Growing Pains 333 Book 2 Chapter 27

I’m sure there were times when ruling a kingdom would be boring, but I hadn’t come across those moments yet.

Of course, things might have been less frantic if I didn’t insist on continuously introducing new ideas to implement. The newspaper had become more of a headache than I’d imagined. The issue wasn’t one of literacy; every Elf received an education. Even before the Four Element Sect was established and territories were claimed by Cultivators, the island was not so lost to barbarism to not educate their children.

But the concept of advertising, news articles, and serial fiction were new concepts that took real effort to overcome. Additionally, the printing press had never been invented. Scrolls were either handwritten or recorded to jade tokens. The concept of mass-producing books and magazines, let alone newsprint, had never been needed.

Those issues would be overcome in time, but the concept of fiction turned out to be the real stumbling block. I was going to have to spend time serializing my own novel to get the people of my kingdom familiar with the process and interested enough to make an effort to create their own fictional worlds.

I decided to serialize a story based on Storm’s adventures. A young Roc that was stolen from her nest and spent her days exploring, making friends, and learning to control lightning itself.

The biggest problem I was running into was one of trust. Ja Fiat’s actions were cause for concern, but she was contained now. We were getting enough information from her and the items she had to ferret out the few other Cultist that she knew of.

We quickly arrested and neutralized the two other individuals. That seemed to be the limit of Cult involvement in Xiwang, and with no other leads to harvest from each person, there was no reason to keep them.

I didn’t make a public spectacle of executing them. It was better to do away with them quietly, without the populace knowing that Cultists had lived among them. The country was undergoing enough upheaval without adding Cultists into the mix.

Still, dealing with Ja Fiat could not be completely contained; I had to explain why she would no longer be my assistant to Gwen. Gwen was horrified to find that she had promoted a Cultist to serve as my assistant. Her confidence in her abilities was shaken, and it would take time before she would regain her balance.

“We need a better way to vet people,” Zui suggested. She had not been a part of the Cultivators that had captured Ja Fiat, but she was a part of the gestalt, so had known something was going on and had been briefed along with Clement after the matter.

“I agree and think I have a solution,” I said. “The gestalt of minds has advanced enough that we can speak to each other yet, but even as limited as it is, it is able to share emotions.

“From now on, anyone that we vet will be expected to join the gestalt and be interviewed while part of the collective. Questions will be asked, and the person will be monitored through the gestalt to detect lies. A series of questions concerning intent, loyalty, affiliation, and motivation will become part of these interviews.

“This should allow us to weed out spies, traitors, opportunists, and Cultists. We will decide on a case-by-case basis how to deal with the problematic people.”

“I would suggest we keep the spies in play,” Clement offered. “We can feed them false information to find out who they are working for.  The opportunists could prove useful; those individuals are cunning, if nothing else, and most often motivated to act in ways that are profitable.

“Traitors and Cultists should be summarily executed once their actions have been discovered. The uncovered evidence should be summarized and disseminated in this new newspaper you are introducing so your people know that actions have consequences. And that you are working to keep them and the country safe.

“Their properties and wealth should be confiscated and invested in social programs. Advertise that fact. Let the people know you are not targeting or falsely framing individuals to increase your wealth.

“If the wealth from these individuals is shared with programs that benefit society, that can only be a boon for you and your government.”

“Which brings us to the topic of this meeting,” I said. “How has the search gone for the people to get a newspaper operational?”

“The Blacksmith guild has created a printing press,” Zui commented. “The process they came up with allows them to set reusable metal in a frame. Two frames face each other, and the print is inked and stamped on the paper.

“The alloy they are using for the frame can be molded to any size. A scribe and artist, using a stylist that is enchanted, then write or draw whatever is going to be printed. This primary mold stamps out the additional plates, reversing the writing so that when stamped, everything is readable.

“The ink and paper can be fed automatically by fitting the frames to a roller. For now, the process is limited to one ink color, but a few of the scribes are working to figure out a way to add different colors to create realistic images.

“The main bottleneck right now is the paper. We haven’t managed to come up with a material sturdy enough to hold the print while being flexible enough to be spooled into rolls. Until we can solve that problem, we are limited to one page at a time.”

“Any luck finding the editors?” I had to explain the meaning behind managing editor, news editor, lifestyle editor, and fiction editor.  I had decided that a board of equals should rule any news organization, and I wanted an odd number of managers so that any disagreements could be settled with a vote.

“A few,” Gwen replied. “Sen Feng, Chao Kho, and Lu Hong stand out among those that have shown interest.”

Finding people interested required word of mouth. It worked well enough to garner some attention, but some of the best and brightest may never hear of the opportunity. The newspaper would help with that. A section devoted to employment opportunities, the help wanted ads should be more effective.

“On that note,” I said, “I want to create an Elven Resource department. This department will be entirely devoted to advertising, interviewing, and vetting potential candidates for any government position.

“They can also contract their services to help businesses find potential staff. I’m not sure who will head this division, but a Cultivator will need to be involved to share the mind gestalt so that vetting can be more effective.

“Ja Fiat was a mistake, one that was my fault. It is a mistake that we can solve. And to be clear, everyone working within Clan Frost, House Myche, or the central government will be re-interviewed. 

“They will have to pass the same testing as any new candidates for positions will have to endure.  If any refuse to agree to the gestalt vetting, remove them from their positions.”

“Should we have someone monitor and investigate them if they refuse?” Gwen asked. My first response was to say no, that something like that was an infringement on privacy, but the entire Gestalt vetting process infringed on their privacy. And if I simply dismissed them from their position, and they later destroyed property or killed someone, then ignoring the problem would squarely place the onus of blame at my door.