Peter received the second countersignature the following day. The assembly reviewed the error, approved the correction and recorded the cost of the delay separately. A sensible order was carried out, but only after the second signature.
Over the following years, such reviews ceased to be exceptional. In several towns, complaints were kept in two places, each marked with a deadline for response and the name of the person responsible. Marfa invoked the same right: she produced an overdue receipt, and the clerk could no longer bury her claim in silence. She received her first payment not by Peter's grace, but within the time prescribed for everyone.
The books of obligations began to record everything already taken from each family. On the Don, service by contract was given a fixed term and the right to local adjudication. A confession under torture could no longer serve as the sole evidence: the court required letters, objects, witnesses and actions. And the articles of succession prevented the sovereign, the heir or the Guards from appointing the next ruler single-handedly.
These six changes reduced Debt by twenty-nine points. But Stepan and Gavrila did not return, and Marfa's new roof did not become her old home.
Alexei served out his term of exclusion in public service. He inspected obligations, supplies and complaints without the right to build a personal coalition. When the term ended, he appeared before the same assembly that had condemned him.
He was asked to affirm five obligations: to name the source of funds and the limit of every obligation; to maintain military supplies without indefinite requisition; to accept complaints against his own department; to renounce any ally seeking to destroy the country's military foundations; and to subject his own succession to the same order that had saved his life.
Alexei accepted all five.
The military asked whether he would preserve the fleet and the Baltic policy after his father's death. He answered that he was not obliged to resemble Peter in everything, but had no right to destroy what had already proved its value to the country. The town representatives asked whether they would be able to lodge complaints against him as well. He laid before them the case of the woman at the Moscow window.
Alexei was confirmed as heir once more. His former guilt remained on the open record, and his new obligations were spoken aloud.
In 1721 the Treaty of Nystad ended the Great Northern War; Russia gained recognised access to the Baltic, and Peter assumed the title of emperor.
Peter received his final rank after a naval trial. Three formations were given a common task, altered their routes and converged at the appointed place without the tsar issuing separate orders to every ship. The commanders produced their decision logs, while the repair and supply services continued working after Peter had left the ship. Only then was he presented with an admiral's insignia: the fleet acknowledged him as an admiral by proving that it could already act without his personal involvement.
The Book showed new figures: Might – seventy-nine, Trust – sixty-one, Debt – sixty-three.
Peter signed the order of succession with the pen that had lain before him at his son's trial. The first signature was his. The assembly supplied the second. The Book did not respond.
The page of figures remained open.
In January 1725 Peter fell ill and realised that he would not have time to correct the final paper.
The document concerned the movement of a Guards unit and emergency supplies for the fleet. Peter dictated two lines and demanded a pen, but managed to form only the first letters of his signature. His fingers opened. The clerk waited as the sovereign's breathing grew shallow and uneven.
Catherine, Menshikov and several military officers were nearby. Each understood that if they began to act before the assembly met, there would be nobody to stop them.
Peter died without completing his signature. The document never received its second countersignature either.
The Book closed. It did not pass to Alexei.
Might fell by eight points. Several departments asked at once who now had the right to alter their orders. The fleet awaited confirmation of its supplies, the Guards officers an order to move. Courtiers were already invoking Peter's last words, heard without witnesses.
Menshikov was the first to propose a solution: summon a loyal Guards unit at once, cordon off the palace and only then convene the assembly. He invoked Peter's final wishes, which he claimed to have heard at the bedside.
Fedot Lapin stood by the register. Before him lay his father's schedule, its first line blank.
"Where is the second countersignature?" he asked.
Menshikov reminded him that delay would decide the fate of the capital. Fedot replied that forty years earlier such haste had already decided the fate of the people on the Kremlin porch steps.
No verbal order was passed to the Guards.
At the shipyards came a demand to requisition men and timber at once, until a new order was issued. Trofim's apprentices opened the current contracts. Work continued for the period already paid for. They rejected the indefinite requisition and sent a representative to obtain the second key.
Luka Belyaev opened the assembly without Peter's final signature. Its membership had been determined in advance, and absentees were replaced by people already named on the list. Nobody asked whom the dead sovereign would have preferred: the signed articles determined who had the right to vote.
Catherine could have appealed to the Guards for the sake of her children. Instead, she brought the second copy of the marriage guarantees and demanded that they be honoured regardless of the successor's name. Her children received protection without their mother having to be the first to bring in a regiment.
Alexei entered the chamber without the Book and without his father's note of pardon. Before him lay the articles setting out his former guilt and the five obligations he had accepted.
He affirmed that the army, the fleet, the Baltic peace, service by contract and the right to appeal civil orders would all be preserved. He then demanded that the first decision of the new government be open to appeal under the same procedure.
The expanded assembly confirmed Alexei as heir on the same conditions he had accepted after the trial. The garrison submitted to the common decision. Nobody waited for Peter's final permission. Fedot demanded the second countersignature, the shipyards continued working under their current contracts, Luka opened the assembly, Catherine produced the guarantees, and the military remained in barracks until a common order was issued.
The Book had already closed, but its account could be continued through people's actions. Might rose by five points, Trust by six, and Debt fell by another five. The final tally: Might – seventy-six, Trust – sixty-seven, Debt – fifty-eight.
Debt remained heavy. Trofim did not get his brother back. Fedot did not see his father. Evdokia did not regain her lost years. Neither an imperial title nor a living heir could close those lines.
In the courtyard, a young drummer received the sticks from his instructor as one receives a tool. He beat the same simple rhythm with which Peter had once begun his service. At the signal the Guards turned and marched to the appointed place, not to the windows of the dead sovereign.
Another held the sticks now. The ranks did not falter.
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