I’m sure there were times when ruling a kingdom would be boring, but I hadn’t come across those moments yet.

Of course, things might have been less frantic if I hadn’t insisted on continuously introducing new ideas to implement. The newspaper had become more of a headache than I’d imagined. The issue wasn’t one of literacy; every Elf received an education. Even before the Four Element Sect was established and territories were claimed by Cultivators, the island was not so lost to barbarism to not educate their children.

However, the concepts of advertising, news articles, and serial fiction were new concepts that took real effort to overcome. Additionally, the printing press had never been invented. Scrolls were either handwritten or recorded to jade tokens. The idea of mass-producing books and magazines, let alone newsprints, was a first. These materials had never been needed.

Those issues would be overcome in time, but the concept of fiction turned out to be a fundamental stumbling block. I was going to have to spend time serializing my own novel to get the people of my kingdom familiar with the process and interested enough to make an effort to create their own fictional worlds.

I decided to serialize a story based on Storm’s adventures. A young Roc that was stolen from her nest and spent her days exploring, making friends, and learning to control lightning itself.

The other problem I was running into was one of trust. Ja Fiat had been my assistant. She had worked with me daily, and I found myself second-guessing and looking at every individual I interacted with a new sense of distrust.

Ja Fiat’s actions were cause for concern, but she was contained now. We were getting enough information from her and the items she had saved in her spatial devices to ferret out the few other Cultists that she knew of.

We quickly arrested and neutralized the two other individuals. That seemed to be the limit of Cult involvement in Xiwang, and with no other leads to harvest from each person, there was no reason to keep them.

I didn’t make a public spectacle of executing them. It was better to do away with them quietly, without the populace knowing that Cultists had lived among them. The country was undergoing enough upheaval without adding Cultists into the mix.

Still, details dealing with Ja Fiat could not be contained entirely; I had to explain why she would no longer be my assistant to my council and advisors. Gwen was horrified to find that she had promoted a Cultist to serve as my assistant. Her confidence in her abilities was shaken, and it would take time before she regained her balance.

“We need a better way to vet people,” Zui suggested. She had not been a part of the Cultivators that had captured Ja Fiat, but she was a part of one of the channels for gestalt minds I was empowering, so she had known something was going on. She had been briefed along with Clement after the fact.

“I agree and think I have a solution,” I said. “The gestalt of minds has not advanced enough that we can hold conversations, but even as limited as it is, it is able to share emotions.

“From now on, anyone that we vet will be expected to join the gestalt and be interviewed while part of the collective. Questions will be asked, and the person will be monitored through the gestalt to detect lies. A series of questions concerning intent, loyalty, affiliation, and motivation will become part of these interviews.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“This should allow us to weed out spies, traitors, and opportunists. They can be just as dangerous as Cultists. We will decide on a case-by-case basis how to deal with these problematic people.”

“I would suggest we keep the spies in play,” Clement offered. “We can feed them false information to find out who they are working for. The opportunists could also prove helpful; those individuals are cunning if nothing else, and most often motivated to act in ways that they find profitable.

“Traitors and Cultists should be summarily executed once their actions have been discovered. The uncovered evidence should be summarized and disseminated in this new newspaper you are introducing so your people know that actions have consequences. And that you are working to keep them and the country safe.

“Their properties and wealth should be confiscated and invested in social programs. Advertise that fact. Let the people know you are not targeting or falsely framing individuals to increase your wealth.

“If the wealth from these individuals is shared with programs that benefit society, that can only be a boon for you and your government.”

“Which brings us to the topic of this meeting,” I said. “How has the search gone for the people and equipment we need to get a newspaper operational?”

“The Blacksmith guild has created a printing press,” Zui commented. “The process they came up with allows them to set reusable metal sheets in a frame. Two frames face each other, and the print is inked and stamped on the front and back of a piece of paper fed between the plates.

“The alloy they use for the frame can be molded to any size. A scribe and artist, using a stylist that is enchanted, then writes or draws whatever is going to be printed. This primary mold stamps out the additional plates, reversing the writing so that when stamped, everything is readable.

“The ink and paper can be fed automatically by fitting the frames to a roller. For now, the process is limited to one ink color, but a few scribes are working to figure out a way to add different colors to create realistic images.

“The main bottleneck right now is the paper. We haven’t developed a product sturdy enough to hold the print while being flexible enough to be wound into rolls. Until we can solve that problem, we are limited to one page at a time.”

“Any luck finding people we can use as editors?” I had to explain the meaning behind managing editor, news editor, lifestyle editor, and fiction editor when I first shared my idea of a newspaper. I had decided that a board of equals should rule any news organization, and I wanted an odd number of managers so that any disagreements could be settled with a vote.

“A few,” Gwen replied. “Sen Feng, Chao Kho, and Lu Hong stand out among those that have shown interest.”

Finding people interested required word of mouth. It worked well enough to garner some attention, but some of the best and brightest may never hear of the opportunity because of the inability to disseminate information broadly. The newspaper would help with that. It would devote a section to employment opportunities. That, paired with the comm devices reaching every stratum of society, should help reach those interested.

“On that note,” I said, “I want to create a governmental resource department. This department will be entirely devoted to advertising for, interviewing, vetting, and recommending potential candidates for any government position.

“They can also contract their services to help businesses find potential staff. I’m not sure who will head this division, but a Cultivator must be involved to share the mind gestalt so that vetting can meet my new guidelines.

“Ja Fiat was a mistake, one that was my fault. It is a mistake that we can solve. And to be clear, everyone working within Clan Frost, House Myche, or the central government will be re-interviewed.

“They will have to pass the same testing as any new candidates interested in positions will have to endure. If any refuse to agree to the gestalt vetting, remove them from their positions.”

“Should we have someone monitor and investigate them if they refuse?” Gwen asked. My first response was to say no, that something like that was an infringement on privacy, but the entire Gestalt vetting process infringed on their privacy. And if I simply dismissed them from their position, and they later destroyed property or killed someone, then ignoring the problem would squarely place the onus of blame at my door.

The horrors we had found in Ja Fiat’s house could not be allowed to be repeated because I was worried about something as fleeting as privacy.