The simple hallway held no secrets. Everything was either brick or mortar, at least on the ground floor; the upstairs made use of structural timber and wooden flooring. Sunlight and a spring breeze fell through the open slots where windows would eventually go—stained glass depictions, the only luxury.

She inspected it all with a glance. If there was anything she saw that had gone unnoticed by those she sent before, well, they would not be sent again. Her presence this day took on a ceremonial role. Although not yet time to open the “everyday school”, as she had taken to calling it, there was only superficial building work remaining to be done.

“Does My Lady have any objections?” The deacon spoke with an even tone and did not quite meet her gaze.

She waited a moment, then said, “Everything looks to be in order, Mr Schmitt. I would have the kitchens furnished first that food may be prepared fresh for the workers. After that, the bedrooms, that your sisters in faith may settle in. I would say we may open at that time, the learning rooms gradually furnished as orders are fulfilled. It is better to ease into these things, is it not?”

He gave an attempt at a smile, his mouth barely moving, then bowed his head. “My Lady knows best.”

“If only I did,” she replied with a light smile. That returned to something polite after a long breath. “Has sir much experience with teaching children?” she asked.

“Although I have experience with attempting to teach children, I must confess it is likely no coincidence that I am rarely asked to do so,” he said.

Even though he had spoken without a hint of humour, she gently laughed with a hand over her mouth. “I see. Well, it is like this. We are to educate simple children, thus it should be a simple education. I recall that, when proposing this idea, I mentioned wanting to teach reading, writing, and enough counting to work in a shop, as well as the Church’s teachings.”

She paused there and waited for his small nod before continuing.

“Does sir think it is more important for a person to intimately know the Lord’s teachings in their own words, or for them to have a vague understanding of the teachings in the Church’s Latin?”

Her quietly spoken question hung in the air, neither of their faces changing, until finally her smile grew.

“I hope sir will forgive my blasphemy,” she said without a hint of remorse. “It is that, when pondering this matter of teaching, I considered that we should cleanly separate each topic. That is, are we expecting too much of these children to learn both Latin and the teachings at the same time?”

His face still showed nothing, yet she knew his heart surely pounded, the growing silence all she needed to hear.

“Of course, I do not wish to provoke. What I am proposing is simply that the children should be eased into it. As an example, take the Ten Commandments—would it not be easier to learn them first in German and then later in Latin?”

Still, he stood there as if a statue.

She gave a small smile. It certainly took a measure of control for a sinner to so calmly enter the Church; then again, she would like to meet he who was without sin and give him the first stone to throw.

“Do bring this matter to the Bishop. I would not act on this without the Church’s blessing, after all. Even if he thinks it necessary to personally travel to Rome to ask the Pope, I am in no rush,” she said with a lightness to her voice.

Yet he did not laugh. “Understood, My Lady.”

“I shall be consulting with accomplished tutors on the matter of educating those without promise. Once we reach an understanding, we would present materials to aid with teaching. There is also quite the discussion on whether the students here would be responsible with slate-and-chalk or if wax tablets may serve them better. Oh, on a similar topic, music is often taught with a large slate upon which the tutor draws notes that may be written and erased as needed—we are rather split on whether it would be at all useful for other topics.”

She paused there to sigh, then added, “I have sent our notes thus far to some who teach in less intimate settings than tutoring, that they would know better. Their advice should be of great help in making the final decisions.”

“My Lady has certainly treated this endeavour with utmost care,” he said.

With a bright smile, she caught his eye with her own, holding him for a moment before letting her gaze trail across the brickwork. “Of all that which the Lord gives me, I would treasure. I have a mind, thus I must think; I have a heart, thus I must care; I have life, thus I must have faith. How could this be considered a good work if the Lord knows I wasted His gifts in enacting it? Surely, He made me capable so that I may accomplish His deeds.”

The deacon returned to being a statue.

She could only chuckle, finding a gap where a window would go to look out. The effects of the Grand Bazaar echoed. Of the groups contracted for building at that time, the one which had been most thorough in their work was the one she had hired for this job. Outside, she saw a handful of “stalls” across the square, these kinds of amateur merchants a common occurrence thereafter.

Then she saw someone familiar who headed her way. “Ah, Miss Gianna has come to join us,” she said, clapping her hands together.

As she turned around, she did not fail to notice that the statue now more closely resembled marble.

“Please, do greet her. She says sir had always been kind to her—and her mother,” Julia said, her gentle smile appearing oh-so-innocent.

His smile looked far from convincing to her. “Kindness is its own reward,” he said, his voice giving away nothing. “If there is nothing else to discuss, I would begin to draft up the orders.”

“Well, if it does not please sir to be idle, then please do not feel so obliged,” she said.

He did not hesitate, immediately striding off towards the back exit through where the kitchen would be. She watched him leave with an amused smile, which turned softer when her maid’s footsteps approach from the other direction.

“My Lady.”

“Mr Schmitt had something to attend to,” Julia said; her maid’s lips didn’t so much as twitch. “Pray tell.”

Gianna bowed and offered a sealed letter, saying, “It is from the west.”

Julia took it, then pulled out a letter opener from her sleeve. With a flick, the wax seal broke, and she returned the letter opener to its place. Her gaze darted across the short message therein.

“It is fitting for you to deliver this letter,” she said, her lips curled.

“Is that so?” Gianna said.

Julia put the letter back in the envelope and slipped it into a pocket. “It is—does my maid recall hearing of Count Hulma’s passing?”

“Yes.”

“His father has now also passed,” Julia said, then began to walk back towards the building’s entrance. “Of course, that is not unexpected. His health had been waning with age and the untimely loss of his son certainly would not have helped.”

Gianna said nothing, not that Julia expected a reply.

Outside the building was her carriage. However, she did not go to it yet. There were a handful of stalls across the square and she picked one to inspect first. On the way, her pace an amble, she said, “The King has only now signed peace with King Sigismund, would he contest the inheritance of a small county? It is certainly an unsightly thorn to have any place amongst us under foreign rule.”

Arriving at the stall, her idle thoughts paused there.

Behind the stall was an older girl, somewhere in her teens by Julia’s guess, who said, “H-hello, ma’am, may I help y-you?”

“Is miss minding the stall for her mother?” Julia softly asked, a gentle smile on her lips.

The girl’s head lowered, all the answer Julia needed.

“These braids are rather charming—how much for two?” Julia asked, already turning to Gianna.

“Th-they’re two kreuzer each, or three for f-five.”

Julia held out her hand and Gianna dutifully handed over a coin purse. “Such a clever deal, I must have three.”

“Th-thank you, ma’am,” the girl said, bowing deeply.

The braids were simply made from some strings coloured with dull dyes. Still, Julia took a long moment, acting as if hesitant over which to choose, until finally she picked out three.

“Gianna, your hand.” Her maid obliged and she tied the braid as if a bracelet. “Oh, how wonderful! Pray tie mine too that we match.” This time, she held out her hand and her maid again obliged, tying the braid around her wrist with utmost care. “Now I simply must think of what to do with the last…” she said, then turned back to the girl. “Good luck with miss’s business.”

The girl hurriedly bowed again. “Th-thank you, ma’am.”

At the other stalls, she found similar little novelties, albeit not being sold by someone so young. With her small collection, she finally returned to her carriage. As the carriage trundled away, she waved to the stalls, the braid still around her wrist.

Once she brought her hand back inside, her maid closed the curtain and then took a seat beside her mistress.

“Does My Lady wish to remove it?” Gianna asked.

Julia stared at the braid for a moment longer before answering. “Have you ever considered whether we have failed God, or if God has failed us?”

Gianna didn’t hesitate to answer. “I have not,” she whispered.

“Good. There are more productive blasphemies to ponder,” Julia replied, her quiet voice tinged with a humour that didn’t reach her maid.

Silence followed for a short while, then she continued her much-earlier thoughts.

“I expect the King shall negotiate an exchange of the disputed county for land by the border. Prince Hector, in the little of his ambitions I had been privy to, desired to consolidate his holdings. That is partly why the divorce came as such a surprise: I thought he intended to have an heir through me that would bring Augstadt under his control. Perhaps he found that I would not suitably submit to him and so he now intends to take my land more directly.

“Well, that is an unimportant matter. I would rather consider how it is the King seeks to resolve this issue and the consequences of such decisions. Not even that, simply that such an issue exists is in itself something to consider. There are two towns in particular in the contested county which have guilds with members I would like to… invite to our city.”

She paused there and looked at her maid with a wry smile.

“My apologies, I am treating you as if the mayor.”

Gianna lowered her head. “If My Lady wants to speak, I will listen.”

Julia gave a chuckle and then returned to her monologue.

“Regardless, I have other things upon which to focus. The negotiations with Grand Duke Charles are progressing well. Although reluctant to part with his iron, he is eager to expand his army with how the Greeks are posturing, and we have those capable of turning iron into weapons. However, I believe what he found most persuasive is that it would give us a vested interest in the mine’s security.”

A moment of thought passed.

“That is, our efforts against the Poles did not go unnoticed. While there is no border between the Poles and Austrians, there is no love either, both sides with a history of weighing in on each other’s wars. Of course, I would not expect the Grand Duke to be swayed by such pettiness. It is rather that he should be aware of our willingness to provide assistance. While I may not have given my word, I believe I made it suitably clear how important the mine would be to us.”

Another silence fell, this time for longer, her eyes closed and breaths deep. The carriage rumbled along, muffled chatter and shouts leaking in from outside.

“It is the case that life is, as always, serendipitous for those who are open-minded. In truth, I thought it would be necessary to keep Lord Bavaria placated for access to Austrian iron. As it turns out, Prince Friedrich has been amenable, which is much preferable for my plans. Grenzsteinland may offer little; however, the access it provides is much greater.”

Stopping there, she let out a tittering laughter that trailed off into a smile.

“The Nelli family have taught me much and I could see much profit to be made from the disorganised Italian cities. Alas, profit is… an illusion.”

“Why is that?”

Julia stilled, then turned to her maid with a broad smile. “Oh my, have I caught your interest?” she whispered.

With her head turned, Gianna only showed her mistress a slight sight of embarrassment.

“To put the matter simply, the Nelli family have spent generations building such extensive connections in both business and politics, their sons managing a vast network of companies, their daughters keeping their friends close…. Yet I could end them on a whim,” Julia said, no trace of pride nor arrogance in her voice, treating the matter as if speaking of the weather.

“Truly?” Gianna asked.

Julia gave a chuckle, then asked, “Surely it would not be the case that my maid harbours resentment against her mother’s family for leaving her to suffer such a fate?”

Silence was the answer Gianna gave and Julia accepted it.

“Of all people in the world, you know best that there is nothing I am not capable of, and that there is nothing I am not capable of. With the mayor, I must maintain an air of righteousness and assume his loyalty to the Nelli family. However, if you wish it, I shall crush them as soon as I may put in place a suitable plan. Otherwise, I shall allow them to live until such a time that they have no further use—and no longer.”

“My Lady is too kind,” Gianna said.

Julia had to laugh at that. “It is a shame that they shall not know of your mercy until such a time that it has run out,” she said, ending with a sigh.

A longer silence fell after that. While the city was not the largest, a place to educate the poor would hardly be suited to the part of the city where the rich lived, and her residence was beyond even that, outside the city’s walls. So that the muffled chatter and shouts eventually faded away.

“Upon our return, I would complete the arrangements for the social season. It truly is the case that I go through such an amount of paper that I should have a mill for it built,” she said, ending in a light tone, then continued more seriously. “However, these things have their order. We lack such expertise. Ah, how often I have to say that dreadful phrase….”

The carriage came to a stop with a shudder, the familiar exchange between driver and guards leaking through, then the carriage jerked back to movement.

“I wish it was the case that these geniuses of architecture were as simple men as they proclaimed. If the university could begin construction this moment, I would not care for the cost. Such men, though, are like a natural force, following an ephemeral schedule, and we may only wait for the stars to suitably align to satisfy their whims.”

The carriage once again stopped, this time with a finality. Shortly thereafter the door opened and a hand offered to help Julia down.

Outside, she did not rush to enter her residence. Even after her maid joined her, she stood there and simply observed the building. “One must wonder why it is that, of all obsessions men may have, none see the worth in their home? It is always to discover such mysteries of the world and so they travel in search of divine revelation, or it is that they must conquer their neighbours and beyond, to rule over those with little value but for a name on a census. That they wish to be Caesar and carelessly forget that their beloved Roman Empire began as Rome and even that took more than a day to build.”

A sigh slipped from her lips, yet her posture remained as poised.

“There is no greater omen of what is to come than that I must consult with those long dead to learn. Whether it is how to build a road or how to win a war, no expert alive may compare to the scant few relics of antiquity which have persisted. Oh how I wish I could speak to those ancient authors and learn all that they would teach….”

Another sigh slipped out, then finally her feet began to move and those staff around followed her.

“If I should have no other legacy, at least I should leave this world a better place than I entered it.”