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While my schedule eased up after the election, I couldn't just rest on my laurels after a single electoral success. My support base was, by my own design, a bunch of crazed fanatics. As long as they believed a magical solution to Germania's problems would appear once our party cracked fifty percent then they could be counted on to vote for us. Even without a sophisticated political apparatus they would show up with tremendous turnout and enthusiasm. On the other hand, if they should ever come to doubt the magical solution or my ability to bring it about then they would drop us in the blink of an eye.

The first order of business was in maintaining my image as an obstinate revanchist chomping at the bit for war with the Francois Republic. Every opportunity that our party was given to speak in the Federal Diet was used to rail against the Francois and the treaty of Triano. Five minutes to comment on the new budget? That's five minutes spent decrying the failure to spend money on our military and allowing a treaty to override our natural right to self-defense. Two minutes to comment on a tax increase? Two minutes condemning the perfidious Francois and their gall in stealing bread off the table of hard working Germanian citizens. Thirty seconds to comment on the redesign of a postage stamp? That's time enough to repeat the obvious truth: the treaty of Triano must be destroyed.

The other politicians soon learned to ignore these speeches. Honestly, they were likely ignoring those speeches from the beginning. However, the major newspapers would report in summary form on the debates taking place in the Diet, and our new party newsletter was sure to reproduce the text of our speeches in full. The newsletter was one of the investments made possibly by our new funding; it was short and cheaply made but it served its purpose of spreading the party line to all party members.

The second prong of my strategy was to continue to raise our image throughout the country. Our most effective strategy for this continued to be to send me out on campaign. While we still couldn't afford a mass media campaign, our recent increase in funding did allow us to spend some money in order to make my speeches more effective. Specifically, we were able to begin doing some proper opinion polling.

Perhaps that was getting too full of myself. Let's just say we were doing some opinion polling.

I took a statistics class many years ago because it was the easiest way to satisfy the maths requirement for my degree. So at one point I knew at least some of the math behind opinion polling. Unfortunately that knowledge left my head shortly after the final exam. At this point all I could remember was the very basics.

If you have a bag full of a million marbles and you want to know what color they are then you don't have to take out all one million of them. You get a pretty good idea of the percentages after you take out a hundred of them and the numbers don't change much at all after one thousand. I think. I might have just been saying one hundred and one thousand because they were round numbers. Well, we'd make the samples as large as we could manage in any event.

I did remember that the sample had to be random. To stick with the marbles, if marbles of one color were heavier than the others and you were drawing from the top of the bag then naturally your final numbers would be wrong. For opinion polling that meant taking opinions by phone was right out. Owning a phone was still something of a status symbol in Germania. No matter how many people we called up we would still be getting our answers from "people who own telephones" rather than "people who vote," which would skew the numbers.

That meant that to get good data we would need to talk to people in person. Well, I say "we" but the key to the whole operation for me was that I could delegate it to other people. Just because I was able to coordinate the movement of supplies and people through the train system thanks to the military's logistics training didn't mean that I enjoyed doing that kind of thing.

I told Elya to think of it like using spies to scout out an enemy position. Just as it was dangerous to launch an attack without knowing anything about the enemy's defenses, it was dangerous for a politician to give a big speech without knowing what the crowd was thinking. Honestly, though, I was only pushing the task onto her because I thought she would handle it well. Work is never slow for a competent subordinate.

Elya earned herself even more work in the future by doing a wonderful job organizing the polling operation. As it turned out, there were a large number of young women out there who were happy to do some light work in exchange for pocket money. The lousy Germanian economy really worked in our favor there. The pollsters would be sent to talk to random passersby or knock on random doors. Every fifth person, every third house, something like that. The questions they asked were pretty simple: Who did you vote for in the last election? Who would you vote for if an election were held today? Do you feel like the country is on the right track or the wrong track? Are you better off than you were a year ago? What do you feel is the most important issue facing the country today?

We developed a routine. Over the weekend a team would be sent out to poll our target location. A different group would tabulate the resulting information from Monday through Thursday. Finally, I would head out to give speeches over the next weekend. I never really changed my underlying message, but I certainly changed the emphasis depending on the mood of my audience. Were they anxious over the economy? I would denounce the greedy Francois and their demands for reparations that were crushing the average Germanian. Were they worried about national security? Obviously we needed to build up our military to fight off the foreign menace.

So it went. It was interesting to see the polling data and things seemed to be going well. Of course we wouldn't really know if everything was working until the next election.

The most interesting bit of work that Elya did over that first year was not the polling, though, but rather a meeting she arranged nine months in. I didn't know quite what to expect when she insisted on an urgent meeting with a Dr. Wilhelm Fischer, but she'd earned my trust by that point. I met Dr. Fischer in my office with my most professional smile firmly in place.

"It's true," he said, sounding a little star-struck as he glanced back at Elya, "you do work for the Argent Silver."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Dr. Fischer," I said, keeping my tone level. This guy had better be more than some dedicated fan. "Elya said you had something to tell me?"

"Yes! Those fools wouldn't listen, but I know you'll appreciate what I have to say! A genius sees the worth of what's laid before them," he said, before quieting down as he visibly wrestled himself under control.

I felt my heart sink just a little. It was obvious that the weedy man in front of me wasn't a medical doctor. I was starting to feel the too-familiar sensation of listening to an unstable scientist talk about their work. It seemed he had been rejected by everybody sensible associated with the government and was therefore turning to the fringe party of crackpots for support.

Perhaps he sensed my skepticism. When he started speaking again his tone was much more measured.

"We all thought the Empire would win the war. Even at the end, with enemy armies drawing nearer by the day, we thought we would win," he said. "The military had pulled off miracles so many times before. You had performed so many miracles yourself. We thought we would win, somehow."

I could share his feeling of regret. Unfortunately, in this era of warfare victory didn't come down to individual heroism but rather to the cold calculus of industrial capacity. Although, to be fair, the other side had their heroes as well.

He took my silence as permission to continue.

"It was in the last month of the war. Dr. Schugel had a dream. He told us it was a message from God," he said, and all of a sudden I had a whole new sinking feeling in my stomach. Anything associated with Dr. Schugel meant trouble. "He told us to gather up the technical documentation for the type-97 computation orb. He told us to gather up the irreplaceable mechanical components. Then he sent the vital personnel into hiding. The next day there was an enormous explosion and the entire Elenium factory complex was destroyed."

I looked at Elya for confirmation. She nodded before explaining. "The complex was reported to be destroyed by an enemy bombing raid and most of the people working there as dead. Even within military high command that was what we believed had happened. The belief was so widespread that our enemies even accepted the excuse as to why we couldn't hand over the designs for the dual core technology."

I stared at her in shock. I knew the basic story of the manufacture of the type-97. When Dr. Schugel built the quad core type-95 he had only managed to succeed through literal divine intervention. The engineering team wouldn't be able to replicate that success if they spent the rest of their lives trying. However, studying the type-95 gave them a massive leg up on building the dual core type-97. That leg up was on top of the technology advantage already enjoyed by the Empire. The end result was that even at the end of the war the type-97 was still superior to anything our enemies could field.

"So nobody has dual core technology any more?" I asked. "Wait, what about all of the computation orbs we turned in at the end of the war?"

"The stockpile was destroyed in a massive explosion," Elya said. "The investigation concluded that residual solidified mana from your type-95 destabilized after the orb was away from you for a long period. That caused some kind of cascading reaction that turned most of a supply depot into a smoking crater."

I had mixed feelings at that. On the one hand, it was a terrible waste of computation orbs. On the other hand, if Being X and all of his works were consumed in massive explosions then a few computation orbs was a small price to pay. Especially computation orbs that were destined to fall into enemy hands.

"I wouldn't say that nobody has the technology," Dr. Fischer said. "As I tried to explain to that fool Lergen, if my team is given a secure place to work and even a modicum of financial support then we can rebuild the type-97 production line."

"General Lergen turned you down?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Adding flight mage capability to the current Germanian army wouldn't be enough to bring it even close to parity with the Francois or even the Entente military, but it would at least force them to think twice before committing to an invasion. I was surprised that he would pass it up.

"He insisted that computation orb production would violate that damned treaty," Dr. Fischer said.

Elya spoke up as well. "I only discovered Dr. Fischer after he came storming out of General Lergen's office."

I tapped my chin for a moment as I tried to figure things out. Flight mage capabilities would give the military a huge boost. It would have to be kept secret, but that would be simple enough. It was impossible to keep ship building secret, of course, and even things like tanks and artillery were built in large industrial facilities that were easy for enemy spies to keep track of. Computation orbs, on the other hand, were small clockwork devices. Design and testing were quite difficult but the actual production didn't require much more than a watchmaker would need.

On second thought, the sheer concentrated power of flight mages could be a double edged sword. In order to keep things secret Lergen would want to keep the project known to as few people as possible. Ideally he would hand it off to a single trusted subordinate. But if a single person controlled the production and distribution of the computation orbs it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that they controlled the strongest and most mobile portion of the country's military. Could it be that General Lergen didn't have a subordinate that he trusted with that kind of power?

The highest levels of the military were fraught with politics. I certainly wouldn't want to swim in those waters, even if I was now a professional politician. But if I assume that General Lergen didn't have anybody working for him that he wanted to put in charge of such a project, then what could he do? He couldn't directly assign it to me since I'm no longer under his command, but... ah, I see.

"In that case we should be able to support your work," I said. "I'm sure Elya can make the appropriate arrangements."

"You will?" he asked, before his eyes lit up. "You will! I knew you would see further than that idiot Lergen-"

"Watch yourself, Dr. Fischer," I said. He fell silent, looking a little shocked at the warning in my tone. Good to know that I still had it. "Do you really think General Lergen doesn't know you're here?"

Elya was the first to pick up on what I was saying. "You think General Lergen meant for this to happen? Why?"

"General Lergen has his own concerns. I wouldn't presume to guess at his thoughts," I said. It was foolish to speculate without the relevant information. "I simply intend to carry out this task well in order to lessen his burden. Dr. Fischer, how many orbs will you be able to produce?"

He pulled himself together as he thought over the technical question. "Once we are properly equipped we should be able to produce one, perhaps two orbs per month."

I nodded in satisfaction. That wouldn't be enough to equip a proper army any time soon, but at the very least we would be able to put together a guerilla resistance force that could make an occupying army bleed a great deal. Not that I expected things to come to that, but it was better to have the orbs and not need them than to need them and not have them.

On the topic of magical irregulars, it was a little scary to think what might have happened if I weren't around to field this one for General Lergen. If Dr. Fischer struck out on his own and was able to recruit a bit of magical help then he would have been able to put together quite the illegal operation. A bunch of criminals armed with high end magical orbs could rampage freely in a country without aerial mages. It was lucky I was in the right place to help out.

It did occur to me that this could all be some kind of long term plan by Being X. That dream of Dr. Schugel's did sound awfully suspicious. On the whole, though, this seemed just too helpful for one of that bastard's schemes. Being X had never been shy about attaching strings to his "help" in the past. For something like this to drop in my lap when I hadn't uttered a single word in prayer for over a year was more likely the result of simple good fortune. Dr. Schugel had turned into quite the religious fanatic after he built the type-95. He was the type to attribute any old bad dream or ominous feeling to divine intervention entirely of his own initiative.

"Elya, keep the orbs in a safe place for now. We need to keep this absolutely secret," I said. "Remember that all of us, and General Lergen too, we are all working for the good of the Germanian people."

Even if I was just rationalizing my decision, in the end the chance was too good to pass up.

ooOoo

There was no such thing as a dumb aerial mage. This was especially true on the Rhine front, where as Elya knew from personal experience that any aerial mage who had scraped through their training on raw talent or blind luck would soon perish in the brutally impartial meat grinder of combat.

Elya had expected Tanya von Degurechaff to be smart.

While her friend Visha was kind-hearted, she was still a capable combat mage in her own right. She might omit criticisms out of courtesy, but she would not make up praise that she knew to be false. She wrote many letters to Elya over the course of the war and only ever referred to her superior officer in the most glowing terms.

Elya had expected Tanya von Degurechaff to be a military genius.

Even so, a military commander was expected to think in a certain way. The military encouraged its leaders to think in direct and practical terms. And aerial mages were inherently more effective when they were collected together into an overwhelming force and sent to crash into the enemy.

Elya had expected Tanya von Degurechaff, once off the battlefield, to be a straightforward person.

After reviewing her files-or, at least, the files Elya was able to access-Elya compiled the picture of someone who in another time would have been labeled a hero rather than a genius. Every action spoke of self-abnegation and a complete devotion to the good of the Empire. Not only that, but mission record after mission record described impossible deeds carried out with such natural ease that they eventually became routine.

If the Empire had won the war then Tanya von Degurechaff could have stepped into the Chancellor's position as easily as turning over her hand. Unfortunately, nations were not so kind to failed heroes. It seemed ridiculous to speak of Degurechaff as a failure when her record showed nothing but a string of success, but Elya knew she wouldn't dispute the characterization. After all, the Empire lost the war.

Major Degurechaff could easily have disappeared into a sinecure after the war. She had received no fewer than three offers to act as a highly paid lobbyist for military manufacturers. Elya had seen the letters, thinly veiled as a sop to military regulation as invitations to "tour manufacturing facilities" and "discuss the future of the nation." Each of them had received a polite yet distant reply turning down their offer. By the time Visha was able to meet back up with her commanding officer she was living in an orphanage and tied up with a tiny and irrelevant political party.

At first her behavior seemed like the pure stubborn pig-headedness of somebody who refused to acknowledge that the world had changed with the loss of the war. The retired Major refused to make any practical accommodations to the new world and instead seemed intent on re-fighting old battles. It wasn't until the results of the election came out and shocked Elya out of her complacency that she was able to take a step back and see the larger picture.

Major Degurechaff had formed a battalion of flight mages in her own image and led it from victory to victory on the battlefield. Chairman Degurechaff had taken a small political party, reformed it in her own image, and led it to stunning new heights of success after only a year of work. Chancellor Degurechaff... if given a chance to reform the country in her own image, who knew what she could accomplish?

During the darkest hours of the war Elya had held out hope that some great man would come striding out of the pages of the history books the save the Empire in its time of need. Now she was starting to think that the great woman the Empire needed had been there all along. The great tragedy was that she was never given the free hand she needed in order to save the day. On the other hand, as Elya gradually came to realize, it might not be too late to save the Empire. Indeed, a reborn Empire rising from the ashes of the old order would be all the stronger for surviving the current difficulties.

Of course, in order for that to happen everybody had to do their part. Elya pulled her compact from her handbag and flipped it open to check her appearance. Looking back at her from the mirror's surface was a slender brunette proudly wearing the armband of the Germanian Workers' Party. Elya nodded in satisfaction and tucked her compact back away next to the computation orb that was maintaining her current look. She straightened her clothes out one last time before knocking on the door.

A moment later the door opened to reveal the familiar figure of Johan Dressler. His mouth twisted in a sour grin as he looked her up and down.

"I suppose it's my turn then."

"I don't know what you could possibly mean, Mr. Dressler," Elya replied. Despite his grumbling he didn't resist as she pushed past him and led the way to his sitting room.

"After the third of my former colleagues decided to retire the day after being visited by a young woman," he said, "it was hard not to notice a trend."

"But I don't want you to retire, Mr. Dressler," Elya said, pouting slightly. Somebody had been saying things they shouldn't be saying. She'd have to make time to look into it after this conversation. "I just want to discuss the future of your role in the party."

"Oh?"

"You've done a terrific job developing the theoretical foundation for the party's platform. I hope you can continue to do this valuable work," Elya said. Dressler relaxed slightly, only to stiffen up again as she fixed him with a serious look. "I'm sure we both agree that the most important goal of the Germanian Workers' Party is to install Chairman Degurechaff in a position of national leadership. Only she can restore the Germanian people to their proper place in the world."

"Of course."

"To that end, the party's fundamental principle must be to act according to our leader's will," Erya said, smiling brightly. "So anything like a party platform or position statement will naturally be purely advisory until approved by Chairman Degurechaff."

Dressler looked at her for a long moment. Finally he sighed, all the tension draining out of his frame. "I understand."

"Wonderful!" Erya chirped, before settling down. "I should also retrieve the files relating to your recent organization efforts. There's no need to burden a genius theoretician such as yourself with such grubby practical matters."

"How thoughtful," Dressler said, a wry twist of the lips betraying his inner thoughts. Still, despite his discontent he stood readily enough and left to retrieve the files she requested.

Elya was left alone for a moment to savor her victory. She felt a bit unsatisfied. The whole conversation had gone much more smoothly than she had anticipated. She hadn't had to resort to even the simplest means of more forceful persuasion that had been needed in order to convince Dressler's associates to retire. A moment later the answer hit her and it was her turn to reproach herself with a wry smile.

Dressler had been known to spend quite a bit of time together with Chairman Degurechaff. Obviously the man's spirit had been broken long before. She should have realized that the chairman wouldn't have let an independent power block appear within the confines of the party if she didn't have firm control over its higher reaches. In fact, Elya had most likely just stumbled over a long term operation meant to draw traitors out into the light and proceeded to demolish it in an exceedingly clumsy fashion.

She should have known better than to second guess the chairman.

Ah, well. What's done was done. One of the nice things about working for Chairman Degurechaff was that she never resorted to micro-management. As long as the results were fine the chairman wouldn't fuss too much about the process. Elya's actions today would lead to a more secure grip over the party in the future, which should be a good thing. She'd just have to set up her own methods to smoke out internal dissent. Perhaps a new organization would be needed. She'd figure it out. She would need to do an excellent job if she wanted the chairman to overlook today's little misstep.