“That twenty percent recognizes that political marriages are a thing that happens to people, like you, who are on the verge of becoming emperox and who, despite having a millennium-long dynasty to fall back on for credibility, still need allies to keep the guilds in line.”

“This is where you tell me of all the times in the last thousand years the Wu emperoxs were basically puppets for guild interests, isn’t it?”

“This is where I remind you that you gave me this position not just out of personal friendship and experience with court politics but because I have a doctorate in the history of the Wu dynasty and know more about your family than you do,” Naffa said. “But sure, I could do that other thing, too.”

Cardenia sighed. “We’re in no danger of becoming guild puppets, though.”

Naffa peered over at her boss, silently.

“You’re kidding,” Cardenia said.

“The House of Wu is its own mercantile family and it has the monopoly on ship building and military weaponry,” Naffa said. “Likewise, control of the military runs through the emperox, not the guilds. So, no, it would be difficult for the guilds or any of the houses who control them to make short-term inroads into control of the house or of the empire. That said, your father has been very lax in controlling the mercantile houses and has allowed several of them, including the Nohamapetans, to build power centers that are unprecedented in the last two hundred years. This is, of course, leaving out the church entirely, which is its own power center. And you can expect to see all of these try to grab more power for themselves because you are expected to be a weak emperox.”

“Thanks,” Cardenia said, dryly.

“It’s not personal. Your ascendance to the crown was unexpected.”

“Tell me about it.”

“No one knows what to think of you.”

“Except the executive committee, who wants to marry me off.”

“They want to preserve an existing potential alliance.”

“An alliance with terrible people.”

“Really nice people don’t usually accrue power.”

“You’re saying I’m kind of an outlier,” Cardenia said.

“I don’t recall saying you were nice,” Naffa replied.

* * *

“None of this was supposed to be your problem,” Batrin said to Cardenia, later. She was back in his bedroom, sitting in the chair. The medical staff that had worried on him while he was asleep had retreated to nearby rooms. It was just the two of them again, plus an array of medical equipment.

“I know,” Cardenia said. They’d had this conversation before, but she knew they were about to have it again.