Phase Three Complete!

Andrew and Asoka sat across from each other as they played a game of chess, Asoka moved his Queen, "You have gotten better, Andrew."

Andrew moved his bishop and smiled, "You haven't won a game against me in days, Asoka, I haven't really gotten better, it's that you have been sticking to the same strategy and expecting different results."

Asoka frowned and then tossed the board and grumbled, "To hell with this game. I want to return to my Empire. I have been away so long that others will have maneuvered themselves into my Palace."

Andrew got up, set the table right, slowly gathered all the pieces and the game board. He sat back down and said, "I understand what you are going through, at least you are intact, though, right?"

He frowned and then ranted, "All of my servants left me to live here in Connaissance. They had a little taste of the freedom they found here and refused to serve me anymore. Without my guards, they treat me like an unwanted husband. How can you live in such a place? Don't you yearn for the power to have anything you want? The respect that comes with the power of being the King?"

Andrew nodded and sighed, "I miss the respect and having people do what I ask when I asked it, but I don't yearn for that power anymore. I had my chance and I didn't use it wisely. I thought only of personal glory. I didn't put my people first and that's why I am living the life of military man instead of the life of a King."

Asoka looked at him with a face full of disgust, "If you want to be a King, you don't wait for a chance, you take it with your own hands and make it yours. I killed my own father when I was sixteen and then I had all of his advisors killed. I built my Empire one province at a time. Bribing those I could bribe and killing those I couldn't. I took a defeated and scattered nation and built it into an empire with my own ambition. You, what did you do? You killed the King and tossed his daughter out of the country. You didn't even have the balls to kill her and it came back to bite you in your ass. It's like you never really wanted to be the King at all and just took the role because you felt you had no choice."

Andrew smiled sadly, "I didn't want to kill the King. I was forced to do it by my grandfather. I had to kill my beloved sister as well. It was that or he was going to have it done himself through torture. I was able to give them both a clean quick death. I swore to my sister that I would keep her daughter safe. I thought that by taking the throne for myself and letting her life the good life in the north as a city ruler she would be spared from the kind of thing that cost my sister and her husband their lives. After becoming King instead of enjoying it, I felt a heavy pressure to be more and do more than my brother-in-law had done, only I wasn't his match. I couldn't move the people. The Nobility fought me on everything, the Church turned their back on me, all I had was a title and an army."

Asoka laughed, "No wonder you were such a weak King."

Andrew smiled and shook his head, "If I could go back in time to that moment right now, I would have killed my grandfather instead of my brother in law. I was destined to be a knight, not a King."

Asoka laughed loud and then as he calmed himself he asked, "Hey, did you hope to marry that Sapphic Empress?"

Andrew sighed and nodded, "I did. I thought that maybe someday I would be worthy of her, but it was all a dream."

Asoka laughed again, "You would never have been able to have a woman like her, even if she did like men. She is like me, ruthless and ambitious. As long as she lives she will have power because she knows that to have the power you have to take it. Look around you, this is her real power. It isn't some title granted by men, it is this army, these weapons, and the intelligence she knows how to build to support it. When you thought you were saving her by sending her into exile she used you as a shield to build real power. Do you understand?"

Andrew made a face and then said, "Then what is the appeal of Teslaimia to her?"

Asoka laughed again, "Do you think that woman isn't ruthless and ambitious like her Empress? That girl, Teslaimia, might even be more ruthless and ambitious than your Empress."

Andrew made a disbelieving face, "You are only saying that because she refused to marry you."

"You think so? Do you know the shop called Mia's Secret? Did you know that she owned it and that it was an intelligence-gathering agency? I saw how well the shop was doing so I made my own copy of it to use as a cover for my own intelligence gathering and she crushed it before I had even managed to get any real intelligence. She cut off my supplier and then her assassins killed my staff one by one. At first, I thought it was the Empire's people, but one of my girls made it back alive with the truth." He sighed and then said, "She is the perfect woman. I wonder if she is even really Sapphic? A woman like that, she is probably whatever she needs to be in order to get what she wants."

Andrew thought for a moment, "She came here after Emperor Pao'ko-olo refused to marry her because he wanted to marry Emily."

Asoka laughed, "You see? That woman probably came here and saw that Emily was attracted to her and decided to use her to get married to that idiot." He thought for a moment, "When she saw that Emily was the real deal she jumped off his ship and stuck with her, see? That's what I mean. That woman is ambition personified."

"Do you think she is a threat to Emily?" Andrew wondered out loud.

Asoka shrugged and said, "Isn't she right where she wanted to be? Empress of a powerful nation with her own power base in the shadows in case she needs to protect it. Not that it matters, your Empress Emily is not some potted flower who would sit back if there was such danger so close to her. It is my guess that she has already known about Mia's Secret and chose to turn a blind eye to it so long as it wasn't pointed in her direction."

"How can you be sure?"

Asoka laughed and said, "Aren't you still breathing?"

*****

Mr. Duke proudly walked into Emily's office as Teslaimia and Roland were helping her pack up her personal effects into boxes, "Your Majesty I have great news!"

Emily was filling a box from one of her desk drawers as she looked up at him with a smile, "Well, don't hold me in suspense."

"Phase three is complete and we just broke ground on phase four!" He beamed happily.

Emily was a little shocked, "So fast? That's a year ahead of schedule. They didn't cut any corners?"

Mr. Duke laughed, "No, nothing like that. The dam project has attracted so many laborers that we had the extra manpower to keep workers employed around the clock."

Emily smiled brightly, "That's the best news today! Tomorrow you'll be able to move into this office, Randolf, they are installing a far speak to the palace today so you'll have a direct line to me. I want you to have the full confidence to run the city without me micromanaging you. All that I require is that you stick to my established plan for the city. If you have ideas for ways to improve things, you don't need to run them by me, just make it happen."

"I have opened a few branches of my companies around the Empire, Mortimer is taking the lead on running them right now. The Governors are taking full advantage of the new rules to build their capitals to the Connaissance standard. Within the next year, you'll be starting to see a drastic improvement for the lives of the people of the Empire." Mr. Duke smiled happily.

Emily grinned along with Mr. Duke, "When I first arrived, did you ever imagine that you'd be in such a position after just a few year's time?"

He laughed, "The me from back then only thought of profit and loss. I didn't have the ability to see such a future."

Teslaimia spoke up, "Emily you are incapable of understanding the impact you have on people's lives because you just think it's normal to be able to manipulate millions with a little charm, reason, and logic."

Emily stuck her tongue out at Teslaimia.

Teslaimia shook her head and looked at Mr. Duke, "I'm serious, she has no idea that what she considers casual leadership most of us see as shocking world-shaking new ideas. Speaking of that, how are things going in Injia?"

Emily shrugged and said, "The Governor of Injia has said that the population seems to run itself, for the most part, they had a very easy to control social structure. The only concern he had was that they have a food shortage there. There are two many people for the land to support. That may be why they had such a large standing army. They had too many men who had no sense of purpose without the military. They have a large diamond mine there, several gold mines, but mainly iron and coal. Since we have an abundance of food here we have started food for iron and coal trade between our two nations. One thing they do have a lot of is tea, so I made sure to make that trade as well."

Teslaimia grinned, "Speaking of that, we haven't been to Dan's place lately."

Emily frowned, "I feel bad for doing that to him because we can't be subtle when we go around town anymore. The Royal guard has to close the street down around any place we go."

Teslaimia nodded and said, "True, but he seems like the type that enjoys showy stuff like that."

Emily looked at her old desk and started to think about the last couple of years they had spent in this office, "I'm going to miss this space. But it wasn't the same lately." She looked at the empty chair Jon always sat in.

Teslaimia nodded and sighed, "I think it's probably for the best that we said goodbye and went our separate ways."

Emily pushed the box she had filled out to the center of the room and said, "Roland, would you please see that the rest of this is moved to my office at the Palace, please? We need to get out of here. It's getting too stuffy in here."

Roland bowed to her and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. Shall I call for Sir Killington?" Emily nodded at him and then took a last look out of the window to the airship port. Roland spoke up, "Your Majesty, fear not, you have an excellent view of the city and the airship port from the roof of the Palace as well. I have taken the liberty to arrange for a new office space to be built on the roof. It will have a patio door and a place for tea in the fresh air."

Emily turned and smiled at Roland, "Thank you, Roland, I had forgotten what it's like to have a truly capable butler."

Teslaimia chuckled and said, "Now we just have to help remind Her Majesty to let her people do the work so she can enjoy herself more."

Emily smirked and said, "Aren't I goofing off right now?"

Teslaimia laughed and said, "Your servants could have packed up your office for you, you chose to work instead."

Emily smiled, "I wanted to spend time with my memories of this place, is that so wrong?"

Teslaimia shook her head and smirked, "All two years of it?"

Emily sighed, "It felt longer. I guess a lot has happened in that short time." She picked up her cane as Sit Killington and his men walked up to the door, "Then shall we go?"

Sir Killington bowed and said, "Your Majesty, your carriage awaits."