The Secret Life of Joseph von Reismann

	The so-called ‘Secret Emperor’ of the Malsane Empire sat back in his chair looked out the window and contemplated the recent changes.  As the sun set upon the city that he ran, he considered all the things that were on his plate and wondered if his time was running out.  With a woman of noble bearing and an incorruptible paladin at her side, many thought that the era of his control was coming to an end like the sun was setting.
	This was further from the truth than possible.  Few outside his most inner circle knew exactly why he was called the Secret Emperor.  As he rapped his fingers together, he ran the subtle permutations through his mind on how he came to this point and why he wasn’t going anywhere.
	Oh, a mere few months earlier, he just though he was gifted.  He always had been able to come out on top of situations.  He had always been lucky and able to make accurate predictions.  This allowed him to build an economic empire prior to the fall of civilization.  It also allowed him to consolidate and turn the city of New Prosekur into an economic center.  It took him every bit of wealth he had to prop up the merchant houses and spread their influences exactly to where they needed to be keep both sides of a war running.
	The war… the biggest mistake he ever had a hand in.  He tried to manipulate prices before the war.  After all, he had a world to rebuild and that required capital.  Instead, it spiraled out of control and instead launched the war.  Oh, the nobles on both sides made it worse.  He had to do something.  There was money to be made.
	Yes, his detractors will say he helped manipulate the war; to help lengthen it.  Of course he did.  Who wouldn’t if they had the power to do the same?  They don’t see what he has also done.  They don’t see how he kept skilled craftsmen from being conscripted.  He kept the sides at odds but balanced for nearly two decades.   Yes, soldiers died on the front lines but neither side could break through and hurt what actually mattered; the civilians, the educated, and the skilled.
	Why?  He smashed his fist into his desk as he thought about it.  Why is he portrayed or viewed as a villain because he thought about the people who really mattered.  Warriors and soldiers burnt cities when ever they got the chance, they looted without contemplating what it does to the infrastructure of a people, without thinking about the effort they put into building it.  They only care about the fact that if they destroy it, it will make their fight easier.  That if they kill or capture the people who actually know how to do anything more than serfs, it will make life difficult on their enemy.  Never did these savages bother to think about how rare such enlightened people are.
	No.  He kept the war idle and moving at a glacial pace because it was what was right.  It bought him time.  It kept the educated alive long enough to allow for a new educated core to arise, for new crafters to be trained.  He made ties with the only progressive power that still would talk to him.  At least they understood him.
	Everything was going along so great.  Yes, a dark individual would have come to power in the north.  After all, it was his crafters and enlightened caste that helped that man achieve his impressive goals.  So many worked for him but never knew exactly who sent the marching orders.  It would have ended the war properly, with all the corrupt powers would have been wiped away and a stable region to rebuild from.
	Yes it would have been a religious state that answered to a single throne but that stability was needed.  That stability would have kept the rebellions at bay, the barbarians on their side of the border.  At least for enough time to make something of worth of the region and spring board elsewhere before that religious state would inevitably collapse.  Of course it would collapse; one should never toy with deities.
	Now luck and destiny, that is completely different.  A few months ago, lucky and smart were about all that he though he was.  Then the change occurred.  Unlike so many others, he took to the change with a sense of ambition that he had not felt since he was young.  He studied himself and with access to information being brought to him by agents implanted across the empire, he figured out that he was indeed special.
	It has taken him a few months but he cracked the code.  He had to use ancient documents that were strewn across from the earliest of ages.  So much had been stolen or lost but finally, he figured out that the origin and immediately went after the one and only name that he identified from all those ancient documents.  Lucien LaSalle.
	Lucien was actually surprised to see him at his door.  The ebony felinoid smiled a bit as he invited the human in.
	“I assume of course you are here to talk about the change that has just happened to so much of the world… so many have in recent days.  Am I that obvious?”
	“Not as obvious as you think you are.  It took me researching for months through scattered documents that were stolen by the Imperium to put two and two together.”
	“Aaaaah… and here I thought I put up a massive neon sign declaring I did it with how many people have come and visited me about what I did.”
	“I care not why or what agenda that you have Lucien.  I came to ask you what exactly I have become and I thought of all the people in the world, you would be able to answer me this.”
	“So you did come for answers, just not the same ones that everyone else asks.”
	“You might say that.”
	“Haha!  This is exactly what I was hoping would happen!”
	The felinoid jumped up and clapped his clawed hands together with joy.  He almost hugged the slightly surprised business man before him but stopped himself just before.  He tried hard to pull himself back into composure.
	“Forgive me.  It excites me greatly to know that my efforts weren’t for naught.”
	“Do explain.”
	“No…  I can’t explain it to you… yet.  Come with me and allow me to do a few little tests and I’ll explain what I can.”
	The tests were surprisingly not painful or long in coming.  Lucien smiled at him with a grin that was unnerving.  Perhaps it was those cat like fangs that dominated the smile or perhaps the very fine lay of fur that seemed like skin but seeing this being look at him like so… he suddenly felt like a mouse before him.
	“Well… you see, my dear Joseph…” the felinoid said with a slight purr in his voice, “You are someone special though sadly not of a bloodline I am most favorable to… though that matters not anymore.  You have been a lucky man, one who has been able to make excellent predictions, yes?”
	“Of course…  I have been quite competent at making money.”
	Lucien pulled a coin from his pocket.
	“Call it.”
	Lucien threw the coin up into the air.
	“Tails”
	Lucien caught the coin and slapped it to his palm.  The tree of life that was the tails side of a Consortium coin looked up at him.
	“That was luck…” exclaimed Joseph.
	“Is that so?  Try again.”
	This little experiment would repeat itself for nearly ten minutes, each time that Joseph called the coin, it landed as he said.
	“How?”
	“Interesting you should ask such a simple question.  Some would call it fate, destiny, or luck but I would rather call it entropy.  Oh, you were an educated man before the cataclysm so I can guess you know that entropy is a fundamental power of the universe, the power that turns order into chaos… changing all that it touches.  You sir, have been given a very dangerous power.”
	“Dangerous?  How so?”
	“Entropy is a dangerous power that was once a facet to one of my family’s ancient enemies.  She is long dead now… at least I hope as much.  That isn’t here or now… she once controlled the powers of fate itself.  You have but a fragment of her power within you.  You are her spiritual descendent.”
	“Are you saying I descended from this woman?”
	“No.  Don’t be silly.  The only ancient who actively bred with lesser races was my father Marcus.  The rest of the ancients choose a much more… sanitary method.  They imbued their servants and agents with powers that they themselves had perfected.  But the agendas of my ancient enemies are not what is important here.”
	“What are you getting at?  If I can be so bold…”
	“Heh.  In ages past, someone might have picked you up to be trained to be a chosen of Secrets… it is where your power derives from.”
	“Am I beholden to this organization?”
	“Are you beholden to anyone?”
	“No.  I am not.”
	“Good.  I like to hear that.  No one of power should ever be shackled by anything… not their equals and especially not those who are beneath them.”
	That phrase did not sit well with Joseph but he never the less did not take his eyes off the joyful felinoid before him.
	“You just have to be careful.  You see, you are able to manipulate the powers of chaos and fate but with considerable danger.  You see, the world likes to snap back at you when ever you try to do something beyond what you should.  It will take a lifetime or more to master what you are now just realizing what you can do… but take a look back at all that you have done and think about it.  Contemplate it, take it all in and when you are ready to move onto the next stage of your existence… come back.  Till then… I believe we are finished here.”
	“But… you still have more to tell me!”
	“I do… and if you survive your own experiments and follies… I will surely tell you more.  Till then… till you are ready to hear more.  Nothing more I can tell you will sink in.  Let the new information settle first.”
	With that, Lucien spun on his heel and left immediately from the room.  Soon a pair of very attractive servants came in and escorted the business man from the estate.  It wasn’t long before Mr. von Reismann would find himself back in New Prosekur and feeling both larger and smaller at the same time.
	So now, as he sits back in his chair rolling the coin Lucien gave him between his fingers and stares out onto the city.  This city was his and no mere sitting empress or her protector would be able to change that.  At least this leader would suffice to allow him to continue to act, to build.  At least this leader won’t have to make him strain under a dark deity.
	So no… the sun is not setting on his world.  No, the sun will inevitably rise again and so will his fortunes.