Cordelian watched as Fornulus leaned back in his ornate chair and sighed as he lowered the parchment to the table. He, Cordelian, and Vicca were in the private office of the Doukar, the latter two having finally managed to get Fornulus to sit down to do some work for once. Cordelian had no doubt Fornulus was already tired of sitting at this table. Their father had sat right there for the best part of every day, doing the work required to run the empire without complaint. Fornulus could barely handle an hour a day of actual work.

"Oh my, oh my, this really is a problem," Fornulus said, fatutously. The great fool couldn’t understand what the scroll said and was bluffing in the hope one of them would take the lead.

Vicca snatched up the parchment before Cordelian could reach for it. Apparently, the ignorant woman didn't realize that as Eukrates, Cordelian was already aware of its contents. Almost nothing reached the Doukar without passing through the Eukrates.

"It's a tricky dilemma, Your Exaltedness. If you were to side with the family of Ragnos, you would upset the family of Euphrostos, and vice-versa," Cordelian said.

Vicca didn't seem to notice that he already knew what the issue was without reading the scroll. The Empress was still reading the document, trying to catch up to their conversation. She was obviously desperate to try to preempt any advice he might give Fornulus, fearing he would give purposely bad advice. Which, to be fair to her, he often did. Today though, he didn't want to give Fornulus any advice at all.

"Which of the families is it worse to make angry, Cord?"

What a way for the Doukar to refer to the Eukrates.

"All this fighting over who owns a field," Vicca muttered.

"Hard to say, Your Exaltedness. Both families are of the utmost importance to the Empire. Euphrostos owns a great deal of costal land, and his family's holdings include many deep-water docks to the west which are vital for trade with the western provinces. Ragnos' holdings are inland and contain several tin mines. The importance of tin needs no explanation." Cordelian wasn't sure if Fornulus did, in fact, understand the importance of tin.

Fornulus sighed again. "And whichever one of them I give this blasted field to, the other will be mad at me."

"I'm afraid so. The lot of the Doukar is not an easy one. I don't envy you, Your Exaltedness."

"It would be nice if you could just deal with these problems for me brother."

This was Cordelian's eventual plan, but the time was not ripe yet. He didn't want a half-hearted power palmed off to him from Fornulus which could be taken back. He wanted to wrest it away from Fornulus permanently.

"Deciding disputes is part of the Doukar's duties." Cordelian noted.

"Why do they even want this field so bad?" Fornulus asked him.

"I couldn't say, Your Exaltedness." Cordelian lied. "You know how patros are, always arguing over these obscure issues. Probably it's some family dispute going back centuries."

Fornulus grunted in assent. Their father had often said similar things.

Vicca broke in, having finished the scroll. "You should give the disputed land to Euphrostos and his family, my love. His docks are used for the trade routes to Hagor and Melanthoros. We have enough stockpiles of bronze for our soldiers, so the tin mines aren't as important right now. We can make it up to Ragnos and her family later."

"Um, do you think that's right Cord?"

"I was about to suggest siding with Ragnos. It's true that trade to our western provinces is important, but Ragnos mostly sells her tin to Bithia. If she were to cut her shipments, it would anger Bithia, and they would be less able to contain the Circiniads to the south. An international issue is more pressing than a domestic one." Cordelian had prepared opposing reasons if Vicca had suggested the opposite course of action.

"Ugh." Fornulus said. "It's just a field, right? All this work over a field."

Vicca looked triumphant. "My lord Eukrates, Ragnos is Markos' sister, is she not?"

"Markos? Oh right, Theo's husband. Poor chap, what a shame he died." Fornulus said.

"Is she? The thought had quite slipped my mind," Cordelian said.

"I would not wish to presume, but perhaps your own personal biases are getting in the way of a fair judgment? It is of course admirable for you to defend the interests of your family. Your Excellency," Vicca said.

"Hmm, she might be right Cord." Fornulus mused while Vicca smirked behind him. Cordelian bowed his head, pretending to look chastened, although he'd already anticipated this discussion. Dim-witted puppets.

Vicca thought she had gotten the best of him. It wounded his pride slightly – his judgments were always fair, and he didn't care about dead Markos – but he wanted to lose some credibility in Fornulus' eyes. From time to time he needed Fornulus to ignore his suggestions, in order to ensure the blame for any blundering would fall on Fornulus alone.

"Perhaps the Empress is right and my personal feelings have clouded my judgment on this matter. In that case, I wholeheartedly agree with her suggestion to give the land to Euphrostos."

A suspicious look flashed across the Empress' face. She was worried about how quickly he had given in. Ironically, her determination to avoid being manipulated by him made her so predictable that he found it easy to manipulate her. The woman was so provincial. She was not capable of facing opponents of his level.

"On second thoughts, my love, perhaps the Eukrates was right in the first place. Perhaps we should side with Ragnos." Her face was a picture of worry and indecision. She couldn't decide what Cordelian wanted. A slack-jawed country woman would never be able to figure it out.

"Vicca you're no help at all! Now you two have swapped positions. How am I supposed to decide?" Fornulus whined.

"The lot of the Doukar is not an-" Cordelian began.

"You already said that." Fornulus snapped.

"Deciding disputes is part of the Dou-"

"And that!" He sighed. "Fine, I will make the decision, since I am Doukar after all. Let's just, I don't know, split the land between the two of them."

Fornulus was so pleased with himself, like a child who had just managed to fasten the clasp on his cloak for the first time.

"That's not a plan I would recommend. I'm not sure..." Cordelian hesitated. His disapproval convinced the Empress, and she quickly latched onto to it, encouraging Fornulus.

Soon enough the two of them settled it, over his hesitating disagreement, the order was drawn up, and Cordelian dismissed. Fornulus was almost gloating at having come up with a better plan than his brilliant younger brother.

As Cordelian walked away down the corridor back to the Eukrates' chambers, Agathio loyally following him, he chuckled lightly to himself. Another day of good work, bringing him closer to the crowns. What a pair of buffoons. Splitting the land between the families was the absolute worst decision. What both the patros families wanted was to mine the land, which was rich in silver ore. They hadn't admitted this to the Doukar because they were afraid the crowns would annex the land to claim the silver for the palace, or at least tax them heavily. Cordelian knew this because another neighbor of theirs was a good friend of his family and had informed them about the silver some months ago.

Owning only half of the land was useless, as you wouldn't be able to follow the lines of ore if they crossed into the other's land. They’d have to dig competing mines and get into who knows what tangle beneath the ground. These two families, who had a centuries long grudge between them, like most near neighbors, would have to work together in order to mine the ore, or give up on it. So splitting the land would irritate both families and make Fornulus look weak and indecisive. Which, naturally, was exactly what Cordelian wanted. He'd even gotten himself recorded as disagreeing with the decision. Later, once Fornulus had forgotten about it, Cordelian would announce some better decision to save the day and please both families.

That night Vicca sat in a heavily padded armchair with her sleeping infant daughter in her arms, listening to her husband, His Supreme Exaltedness of the Greatest Empire Ever Known, whine about how hard his life of unfathomable luxury and power was. At least he had reserved this complaining for when they were alone in their chambers. It was difficult not to roll her eyes. Instead of expressing her true feelings, she nodded and made noncommittal noises of sympathy. Her boys were playing outside the chamber in the playroom; she could hear their yells occasionally. They took after Fornulus too much, and wearied her, although of course she did love them.

She listened to her husband partly out of duty, and partly because from time to time she picked up some useful tidbits from him. This was one such time.

"-and then the old geezer wouldn't shut up about becoming a Majester, which is just a ceremonial position you know, so why he even cares I don't know. On and on he goes until everybody was damn near falling asleep. Afterwards Cordelian told me to make him a Majester just to get him to go away. Can't argue with that!"

Vicca smiled to herself as an idea formed in her head, a small way to undermine Cordelian.

A servant came in to announce the arrival of the Milem, Second Princess Meronion. Vicca frowned slightly, as she never felt entirely comfortable around the Milem. Meronion looked down on her.

"It's rather late for a visit, isn't it?" She said.

Fornulus sighed. "You know how Mer is."

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Almost immediately afterwards Meronion stomped in and gave her a cold look before saluting her elder brother. Vicca wondered uncomfortably if the Milem had heard her.

"Oh sister, what is it now?" Fornulus said, once they'd completed the formal greetings.

"I want to talk about Euphastolon."

"I thought we all tried to avoid doing that as much as possible," Vicca quipped. Meronion's head whipped around to her, and Vicca could see her struggling to contain her response. Vicca found it highly satisfying to watch the other woman realize she couldn't treat Vicca as she'd used to, now that she was Empress.

"He's doing well, isn't he?" Fornulus stifled a yawn, sinking deeper into his chair.

"He's laz- not spending his time well, Your Exaltedness. I was thinking it was time he served the empire. An actual job."

"I don't mind." Fornulus waved her off. "Whatever you think is best."

"The order should come from you, Your Exaltedness," Meronion said testily. “He’s a prince, I can’t order him to do anything.”

Vicca didn't like the idea of Euphastolon being given any more power, but another idea occurred to her. She reached out to put a hand on Fornulus' arm. "My love, how about marriage?"

"Marriage?"

"Yes, Euphastolon is getting rather old to be unmarried," she said.

"Isn't he around eighteen?"

"He's twenty-six," Meronion said.

"Really? Time gets away from you." Fornulus nodded. "That is getting on a bit."

"Exactly." Vicca quickly glanced over to Meronion to see if she disapproved of this idea, but the taller woman just looked thoughtful. "He can bring another family into the fold. Perhaps go to them and oversee them for you."

A family far, far away would be ideal.

Fornulus mulled the idea over. "What do you think Mer?"

Meronion looked from him to Vicca and back again. "It's not a bad idea. Might make him calm down. It would do him good to spend some time away from…the capital." She glanced at Vicca at this. They were both thinking the same thing.

It was both in their interests to weaken Cordelian, so they might find some common ground here, but Vicca had no illusions about how loyal Meronion was to Fornulus Meronion. She didn't care about Vicca and her children. If they died, Vicca had no doubt Meronion would simply shrug and call them weak.

"Zeusis has been longing for a connection to the royal bloodline for some time, and he has daughters of marriageable age." Vicca said.

Zeusis was a friend to her family, and the head of the most important family in Hagiatrocos, the second city of the empire. The city was noted for its beauty, its temples, and for being all the way on the other side of the Melancthon sea from the capital. It took days to get from one to the other even by ship. The perfect place to send Euphastolon off to.

Fornulus looked back to Meronion, who nodded towards Vicca. "I approve. The Empress can begin the arrangements, quietly, but the marriage will have to wait until the end of our mourning period for our father."

Their remaining discussion was quickly wrapped up. Fornulus seemed content so long as Vicca was dealing with it and not him. Meronion soon left, also apparently satisfied. Vicca would have to keep it secret until Zeusis made an official proposal, to prevent Cordelian and Euphastolon from derailing the negotiations. If she could get to the point where Fornulus had received an official proposal, it would be too late for either of them to do anything about it.

Vicca finally felt she was making some progress undermining Cordelian's powerbase.