As it seems, apotheosis is no cure for sea legs. After spending 5 days on the river, I have scheduled a day to catch up on the manners of state that require my presence, and I begin another 2 weeks of voyaging tomorrow. To describe my physical state, I don’t feel tired after having rested, but I do feel the toll of my power in other ways. It is difficult to put into words, but perhaps the best way to articulate it would be a “fraying” of my being. The more magic flows through me, the more the edges of something begin to blur. Without a model for what is occurring, I can only speak to my own sensory experience. I would say that the edges of my perception, not vision or touch, but experience of the world feels like it becomes less distinct at the end of a full day of casting.

It is something I will have to manage. So far, the feeling has passed come each morn, but I believe that if I continue for too long like this, it will worsen, with the end result likely being death. A limiting factor to my conquest of the world, but as with all obstacles, I will overcome.

Today, I have to deal with the more mundane activities of running Viirad. It seems many letters have found their way to my desk during my trip even though I specifically instructed them to be redirected to my ship. At least some of these are dated with today’s date. This one seems interesting: Ceadda wishes to speak about a pony who turned up at his office.

This is delightful news. The pony who suddenly appeared at Ceadda’s office was an earth pony mare named Wynflaed who claims to work for the Skapatoria. According to her, she was born in Barrad, but her family fled Ambrosius to Kasa with the help of a Skapatoria agent. Wanting to pay it back, she herself joined the Skapatoria program and was in Viirad to rescue others from the Pentarchy’s rule, though now it would be my rule, of course.

However, during my recent river travels, it seems she was caught in my spell and had a sudden change of heart. Realizing her potential benefit to me, she sought any means necessary to speak with me, including sneaking into the office of the head of my army. Apparently, the event was quite dramatic, with Ceadda walking into his office to find Wynflaed sitting on his floor surrounded by documentation proving her identity. She had hoofcuffed herself to show she wasn’t a threat and left the keys on his desk. I confess I did laugh at the absurdity when he told me the story.

To make a long story short, Ceadda verified the information, and I was able to meet Wynflead today to discuss what should be done with her. I performed the necessary due diligence to ensure her mind was fully mine, and also inquired about her current state of mind regarding what must be a total change in ideology and allegiance to ensure mental stability.

She replied that she was still anti-slavery and pro-freedom a la the Kasan way, but that, for the glory of Viirad and myself, all else is folly and that sometimes, dirty methods are necessary. My method does not remove the subject’s original knowledge and ideology, but merely layers adoration of myself on top of it. Therefore, the subject has to reconcile the two themselves. I can only imagine the conflict that must be going on in her head. Actually, for me, that turn of phrase is incorrect. I can, and did, look in her head, and I found no conflict. Whatever grappling she had to do must have been resolved. I suppose all creatures live with contradiction at some level and are not necessarily constantly wracked by conflict.

I connected Wynflead with the Watchers in the Darkness, and she’ll work with them to break the codes of the Kasans and give us valuable information about the partisans they are training across the nation. I suspect many will be training in isolated areas, and will remain untouched even after the railroad is complete. She says Kasa is preparing for an offensive war of liberation against us, unaware of my intention to invade them. Information like this is vital, and seeing her eagerness to betray her compatriots for my sake was quite intoxicating.

Aethelflaed also had some very good news to share. She informed me that her office has been flooded with letters and ponies at the door asking what they can do to help. Local nobleponies have reported a sudden desire amongst their ponies to aid my rule, not to mention the nobleponies who were influenced by my spell as well. Already they are making large donations as well as showing an interest beyond their debauchery for the good of my nation for once.

The issue now is what to do with all of these new volunteers. Willingness is one thing, but Viirad currently lacks the bureaucracy to organize and deploy all of these ponies efficiently. Furthermore, it is unclear what the correct role for them should be. I don’t have enough factories for them to work in, nor enough schools to educate them in.

For the former, for the moment, resource extraction is not the bottleneck. With Leopold and Eadmund’s mines running smoothly, the limiting factor is the industrial equipment required to turn those raw materials into military hardware. I need to have a meeting with Aelfraed and Eadwig about ramping up production and building new factories.

The latter will prove much harder to fix. To have a school system, I require educated creatures to teach. Unfortunately, the only well-educated ponies around are the nobility, and they are currently required to manage their own territories. With my powers of persuasion, I’m sure I could get them to abdicate and leave the management to me, but my bureaucracy is not well-developed enough yet to handle it. Perhaps I shouldn’t have destroyed most of it with the rest of Dunburh. No matter, I have already instructed Aethelflaed with beginning the process of expansion, but these things take time, even with all of the goodwill from my newly mind controlled subjects. The fact remains there are not enough well-educated ponies in Viirad to produce a more educated workforce. The universities of Kasa will be a welcome addition to Viirad when the time comes.

At the moment, the best use for them is perhaps in the infantry. I have stockpiles of outdated guns available to equip them with, but that will not do for long. Even with my magic, a well-equipped army can put these farmers to shame. Alas, expansion is still necessary to build up an army that can defeat Kasa’s, and there is no time like the present. Speaking of the army, I have not yet cast my spell upon them. When I return from my next voyage, that will be first on my list.

There is no time to waste. If Wynflaed is to be believed, the Kasans seek to “liberate” the ponies here. Their leader, Yrmthu, is the child of Barradian refugees, so I don’t doubt her willingness to do so. I must establish total control of the ponies of Viirad as soon as possible and attack them before they can attack us. 2 weeks by ship, and then hopefully another week by train if Eadmund finishes laying the tracks soon enough. I suppose I can undertake the journey even with the tracks partially completed, but, regardless, Viirad must be ready to fight soon. I will simply have to bear the burden of my powers no matter the consequences.

I am frustrated by the slowness of it all. With my mind present, any individual task can be completed in mere minutes, but the problems to be solved number beyond the minutes in the day. I am aware the best course of action is not to solve each individual issue relating to industrial buildup, military buildup, and civilian buildup, but to focus on solving larger scale issues, but the knowledge I am spending my time correctly doesn’t diminish the irksome feeling caused by the lack of order in the present.

I have complained enough. It is time to return to work. My ship will depart tomorrow morning following the river to Viirum, but I still need to organize the ship for the second week which will travel the other distributary in the direction of my tower.

Author's Note

Luckily, I did another playthough of Kasa to get more information. I totally forgot about the Skapatoria.