1

“Why him?” As far as Xander was concerned, it was an important question.

The Emperor of the Verant Empire, Xander Frey II, was a man of great importance. He fought hard against great odds to obtain his position in life. He was not someone who was easily satisfied by vague answers. He was a man who dealt in real world hard truths.

Despite being born into a high class with great privilege, he worked hard to be the man he had become. It was years spent in the military that hardened him mentally. Leading his own forces in successful military missions that earned him respect early on in his career.

Xander also had a good education, in commerce and the economy, from private tutors. He spent his coin on buildings and businesses, which in turn, were also successful. This brought him great wealth beyond that of his family.

The truth, no matter how ugly it might be, did not scare him. Why should it? As far as he was concerned, he needed to see the full picture if he was to make the right decisions for the betterment of the Verant Empire.

He was considered by many to be a handsome man with strong cheek bones and a square jaw line which he kept clean shaven most of the time. He had a tawny main of hair that he wore long to the shoulders, which was not a fashion popular in the Empire, but Xander was not overly concerned with the latest fashion. Whatever he did was the latest fashion, it was left to others to follow his lead.

The position of Emperor was a lifetime job. Emperors did not typically retire or fade away. They died. There were exceptions, of course. Boniface Frey, legally speaking, would have become the next Emperor after Xander had his nephew, Getta VI, executed at the conclusion of the war. However, he took Xander’s generous offer to abdicate the throne and retire to a cottage outside of the Empire’s borders.

However, that evening the Emperor, Xander, bore a grim expression. He stood on a balcony high up in the palace overlooking the Imperial Gardens. It was a cozy little place just off from one of the guest rooms. Big enough for a few people.

Next to him stood the Lord High Priest, Jermaine Beckhart. With him was the ever-present priestess, Amber Cindervale, an imperial council member and a keeper of the sacred fire.

All three of them had a small glass of brandy. The sun had set. The lights of the city were coming out as fireplaces and candles were lit. Xander had the expectation that these two would enlighten him.

“Who is he really? This farm boy from the western plains,” the Emperor put more pressure on his question this time. His cold brown eyes stared down the High Priest. Xander was a man who was always calculating. His mind never rested. He was also several inches taller than the priest, which was deeply satisfying.

Jermaine was dark of skin and in his mid thirties. His goatee was still black, but surely the grey would begin to creep in soon enough. His tightly curled hair cut short. His eyes were small and narrowed as he peered back. The slight smile on his face never wavered, even when under the pressure of the Emperor’s gaze. He was not a man who cowered, and the Emperor liked that about him.

“If you are asking why the Gods chose him, well… we do not know,” Jermaine eventually told him. “It’s not for us to know, but the chosen come from all walks of life. That we know for certain.”

“Him and his brother,” the Emperor added. That seemed to increase the stakes in his own mind. Two in the same family? So closely related? It seemed impossible.

“Yes,” Jermaine conceded. “That is unusual, but not impossible. When we went back through the historical records, we had found it had happened before.”

Fine, the Emperor thought. He still had his concerns. “He’s young, maybe too young for the responsibility we have given him.”

“I have not had the pleasure of meeting him,” Jermaine admitted. “But Amber here did. And his brother too.”

“So I have heard…” The Emperor said to her. He left the statement hanging, inviting her to elaborate.

She did not.

She was stubborn and strong willed even for a priestess. Was it strange that he respected her for that? The Emperor mused.

“These things have been known to run within family lines,” Jermaine pointed out. He smirked. “It’s one of the games the Gods like to play with us.”

“Like my family?” The Emperor pointed out. “The Imperial lines?”

“Of course,” Jermaine nodded in agreement. “The more important the family, the more the Gods like to toy with it.”

“For two brothers to be chosen… it is a strong destiny. The younger one is the more powerful of the two,” Amber finally commented. “But he lacks the leadership qualities that Elwin clearly possesses. That’s why it was better to saddle Elwin with the responsibilities of leadership. He will rise to the occasion, but he will need the support of his friends and family. The Gods do not hand out their gifts equally. Some will be more powerful than others.”

The Emperor looked surprised at the insight she seemed to possess. The Priestess explained further. “There is such a phenomenon that we call convergence within a certain line of ancestry. Sometimes two people are both ancestors of a famous and powerful person, usually about five to ten generations removed from that person. If they get married and have children, those children are often imbued with a special power or destiny. They are often chosen by the Gods.”

“Rubico Aquitaine’s children for example,” the Lord High Priest added. “Rubico and Octavia are both descendants of Getta the first. We think Quinn has the most potential out of the five remaining children. The older bothers and younger sisters appear too weak to have serious destinies.”

The Emperor contemplated what they were telling him. Then he wondered aloud. “Did I make the right decision then? To knight Elwin, I mean.”

“Most certainly,” Amber replied without hesitation.

They both looked at her questioningly.

“I personally saw Elwin’s face in the sacred fire. It’s the clearest vision I have ever had,” Amber confessed. Her voice became softer. It was obvious to the Emperor that Elwin was special to her. She continued. “When I saw his face in real life… I knew it was him, the young man from my vision. I started to tremble and almost collapsed. It was so uncanny! I couldn’t tell him what I knew. What would I say? Hi Elwin, how are you? Just so you know, you may be chosen by the Gods for some divine purpose!”

The Emperor nodded. “He wouldn’t have understood it anyway,” he concluded.

She elaborated further. “The god touched… They need guidance. Especially in one so young. They need a mission or their powers… they could turn destructive if they give in to their own selfishness and greed. Better to keep them bonded to you. As many as you can. Give them a higher purpose, always.”

“Are there more that you have discovered?” The Emperor pressed her to speak of others.

“Well, as we just discussed there is Quinn, from the house of Aquitaine,” Jermaine pointed out.

Yes, of course,” the Emperor said. “In fact, I’m meeting with her tomorrow to discuss her future.”

“How so?” Jermaine inquired. He seemed genuinely interested.

“She wants a better assignment then the one she has,” the Emperor explained. He could not blame her.

“She is god touched, she will be restless as a guard,” Amber confirmed what he was already thinking. Although it was summer now and hot during the day, it still got cool at night. She kept her crimson robes tightly wrapped around her in the breeze.

“So, Elwin, his bother and Quinn, that’s three, are there any others?” The Emperor asked.

“There’s some young man named Valance whose face was seen in the fire,” Amber explained, but she seemed unsure of her words. “He’s been known to pop up in Palantine now and then, but we haven’t been able to pin down where he can be found so he is still eluding us.”

“We suspect he is related to Vask Fillius,” Jermaine added.

“Yes, and there was talk of another one Armiger, who is also a relation of Vask. Is that right?” the Emperor pointed out.

“We believe so,” Amber nodded.

“So, then Servia would make six so far, correct?” The Emperor questioned.

“Correct,” Jermaine confirmed.

“And you say there could be dozens more out there that haven’t been found,” the Emperor said mulling over this information.

“Yes,” Amber replied. “However, we saw another face. A young woman in her mid teens, but we are awaiting a better image to appear.”

“That happens sometimes?” The Emperor questioned.

“Most times,” Amber related. “We get an initial image one day and then a few days later something better and more detailed appears.”

“So that’s seven then. Tell me something,” The Emperor inquired. “If someone other then a priestess looks into the fire, would they see a face? Does that happen?”

“No, absolutely not,” Amber replied in a deep and serious tone.

“Not even I,” Jermaine confirmed.

“Really?” The Emperor was surprised.

Jermaine nodded. “Only a priestess who tends the fire can see the faces and no one else. It is a power only they possess.”

“Well, I guess I’m learning something new everyday,” the Emperor said and finished his brandy.

“I can’t think of a better quality for an Emperor to possess,” Jermaine told him.

“Thank you,” the Emperor said in all seriousness.

“I will have you know that is not a complement I would have given to your predecessors,” Jermaine told him.

I know,” the Emperor said. “The Empire has been through a rough time as of late. I can only hope to change its direction.”

“It already has,” Amber assured him. “Twenty years ago, it was your face that a priestess saw in the fire. And now here you are… Emperor.”

“Destiny… fulfilled,” Jermaine concluded.

“Yes, but we had to fight for it,” the Emperor pointed out.

“That how it works,” Jermaine remarked. “Anything worth having must be fought for.”

“See that city out there,” Amber said to them. “They have no idea what is going on. They don’t know that in every generation dozens of men and women are selected. And those people… they have a choice. They can either work together… or they can fight among themselves.”

“When they work together then we as a people improve and advance,” Jermaine added.

“But when they fight against each other…” Amber continued.

“Then its war and destruction,” the Emperor said completing the thought.

“Exactly,” Jermaine confirmed. “Now you are beginning to understand how the Gods work. They never tell you how to use the power they gave you. You must figure that out for yourself.”

“Is that why you always say that the god touched seek each other out?” the Emperor questioned. “Because they want to work together.”

“On a deeper level, yes. That is our belief,” Jermaine verified.

“But that did not happen with my generation,” the Emperor pointed out. “It was a fight, and I won.”

“Sometimes that’s the only way,” Jermaine related. It made the Emperor feel a little better about it. But he had much more to say on the matter. “Look, I can see why you might find this frustrating. Within the priesthood, it is a closely guarded fact that in every generation, there are born fifty people at most who for some reason have a destiny to choose. If they choose wisely, we all prosper for many years in peace, but if they choose badly or their challenge is immensely difficult… Well, we get what we’ve had these last twenty years. So here we have the new generation coming of age and the special ones, touched by the Gods are already showing themselves to us. You can see how this information can be dangerous in the wrong hands. That’s why the priesthood doesn’t like talking about it with just anyone. We can not make this public knowledge.”

“I understand what you’re saying, and I even understand why it has to be kept a secret, but I should have been informed of this before I became Emperor,” He was getting a bit annoyed by so much secrecy. Everything about the civil war would have been much easier if he had known about these facts. The Emperor continued his original line of questioning. “But this still does not answer my question. Why him? Why not my son?”

“The Gods work in unpredictable ways, my Imperial Majesty,” Jermaine replied using the official address for the first time. “The best we can hope for is to discover who the chosen ones are and guide them down the right path.”

“So, we know of seven then,” the Emperor stated.

“Well, there maybe another one,” Amber pointed out, but she was hesitant.

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“Amber, we don’t know that for certain,” Jermaine said to her.

“No secrets, out with it,” the Emperor said to them.

“A few days ago, a priest had a sudden seizure,” Amber reported. “Now he had no history of any ailment like that before. So, when he became conscious again, he us that he had a vision of a young girl with brilliant orange hair and a freckled face. He gave a detailed description of what we believe is a youth of ten or twelve years. We think she might be one of the chosen ones.”

“Do you know where she is?” The Emperor asked.

“We think she is with Elwin,” Amber replied with a devious smirk.

“Seriously!?” The Emperor replied. He could not mask his surprise. “Now I’m intrigued!”

The High Priestess continued. “Her mother brought her to the Wizard’s Tower a few years ago. They turned her away because they didn’t think she had any actual power. We only just began our investigation into this young girl, but she has potential to be of some importance. The fact that she is one of the Domara refugees is just a bonus really.”

“So, four out of a possible seven have already been identified and in one way or another under my command?” The Emperor quickly got over his bewilderment and a huge toothy grin split his face. “The sooner we find the rest of them, the sooner we can guide all of them down the proper path!”

But the Lord High Priest was more cautious. He told the Emperor. “These things can take months, even years. Events on this scale… Well, I mean, you must understand my Imperial Majesty! They can play out over decades sometimes!”

The Emperor shook his head. “Find them all for me. If our enemies get to them first, none of us will be able to live with the consequences!”

“Oh, it sounds so easy, doesn’t it?” Jermaine tried to tread a bit carefully with his words. “Yet in past generations we have never been able to find all of them, so why would now be any different? As of right now we don’t even know what their destiny is! It could take place twenty years from now. It might have nothing to do with you or the imperial throne!”

“Please listen to him, my Imperial Majesty,” Amber reinforced once she saw the look on the Emperor’s face. “We can’t rush into things like this. We need more time to consider their meanings.”

“Yes, well, I can understand that… even if I don’t like it,” the Emperor replied with a sigh. He turned and looked out at the city. “I just hope that the Gods aren’t too slow in reveal their will to us.” There was a long moment where nothing was said, then the Emperor asked. “I have done as you have bid me do. I sent Elwin out into the wilderness to test his will power, his resolve and his abilities. But is this really the wisest course of action? Wouldn’t it be better to keep him here close by me?”

“Not if his destiny is to kill you,” Amber replied. She did not show a hint of a smirk or smile. She spoke with a deadly serious tone. “Don’t forget what Mistula’s destiny was and that was only two generations ago.”

The look on his face said it all. The Emperor got her message loud and clear. He had not considered that possibility before.

“Like I said,” Jermaine added. “We don’t know what his destiny is, but bloody murder aside, I don’t think he is ready to fulfill his fate just yet. A few years of toil, hardship and perseverance will make this lad, not break him. He’ll learn far more from his experience commanding a group of men out on the frontier for a few years, than any of us could ever teach him in a decade.”

“I hope you’re right,” the Emperor said.

“He is a young man of great destiny,” Amber reminded the Emperor. “He needs to find himself, find out who he must become. He could never do that here, not surround by people who would try to mold him into this form or that one.”

“If that’s the case and his bother and this red headed girl are going with him than could it be advantageous to send Quinn out there as well?” The Emperor asked them.

The two servants of the Fire Lord mulled this idea over for a moment before replying. “It couldn’t hurt to have her go.”

The Emperor looked down at the marble staircase that led to the Imperial Gardens and ran his fingers through his hair. It rippled in the wind. He changed the subject. “The wizard council met the other day, to decide the fate of Servia De Gallio.”

“And?” Jermaine asked.

“The vote was seven to four in favor of handing her over to Vask,” the Emperor replied.

“Then for good or for ill, that is what will happen,” Jermaine stated.

For good or ill, indeed! The Emperor thought to himself.

2

A few days later, the Emperor had arranged a meeting with his good friend Rubico, head of the house of Aquitaine. Rubico was the senior in their friendship by about ten years and Xander often looked to him for advice, especially in matters of war. He had proven over the years to be an expert strategist when it came to the army. However, socially and politically he was more awkward and took no interest in the day-to-day operations of the Empire. Usually, he would recluse himself at one of his vast estates with one of his mistresses and only came into the city to see his wife, the Emperor or to tend to business matters.

He was handsome enough for an older man with a rugged and weathered face. His hair had gone almost completely whitish grey, his natural blonde long faded away. But his eyes shone with a cold calculating experience.

Xander met his friend in the round great room that looked out over the central square at the south end of the Grand Bazaar. The banners of all thirty houses hung on the wall behind them. All but the house of Thaine’s banner which had been removed at the conclusion of the civil war. Xander saw it as a symbol of the family’s banishment from society.

“Well now Xander, it would seem the crown suits you,” Rubico said as he entered the room escorted by an imperial guard. He smirked at his friend.

Xander understood this to be a joke as he almost never wore the damn thing, unless in some official capacity. Usually, it sat on a table next to the throne in the official throne room, which he also rarely used. “It’s too small for my head,” the Emperor quipped.

“Well, that’s Getta for you,” Rubico replied with a chuckle. “Probably had it alter to fit his own tiny and empty head!”

The two men laughed and embraced like brothers. That’s how it felt, like they were family and not just friends. The Emperor dismissed the guard, who left the room.

“Tell me old friend, how is life these days?” Xander asked in all seriousness.

“I certainly can’t complain,” Rubico replied. He walked over to a table resting next to a pair of chairs. He poured himself a whiskey from a decanter into a pair of crystal glasses. He filled both glasses and handed one to the Emperor. “Business is good. For the first time in my life, I’m stacking up gold fast then my wife can spend it!”

They both laughed again. “And how is Octavia?”

“Sullen, overbearing and bossy. I do my best to stay out of her way!” Rubico laughed.

“Sullen?”

“Over Garius, of course,” Rubico replied. He gave out a heavy sigh. “I know the wizards ruled it an accident, but are you really going to let Vask take her home as a pet?”

“We discussed this Rubico and it’s settled, right?” The Emperor said to him. They were not here to debate the case of Servia De Gallio.

“As you wish, my Imperial Majesty,” he hesitated before using the official title, but he did not sound angry about it, just resigned. “Alright, so why am I here then?”

“Quinn.”

“What has she done this time?” Rubico asked. He had already finished half the glass in his hand.

“She has requested a better assignment,” the Emperor told him. “She met with me personally to submit the request.”

“What’s wrong with being a guard?” Rubico questioned. “It’s safe!”

“She doesn’t want safe,” the Emperor replied.

“I can find her another husband…” Rubico started, but this was a conversation that they had already been over before.

“Listen to me, Rubico,” Xander said to him. “I speak as a friend. She is twenty years old. She’s a widow. Like it or not, she is free to make her own decisions.”

“Fucking children!” Rubico yelled at the ceiling. His voice bouncing around the massive room. “Why do they always have to be difficult! Tell me Gods, why!?”

The Emperor laughed. “The lament of every father!” Their voices echoed off the rounded walls.

“We have the knowledge. We already made all the mistakes. Why can’t they listen us?” Rubico complained.

“Because life just doesn’t work that way,” the Emperor explained.

“Don’t lecture me about how life works, I’m still ten years older than you,” Rubico told him. They both laughed.

“Look you can’t stop her, but what I can do is give her an assignment where she will be safe and in good hands,” the Emperor explained.

“What assignment is this?” Rubico questioned.

“The Domara refugees,” the Emperor told him. “I have one of my agents there now to lead them to the east, but they need to be resupplied at various points. The first supply caravan should already be reaching them, but we need to send more. I want to put Quinn on one of those convoys. We can tell her she is there to safeguard the wagons. Which is true, there will be coin included in the shipments that will have to be guarded.”

“That still sounds dangerous,” Rubico said suspiciously.

“I can send soldiers with her,” the Emperor thought about it a moment. “Say, a platoon of well armed men. When they get there, they will be under to command of Sir Elwin Birch. I can’t promise better safety than that.”

“Elwin?” Rubico questioned. “That’s the farm boy… the one you knighted? You should here the rumors circulating about that!”

“Yes, that Elwin,” the Emperor was a wolf and he was not about to listen to baa baa of the sheep. “Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I talked to the wizards and the priests. They all agree, it’s a good course of action. I met the boy personally. He’s honest, brave and chivalrous. If he was anything less, I would not have knighted him.”

I still don’t like it,” Rubico told him. He sat down in one of the chairs. He was still wearing padding and riding breeches, having come straight to the chamber after arriving on griffin back. “It puts her out of my sight, out of the city…”

“And out of your control?” The Emperor knew what this was really about. His friend Rubico, was someone who always needed to be in control.

“Hmm,” Rubico grunted, conceding the point.

“She is god touched, Rubico,” the Emperor explained. “One way or another she will find others and be influenced by them. At least this way we have control over who she associates with. Elwin and his friends will be a positive influence. This may be the challenge she needs to become the person she is destined to be.”

“She’s never been out in the wilderness before,” Rubico stated. “Never slept in a tent or marched all day in the rain. I know she likes to act tough, she wears the armor well and looks the part, but she’s not tough. Not like you and I.”

“Has she had the opportunity to prove herself to you?” Xander knew that question would get to him.

Resigned, Rubico should his head.

“If you ask me, I think she will surprise you,” the Emperor meant what he said. Personally, he liked Quinn. She had a strength in her. He was sure that, like Elwin, she would rise to the occasion.

“Let’s hope so,” Rubico said. “However, there is the small matter of her mother. You know Octavia. She will not be happy with this.”

“Don’t worry about Octavia,” the Emperor dismissed his friends concern. “I will deal with her so that you don’t have to. If she has a problem with this plan I will talk to her personally.”

“You have an answer to everything don’t you?” Rubico asked him.

“I have to,” Xander smirked. “That’s the job of the Emperor after all.”

3

Xander and his friend Rubico had been drinking whiskey most of that afternoon and after getting the important stuff out of the way, they began to laugh and have a really good time together. The guards had kept most visitors away during this time, but there are still some people who can get in to see the Emperor even during his personal time with friends.

Two such people were Rickard, the Lord High Wizard and Kindeller, the Emperor’s right hand man and de facto leader of the Order of the Red Dragon.

“Fine, allow them in,” the Emperor told the captain of the guard. Xander and Rubico lounged in the comfortable chairs set up for them in the great hall and had drunk most of the bottle of whiskey between them.

“My Imperial Majesty, we are sorry to disturb you,” Rickard apologized in advance for the intrusion. He was an aging man approaching his sixties in a time when making it past seventy was impressive. He leaned heavily on his staff as he walked. His pale blue robes flowed around him. It was summer so he wore something that was light and airy. His face was leathery and lined with age. His long grey beard almost reached his stomach.

“However, we have some questions that need answers,” Kindeller added. He was a tall thin man with a kindly grandfather smile and face. His grey hair was thinning on top. He wore a more traditional white linen toga which was befitting for a man of high office.

The Emperor smiled. These were two people he was sure he could trust. He probably would not be Emperor right now if it had not been for these two, but especially Rickard Hermitech. Rickard was the one who created the meeting of the twelve consuls, which got them all branded rebels and started the whole civil war, which Xander had won. Xander may not have started the war, but he had certainly finished it.

“Go ahead, ask,” the Emperor told them.

“Well, we have been going over the imperial ledger for this month and it seems that there is more money committed going out then we have taxes coming in,” Kindeller explained.

“It’s not a small amount either, it’s tens of thousands in gold,” Rickard added. “We have come to explain that there must be a mistake made somewhere.”

“There isn’t,” the Emperor said flatly.

“Then how do we make up the short fall?” Kindeller inquired. “Are we to borrow the money from somewhere?”

“What do you think Rubico?” the Emperor asked his friend. “Should we tell them?”

“I think the real question is do you trust them with this information?” Rubico replied. He had a sly look in his eyes.

Rickard and Kindeller both looked at each other in confusion.

The Emperor said to them. “Is there a place we can talk where no one can overhear us. This information is very… sensitive.”

“I have just the place,” Rickard said. He quickly cast a spell and opened a portal.

Minutes later all four found themselves standing in a room with no doors.

“So, this is the infamous room,” the Emperor looked around in wonder. “You know, I have never been in here before.”

“That’s because this is a private sanctuary for wizards of the highest order,” Rickard explained. “Although priests are also welcome here, if they have the power to get in.”

In fact, none of them apart from Rickard himself had ever been in this room. It was a long rectangular space with a high arching ceiling. The two long walls were lined with bookshelves stretching up out of reach of the average person and filled with books both old and new on every topic imaginable.

Kindeller stood, his mouth agape. He stood before a large rectangular table that was well over twelve feet in length. “By the Gods! Look at this table!”

It was not just a table, but a living map of the entire continent spread out from end to end. It was textured with mountains rising up and valleys cutting down into the table.

“I have heard rumors about it. But it’s even more impressive in person,” Rubico said.

“It does not get more private than this. We are the only ones here. There are no doors for servants to listen in,” Rickard Hermitech, Lord High Wizard stated. “Apparently, you have a secret for us. We are all ears.”

“Do you remember the Public House Conspiracy?” Xander asked the two men.

“Of course, everyone knows about it,” Kindeller said. “It was your conspiracy to overthrow Getta from within.”

“Yes, and it worked too,” Rickard added. “It led to a mob storming the palace and capturing Getta. They executed him that same night.”

“Well, when we took control of the palace and Valen was the protectorate, we took a look at the treasury,” Xander told them.

“And guess what we found?” Rubico added.

The two older men waited for elaboration.

“It was empty,” the Emperor said. “An entire year’s worth of taxes, gone.”

“Only… it wasn’t,” Rubico smirked.

“It had all be smuggled out of the city a month before Getta’s demise,” the Emperor explained.

Both men seemed shocked by this revelation.

“They divided it up into six different portions and hid each one in a separate location,” Rubico said.

“And so far, we have found four of them,” the Emperor said holding up his fingers. “So, you see, we don’t just have the current taxes to spend, but we have this large cache of gold and silver as well.”

Rubico added. “We have agents who are currently looking for the other two locations.”

There was a long moment in which Kindeller and Rickard discussed what they were just told. A fortune of gold and silver hidden by the previous government was not surprising and quite believable. Getta V was the kind of person who would do that. He was probably planning on using the money to bribe nobles or hire more mercenaries.

There were chairs and a sofa by a fire at the far end of the room from where the portal appeared, past the incredible magic table. They looked very comfortable. There was no fire in the fireplace, but the room was warm enough already. Although only Rickard knew where the room existed, it was obviously affected by the warm summer weather that had spread across the Empire in the pass few weeks.

“What do you think Rickard?” Kindeller asked him. Once they were seated. The Emperor and Rubico followed them over and sat with them.

“What? That Getta hid the treasury?” He questioned. “The only thing that surprises me about that is that the coin was still around. I assumed he had spent it already.”

“I concur,” Kindeller said to him. “I do have a question for his Imperial Majesty.”

The Emperor nodded his consent.

“If there is all of this extra coin, then where is it? Because it’s not in the treasury vault,” Kindeller asked.

“We set up new treasuries,” Xander explained. “Four of them so far in various locations across the Empire. I wanted the coin closer to where it will be needed. Sending money across the Empire in a cart to pay for projects when the roads are still being secured. Ridiculous.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“How are the funds accessed?” Rickard was curious.

“I write a note signed with my seal and signature. That note can be taken to any of the four locations and handed in for the coin,” Xander explained.

“This will go a long way to healing the Empire of Verant,” Rubico stated. “The money has been used in many ways already. Paying troops to secure the roads, hosting games, bringing in exotic products from all over Gaia. Keeping both the general public and the rich happy.”

“We have also been working on building a loyal following of spies,” the Emperor added. “The Order of the Red Dragon is part of it, but I have also been hiring assassins to eliminate Thaine family loyalists. This Empire is filled with traitors who will overthrow me if given a chance.”

“So, we created this system where the Empire can bank the money in multiple locations and cash it out with promissory notes,” Rubico explained.

“We plan on doing the same thing with the tax money as it is collected,” Xander added. “We want to keep it spread out in these various locations. Keeping it all in one location just doesn’t make sense any more.”

“It makes the money more fluid and faster to dispense without having to haul it all to one location,” Kindeller concluded. He looked like he was impressed.

“It’s genius,” Rickard had to admit.

“It’s a foresight we have not seen in a ruler in generations,” Kindeller stated.

“So, my Imperial Majesty, I just have one question,” Rickard said leaning forward in his chair. “How can we help you return this Empire to glory once again?”