“Who you trust because we pay them. That’s what they die for, little discs of metal. Maybe they really like my face, think pictures of it are the most important -”

“Really remarkable thing, whoever came up with money. No. The Ulfen Guard will fight for us, die for us, guard our doors while we flee out the back way, swinging their axes until they fall. No Emperors’ been assassinated by the Guard, and every Emperor trusts them. Why? Honor? Honor and two bits will buy a drink. The Ulfen Guard trust us because they don’t give a shit about Taldor, they just want to get paid. If you really want to see what people who love their nation will do, take a look at Galt. I think Cyprian really loves his country; horrible story, considering how much of it he’s already killed in Druman mud. Certainly Luke did, and poor King Charles." He shakes his head. "My darling, even the Vratzes love their nation. If you want to find a good Emperor who will really and truly serve his people, look for a con man smart enough to want to keep riots down who doesn’t care what country he rules as long as it's rich."

“It is that all you think you are?”

“Oh no, I love the Empire, that’s why I’m so bad at being Emperor."

"If you want reform plans, let’s talk about reform plans. So you want to put an army together that can beat Andoran?”

“Or Galt. Or Cheliax. Or Qadira.”

“Restore the greatness of the Empire,” he said, nodding. “Right. Pick a steelneck to run it, he asks why a girl’s heir instead of him, we all die. Lead it yourself and - well, you’re no steelneck, but you grab one for the tactics and ride herd on him and take the Ulfs along so he doesn’t stab you in the back and there’s a mutiny back home, and my head's on a stick and you're off in the wastes with any army you can't trust and a general who wants you dead and no taxes. Pick some senator who talks the right talk and swears he’s got the Strategikon by heart and then he goes up against a real enemy they beat ten kinds of hell out of him and you’ve got no army."

"And, love, where are you going to find the men? The frontier armies hold the frontiers, that's all they do. Adin? Porthemos? There's not the men there -"

“I will find them in every village and every city in Taldor.”

“And that gets you Galt, darling, and we both go Charlie’s way. The only thing worse than the nobles is the mob - the only thing worse than Andoran is Galt. But say you find the men. How do you pay them? Castle tax pays the Ulfens, harbor tax pays the Hales, land tax pays for the dole, takes the head tax and the hearth tax to pay the clerks, sales tax is for the palace, dwarf tax pays the schools, and the rest’s limping and hoping and getting whatever’s left over.”

“Collect the taxes,” she says, "for once. All of them. Enforce the laws. The army will be with you if you keep your vows to them, if they are paid and fed and given their rightful rewards -"

“I tried that once,” he says, sighing nostalgically.

 “It was the most unholy mess. They couldn’t find any purple ink for the order and then the fires took three days to burn out. I had two thousand people executed before the Church of Iomedae interceded and the rest were shipped to the Worldwound. The goddess paid the freight.”

“The taxes on the magnates, then. End their exemptions.”

“That’s where we get our generals, dear. Try that and half of them rebel and they take their armies with them. Before we can bribe their troops out from under them, this time.”

“And if we taxed the peasantry harder, for long enough to cut the knot?”

“They don’t have the money.” 

"They did."

"Oh yes, a thousand years ago. Freeholding farmers, veterans of the service granted land as compensation, without the nobility’s exemption from taxation, just what the Empire was built on. We've run out. Care to make more?"

"Why is this impossible?"

"Land, darling; there's none left. Say it’s time for a land reform program and try to buy the right off the magnates, everyone bribes the inspectors and what do you know, you buy two hundred thousand acres off the nobility and somehow only three change hands.”