On one of those shortest of days, good cheer across the realm, she took in the expected guest that, like her, had nowhere better to be. The fire crackled, bathing the room in warm hues, his drink like liquid amber as he swirled it, hers with a gentle steam rising from it as she took a sip.

“While the last year has been calmer than the year before, it certainly still felt busy,” the mayor said.

She tittered behind her cup, then took a sip. “I shall refrain from hosting too many bazaars of such a scale.”

He waved her off. “Pray do not think I am complaining, simply making a comment.”

Silence her reply, she sipped a little more before having a cracker. The spread on offer was nothing too extravagant; however, for her, that meant it was the quantity that had been reduced, not the quality.

“My Lady… if I may bring up something we discussed at this time last year?” he asked, his voice quieter than she was used to.

“Yes, everything is in motion. If I would die this moment, well, I am afraid Mr Mayor and Gianna should have to live through interesting times,” she said.

Although spoken as a joke, neither the mayor nor her maid laughed. “Please, My Lady, do not speak so lightly of such matters,” he said.

“It is precisely these matters which should be spoken lightly. For all I may plan, death is a most capricious friend, one whose arrival may never quite be predicted, but whose arrival will certainly come to pass for kings and beggars alike. However, I am a most thorough planner. Unlike others who would not dare comprehend their own death, I do, so it is that death will not be my end.”

He listened closely, then took a long sip. “My Lady, I am not sure such an answer reassures me.”

“It should. Everything I do from this moment forward is superfluous. I have achieved that which I wished to achieve. However, I cannot meet God until He calls for me, so I am afraid Mr Mayor and Gianna will have the pleasure of my company for a while longer,” she said.

This time, he did chuckle. “I hope to keep your company for many years still.”

She looked into her cup, a gentle smile lingering on her lips. “I would ask Mr Mayor to remember those words. These coming years, I shall be testing Mr Mayor.”

“Then I shall endeavour to pass such tests,” he said, an unmistakeable pride to his voice.

Thinking of that, she smiled. “Often is made mention of women’s fickleness, yet I know of nothing as mercurial as a man’s pride,” she said.

He laughed and then said, “I would give no objection to that.”

Silence followed as the two drank and she sometimes snacked. A comfortable silence, the evening long and they only had so much conversation to fill the empty hours.

Still, he was a creature of conversation, so converse he did. “My Lady, I would ask, not out of disagreement, is the situation in the city truly as you desire?”

She did not answer immediately, having another sip first and then handing her empty cup to her maid.

“Each group has their place. As we have discussed before, I have use of the Church for the delivery of charity to the people. The nobles bring structure. They will defer to me before siding with commoners. As for the guilds, I only find issue with them as they are trying to hold monopolies on goods that I wish to produce more of. They otherwise do fine work training their members towards mastering their crafts.”

Pausing there, she accepted her fresh cup of tea. After a sip, she carried on.

“What matters more than their individual merits is that we may now begin to chip away at their respective authorities. That is, we take from one and give to another and keep a little for ourselves.”

“To what end?” he asked, brow furrowed.

She softly smiled. “Indeed, to what end? I suppose I would ideally have everything under our control. What good others do, we may also provide. The others are useful as we may borrow their authority to assist with things we would like to do. However, as we gain authority, that becomes more of a nuisance than an advantage.”

Pausing there, she waved him off.

“My apologies. I am rather speaking in circles,” she said. After a sip of tea, she continued. “We currently lack authority, so we wish to use their authority to gradually shift authority to us, that we eventually have no need of sharing authority with them. Of course, I am using authority as a… euphemism. Powers, rights, responsibilities—these nebulous things that are half-intangible and exist more by inertia than legal documentation.”

“So then My Lady simply wishes to have complete control?” he asked.

She almost laughed. “The world is a vast and complex thing,” she said, giving her cup a gentle swirl. “I could perhaps manage my fief entirely if I so devoted myself. However, I would rather build institutions that exist to serve. The Church, the nobles, the guilds—they all exist to further themselves. Our society has thus been built around them. As such, there are limits and weaknesses to our society. At the simplest, I have mentioned the guilds and their monopolies, which limits our growth.”

Silence followed but for their sips of their respective drinks. Eventually, his brow smoothed out. “I hate to sound lacking in imagination, yet I cannot see how we would replace them,” he said, his voice thick with reluctance.

“It is reasonable to think that that which has yet to be done is impossible. However, it very much has been done,” she said, her light tone carrying the hint of a riddle.

He fell into thought once more. “Is My Lady speaking of the bazaar?” he tentatively asked.

“Indeed. Several of the committees existed as… experiments, shall we say?” she said, pausing to chuckle. “The reason why so little money had been misplaced is due to the efforts of one committee which maintained the accounts, including following up when the accounts did not line up. Another committee maintained something of a census, which recorded which businesses did what work for what projects.”

“As marvellous as those might be, I still fail to see how they would be at all profitable,” he said.

She again felt the urge to laugh. “Well, that is because we have no need to be profitable. Does Mr Mayor forget who I am? It is my right to collect taxes, as it is my right to spend them. However, I am not a frivolous person, so I would collect and spend them in pursuit of prosperity.”

Her sigh mingled with the steam from her cup.

“Consider the repairs to the southern road. It shall cost us quite the sum, which other lords may well wish to recoup by charging a toll. However, is the point of the road not to bring more trade to our city? A toll would run counter to that. So it must be that, if we are to do it, it is either because, in doing so, we will be able to grow the city sufficiently to gather more taxes to cover the cost; or that doing nothing would shrink the city, reducing taxes by a similar amount. Of course, the truth is a mix of both.”

She took a sip.

“However, it is also the case that collecting taxes to then spend means we are giving people employment, both as road-builders and the merchants who bring in the materials. It is not sufficient to simply think of the road itself.”

After a sip, he chuckled and held up his glass. “My Lady has grander thoughts than any I have met.”

“To consider this grand, Mr Mayor has surely led a sheltered life,” she said.

“Perhaps I have,” he said and gave another chuckle. “I found it strange at first how My Lady seemed to conflate her fief with the city; however, I now begin to see.”

She waved him off. “It has always simply been that it is to my advantage,” she said.

He smiled and said no more.

“Such a topic… is this truly what Mr Mayor wishes to hear about for his present?” she asked.

“My Lady’s thoughts do fascinate me, regardless of the topic,” he said, his eyes pinched by his broad smile.

A smile touched her lips that quickly hollowed, her gaze falling from him to her cup. “An interesting topic, then, is that the Poles and Greeks have brokered a peace.”

“Is that not a good thing? We have missed the steady shipments of food from the east,” he said.

“I would say it is not a good thing that two of the Empire’s enemies now find themselves at peace and with capable, experienced armies,” she said lightly.

A wrinkle spoiled his brow. “The Poles I understand, but how is it that the Greeks would be our enemy?”

“There has been a religious tension between the Austrians and the Balkans for a while now. If the Greeks weigh in, one of the Balkans will force the matter. In such a case, we would have to support the Austrians.”

“Really? I would think having a weakened neighbour to our advantage,” he said.

Chuckling, she held out her cup. Her maid took it and, soon enough, brought it back, once more full and steaming.

“What do the Swiss and the Austrians have in common? Their land is rather defensible. Of course, the Empire could have easily conquered them regardless. It is the case, though, that, being independent, they are more invested in their army than they would otherwise be. The cost of their armies outweighs whatever taxes the King could leverage from them.

“What it also means is that, if we defend their sovereignty, then any enemy would have to cross their lands first. Any devastation falls to their people. Perhaps, they may be persuaded to ally against us one day; however, we have a… thorough understanding of the terrain by now. As long as we act swiftly, the land will still be defensible for us.”

He nodded along at first, then fell into his drink, a wrinkle once more upon his brow. “My Lady is well versed in these matters.”

“I did spend half my childhood expecting to one day become queen,” she said lightly.

His mouth thinned into an awkward smile. As if eager to avoid that topic, he attempted a thought of his own. “The Empire then keeps the eastern border for a similar reason? That is, the Bohemian Duchy is loosely lined by hills and mountains.”

She gestured, tipping her hand. “The situation inside the Empire is a little more complicated. Bohemia is indeed highly defensible, which is why Bavaria is ruled by a Marquess. It may technically be a lower rank; however, there is the expectation of lesser dues such that a larger army may be maintained. The Duke of Bohemia tends to have a lot of ceremonial roles too, that he must spend much time in the capital.”

“Not this year,” the mayor said.

She gave a smile before having another sip. “We should temporarily expand the bombards to thirty,” she softly said.

Silence followed for a long while. “My Lady wishes to become involved in the war?” he asked.

“That would depend which war Mr Mayor has in mind,” she said, pausing to chuckle. “I cannot know everything, so I may only prepare for those eventualities which require our involvement. Pray be at ease, I do not intend to be wasteful, simply that there are investments worth making. I have said before that an unused army is a costly expense, so too is replacing an army. It must be used with care and purpose and that is exactly what I have in mind.”

The mayor listened, a chill dripping down his spine. He had been privy to the reports from when her army had last been used. However, he had never disagreed with either her methods or her results.

He let out a long breath, then asked, “Does My Lady expect the Poles or the Greeks to be the ones to break the peace?”

“I cannot say. It would be to our advantage if it is the Poles, that the Duke would be more amenable to a ceasefire in that instance. However, if it is the Greeks, it would be an easy war that we would join simply to give our soldiers experience. I dare say the Empire would not even join so long as the Hungarians are wary of having Greek troops pillage their land on their way to the war. To reach Wien from the south, it would be a miraculous achievement.”

“Is that so? Now that I consider it, though, why would the Poles attack us?” he asked.

She had a sip of her tea and watched the world through the steam. “That is a complicated question,” she said. “To begin with, King Sigismund is a capable ruler, despite his unexpected ascension. It is clear that his upbringing has influenced his rule. His branch of the family dealt mostly with trade, so his goals are to that end.”

Silence settled for a moment as she collected her thoughts.

“We look to his first conquest, he wrested control of Gdańsk from the Baltic trade league. From there, he pushed around the bay to Królewiec, securing Polish control even as the people along the coast are very much German. While the Empire put pressure on him to return the cities’ independence, he sought an alliance with Charles of Sweden and then later his son Albert. This alliance was built upon bypassing Danish control of access to the North Sea. In the last few decades, a lot of Polish goods go through Sweden to the French and British.”

She took a sip.

“After that, he understandably had to react to the circumstances of the time. Once peace fell, though, he began to pressure south. It is clear to me that he hopes to join the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, if not take even Constantinople and establish trade with Alexandria. Such a position would also give him a monopoly on grain coming from the east. In that case, he would have a rather strong position in any negotiations with his neighbours.”

This time, she did not interrupt the silence that fell, which thus spurred him to ask the burning question: “Pray tell, what has that to do with Bohemia?”

Her lips curled. “He knows his neighbours are not stupid,” she whispered. “If he did achieve his goals, then we would simply ally to crush him and it would be easy, so he needs to approach his goals in such a way to not allow that.

“While I cannot say for certain, as I see it, he would seek to take Bohemia in a swift war and then hold a defensive line along the border with Bavaria. By the time the Empire’s army arrives to drive him off, he then negotiates a deal where he withdraws with a guarantee of peace between our countries for a decade or so. Of course, he will have thoroughly pillaged the land by then, which would help to fund another war with the Greeks.”

She had another sip.

“I could see him making an accursed deal with the Turks, what better way to preserve his gains than to create a bigger threat for us to worry about. The Pope would surely rally us all if the Muslims dared set foot on Europe once more. In such a case, would the Muslims not rally too? By the time such an affair is finished, the ink on the new maps would be long dry, the Polish borders well settled.”

The mayor listened to it all, enthralled. “My Lady thinks highly of King Sigismund.”

“Do I?” she said.

His throat suddenly felt rather dry. “Do you not?” he asked.

“The more important question, if he does follow this path, is whether or not he is even aware of my existence.”

“If he is not?” the mayor asked.

She smiled. “Then he soon shall be.”