My intelligent and beautiful Ambassador, (yes, I saw you once, when you were teaching), I am sending you the new tax regulations, and would be most grateful if you could translate them and explain the social changes they will encourage but not force.

  You will, I expect, recognise the concept they embody, since at root it is your idea. I was frustrated with the board of examiners for the way that they phrased my question, and angry that they then gave high marks to those who answered according to the letter but not the spirit.

  Answers such as yours were exactly what I'd been hoping for, and were sadly very few. I expect that the examiners did not tell you that your grades on the paper had been revised. You received maximum marks for interpreting the question according to the spirit in which it was intended. Since discerning the will of the king is a very important characteristic indeed for a civil servant, few people did nearly as well as you in that exam. I also include some changes to the law that have been determined to incur no social disruption, or indeed to prevent it, which I hope will bring you joy. You will see as part of them that others will not suffer as you have. The day after the above laws were changed, I attended the service where the records show your sister and husband were fined — did you know they were part of an 'overlooked' church? The pastor was rather surprised, but not as surprised as I was when he asked if I would like to say a few words part way through. I don't know what he actually expected, but I thought about my guards, who'd been rather disrespectful to the King of Kings during the worship time, so I spoke briefly on the verses I'd just read that morning, on the reality of God's judgement on the wicked, and his desire that they repent from their sins, and trust in Jesus.

  The pastor then gave his sermon, on serving God not man, and which I think he'd been planning to use the cover of my speech to urgently censor, but he put his pen down quite quickly. He ended with an invitation to talk to him during the final songs if there was anything in my talk or his that had made someone curious. There were a lot of smiling faces at the end of the service, including one of my guards who asked me if he could speak to the pastor. God is good.

  I expect that the changes in law and the tax regulations also affect some international traders, so I wonder if there is somewhere they could be put on display at the embassy or perhaps the harbour. Is there any kind of regular information sheet that you could use to alert people? I pray that you are well and that I will receive something from you soon that indicates you are at least still live!

  Salay.

  ps, mother thinks I should send you this likeness of me, and hopes to see what you look like too.

  Changes in Dahel empire: slavery to end soon, end to ban on faith

  New laws are in force regarding automatic freedom for all classes of slaves that come to be owned by citizens of non-slave-owning nations — this was previously the case for slaves purchased for money, but there were some unexpected anomalies arising from other routes to ownership.

  Automatic freedom is also granted to any slave with parental responsibility for free children on the death of the slave owner. The process for freeing slaves has also been vastly simplified to a simple verbal declaration by the registered owner at the relevant office.

  It has long been the law that in the matter of debt-slaves, a slave is deemed to be earning an hourly rate, and as the slave has no legal entitlement to sleep where they like, nor for their sleep to be undisturbed, they are assumed to be earning sleeping-on-duty pay for 8 hours and working pay for 16 hours per day.

  Among recently published changes to the tax rules (full details are on display at the embassy) are changes mean that both full slaves and debt-slaves are now categorised as workers receiving an income which is then received back by their owner, and that this benefit is taxable. The owner of a land-slave is also categorised as receiving an income on the same basis, depending on how many days (and nights) service the land-slave has to work for their lord. Owners must accurately describe in their tax declaration the value to them of the duties of any slave who is not merely a general labourer. Other rules that significantly reduce the untaxed income of a slave owner make it unlikely that any current slave owner will find it cheaper to own a slave than to employ them as a worker, and to further ease any pain of transition, the authorities will subsidise the employment of a former-slave, no matter who their previous owner was, as long as they are satisfied that the income is actually saved or spent by the slave without interference or extortionate rates being charged for food or accommodation, and that the former slave is not being employed to replace a former employee. While not outlawing slavery across the entire country, these changes are excepted to mean that — across the whole country — slave owners will soon find it more expensive to continue to own slaves than employ them. The preamble to the tax rules makes it clear that there are plans to outlaw all classes of slavery — without recompense — and the above transitional subsidies represent all any owner can expect.

  Another law clarifying that starving a slave to death or otherwise failing to provide their basic needs for survival will be considered murder.

  A law has been passed permitting the public worship of the saviour Jesus and preaching of faith in him in the central zone of the Dahel empire. The huge Dahel empire has an onion-like structure with the famous port of Wahleet counted within the most conservative central zone. Laws that introduce changes to the fabric of society are introduced at the edges first, only reaching the central zone after they have been determined not to cause rioting or social unrest. Tax laws however, change in all parts of the empire on the same date, to prevent the unrest of people trying to move to find a more favourable tax location.

  Five generations ago the emperor of Dahel married a lady from Tesk. She insisted that, before she would consider his pleas, the emperor should accept her faith and that her religion become legal to practice in as much of the country as possible. As emperor worship had been the default position until then (although it was not encouraged by the emperor himself) this was a major social change. The anti-riot rules meant that applying these changes to almost the whole country required a huge delay before this change could be applied in the central zone. An additional law has recently been passed decreeing that since there have been no faith-related riots in the outer zones, the law should be harmonised. This means that the 'overlooked' churches of the central zone (known and semi-tolerated, but meeting under threat of occasional raids, with all present being fined a month's income) will now be able to operate openly, conduct baptisms in public, and so on, as will 'underground' churches (that moved location regularly to try to avoid such raids, and were oppressed harder). On the day after this law was introduced, His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Salay took part in worship at one of the 'overlooked' churches and gave a presentation of the core gospel message.

  “Lady Ambassador, thank you for your letter to our paper and for agreeing to see me,” the journalist said.

  “Thank you for responding.”

  “I think our readers would appreciate a few more details on how it can be cheaper to employ someone than to pay tax on their income.”

  “It comes down to the way that the tax is calculated, and the rebates for employing the former slave. Also I skipped some details. Would you like to see some worked examples?”

  “Certainly! If you don't mind.”

  “OK, I took what I feel are few relatively common situations. First, a relatively low income household with two really cheap slaves: an ugly slave-girl who just cooks in the kitchen, and an old slave who does the garden. For them, that's two manual labourers. Previously the couple paid hardly any tax on the husband's income, because the man earns less than the married couple's untaxed income level and they just pay property tax on the two slaves and the house. If they don't free the slaves, then they'll loose most of the their untaxed amount. That'll immediately cost them a third of his income, plus a third of the minimum income of two workers working two and a half times normal; that's a disaster. If they free the slaves, they keep their tax-free status, and they get help from the tax authorities to pay the workers. No question which one makes sense.

  Secondly this one, at the other end of the spectrum: a business-man who has a hundred slaves, say, manicuring his lawn and building furniture in his factory. Let's assume, since this is pretty normal, that he's also got a couple of pretty house-slaves who his wife assumes he forces to do other things when she's out, which is frustrating for her but at least he's not stooped to using prostitutes. His income is going to be so high that he doesn't really care about his tax-free allowance, but he does care about not getting charged at a higher rate of tax, which that many slaves will do to him.

  So he's going to free the workers, because it'll cost him a lot of money if he's charged a few extra percent his income. Also, no one really works a slave for sixteen hours a day, and then interrupts their sleep, not unless they're a total idiot, because the slave will become sick and weak, so the actual income is far less than the amount that he'd be taxed on. Plus if he frees them then he expects they'll work a bit better, and he can charge something for their food at the work canteen, and lodging as well. Also, I skipped over a lot I guess, but if the state pays for his factory workers, then the state gets a big percentage of the profit, so he only asks the state to pay for his gardeners. The pretty girls are more of a difficulty. If he keeps them as slaves then everyone will know he's getting more than just work out of them, and the tax authority take one look at them and leap to assumptions and put it down on his public tax records that he keeps two slaves for domestic work and sex which would be really bad for his public standing. If he frees them, honour is restored and maybe his wife is so pleased that she smiles at him a lot more, or even goes as far as jumping into his lap when there's no one else around. He might even negotiate that with her if he's really disgusting. Net result, joy and happiness all round. OK?”

  “You're pretty convincing,” The journalist said.

  “Don't get my appearance into anything you print please. Next, a old single man who found himself a pretty slave, for the normal reasons. No one has any doubt why he's got her, so the change in his social standing doesn't apply. The state won't employ a sex-worker for him. So probably he keeps her and pays his tax bill, helping the government pay for all the slaves they're paying for. But maybe he can't pay, so he frees her and begs her to marry him, or maybe she suggests it, because she knows that a permanent warm bed, food, the offer of extra status and inheritance rights are better than striking out on her own. It's not ideal, but its what she's used to, and marriage is nice and reliable even when she gets old.”

  “You've touched on something I want to ask...”

  “The slave unable to work.”

  “Yes.”

  “The law says that a slave unable to work is to be housed and fed. It used to be a bit vague on the food. It also says that a menial worker unable to work is to be fed and housed. Neither menial workers nor slaves expect to retire.”

  “And a sick, elderly worker is paid the same as a worker in their prime?”

  “No. The law states minima, workers can hire themselves for better jobs if they like. That's really why there's the thing about any freed slave. The expectation is that the factory owner will be finding a new employer for old workers if he can, and employing young ones instead — that's a requirement as well, by the way, you can't just sack someone like here, not without a court-appointed evaluator deciding that they're deliberately working less hard than they could. It doesn't need to be a good job you find people, but you have to find them a job.”

  “I thought you said the slave girl of the old man would have to start out alone.”

  “Well, yes, but if he finds her a job moving bricks on a building site she probably says nasty things about him and quits.”

  “Ah, I understand. Another question, what can you tell me about the Crown Prince?”

  “Other than that he's tall, dark and handsome, just like princes ought to be, you mean? I don't even know if he's tall, actually. I've not met him.”

  “But you represent him.”

  “Yes. But if I'm his hands eyes and ears here, he's the brain. I've never seen my brain, but that doesn't mean my hands don't do what it says.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Urm, OK. Yes. Can you tell me about why he sent you here?”

  “That's something that I can't openly speak about, sorry. I've shared the details with princess Esmetherelda, prince Hal and various others, but I think he wouldn't want me to publish it.”

  “No clues.”

  “No.”

  “Is the prince married?”

  “No.”

  “But he intends to marry.”

  “I'm sure he does, yes.”

  “Does he intend to come to Caneth?”

  “I believe that is his intention. He might change his mind.”

  “There have been rumours that you're here looking for a wife for him.”

  “I wonder who said that, or if you made it up.” Hayeel said, “Actually, I don't wonder, since you're looking embarrassed and anyway I have the gift of Tesk.”

  “Many apologies for the deception, lady ambassador. I do wonder how you acquired it though.”

  “I think it would be instructive to you to consider this sash I now wear. As you know, red and black are warning stripes on bugs. This is the sash of an unmarried — that is to say virgin — duchess of Dahel. You're surprised, but the man I was officially married to never touched me and that fiction of a marriage has been annulled. The bands on the outside denote purity and honour. They protect you and this nation from what danger they enclose within: the danger that a diminishing of my honour or purity by rumour, insult, attack or seduction would unleash blood and death in reply, that is to say invasion and war. If you wish to write anything about me personally, or about the prince, I beg you to not speculate as you were doing just now. Write nothing that might be taken as an insult to my honour or purity or invite others to doubt them. The empire is a long way away, but if the emperor asked for safe passage for a million soldiers to come and eradicate your newspaper in particular and this city in general, very few would stand in his way. It is more likely, of course, that war would only be the result if the crown failed to protect me from rape or insult. So if you print an insult to me, princess Esmetherelda will probably decide to send you in chains to Dahel to see if the emperor lets you beg for mercy.”

  “We have freedom of the press here, lady ambassador.”

  “Let me tell you something of my family history. My grandmother, an orphan aged ten, was unjustly accused of writing a rude poem concerning a tax collector, and hanging it on flagpole. Because the writing was childish, they looked no further, and she was reduced to slavery. She had been a duchess, she had all sorts of rights, and it was her flagpole. But they thought she had crossed the line and insulted someone she didn't like in a way that should have been unthinkable to an adult. She was not given the benefit of the doubt, even as an orphan, even as a duchess. No one even looked at the writing and compared it with hers to see if it matched. If the law of Dahel will do such to a duchess of the empire, do you think that the emperor will shrug his soldiers and say, oh they have freedom of press there, it's OK if they ignore a clearly explained warning? No, he will not. It is not the emperor's personal will, even; it is the law of Dahel.

  "This sash was issued by the emperor himself, it expressly promises war, and the laws of Dahel says that war must follow if the country does not eradicate the insult. Your paper has or will soon have a letter from the princess regent saying that given the choice between sparking a war that will crush Caneth out of existence and protecting freedom of the press, they must avoid implying any insult to any noble of Dahel. I like this house, and this city, I owe princess Esmetherelda and prince Hal many many thanks for offering me friendship and honour even when I had no official paperwork, but my personal gratitude counts for nothing if you trample the gracious warning of the emperor underfoot, just like it counts for nothing how much the pastor likes you if you insult Christ and blaspheme the Holy Spirit. All the pastor can do is warn you and beg you not to. All I can do is the same. Do you understand now? I don't want a war, of course I don't. I'm trying to convince you not to start one.

  "Back to your war-causing and insulting speculation, I ended up with the gift of Tesk because my father is from Tesk and I had some long talks with princess Esmetherelda and prince Hal about such diverse topics as their marriage plans, differences in fashion and what to do if Tew invade. The accusation that more personal contact than a hand-shake is needed is an old piece of anti-Isles propaganda, and it's totally insulting to me, prince Hal, and princess Esmetherelda, as I was never in Hal's presence without her. Your speculation might even count as treason, I don't know. Do you really think freedom of the press would allow you to print such insults and lies? Good. Lesson on international diplomacy has ended. Any more questions?”

  “Urm. You mentioned your urm, purity, being protected, what happens in the case of marriage?”

  “The sash of a married duchess is different. I can't actually remember how, but in any case, I cannot marry without the emperor's permission.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I'm counted as a national treasure, and maybe the emperor will need to cement some kind of treaty thorough me, which doesn't seem likely. Or maybe he will just want to make sure that no one is after my title, power or access to the imperial throne.”

  “Access to the throne?”

  “As I told princess Esmetherelda and prince Hal, the chances are that if they send an envoy to Dahel, it will be two or three years before they meet the grand vizier. But as ambassador I have sent a letter to the crown prince asking him to talk to someone, and as duchess I can probably do the same to his majesty himself. I don't actually know what protocol requires. You might guess I was not duchess when I left home. His imperial majesty would never have allowed my marriage to that man if I had been. The miscarriage of justice was recorded but not acted on by civil servants who thought they were doing the right thing. Now it has been corrected and I am duchess of Repink, which is about the same size as Tew.”

  “The size of Tew?”

  “Yes. I believe the population is higher though.”

  “And you derive an income from it?”

  “I've not actually asked, and letters take a long time. If I wrote to ask now, I probably wouldn't hear until spring or even later.”

  “Can you tell me where Repink is?”

  “It is on the coast, past Wahleet, just past the barrier of the central zone. That is significant because it means that the people in my duchy have had a long history of the freedom to worship God. I don't know if they do, but I hope so.”

  “Some do,” Taheela said, bringing some water. “That's where our pastor came from.”

  “Oh good! Is it time for something, Taheela?”

  “You're supposed to be meeting Rena soon. I thought you'd like a drink first.”

  “You are wonderful, sister. Yes, time flies when you're warning reporters not to start a war. I'm afraid we've over-run.”

  “I have ample material, thank you, Duchess.”

  “Do you understand why I cut you off yesterday?” Hayeel asked.

  “You didn't want me to insult God,” Rena said.

  “How would it insult God?”

  “Too many ways. Committing sin to avoid a prophesy.”

  “Does he even have faith?”

  “I'm not sure. It's so rude to ask.”

  “That, Rena, is one of the most stupid conventions I've ever heard of. How would you feel if he said 'Rena, I'd really like to start wooing you, but I don't want to dishonour God, do you know Him, do you love Him?”

  “I'd feel humiliated and say 'not as well as you,' and run away in tears knowing I'd lost God and him.”

  “You might have lost sight of God, but He's still there.”

  “I try but...”

  “But childish belief and platitudes don't satisfy? I don't know if my father had any faith, but I think if he did it was a bit like yours. He knew some things about God, he told us a few simple stories about Jesus feeding the five thousand, he knew hymns but he never explained them to me or my sister. And when he was dying he was mumbling a hymn but my sister and I thought he was just remembering home. I wrote to my prince that some churches on Tesk are little more than singing clubs, and he probably grew up in one of those. Would you go to a singing club if it might cost you a month's wages?”

  “No.”

  “So, father never went to church. He knew the songs and it was OK to sing them to his children, what was the point of going?”

  “I don't know.”

  “The point of going to church is to be encouraged in your faith, to encourage others, to worship God as part of a body of believers, to remember that this world is temporary and eternal life is eternal, to be strengthened by group prayer and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, to be part of a forgiven and forgiving community, to hear God's word explained and applied to the everyday life situations that we face, and I'll stop there, and make some suggestions. The invitation was to girls of good faith. What more natural thing than to attend church as they do it here in Caneth? We need some conversation topics, why don't you get Hal and Esme talking about how they came to have the faith they do, and what God's been doing in their lives recently? It's not rude to ask here, in fact, it's a bit rude not to if you're a believer and you know they are too. Hint, hint.”

  “You really wouldn't mind telling me about your faith?”

  “Certainly not! Life is hard and really confusing sometimes, but God is good. Can we get Taheela involved too? Our stories are really linked.”

  “Would there be anything more natural than inviting the others too?”

  “You don't mind?”

  “Unplanned get to know our hostess time. But it's so hammered in to us not to ask, not to say.. I don't know....” a question formed in her mind, but she didn't dare ask.

  “Of course we can pray before-hand, and I'll pray for you, if I may, Rena.”

  “Please.”

  “Princesses, duchess, ladies and young women on depending what you want to think of yourselves. In case you've not guessed, I'm Hal. Originally we'd planned that my little brother Sal would be here but he's gone to Tew and I'm feeling a bit like I'm ever so slightly outnumbered. But Esme's here and she's good with a chair, so I think I'm safe. I understand that some of you went exploring Caneth this morning and got shocked at the prices, and that the contingent at Hayeel's embassy did some exploring of another kind. I understand that Rena is either always first or last, would you like to tell us about it, Rena?”

  “As most of you know, I thought a suggestion yesterday which offended the lady ambassador, and I had a meeting with her today to talk about it. I was sort of nervous that she'd be asking me to find another place to sleep, but it ended up with her praying for me instead, which was much nicer. Apparently it's rude here when you know someone's a believer and you are too, not to ask them about their faith, and somehow my meeting with Hayeel ended up with all of us sitting in the kitchen talking about Jesus and life and absent-mindedly peeling vegetables. I understand that everyone is invited to the embassy tonight, because we peeled too many. I'm a bit amazed at Duchess Hayeel's story, that she's not a total wreck, but instead she can say, 'life is hard but God is good.' We all heard some of it yesterday, if you've not heard, ask her to tell you more. But remember it's not for publishing or passing on. I've learned a lot this morning, and my faith feels much stronger. May God allow that to be the same for all of us, and may it continue into our lives when we go home.”

  “Thank you Rena. Since there were about half-and-half, does someone from the other group want to say anything about what you learned?”

  “Before we left, I was on the quayside with Rena and some others, and we heard from someone that the prices here were high compared to home, and why. I didn't really believe it. But I've seen my dad buying eels, and I watched someone here buying eels too. Same pretty metal, same barrels, same quality. Different taxes, different haggling style. Very different closing prince. On behalf of poor Tesk, I want to thank the Isles for not gouging us, for making a loss to get us food we need. Even if none of us end up with the gift we're here learning how wrong the propaganda is. Thank you for that.”

  “What I wish,” another girl said, “was that the politicians were here, as silent observers. I want to emphasize the silent bit, because I'm a bit fed up with listening to them.”

  “Well that's an interesting proposal,” Rena said, “on this inaugural session of the high council of Tesk, do I hear any voice seconding that motion?”

  “Point of order! Are we the high council of Tesk yet?” another girl asked.

  “Anyone know of anyone with the gift outside this room?” Rena asked.

  “We don't have it, yet.”

  “We'd better be careful to achieve unanimity then. Any of the known thought hearers want to comment?”

  “I think I'd better abstain,” Esme said with a smile, “or I might get accused of calling this meeting to usurp the power of the council.”

  “How about we call my dad in now?” a tall blond girl asked. “He's not an elected politician, so he's more of an impartial observer. I can see him out in the gardens.”

  “Mine too, then.” Rena countered, “since he campaigned against yours.”

  “The high council should be apolitical,” Esme warned.

  “Of course it should.” Rena agreed, “Anyone got an unelected parent or guardian here who campaigned for the Mils? Then we'd have a Peace party and the Mils, and Dad representing the confederation of independent candidates.”

  “My mum was the campaign manager for our constituency,” a seventeen year old called Yanesa said, “She was going to be looking at the gardens too.”

  “Excellent. Now we ought to have an official note-taker,” Rena said.

  “Shall I?” Hal asked.

  “No, it's a non-speaking role, and you're going to be doing some speaking, I hope.” Rena said, “Just in case we need to breathe your spit. I didn't say that did I? Sorry, that's gross of me. Anyone got a parent here who's neither politician nor at all political?”

  A timid sixteen year old girl, Ada, raised a hand hesitantly, “Dad's a pastor, does that count as political?”

  “It shouldn't,” Rena replied, “Any objections to our first action being calling some nominated observers and a secretary, and then the first motion to be discussed being whether we're the high council or not?”

  “You're enjoying this, aren't you, Rena?” someone called.

  “Tremendously.”

  “Motion to amend the suggested order,” they replied, “First action once the observers are here should be the nomination of a chairwoman. I nominate Rena.”

  “No way! Chairwoman is an abstaining role and just keeps order, I want to air my opinions!”

  “I'll volunteer as chairwoman, then.” Esme said, “because I like order and I'm planning to abstain as the only person here with command of an army. All in favour of a balanced mix of observers, as just nominated, or substitutes until they can be rounded up? Any against? Motion carried, feel free to yell to your parents if you can see them. Anyone else know where to find parents?”

  “Library,” Rena said.

  “My dad too,” Ada volunteered.

  “Excuse me, are the fathers of Rena and Ada from Tesk here?” the soldier asked.

  “Is there a problem?” Rena's dad asked, discovering as they both raised their hands, that he'd been in conversation with Ada's father. “Not yet. The young ladies are deciding if they're the high council of Tesk yet and want a secretary and some non-elected observers. If they decide they are the high council then they're going to vote on whether to invite the politicians in to, urm, let me quote this exactly.” he consulted his written note 'listen to their proceedings, keep their mouths shut for once and pay attention.'”

  “They can't just decide they're the high council!” one of the politicians said.

  “Who else decides?” Rena's father asked. “That room has all the gifted women on the planet in it, and the high council has met in places other than the council chamber before. I remember reading that one time they met on a boat in the middle of the harbour. Anyway, our daughters have spoken, there'll be tears if we don't get a move on.”

  “Yes,” Ada's father agreed. “I wonder whose, though.”