Purple and Black by K.J. Parker Page A

in your hand a letter from Gorgias and me, guaranteeing the reforms, undertaking that as soon as they're in place, we'll pay off our army and disband it. Think about it, Nico.
    Why are you Emperor? Not because you wanted to be. I know that's the case. Because you were the third son of Actis IV; because your father and both your brothers and your uncles and their sons slaughtered each other in an orgy of violence that was remarkable even by Vesani standards; because after all the other Tzimisces were dead, the army wanted an unquestionably legitimate ruler, born in the purple, and they practically had to drag you by the hair. I understand that at the outset there was no way you could've dissolved the Empire, because the steelnecks would've killed you. But we're past that now. Menestheus and Strato and Aristaeus have seen to that; and you, of course. You've been trying to keep your word, Nico; that's what decided me to go along with Gorgias. Deep down, you know we were right. You're trying to do it, but you're afraid—not of being killed, of course not. You're afraid of failure. You're afraid that if you're not careful, you'll play into the bastards' hands and we'll end up with another civil war, worse than before, and an even worse Empire after that.
    If I thought you wanted the job, if I thought you didn't hate every minute of it, I'd have told Gorgias to go to hell. Same with Menestheus and the others. They're trying too, but they're just as scared as you are. Well, it's all right now. Gorgias and I have dealt with all that. We're coming with an army that the steelnecks can't beat; they'll see that, and there won't be a military coup and thirty years of civil war, and we can do what we agreed to do.
    Isn't that what you really want?
    Sure, you're angry with us both. You wouldn't be human if you weren't. Two of your closest friends have been plotting against you; it doesn't get worse than that. But ask yourself this. Why would Gorgias and Phormio do something like this? If we thought it wasn't the best thing, for you as well as everybody else, we wouldn't be doing it.
    Think about it, Nico; really think. If you carry on the way you've been doing, what do you suppose your chances are of reaching thirty? Pecking away at the steelnecks and the bureaucrats and the merchant princes and the landed aristocracy; all that'll happen is that sooner or later you'll push them too far, and then that'll be it. That's what's always happened before. Remember your history, for crying out loud. Theonides' reforms. Sinon and the redistribution of public land. Basiliscus and the Franchise Act. As soon as the established interests decided that they'd had enough, what happened? Blood on the floor, and back to how things have always been. The plain fact is, there are certain things that the emperor, brother of the invincible Sun and father of his people, simply can't do. We recognise this. We know it's up to us. If you want, we can wait until our army's camped under the Gity walls; you can tell them it's the only way to avoid a terrible siege followed by a murderous sack. You'll go down in history as the emperor who voluntarily gave up his throne to save his people; what could be nobler and better than that? And it won't just be myth and spin, it'll be the whole truth.
    Think about it, Nico. See what the others have to say. Then, if you really must, you can hate us. Or, in a year or so's time, we'll look at all this clearly, like we used to be able to when we were arrogant, ignorant kids, and we'll see that we all did the right thing, when it mattered.
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    His Divine Majesty Nicephorus V, brother of the invincible Sun, father of his people, defender of the faith, emperor of the Vesani, to the criminal traitors Phormio and Gorgias, defiance.
    His Majesty commands the aforesaid, criminals and traitors, to disarm immediately and surrender themselves to the garrison commander at Sybas, there to await transportation to Vesa for trial.
    Well, I've got to