[Alexis Sapientia]

Port Constantine (as it was called then) had started out as nothing more but a coastal extension of Aelyria Prime, servicing it's shipborne traffic, and taking a good portion of the Imperial Capital's seaborne needs. It had been nothing more but a fairly small town, so small that it didn't even have walls, or a need to have any, at all.

It had survived the war for the Imperial Succession, a curious bloating disease, and a serious lack of government. Well, this was not entirely true, for it had been ruled by strong men since the beginning, starting with Lord Vance Hall, the eccentric retired Vice-Admiral, and then Commodore Lassiter, and his successors, almost entirely while the settlement was under some form of declared martial law.

Citizens, out of habit, had then started calling the place Portshire, and while it was still technically ruled by the Imperial Government (later delegated completely to the Imperial Navy), its residents had begun living there as if they had been living in any of the chartered cities as established in accordance with the Articles of Imperium.

A Tax Code had been promulgated, interestingly levying a land tax of 2 percent of assessed value of every citizen’s and merchant’s owned real property, as well as a sales tax of two crowns per item or service on all sales greater than ten crowns. Six percent of all profit was likewise taxed. While this had the wonderful result of bringing in money to the local coffers, this did not help change the fact that Portshire was essentially a Navy town, wholly dependent on the Imperial Navy for a good portion of its employment, trade, transport, and profit. It had been a symbiotic relationship, mutually beneficial to both. It seemed destined to continue in this particular way...

...until now.

As the old adage said, the only permanent concept was change.

Alexis Sapientia stood on the deck, tap-tapping his ivory rod of office behind his back as he regarded his wife, approaching her slowly and doing as was bidden. Caressing her cheek with his right cloth-gloved hand, so did he do his best to elicit a characteristic Liselle smile.

Before he could continue, so did he notice a few trumpeters from the Imperial Navy forming up, the wind picking up slightly, but not so much. At a command given by their ranking officer, they drew forth a melody that while strange, was decidedly familiar.

It was the Call of the Sovereign Monarch, given with six repetitions, announcing the presence of Their Most Imperial Excellencies, the Imperial Regent and Imperial Vicegerent.

That along with the accompanying cannon shot from the AFS Sovereign of the Seas would be sufficient notice to the people of Portshire that momentous events were about to take place.

"I wonder if the Thane of Portshire's around," wondered the Imperial Admiral to himself, taking in the sight and reveling in it, taking his wife by the waist, as he did so.

It wasn't every brightening that one made history, after all.