“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You’re the emperox, ma’am,” Deng said. “You can do anything you want.”

“Keep me from inappropriate familiarity from now on, please,” Cardenia said to Naffa, after they left the secretary’s office.

“I thought it was sweet,” Naffa said. “That poor old man. He’s had a rough day.”

“His boss died.”

“Yes, but he also assumes he lost his job. Normally by this time the new emperox’s set of cronies are busy installing themselves into positions of power. His is a position of power, nominally.”

“I don’t have any cronies,” Cardenia said. “I mean, besides you.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll have volunteers.”

“What do I have next?”

“You’re meeting with the executive committee in half an hour.”

Cardenia frowned at this. “We can’t get to Xi’an that quickly.” The executive committee, as with nearly all of the imperial apparatus of state, did its work in the immense space station above Hub.

Naffa arched her eyebrow at this. “You don’t have to go anywhere,” she said. “You are emperox now. They come to you. Dr. Drinin informed them several hours ago that your father was fading. The committee had hoped to be present to comfort you when he passed. Those are their words, by the way.”

Cardenia thought of the nine members of the executive committee hovering over her father’s deathbed, robbing the two of them of their final, as-intimate-as-possible-under-the-circumstances moments together and suppressed an itchy feeling. “I’ll have to remember to thank them.”

Naffa’s eyebrow arched again but she said nothing. “They’re in the formal ballroom at the moment. That’s on the other side of the building.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course. What would you like to do now?”

“I think I want to pee.”

Naffa nodded and walked Cardenia to her suite of rooms. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes,” she said to her boss.

“What will you do with your free time?”

“Same thing as you, in a slightly less luxurious commode.” Cardenia smiled at this, and Naffa walked off.

Inside her rooms, part of Cardenia’s brain noted everything she was doing as a first. This is the first time in this room as emperox, it said. This is the first time picking up a tablet as emperox. This is the first time in this bathroom as emperox. This is the first time I’ve unzipped my pants as emperox. First time sitting on the toilet as emperox. Aaaaaaand now this is my first pee as emperox.

So many firsts.

“Tell me about Emperox Grayland,” Cardenia said, to her tablet, as she sat on the toilet.