Balthazar stood by the fireplace of my lodge.

I'd directed Harold to install the wooden structure at the site of the Castle Bloodsword. Until the Castle was completed I wanted a discrete meeting place. This would serve that purpose.

The house was simple but comfortable. A large, one-room construction. It was well furnished, with good couches and tables, pleasant seats. I could entertain here if needed. The fire was unlit on this summer night, but it seemed to have drawn Balthazar all the same. He stood, leaning against the mantle, his hand absently tracing the contours of the stone.

He spoke. "I don't want to give you the impression that I don't want to be here, Tiberius, but we are in the process of organizing more mechanized units. I'm needed in Boston."

I lounged on the couch, affecting a more relaxed pose than I really felt. "That very much gives the impression that you don't want to be here. And the tanks will be organized fine without you. That's a task somewhat below the station of the Lord Supreme."

He turned to look back to me. The man was tired. Haggard actually. But he had burned with intensity since the war began. I thought that where the other lord dreaded the war continuing, interrupting trade and farming, maybe interfering with the coming Falling, this lord dreaded its end.

I said as much, "You've waited your whole life for this."

Balthazar said, "I live to serve my city."

I said, "You live for this. When there was no fighting to be had here, you hired yourself out to one of the New Yorks to fight in their wars. When you became Lord Supreme you exerted pressure to increase our military budgets every chance you could. You might lament the inefficiencies in our systems, but it was guns you were buying instead of roads and bridges."

He scowled slightly. His face was a permanent scowl, but the scowl deepened. Not severely. Enough to express disapproval at my words.

I said, "Don't get me wrong, Lord Supreme. I'm not indicting you. This is who you are. The beefier forces we have at our disposal now are opportune and vital. You did the city no harm."

Balthazar said, "Where's this going?"

I said, "You spoke of resetting this city. You took me up in the Eagle and showed me the lands. You wanted to dig out the rot, make the city work again, make it a power to be respected. Do you still want that?"

Balthazar said, "Very much. I loathe the inefficiencies." I said, "And the lawlessness of the fringes? And the wilds?"

He nodded.

I said, "You do intend to Slave the Tower of Buffalo if you get the chance."

He didn't answer. I said, "This might surprise you, but I don't disagree. There's no governance there. Whatever they had was chipped away by the risings, by the Green Men, and Danefer will have been sure to decapitate whatever remains. If you give the city back to itself, then it will be a nest of barbarians for the rest of time. It's best for the people of the city, and the people of our city, to occupy it."

He raised his eyebrows, surprised.

I went on, "Their people might be more receptive to the idea than you might think. I have sources there. They're disaffected. The average person has come to loathe the Green Men. They take property, labor and women without worrying about permission. Things are very bad there for the common man right now."

He nodded. "My sources indicate the same."

I said, "But your ambitions go beyond that. You've as much as said it at times."

He shifted, uncomfortable.

I said, "You'd have more than Buffalo if you had the leash to do it."

He shrugged, "We're but one city-state in a vast land of many. It's not a simple matter to expand."

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I said, "But it would be the best thing for the land. In empires gone by, Griidlords haven't needed to fight and kill each other. The law is easier to extend to the wild places, easier to standardize. Trade can be regulated. Standards made even. You're a man who believes in a certain standard."

He nodded slowly. A whisper of sarcasm touching his voice, he said, "Did you bring me here to plot a new empire?" He smiled in his thin smiling way.

It was my turn to say nothing. His eyes widened, only marginally, and he stepped closer to me. "Tiberius… you can't be serious…" It wasn't outrage. It was barely disbelief. It was wonder.

I said, "I know you wanted me for a pet, like Magneblade. I pushed back against it. I rebelled a little. I know that put a strain between us. I won't be a pet Griidlord, Balthazar. But a partner in something vast and wonderful… that would be a different matter." I could see his eyes flickering within the stony mask of his face. I pressed on, "I know what you want to say. That we don't have the resources. That, if anything, we can't even slave Buffalo without being eradicated by an alliance of regional powers."

"Then why even speculate?"

I said, "Because I think you're wrong."

Silence hung there again. He was not a man who spoke on impulse; every word was calculated. He had a lot to calculate in response. I didn't give him the time.

"We were prohibited from slaving the Tower of Buffalo. I think the people there can be instigated to that themselves. That would not be a breach exactly of the proposal Kestrel and Morningstar brought to us. I don't think they'd let it stand. But it might buy time for negotiating and dickering.

"Time for what?"

I said, "Time for the Falling. Time to win the Griid-crown."

He scoffed. "I believe in you, Tiberius. I believed in you this past year. You did well, spectacularly so. But we can hardly count on—

"I can win it. We came close last year, but I erred. With my Synergy skill all our Griidlords are increasing their power. I am many times stronger than I was when the Falling started last year. This year we can do it."

I licked my lips. "Every major empire has had three elements in its foundation. The Griid-crown, giving Flows and exceptional Griid control to the Tower of the victor. Every empire has had a great Sword. I know I'm not that yet, but I'm level 40 now, I'm in the upper tier of Swords in this land. And something extra. Thrax united the clans. Montagnion had Griidlords around him that were beyond compare. Tex married his way into control of armies. We have something that I think is even more powerful."

Balthazar said, "And what resource have I missed? What is this something extra hiding underneath my nose?"

I said, "The people."

He nodded, "The people love you, Tiberius, that's true. You were their champion from the beginning and you brought them such Flows that their lives have been better since. Well, would have been if not for this damned war. But they know the difference. I don't think that a million civilians armed with pikes and adoration will build Boston an empire."

I shook my head. "Not our people. No, not our people, Balthazar. Theirs."

"Theirs?"

I stood. "In every land the people are sick. They're sick of the same abuses we see here. Fat lords playing games with their land and not making enough food. Sick children dying while the nobles spend a fortune to keep the hospitals to themselves for their cosmetic surgeries and minor procedures. The fact that many, so very many, have so little while a tiny few have so much."

"You speak of revolution?"

"I speak of uniting the people behind us. Turning every city's populace against them. Having their soldiers have to march past throngs that scream of joining Boston. Having to march in the field with foot soldiers who'd rather fight for us. We can turn them all to our side. But you can see what it will take of you?"

He said, "To eliminate the nobility? You think this is the precipice I will balk at? Because I am a lord, I won't be willing to bend society into something more even? You don't know me."

I smiled, "I think I do. I think you'd do whatever it takes to flex your power and set a standard."

Balthazar said, "How then, tell me, do we marshal these disgruntled masses?"

I walked to the door and opened it. "With a third."

Dirk Jaxwulf stepped inside. As hard a man as he was, he seemed off balance to be standing in a room with the Sword of Boston and the Lord Supreme and no other.

Balthazar cocked an eyebrow.

I said, "Dirk represents The Blood. Do you know of the Blood?"

Balthazar nodded, eyes narrowing.

I said, "The Blood are willing to bend their own goals if they can affect real change. They would lend their strength to ours, their contacts, their network, their finger on the pulse of the peoples of every land."

Balthazar said, "You propose a Triumvirate?"

I grinned. The same thought had passed through my mind more than once as I prepared this meeting. "Yes. You will be Pompey, the proven military leader, the trusted elder of the people. Dirk is Julius Caesar. The man who can bend the population to his will and control the masses."

Balthazar said, "I'm not agreeing to any of this. But, hypothetically, if it could be worked, I would always have had you pegged as the Caesar. This leaves you as Crassus."

I produced a sheaf of papers and passed them to him. His looked down and even his stoic face couldn't prevent itself from showing amazement.

I could feel the blood gushing through my veins. I had been nervous approaching this endeavour but now that it was unfolding there was nothing in me but unrelenting excitement. My hands practically trembled with energy.

He looked up to my face, mouth actually agape at the figures and quotations listed on the page.

I said, "You see, it suits very well that I be the Crassus in this historical fantasy. Because I bring the money."

I wanted the moment to land, but we were interrupted with a hammering on the door.

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