it at an official dinner; she appreciated that people were making an effort to revive recipes she knew, at least — the decor, fashion trends, and the differences in human and Hivekind anatomy, until Aliekin was finished with his own conversation and was starting to look bored.
At that point, the meal was over, drinks were served and people were starting to stand and mingle, turning it into something of a reception after dinner. It was probably the best time to introduce General Aliekin to people he had not had opportunity to meet yet. Several people were already approaching them, although they seemed to be familiar already. Regina greeted them and listened to a few polite exchanges. Then she saw someone she realized might be a good choice to talk to, anyway, and turned, heading in that direction.
“My Empress,” the Delver bowed.
“Gwen,” Regina replied, nodding. “I heard you have been awarded your family’s title and now rule their land. Congratulations. It must be quite a change, though.”
Gwen smiled faintly. They both knew she wouldn’t have been granted it if Regina hadn’t approved, even though it was officially Kiara’s business instead. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she replied. “It is certainly a new challenge. But I have people to help me meet it, fortunately.”
"That’s good. I hope the people living there have not been too bothered by the switch.”
The newly-minted Lady Cern chuckled a bit and shook her head. “I doubt it. I am not a stranger to the place, and my dear cousin wasn’t there much, these last few years. When I visited, they didn’t seem particularly upset, if I may say so.”
Regina grinned. “Can’t imagine why. I imagine you can run the place better than he could.”
Gwen shrugged. “To be fair to John, he didn’t muck things up, exactly. He just didn’t pay it much attention and let his steward do most of the work. It was mostly fine. But doing anything beyond regular maintenance would have been too much.” Her tone grew more serious. “The estate would have been left behind by the times entirely. No attempts to modernize despite all the changes. It was like he thought everything would continue like it had been ten years ago for the next century. I didn’t want to see that. It would have pushed the people who have been depending on my family into poverty for certain.”
That was probably a good point. Regina nodded soberly. Admittedly, she’d been wondering a bit when she learned of Gwen’s petition, but at the end of the day, she trusted the young Delver as much or more than she did almost anyone else.
“Are you going to spend more time there going forward?” she asked.
“Only if it seems necessary or something comes up. I am confident my people have it well in hand. And of course, I will always be available if Your Majesty needs me. Plus, how could I leave Owin to face the vultures alone?” she added with a smirk.
Regina smiled back, but before she could continue, they were joined by Aliekin. He seemed to have finally disengaged himself from his last conversation partner and fully turned to join her.
“Ah, General,” she said. “I believe you to have met, but I am not sure you’ve been formally introduced. This is Lady Gwen Cern, a commander of the Delvers and the best bard I’ve personally ever seen. Gwen, of course you know General Aliekin, interim leader of the Gnomish Confederation.”
Aliekin inclined his head. “Congratulations on your recent ascension, Milady. I hear the House of Cern holds special significance in this country. I am sure you will be adding to its honor.”
“Perhaps not as much as it used to have, General,” Gwen replied with a faint smile. “But we all need to let tradition give way for modernity, don’t we?”
“That we do,” he agreed with an equally tight smile.
Regina wondered briefly how old he was; somehow that wasn’t part of the information she’d received. Well, a good bet he’s older than me, no matter what, she thought with a mental shrug.
Not that that was hard. She’d recently celebrated her birthday, or at least the day she’d hatched out of her egg. It wasn’t like she knew her actual birthday, and she no longer used that body, anyway. She hadn’t wanted to have a big celebration, and instead it had passed rather quietly. Most people weren’t even aware. Perhaps for a significant anniversary, she would have to organize larger formal celebrations, but for now, she didn’t particularly want to remind her new subjects that their new empress was only a few years old. Or hatched from an egg and all that. It didn’t seem likely to increase her standing in their minds.
While she was distracted, Aliekin and Gwen had kept talking, moving the conversation past the initial tension. They both seemed to have seized each other up quickly and it was now remarkably pleasant. It took Regina an embarrassing moment to realize that, of course, Gwen had fought in the war against the gnomes; they were former enemies and just a diplomatic meeting wasn’t going to erase all that. Not to mention the Delvers’ general reputation for xenophobia.
Luckily, Gwen was also a good diplomat and generally good with people regardless of their race. In record time, she’d managed to get the general to relax, and a few minutes in, they were chatting productively about traditional weapons and the best strategies for hunting certain kinds of monsters. Regina had initially been interested, but found her attention drifting. Still, she decided to just take this as a win.
After a bit of time, she excused herself and wandered away, taking in the conversations in the room. She was instinctively aware of everyone else, especially her drones, but the minds of the other people present were clear and sharp, as well. Some of them were obviously a bit tipsy. Regina smiled wanly. That was one experience she couldn’t really regret missing out on.
Instead, she cocked her head, blinked slowly, and took a deeper metaphorical look at the minds around her, both inside and outside the room. Ever since Galatea and Madris had presented their little project, she had been on the lookout for suitable candidates. It was slow-going, particularly because it was hard to know what would make a good candidate when she found them. Besides trustworthiness, of course.
It was still a traditional sign of power and status for nobles to have magic, which meant the proportion of mages in the nobility was probably higher than anywhere else — except for the Delvers, she supposed. There was some overlap, Gwen was hardly the only born noble in the order and a few knightly houses especially had kept close ties, but they were still the minority of Delvers overall. Put that way, it was pretty obvious where her recruits should be drawn from first.
Although maybe she should see if June had other, more distant relatives, too. It was possible genetic predisposition was a factor. Florance might still have some relatives hanging around somewhere. Regina would ask Ira to look into it when she had a minute.
She didn’t have much time to think about it right now, since she was quickly drawn into conversation again. Regina made her rounds through the room, offering an ear to people who had concerns to bring up. She didn’t exactly hold court traditionally, so offering opportunities like this to talk to her was probably important, and it wasn’t like speaking to the people gathered here was a great sacrifice. Many had interesting insights to bring up. And if she could gauge their mood and attitudes towards the gnomes and the Empire’s recent, or projected, extension, then all the better. They didn’t seem to be more negative than she’d feared. Most people here were clearly willing to extend some trust and follow her lead, which gave Regina a slight glow of satisfaction she allowed herself to indulge in for a little while.