He Who Shaped the Empire

Cedric Zeller made a promise at the old emperor's deathbed and has kept it since, running the state day and night, careful as a man crossing thin ice, until his hair went white while he was still young. The new ruler, Xaviera Spencer, comes to the throne and takes to Lucas Quinton, a court official who flatters well and governs badly, and she means to install him in Cedric's place. Part of Cedric's promise was a count: he would forgive Xaviera a hundred times before he was free of it. Most of the hundred are already spent. Three remain. He keeps working, keeps absorbing the slights and reversals, and keeps subtracting, and when the last of the three is used up he has his resignation written and intends to walk out of the court and not turn around.