“I think you should start arresting Fang members now,” I said to Gaspar. He opened his mouth, and then shut it again.

This was a meeting of the Peace Faction, but it was much more organised than our first one. For one, there were far fewer people attending. The three merchants and I had agreed to be contact points for people’s concerns, and Gaspar was here representing the town guards.

It wasn’t an executive council, because there wasn’t anything that we could really do. We just discussed the concerns of the other members and passed on any suggestions to relevant parties. Like this.

Gaspar’s first objection was going to be that the Baron would never allow it. People were still coming to terms with the idea that he wouldn’t be coming back.

“Won’t it be a risk, if he does come back?” Noah, one of the merchants, asked. They were always a bit timid, but I knew Gasper was made of sterner stuff.

“If we can get it done quickly, then even if he does come back, it will be… already accomplished,” I said. I stumbled a bit, worrying at the last second that ‘fait accompli’ wouldn’t be translated. “We’ve been talking about it for a while, but getting that gang off the streets would be something we could actually do about improving the safety of Beast-kin inside Talnier.”

By now it was pretty much an article of faith in our group that the Fangs were kidnapping beast-folk.

Gasper’s brow was furrowed with thought. “We’d want to take as many of them as we can at once…” he mused. “I’m not sure that we have the men to do it.”

“You could get help from the Adventurers Guild,” I suggested. “I know they don’t usually do that sort of work, but in this case, I think you’ll find them very motivated.”

There were nods all around the table. Everyone knew the Guild hated the Fangs. Promises of getting rid of them were what got the Guild to sign on to our petition. Solving the problem before the petition was even accepted would make us look like reliable partners going forward.

“What about the trials?” Gaspar asked. “Without the Baron, who will judge?”

“The Baroness?” Winston suggested.

Gaspar made a pained grimace. “The Baroness has… left. Probably back to her own family.”

“Then, who is in charge? The Mayor?”

“No one is,” I explained. “Captain Guertin is in charge of the Guard, Captain Boivin is in charge of what is left of the griffins, and the mayor… will continue to do as little to draw attention to himself as possible.”

The mayor basically existed to pass on the Baron’s dictates to the rest of the town. Hopefully, that would change soon, and we’d get to see if the mayor was up to his new role.

“It’s a mess,” I admitted, “but Inquisitor Dunnar is still in town. He normally deals with greater crimes, but I’m sure he’s able to judge lesser ones.”

“Will he?” Gaspar asked.

“I think so… normally he’d want to do a favour for the Baron, but he can’t get favours from someone who isn’t here. Especially with the Guild around to report everything he does to the capital.”

Heads all around the table started nodding and we moved on to other things. Now if I could just get Isidre to start being useful…

Standing in the town square with a crowd of people, I couldn’t help but feel surprised. Even though I’d planned for this, I couldn’t believe it was happening.

I’d been fairly confident that the King would go for making Talnier a Free City. It was nothing but benefits for him after all, and with the Baron missing and the Count yet to be confirmed, there was less than the normal resistance from the nobility. Marseau was missing not dead, and the town needed leadership now, not after a prolonged waiting period.

“…five town Councillors elected from the residents of the town, who shall…” Dunnar droned on, reading out the entire document. I guessed that was one way to disseminate information when you didn’t have a photocopier.

What surprised me, as Inquisitor Dunnar read out the King’s Decree, was that the Charter was exactly the same as I’d outlined. I guess the King isn’t a details guy? While the Charter was based on the Charters from other Free Cities, there were a number of details that I’d added in. I’d fully expected them to be removed or altered before the document came back. It seemed like the King wasn’t in the habit of reading contracts before signing them.

The only wrinkle was that the whole thing was up for review in two months. That was barely enough time to get things up and running before we’d have to send a delegation to Dorsay and justify everything we’d done. Reading between the lines, that would be when the nobility tried to get us fired or cancelled or whatever the term was.

As soon as Dunnar finished reading the Charter, he called for citizens to stand for election to the town council. I smirked a little at his technical error, but I didn’t bring it up as I stepped forward. With the entire town’s population gathered to hear the speech, voting would start straight after nominations were recorded.

“Councillor Hammond has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Felicia asked with amusement. We were talking in the sitting room while Rhis and Cutter were playing with a rubber kid’s ball that I’d conjured.

“Better than Senior Mistress, that’s for sure,” I agreed. “And it’s very gratifying that so many people picked me out for the job.”

“And this is only the beginning, right? What’s the next step?”

“The next step,” I said thoughtfully, “Is another secret meeting with Kaito.”

After the usual greetings were exchanged, we sat down on the grass in the middle of the clearing.

“We should bring some furniture, we meet here so often,” Ettalle giggled.

“Actually, I’m hoping we can arrange some… less clandestine arrangements in the near future.” I looked at Kaito. “I’m guessing you girls aren’t official negotiators for the Tribal Council. Can you bring someone important enough to make a deal?”

“I suppose so…” Kaito said, confused.

“What kind of deal?” Orino asked suspiciously.

“Let me bring you up to date on the latest changes in Talnier,” I explained to them how it was that the town had changed status to a Free City, with an elected government, and that I had been elected Councillor.

“Ah! That’s good news!” Kaito exclaimed. “With you on the council, it will be much harder for the warmongers to take control.”

“That’s part of it,” I agreed. “But remember, that under the new rules, the garrison here will answer directly to the King, and he’s at least war-curious”

“That’s true,” Orino said slowly. “He’s always trying to expand at the expense of others - mostly the Forest.”

“Right. I need to manage expectations here - I can’t control the King. But there’s one thing he likes just as much as more land. Money.”

“The Council isn’t going to give you money,” Orino told me.

“Well, it just might - indirectly. I’m hoping that if the City of Talnier can extend diplomatic recognition to the Tribes, they might be willing to establish a trade route.”

“With the city, not the country?” Kaito asked. “How would that work?”

“Carefully, like any new international agreement,” I said. “I’m hoping that once we get it in place, and the benefits become obvious, the King will see the wisdom and get behind the idea. Maybe even to the extent of actually recognising the Tribes.

“What’s in it for us, though?” Zichy asked. While Kaito seemed somewhat taken with the idea, her harem was more suspicious.

“Trade benefits both sides or it doesn’t happen,” I told them. “I don’t know exactly how yet, because I don’t know what you guys are willing to sell or what you want. That’s why I need someone with knowledge and authority to hash out an actual deal.”

“You must have a general idea of how to proceed though,” Orino interjected.

I nodded. “I figure the first thing is for you guys to create a safe path through the forest to your nearest population centre. That’s assuming there isn’t one already, of course.”

“So, creating a literal trade route,” Orino replied.

“Yeah. If it were the Kingdom we’d want to build a road, but that takes time, and don’t think you guys like them very much.” Varied noises of disgust told me that I was right. “Now what the merchants would like is for their caravans to be given guides and safe passage through the forest, so they can go and trade their goods directly with your villagers.”

“That is… unlikely,” Orino told me. “The Elders won’t want Kingdom caravans in the inner forest.”

“Right. So what we do is we establish a trading post, either in the city or outside the walls. That can be where the goods are exchanged, and your folk can be responsible for transporting them to your villages.”

The girls all looked at each other, but they didn’t seem to see anything objectionable in that proposal. “What goods though?” Orino asked.

“Well… that’s going to take a meeting between my merchants and your Elders to hash out,” I said. “But for starters… I know you’ve abandoned the two dungeons near here. We’re pulling out a wide variety of Alchemical ingredients from the Chimera one, it’s likely that some of them are of use to you.”

“Perhaps,” Orino said doubtfully.

“C’mon Orino, we have to try! It could lead to peace!” Kaito urged her.

“Will it? She sounds like she’s more interested in wealth than peace!” she snapped back.

“Peace and prosperity go hand in hand,” I said. “You can’t have one without the other.”

“Fine! We’ll bring it to the Council, and see what they say,” she said.

“That’s all I ask. Thank you.”

The elections had been a simple affair. The Charter just stated that the Councillors were to be elected, but in the future, I hoped to introduce the idea of electorates and campaign periods. We didn’t even have set terms - but that was more to do with the fact that the whole arrangement was a probationary one.

The five Councillors were me, the ex-mayor, Noah from the Peace Faction, another merchant who hadn’t been in the Peace Faction, and a senior [Carpenter]. Inquisitor Dunnar was filling in for the yet to be appointed Alderman, who would be overseeing the application of the King’s law. He looked so happy to be here.

I was the only woman, which seemed par for the course, but I wasn’t sure. I’d had a difficult time getting a handle on sexism in Latorra. There didn’t seem to be a general belief that women were inferior, but nevertheless, men and women separated themselves into separate roles, apparently of their own accord. No merchant treated me as lesser because I was a woman, but women merchants were vanishingly rare.

Back in the chamber, the first order of business was whether there should be any positions or responsibilities aside from the general ‘Councillor’.

“I think we need three, at least,” I said. “Mayor, Treasurer, Secretary. The Treasurer needs to have [Calculate] and [Scribe] while the Secretary just needs to have [Scribe].”

There was some discussion around the table about what duties those roles performed. I shared my own understanding, which caused a few raised eyebrows.

“Wait, everything we discuss should be written down? And made public?” That was Delmar Balend, the other merchant.

“Of course,” I said like it was obvious. “We do this job at the behest of the people of Talnier, they should be able to see the quality of the work that we do. We’ll also need something to show the King in two months.”

They didn’t like that, but no one wanted to argue it. It was difficult to argue for keeping secrets from the King in front of his [Inquisitor]. Everyone agreed with the need for a treasurer, and Andre, the ex-mayor, was obviously eager to have his job back.

I let the two merchants argue over who should be treasurer. I’d vote for Noah when the time came, but I didn’t really care. Secretary was the job I wanted. Officially, the Mayor ran the meeting, but the Secretary wrote the agenda and produced the official record of what happened.

Figuring that I’d network a bit while the merchants argued, I turned to the [Carpenter] Chaney. He was an old man, and from what I’d heard he’d had a hand building most of the buildings in Talnier.

“Ah, who gives a shit,” he said in response to my question. “Gotta be one of them, and I can’t tell the difference to be honest.”

I chuckled. “Why’d you take this job?”

“Workers said we needed someone to keep the rich folk honest. I’m mostly retired from working now, so I’ve got time.” He looked at me closely. “You’re not just a pretty face, are you? That idea of the meeting notes… you’ve done this before.”

“Not exactly,” I denied. “I’ve just heard about the best way to do this sort of thing.”

He nodded slowly. “Well at least one of us knows what they’re doing at least.”

When we voted for Treasurer, Cheney voted with me, and when we voted for Secretary, the vote was unanimous for me.

You have defeated Aubert Duvost in an Intrigue. You have earned 125 XP

You have defeated Victor de Bargougne in an Intrigue. You have earned 245 XP

You have taken control of a Territory: City of Talnier. Claim? [Y]/[N]

…What?