TGoaW-68

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==Chapter 68 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye==
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"You sent her to the..."
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...Exchequer?" Duke Patrick Ngo is meeting with the Archon in chambers after his swearing in. "You put my sister in the Tax office?"
"I felt it necessary to keep her in a more controllable position. She launched a fleet action, Patrick." Her Majesty explained, "Which would be wonderful-if she were an adult, in a uniform, OUR uniform...or even a mercenary uniform, but it was that, or charge her under the insurrection statutes...and that is a nightmare I don't want to endure."
"My sister, the tax collector." he chuckled and shook his head. "Grandfather would be horrified...or he would laugh. I can't say accurately which. How long do you intend to keep her there?"
"The latest round of experimental treatments is expected to last four years, Doctor Banzai's medics tell me the bulk of them are non-invasive and she'll have plenty of time to get bored between clinics." Melissa stated, "Also, it lets her be available for...functions."
"That sounds, Majesty, like you're working a long term plan." Patrick commented, "Mind spilling??"
"Arthur is smitten." Melissa Steiner-Davion told him. "They interact well, and Elizabeth, if we can cure her, is one of the more acceptable potential consorts available, which is good, because of your family's position relative to the throne-binding the Ngo family to the dynasty is a mutually beneficial arrangement."
"Huh." Patrick glanced into his brandy. "It's logical from a policy standpoint, given what we've got going in the Kowloon system, but your Majesty, you're playing a pretty long game here, Arthur's fourteen..."
"You already had your wife picked out by then."
"We grew up together." he countered, "I don't know that either of them will have the same affections by the time they're eighteen. Lightning in a bottle doesn't tend to happen twice, and while I was with the Twenty-sixth as a Kommandant, I had to oversee a lot of relationships that imploded under pressure, including issuing discipline when it got physical. Point is, they're still kids, they're going to grow up, and they should be allowed to grow up before you start arranging marriages."
"So...'no'?" she asked.
"I didn't say that." Patrick stated, "I'll give my blessing for your boy to court my sister...provided she's still interested, but ground rules have to be observed-Lizzie is Kowloonese, we have traditions, if it doesn't work out, I need your word-and-bond there won't be political, or economic consequences in the aftermath. We can put it in writing, with witnesses."
Melissa blinked, "I didn't realize your people were so formal."
"Evvie can show you our courting contract, Grandfather had Ted Sithers, Brenda Huyn, and Rabbi Dayyan sign as witnesses when we were twelve. Evvie's dad was reluctant, he wanted her to shop around more, because of the imbalance. Grandfather had to give serious collateral to prove sincerity, which I won't...but she'll expect a contract and permissions from both of us or she won't go. Granddad pushed hard on the role of Nobility, including the need to protect the rights of those lower on the chain from being exploited by their titled superiors, and my sister takes that shit seriously."
Melissa frowned now. "HOW seriously?"
"You put her in the tax office as an intern. Granddad would laugh, because it's an open secret that there's graft in the system...and Elizabeth's one of us. She'll push, promise, and bully her way into starting a housecleaning, bet on it, you might want to assign additional physical security, because my sister is kind of like our Grandmother-she's relentless and not particularly subtle. It's all that time among Rokkahjakkah, she's going to have about as much social subtlety as a spacer, and the civil service doesn't handle that kind of directness well. she's going to make herself a pack of enemies in that office."
"I suddenly understand why your family has never been prominent in social society." Melissa noted, "Spacer manners."
"Yes, Your Highness." he agreed. "She was on a warship, one nominally among her armsmen, and she was in range of an attack on a Lyran world that had family members on it. She couldn't have avoided doing what she did. It's not in her to let something happen like that if she thinks she has a chance to stop it...so you took the ship out from under her feet, she's going to look for some way to be 'useful' and leave a mark...and you put her in the Tax office. She'll either clean up the realm's accounts, or get killed trying...so please, assign more bodyguards."
Melissa sipped her own brandy, then, "I'll have that contract drafted by the time you embark for home, Duke Patrick."
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