I love this. It's concise and to the point yet still covering a broad swath of complex ideas, and I particularly love the way you open it - given the quasi-Lucy pov it settles in as corresponding directly to her experience, but the generality of ruling "one's" kingdom I thought particularly nice as the story advanced into the debate/discussion of the four monarchs' different yet equally important specific tasks of ruling.

Also I just love Lucy, and she is wonderful here. :)