Anyone and everyone of importance in the Empire's armed forces either knew Tanya von Degurechaff, or knew of The Argent. But as important as a military is to a nation's well being, it is only part of the government. And as much as the military jealously held on to Tanya as theirs and theirs alone, other agencies were starting to see her as the "go to" person for exceedingly complicated and dangerous missions.

The intelligence and counterintelligence branches, the Empire's foreign office and the economics ministry all wanted to use her services. Because of her business acumen, far in advance of the economic theories of the day, she even had something of a cult following in the economics ministry. They now busied themselves tracking dozens of economic indicators she had taught and explained to them, that they had not before imagined, to the great benefit of the Imperial treasury, business and industry.

And when the economics ministry teamed up with the foreign office, they could apply a lot of pressure on the military. This was the case with the long simmering pot of problems that were Magna Rumeli and the Turkman Principalities. For all their faults, the old Sultanate of Magna Rumeli was steadfast in resisting political and military pressure from the Russy Federation, who had, even before the communists, dreamed of absorbing them into their sphere for their value as the crossroads of east and west, as well as for very old religious motivations.

So Russy tried to subvert and entice the restive minorities within the Sultanate. Domestically, their problems were even worse, as while the Sultan and his government were forward looking, their foundations were based in their religion and antiquated styles of government. But a new generation wanted a mostly secular government founded in reason and rationality, and hoped to overthrow the Sultan to achieve it.

Though militarily stretched so thin that the Russy Federation had to make peace with the Empire, they were still able to muster about a division of mostly secret police, military intelligence and border security to infiltrate the eastern reaches of the Sultanate to stir up the restive minorities within, since it was not part of that treaty. The reaction to this by the new generation of Rumelians was to become very aggressive towards these minorities within Magna Rumeli, as well as the Turkman Principalities, seen as inviting Russy involvement against their nation.

The father of the current Sultan, Mahmad VI, was a firm believer in modernizing his nation. He built railroads, highways, dams, and created a public education system which was not well received until he made it mandatory for all children despite their social standing. He used a large part of the national income to build his magnificent Dolmabache Palace, more modern and with more amenities than were used by royals in other nations. Gas lighting, electricity, and even its own theater. And plenty of places to hide from assassins and invaders, and niches for secret policemen, for he was also more than a little bit paranoid. The palace also had more traditional aspects, such as a large area for the Sultan's harem, but for the most part had the best modern design of any palace around.

For his part, his son brought in a fleet of automobiles, and had an aircraft strip and hangar nearby. And his diplomats were always on the lookout for new and better technologies. Perhaps his oddest innovation was in the nearby city where most would assume his servants lived. It had all the businesses of a city, and everything a city of that size needed, and otherwise looked very orderly. But every person who lived there, from its mayor to the street beggars was a spy. The logic was that the main road leading to the palace passed through the city, and outsiders would figure on using it as a base from which to operate. The level of surveillance was absolute.

There was a multitude of concerns in the Empire for the future of Magna Rumeli, as well as the Turkman Principalities. Ever increasing trade with Afria had to pass through the land route gateway of the Principalities, or hazard the rampant piracy of the much longer littoral, or coastal route. And recent events had magnified the flow of trade with the far east, especially the Akitsushima Dominion, through Magna Rumeli itself.

And the Empire wanted the infiltration by the Russy Federation stopped cold, not just its troublemaking division but those trying to persuade the new generation to embrace communism.

So that the Empire's foreign office, economics ministry, and the military could assess the situation, Colonel von Degurechaff, Lieutenant Colonel Weiss, and Major Serebryakov, accompanied by one of the most accomplished spies of the Empire, Margaret Zelle, were to travel as civilians to the capital of Magna Rumeli and were then to be invited as guests to the Dolmabache Palace, to have a business meeting with the Sultan and some of his advisers.

On their meeting with Agent Zelle, both Tanya and Visha were not particularly impressed, as she came off as rather average looking. But Lieutenant Colonel Weiss found it hard to contain himself, and was later chastized by Tanya for gawking like a teenage body. But he swore she just radiated sexual glamour of a kind he had never seen before.

For the purposes of this mission, Lieutenant Colonel Weiss would have the identity of the wealthy owner of a diamond concern in the Empire's East Afrian colony, Margaret Zelle would be his wife, and Tanya and Major Serebryakov would be their daughters. Only the Sultan was aware of their real identities. Lieutenant Colonel Weiss would present one of the Sultan's aides, a diamond expert, with several cut stones for the Sultan as a gift from the Emperor, after which the Sultan would excuse his aides to speak with his visitors in private.

The trickiest part would be that their diamonds, computational jewels, flight equipment and weapons would need to be sent in a diplomatic pouch to the Imperial embassy in the capital city, so in the times they were without they would be relatively defenseless. However, Agent Zelle was top notch in close combat, and had worked as an assassin, so would be their bodyguard.

Their flight to Byzantium, capital of Magna Rumeli, was not very eventful, other than Lieutenant Colonel Weiss becoming airsick. A very large and heavy luxury automobile, a V12 Pierce-Arrow from the embassy was sent to pick them up. Agent Zelle gave them a rundown on the vehicle. Made in the Unified States specifically for the Sultan, with modifications like armor plating, medium range radio and weapons compartments, if its tires were shot out it could ride on its rims for miles. Its powerful engine could accelerate faster than most vehicles and was strong enough to tow an armored car. In turn, the Sultan had gifted it to the Empire's embassy officially because it was last years' model, but practically to keep the Empire's ambassador from being assassinated.

Tanya was impressed by the ancient and modern look of Byzantium. The embassy driver noted they were being tailed by at least two cars occupied by new generation agents, recognizable because of their odd looking red hats. He looked at Agent Zelle but did not say anything, then she remarked that it was more important that they get to the embassy.

Instead of getting into a fight with those fools, Tanya said to herself.

The driver kept a running monologue as if he were a tourist guide, yet also explaining the complex politics of Magna Rumeli woven in seamlessly. Byzantium was still wholly the domain of the Sultan's forces, but the new generation was setting up its own shadow government in the second city of the realm further inland. He also let slip that his family were from an ethnic and religious minority and were afraid of persecution were the Sultan to be overthrown. He did not go into detail because by then they had arrived at the Empire's embassy and drove directly into its underground parking facility.

The ambassador and the embassy staff gave them the full VIP treatment, including a buffet far beyond their pay scale, including fine Black Sea caviar, vegetable and warm stuffed meat dolmas with tahini and other sauces, warm manti dumplings with garlic yogurt sauce, numerous cheeses, and sweet, sticky baklava for dessert. Having been informed of Tanya's fondness for coffee, they had regular, Ildoan espresso, the local brew and the local brew with cardamom spice, preferred in country. Lieutenant Colonel Weiss, Agent Zelle, and Major Serebryakov all ate heartily, but Tanya limited herself to some cheese and ordinary coffee. She noted later that the others all needed to afford themselves some seltzer powder for heartburn.

The next morning they had just left the embassy when they heard a loud explosion in the distance, which the driver was able to identify as having come from the area of an open market frequented by a religious minority, though he could not guess as to its origin or purpose. Otherwise the streets had the normal high volume of traffic for a business day, while they were enroute to the palace. He made it a point to stop off at the town of spies just long enough to buy some fruit, as a means to let the palace know they were soon to arrive.

Tanya had never seen such a grand palace. In past, the Russy Federation had several like this, but they were all razed by the Philistine communists, memories of a glorious and prosperous past they wanted forgotten, along with museums, art galleries, and libraries. But the quality and artistry of this place was impressive. Likewise, behind the scenes, Tanya was aware of recent technologies being put to good use. She almost giggled when she glanced through a doorway to see a ticker tape machine in operation with data from some stock market. They truly had to pass through a gauntlet of a busy part of the government to see the Sultan.

Finally, after an extended introduction under their fake personas, and Lieutenant Colonel Weiss passing the gift from the Emperor to the Sultan's aide, who stated to the Sultan that their quality and cut were magnificent, then the aides were excused to leave. After a brief pause, Tanya noted that the Sultan was positively leering at Agent Zelle, who in turn was both glancing at him seductively and blushing.

Tanya then got to the point, that the Empire was concerned for the well being of Magna Rumeli, as well as the Turkman Principalities, and that they had been sent there to, if possible, mitigate problems for the Sultan. In truth, said the Sultan, I have had the situation explained to me in depth by my most trusted friend and teacher, who was also my father's friend and teacher, and he has said that the best option for me, and my nation, is to abdicate, as these problems are intractable, and will certainly lead to the painful downfall and tragedy for my nation. However, those who will then take the reigns of power are ruffians, who seem to prefer chaos, violence and war to peaceful management with order and reason. At the same time, the Russy bear prowls around our door and has already nosed its way inside.

"Your friend and teacher seems unusually wise and honest," said Tanya. "Would you care to meet him?", said the Sultan. "Certainly," said Tanya. "Oddly enough," said the Sultan, "he lives in the part of the palace traditionally reserved for the harem. But I no longer keep a harem, as I no longer have an interest in women who are not particularly bright, but are lazy and complacent." Then he cast another wistful glance at Zelle, who looked away briefly. "So it is now where my friend and teacher lives, with his extensive library of books he has collected and those he has written. It still remains tradition that only the Sultan and trusted females can enter the harem, under severe penalty, and my subordinates are sticklers for tradition. But since nobody saw him enter, they cannot take against him for being there. And though he can leave at any time, he chooses to stay. Tanya was somewhat puzzled.

Before my father, Sultan Abdala Hamed II, built this palace, our friend and teacher lived in his own part of the old palace, and moved him here before designating the harem area as a harem, again to evade the rules. It was on his advice that my father began his program of modernizing our nation, and he provided ideas to help a few other strong rulers do the same. With this, the Sultan took out a strange looking key with which he opened the door to the harem.

Shelves of books. Stacks of books. Piles of very old scrolls. On a table she saw what looked like papyrus scrolls from the time of the Pharoahs, and even Aztec codices. Other tables had religious charts and small artifacts. Then from behind some shelves, Tanya heard "Good day! Do I have some visitors?", and out came a young man.

"Colonel," said Sultan Mahmad VI to Tanya, "Allow me to introduce you to Sabetay Sevi, my friend and teacher. He is over 330 years old."

"Pardon me for being so forward," said Sabetay to Tanya, "but have you also been blessed or cursed by God, or whatever it is that calls itself God? The expression on your face says yes. Well, let me tell you my story, and then if you feel like it, you can tell me yours."

A long time ago, I was a serious student of the mystical side of my faith, the Callabah, and I had something of a gift in finding the hidden meanings of things. Quite unintentionally I managed to piece together a secret name of God, and instantly found myself in that place out of space and time. You know where I mean, I gather. And I met who at the time I thought was God. It seems that he had been looking around for a spokesman to stimulate the masses to believe and pray more. And that he was going to bestow on me a blessing to help me do this.

The blessing was of astounding charisma. So I left this nation and went north, gathering those of my minority faith around me to the point that the vast majority could have been called my followers and embraced the new doctrines I had given them. This was a major problem in those societies in which they lived, because those of my faith utterly dominated several critical parts of their economies. Their leaders even briefly considered enslaving my people, hoping to force them to do the jobs they had done, before realizing that slaves wouldn't do such jobs.

The last major group of my faith lived here, in my home country, so I had to return here to make my rule absolute. But the Sultan who reigned here at the time was an interesting man. Officially, he was of a different faith, and was believed to be a righteous follower. But privately, he admitted to me that he was a resolute cynic, a scoffer and an atheist. He had spoken at length with some of my early followers, and from them had learned an accurate account which I had given them, of my meeting with God, which I later refined and embellished considerably to use as my story.

He was of the opinion that the being I had met was not God, if God actually exists, but some other powerful being, perhaps a djinn or a devil. However, he said, this is not the issue of the moment, that those of my official faith demand that I behead you; or I will be at risk for being beheaded myself. So how shall I deal with this situation? I envision one of two choices. Either you are said to have converted to their faith, and will be imprisoned in the palace until you die; or you can renounce God completely and become an atheist, and live in the palace for the rest of your life as my guest, though officially imprisoned here. With no religious obligations, and with access to all sorts of palace amenities, outside of my harem.

It still took a while and more arguments before Sabetay Sevi became an atheist. Perhaps out of bitterness by the God-being, most of his blessing was stripped away, and as one last insult, since he was trapped in the palace until he died, his beard was taken away as well as his last 20-30 years of maturity, so he looked like a callow youth. He was also cursed with, if not immortality, then with an unnaturally long life.

In retrospect, he truly felt that this first Sultan was his friend, and he mourned his passing. So he decided to stay on as teacher and friend to his descent. Since then he had raised them to be men of rationality and reason, and to shun beings that proclaim themself deities. But seeing the changes to the world, he estimated that the time of Sultans was ending, so had raised the last one to be somewhat fatalistic, and to be ready to flee when the revolution came.

Taking all this in, Tanya finally interjected by saying, "What if someone was to teach the leaders of the new generation how to rule?" Sabetay said that at least their leaders tended to be sensible, but many in their ranks lust for war and chaos. Currently they hope to slaughter the minorities of Magna Rumeli, as well as in the Turkman Principalities, so until they have tasted the bitter reality of war, they are beyond reason. This set Tanya to thinking.

Getting a recent map from Sabetay Sevi, Tanya pondered it for a while, then invited him and the Sultan, who had been quietly reading while the two of them talked, for some speculative talk. "There is a nation, the Commonwealth, that has been itching for a fight with the Empire for some time now. We suspect that they hope to make a major landing on the coast of the Principality of Dacia, so that their attack on the Empire, likely with another ally, will be on two fronts, perhaps three or four, if they also ally with the Rus."

"But to get to the coast of Dacia and back, they must pass by the Ispagna Collective, which should not present a problem, then the Ildoan islands, generally neutral for the time being, and the Magna Rumeli islands, not well defended, and its strait which can be very effectively defended. So the strait would be a strong bottleneck to them if Magna Rumeli reached a treaty agreement with the Empire."

"They do not believe that the Magna Rumelian army would present much of a threat to them were they to make a major landing to secure that entrance to the strait. From there they would move up the strait and even try to capture the capital of Magna Rumeli, both crushing the ally of the Empire and preventing the Imperial navy from using the strait against the Commonwealth landing in Dacia."

"So here is my proposition to you. Say we meet with the new generation leaders, and explain to them that they have four months of effective control over the military and some of the government, augmented by their young and ambitious future leaders to prepare a very effective but covert defense against a massive landing by Commonwealth and other forces at the mouth of the strait. They will need defenses against ships and submarines, logistics and much, much more. And if their planning and execution is well done, they will have learned how to rule and defended the nation, and the Sultan will bloodlessly cede power to them and go into exile.

When all the preparations are made, the Empire will make a show of the short visit of a few decorative brigades to celebrate the new treaty. At the same time, my unit, The First Mage Combined Arms Foreign Legion Division, that is unknown to most of the world, will covertly enter, wipe out the Russy secret police division trying to incite your minorities, and then establish air superiority over the area of the landing, after the new generation has had a taste of the modern battlefield.

"But where will the enemy attack?", asked the Sultan. "At a place you call 'Canakkale', but is known to the Commonwealth as 'Gallipoli'", replied Tanya.

Tanya has estimated six months in practical terms, the first two just to get the project started and to get advisers sent from the Empire. But it was accomplished in just over a month. Some of the new generation leaders remarked afterwards that their training was like getting a college degree in a month of intense study. Likewise the Sultan's military command was driven to completely relearn everything they thought they knew about war. The battle area was intensely mapped and prepped, even with subdued rail lines, and submarine nets and sea mines made sections of the strait impassable, so commercial shipping lanes were tightly policed.

For her part, Tanya's division had taken over a formerly abandoned village and rebuilt it to look normal. Someone could pass through it and not know it was brimming with weapons, had barns with tanks and artillery, bulldozers and bridging equipment, yet produced almost no mana signature. Only after they had lingered a while would visitors maybe realize that no children were in evidence. But no reason to do so, as it was just another ordinary village.

Ahead of schedule, back in the Empire the Intelligence ministry was carefully, even artistically, laying the groundwork for Commonwealth Intelligence to bite it all, hook, line and sinker. Hand crafted lies and half-truths, newspaper stories, and gently fanning the flames of aggression against the Empire. And soon the Commonwealth was running larger and larger landing exercises in preparation for an invasion.

Meanwhile, back in Dolmabache Palace, the Sultan and Sabetay Sevi were having more fun than they had in ages. Tanya made sure they had an active feed of all that was taking place. So when intelligence let it be known that a huge flotilla of Commonwealth warships laden with troops were enroute, they were already doing a victory dance.

In Londonium, Duke of Marlborough and First Lord of the Commonwealth Churbull was intensely covetous of the Empire's seemingly endless victories, and he wanted to hit them so hard, from so many directions, that it would cause their economy to collapse overnight. His impatience made him ignore the counsel of cooler heads, both outside and within his war cabinet. Convinced that Magna Rumeli was rotten to the core and crippled to the point of near collapse, he had issued orders that as soon as a beachhead was created in Gallipoli, that an airfield would be built, bombers quickly assembled, and firebombing of their capital city would commence.

Not just revenge for the massacre at Arene, but to show every other power what would happen to them if they had the temerity to align with the Empire. His view had become so distorted in his hatred for the Empire that he didn't even fret about war crimes, nor did he think that anyone else would, if the Empire was finally destroyed. His attitude could be summarized as, "Kill them all, and let the lawyers sort it out!"

Operatives for the Unified States did notice his increasingly erratic behavior, and on their advice, the US decided to scale back their contribution and focus instead their own independent action against the Empire. Of course if his scheme was a success, they would also be ready to exploit the situation.

When creating the Russy Federation, one of the few intelligent things they did was to create a balance of power between the three primary parts of the government. The communist party, the military and the secret police, the NKVD, made up what was called the "three legged stool". When one of the legs got too strong, the other two legs would gang up to cut it down to size, to balance the system.

What was more difficult was when one of the legs had been brutally cropped, in this case, the military, after their debacle in Manchukuo, with the loss of most of 300 divisions, leaving them so crippled that they could not defend their nation. It also made Loria, the head of the NKVD, the second most powerful man in the Federation. So to keep him out of trouble in Moskva, Chairman Joseph sent him forth across the land, to find those who were not good communists and to have them killed or enslaved or enlisted. With all the children he could rape and murder as a bonus, as long as he was reasonably discreet about it. Loria was truly happy, and saw it all as a reward.

The rather slap dash division of NKVD, military intelligence, and border guards did not get along particularly well. Sent into Magna Rumeli with the purpose of encouraging restless minorities to revolt against the government, all the NKVD could do well was to torture and murder so was not appreciated by these minorities. The military intelligence thought their purpose was to prepare a route for the military to invade, so they sabotaged what little infrastructure the people had, also breeding resentment. And the border guards were clueless, so did as little as possible. There was no real command structure other than a few political officers, Zampolits, who knew communist doctrine, but nothing about unit operations or leadership. And initiative among the ranks, or even to have NCOs, was forbidden.

So when reconnaisance people from Tanya's division showed up, the locals had no idea who they were, but if it would lead to the eradication of the Russy division, they were all for it. In a short time, the locals had regained their patriotism and appreciation for the Sultan, and were more than happy to help the "flying people".

So with the arrival of the Commonwealth invasion armada, the stage was set. In addition to a huge number of infantry, tanks, artillery, fighter aircraft and bombers, their navy had wisely brought minesweepers, if foolishly of the wrong kind, and one of the largest mage contingents in the world, mostly well trained, but untested in war. And they were waltzing into one of the largest defense-in-depth ambushes ever created, with at least ten times their number in battle hardened combat mages.

Tanya had long been suspicious of the ability of the Commonwealth to figure out the communications of the Empire, enough for its mage units sent to covertly assist their allies to be able to evade Imperial attacks, both on the ground and with its naval fleet. So with the permission of the Empire's military intelligence, she had implemented a double communications network. A false one using the current Imperial code structure, and a second one, of one use codes sent in the clear on lesser used international channels.

With most eyes focused on the landing at Canakkale, only the Russy high command, then Empire, the Sultan and several key new generation leaders and officers, were made aware of the disappearance of the infiltrator division, followed shortly thereafter by the extermination of seven Russy infantry and mech infantry division poised to invade over the border. This ended the animosity between the new generation and this ethnic and religious minority, preventing what had been on Tanya's old world a nasty genocide.

Meanwhile, Tanya's division moved with practiced efficiency in the direction of the landing. A considerable distance, their less needed ground units were expected to lag behind their air deployed fast mage units. Fastest of all were their forward observer mages, who with great hilarity noted that thinking they had little to do, the Commonwealth mages seemed to be practicing their "synchronized flying", or "drill and ceremonies in the sky", almost a sin in the eyes of hardened combat mages. For their part, long after the fact, the surviving Commonwealth mages said that they should have paid more attention to those far away mana detection positions, but they were so far away they just didn't want to be bothered.

The Commonwealth noted with disdain that there were some poorly constructed and obvious minefields, made with old style mines and emplaced perhaps decades before. And some of them had even been marked as such with signs. So it was decided to clear those mines in the easiest approach, creating a corridor for the men and equipment. From the Empire's perspective, in military parlance, this is called channelizing the enemy. In this case, so that they would travel through the densest parts of the kill zones created by the Magna Rumeli army, directed by new generation officers, themselves under the direction of Imperial advisors, working under Tanya's supervision.

Back in Berun, the general staff had constructed for them one of the most unusual war rooms ever made. Though the Empire was not officially participating in this battle, agent Margaret Zelle had a heavy company of Imperial spies providing detailed descriptions of the play by play, as well as watching things in both the capital and second city of Magna Rumeli, to counteract any efforts at sabotage, assassination or other mischief by Commonwealth agents and their embassy there.

Of all the international gaffes, declaring war after initiating war is regarded as the worst. First Lord Churbull, blinded by his ambition and hate, made this gaffe. After the debacle, he was retired to an estate in Coventry, to soon drown in a vat of whisky, as it was known that he preferred it to wine.

Tanya arrived at the head of a brigade of mages, to first perform a repeat of what had happened to the mages of the Unified States fleet, that is, wiping out those Commonwealth mages that were airborne with great speed, and then as the brigade obliterated the newly constructed airfield, fighters and bombers.

The Elphinstine family were military prodigies. On land they were known as some of the worst, most incompetent field commanders the Commonwealth had ever produced But in naval command, they produced some of the most brilliant admirals of fleet combat ever seen as well. So it was no surprise that Fleet Admiral Georges St. Michael Elphinstine was aboard the flagship. By all accounts he was a great talent, and to his credit he went down with his ship, at the loss of all hands, which would have been the case except that he was detected while being ferried in his sinking longboat and was spirited away for a meeting with a few Imperial interrogation agents who happened to be in the area, who were soon joined by some others from Imperial naval intelligence. He was not abused in any way, and cooperated to spare his family embarrassment as a living prisoner instead of a dead hero, being rewarded with a new identity and a luxurious villa on what had formerly been known as the Francois Riviera.

His fleet was considerably worse for wear, including the loss of submarines to nets, though they fared much better than the ground invasion forces, who every time they ventured from the beach were brutalized. Some ships had tried maneuvering out of range and had run into minefields, and several minesweepers were lost trying to clear a path. Without spotters on high ground, or mages, their artillery was worse than useless, though did manage to kill two dozen unfortunate Magna Rumeli soldiers by what amounted to bad luck, before those guns were reduced to scrap.

No enemy made it past the first layer of defense before an ignominious retreat was ordered, and since most of the larger ships littered the bottom of the strait, about 70,000 mostly infantry had to be abandoned to be captured by the Rumelians. Strangely enough, this resulted in some very strong words between the Imperial officers present and the Rumelian army and new generation leaders. The latter wanted wholesale butchery of the prisoners, and the Imperial officers were adamant that this was a horrible idea, that would create disaster in the future.

The impasse was quickly broken by the arrival of Colonel Tanya Degurechaff, who descended like an angel from on high, with a company of her top killers comprising her honor guard. Carefully watched by a Commonwealth officer from a long way away, who later reported that with her arrival, the Imperial officers came to attention and briskly saluted, and several of the Magna Rumeli officers, and even some of the new generation officers actually knealt and bowed, or kowtowed before her.

The argument ended immediately, and the prisoners were put in a beach compound surrounded by barbed wire, but with tents, field kitchens, showers and delousing facilities, an aid station for the wounded, and administrative facilities to notify the international agencies in charge of military prisoners.

Because the First Lord had not declared war before starting it, it was strongly suggested that the Commonwealth government apologize and provide the new Magna Rumeli government with several tons of gold in the manner of reparations. In exchange, large cargo ships of indeterminate registration were used to transport the prisoners. This created a major problem in Londonium, as not only had they been about to return their currency to the gold standard, which now had to be aborted, but by offloading the prisoners in Londonium itself, rather than the prefered port much further away, they had some 70,000 disorganized soldiers and sailors wandering around their capital telling people of the fiasco.

Which resulted in the current government failing and being replaced in a snap election.

The former Sultan, Mahmad VI, having abdicated his throne, and his new wife, one Margaret Zelle, from the Empire, purchased a very expensive villa on the Francois Riviera, and were soon the toast of the town. They got along well with their neighbor, one Horace Nelson, an older man of substantial means, a generous sort always surrounded by a bevy of beautiful young women.

Sabetay Sevi had vanished during the change of government of Magna Rumeli, and nobody had known where he had gone, but much to her surprise, on her island of Mazotte, a courier arrived from the Imperial general staff in Berun, with a message for Colonel Degurechaff. On opening it, she was surprised to see, of all things, a handwritten poem in a very old stylized poetic form. Looking up from it, she saw the smiling face of the courier, none other than Sabetay Sevi.

"We were never able to finish our conversation in the palace. And now, since there is no longer a Sultan, I am no longer confined there, and am once again able to travel. So, after just a brief look at this new world, I decided to stop by and see how you are doing. If there is some time to talk at length, I have some information to share that you might find very interesting."

Tanya set aside her schedule, informing Major Serebryakov that she was not to be disturbed, and to pass the message along to Lieutenant Colonel Weiss, currently supervising a training exercise on the island. She then asked the Major to brew and bring in to her office an entire samovar full of coffee, and a coffee set for two. Visha could not help but stare at the unusual man, but held her tongue before leaving.

He began by saying that their story was far from unique. That the godlike thing loves to experiment, but has no discipline in his experimental method. It gives single and double "blessings" to people, but only recently did I become aware that it had created a triple blessing in a person. Your case I found interesting, because outside of sacred artifacts, it was the first time a blessing was associated with a technological item. Again, there are many of us. Some lead lives that last the normal length of time, and others, like me, have their lives extended. This raises the question is an extended life a gift to help complete a mission, or is it a curse for having failed in it?

Over time I have concluded that while the godlike thing does have real power, and can dispense it to others, it lacks many of the necessary characteristics of a god. In my youth I studied the works of hundreds of profoundly pious and rational men, who over the course of a three millenia hammered out the requirements of godhood. The godlike thing is more like a pagan god, immature, petulant, lustful, and with the emotions of a child. They were created as inferior to man, so men could feel more honorable, moral, and intellectual than their gods.

So if my rational assertion is correct, what can we, as individuals, do about it? And can we be more effective if we combine our powers? Its motivation seems to be to create prayer and faith in it. So what happens when it gets prayer and faith? Just as important, what if it is denied prayer and faith by a world of peace and order, materialism and prosperity?

Tanya replied with the odd offer Being X had made to her. "It seems that it is deeply resentful, even hateful, towards atheists. Apparently it loves the empty worship of the primitive peasants of Russy, and asked me to destroy their atheistic government, with the idea that a religious government, or something like that, would follow. Being X sent me here because he resented my rationality and lack of mindless faith. But this world has millions who have also already abandoned faith for reason."

"These are among the many indicators that Being X is a bad manager with a flawed business plan, throwing one half-hearted gimmick after another hoping for a simple solution to a tremendously complex problem. It has the imbecility of a child that thinks that if every person was given ten large bars of gold at birth, then everyone would remain rich. Even a first year economics student knows better than that.

So, would it be best to sit Being X down and teach him management and economics and macroecomics, or... Tanya's voice trailed off with the birth of a new idea. Sabetay Sevi agreed to stay as her guest for several days so they could talk further.

Then, almost on cue, as if Being X had been listening in on them, Tanya suddenly started getting a flurry of assorted demands for her to be in Berun. While only some of them were genuinely emergent, the totality of them was such that they could not be ignored. And a few in particular were genuinely disturbing.

In past, there had been repeated efforts to both identify and assassinate her by various foreign powers. But penetrating the armor of the Imperial army was extremely difficult. And coupled with a very efficient counterintelligence service, adept at locating and eliminating enemy infiltration, it had cost these foreign powers a lot of resources, who generally disappeared, or worse, were turned to work against their former bosses.

The Empire's political regime and its dominant party had been a great success, but their nation as a whole had become tired of war, with its related human and economic cost. This had resulted in the rise of a rather shrill and irrational opposition party that in many ways echoed the recently victorious "peace party" that had taken power in Londonium. And during the peace conference between the Commonwealth, Magna Rumeli, the recently independent Turkman Principalities, and the Empire, held in the Waldstatte Confederacy, strange and ill considered ideas had begun to emerge, often in tandem with some good ideas.

For example, as a good idea, the creation of a permanent commission on the laws and rules of war, in the form of a great treaty called the Zureich Convention, a generally good idea, Tanya herself recently using the current laws of war, and the lack of laws, to savage ends, and she strongly wished there to be some way so that others would not use such glaring loopholes in the future.

However, a bad idea was the creation of an International Coalition of Nations, which on the surface was to settle disputes between nations, but in reality seemed to have at its core the idea of dismembering the Empire to return its captured territories to those who started the war against it. As well as creating a "war crimes" tribunal to prosecute those who were guilty of war crimes determined after the fact.

The Empire's opposition party seemed to be more than willing to offer up its military leaders, and Tanya, to face a kangaroo court as human sacrifices, to achieve "Peace at any Price", their colorful slogan. The good of the Empire was very secondary to their lust for political power.

Other problems of the ICN idea were numerous. Both the Unified States and the Russy Federation were hoping to use such an organization to their own ends. Both of them sought to obtain advantages over the Akitsushima Dominion, and though very distrustful of each other were willing to in some ways to join forces against both them and the Empire, perhaps as a prelude to an eventual war between themselves.

As Tanya made preparations to return to Berun, something Sabetay Sevi said to her engraved itself in her mind: "You are never closer to the precipice of cataclysmic war then when others are striving for what they call a just and lasting peace." But nothing she could have thought of would prepare her for what was waiting for her there.

It was unnerving that instead of being driven to staff headquarters, her driver had been ordered to take her, by no less than colonel von Rerugen, to the engineering development headquarters of Dr. Schugel. "I am forbidden to say more under threat of being sent to the Russy front." Once Tanya and her luggage were dropped off there, the driver unceremoniously took off.

Once in the lab, Tanya noticed the odd mechanism attached to a pair of oversized chairs, and asked Dr. Schugel if he intended to electrocute her. "Not at all. In all seriousness, I intend to copy you."

Back when I was inspired by God to make a pre-loaded operational orb that was too unstable to load its mana through a computational crystal, I ended up making one, two and three. But I continued to work on the idea and finally discovered that by pre-loading the orb slowly it was much more stable, and its mana could be run through a computational crystal without concern. This meant that with training, a normal person could be given a pre-loaded orb and a crystal and be just as effective as a naturally powerful mage. But what I hadn't figured on was that for a natural mage, their training to use their power begins from infancy.

And this is where you enter the picture. You are perhaps the most heavily trained mage in the Empire. And this machine is capable of copying much of your training and giving that copy to another person or people. They will retain their identity, but with additional competency. And because you are so valuable to the Empire, I have asked Tasya to sit in the other chair, and she will provide a constant stream of healing mana to you.

"But doctor," said Tanya, "where is all this learning going?" "Come, I'll show you", said Dr. Schugel.

In an adjacent chamber, there were a dozen similar chairs, and in nine of them were young girls, about Tanya's age, all of whom looked very much like her, and all sleeping. Filled to the brim with questions, Dr. Schugel continued on with his explanation. "Because your training was very specific to your body type, we scoured all the orphanages in the Empire, of which there are many because of the war, and were able to fine nine girls who look very much like you. Because of their condition, they volunteered at the chance to become mages. If their training holds, they will have good jobs and respect, and if they make it through an enlistment, they may choose to become civilians and lead normal lives. Oh, and they are sedated because it is better to be asleep when you get this training. They do have pre-loaded operational orbs and computational crystals on their necks, to give warning if they start having serious mana outflow during the experiment."

"To say I am apprehensive is an understatement," said Tanya. "You shouldn't be scared," said Dr. Schugel, "the odds of appreciable brain damage are minimal, and besides, this is an order."

In the interim, Tasya had arrived, and already knowing what was going on had moved to her seat. The Frankensteinian process began with several technicians flipping switches and warming up machines. Then Dr. Schugel directed that Tasya begin with a basic healing mana feed to Tanya. And then they began the training flow to the nine. Tanya realized that a lot of mana was draining out of her along with the data being copied. But out of the corner of her eye she saw that Tasya was also squirming, providing a lot more healing mana than she was intending to.

Before the drain could become dangerous, it lessened on its own and both Tanya and Tasya went into a deep sleep. When they awoke an hour or so later, the lab was still buisily working on data, but next door they could hear the girls chattering away. Wanting to meet their lookalikes, they were interrupted by Dr. Schugel, who was happily confused, and needed to tell someone. The operational orbs they were wearing were completely drained, which was not expected, but their computational crystals haven't been used. This likely means that those girls have absorbed ten or twenty times the magic potential of a serious mage. An extraordinary thing.

When Tanya opened the door, the girls were up and about and their eyes were bright yellow lights. Tanya could tell with just a glance that they were filled to the brim and then some with mana. But even though they saw both her and Tasya, they seemed strangely indifferent to them. Right after then was when the luxury cars started to show up, and one or two girls would get in each one before it would leave, taking them in different directions.

Tanya spent a lot of time pondering their fates. Were they just decoys? With extra training would they be deployed to the battlefield? Would they just explode?

Dr. Schugel was of little help, describing them as "nine goddesses". Then, with a pause, he said addressing Tasya, "and you are the tenth goddess". "And Tanya," for once calling her by her name, "you are the eleventh goddess."