Alpheo stood in silence, his eyes scanning the final lines of the treasury's accounting parchment, his expression unreadable, brow furrowed in quiet thought.
Around him, his advisors waited wordlessly, as the prince absorbed the figures compiled in the aftermath of war.
The first coalition war, as it would later be named, had drawn blood and iron across the land. But it had also brought wealth, vast, unexpected wealth.
By the end of the campaign, the royal treasury had swelled to a respectable 75,000 silverii, thanks in large part to the ransom of the Oizenian lords captured during their southern thrust for Aracina, a success largely attributed to Egil's ruthless efficiency, who killed those who did not surrender and captured those who did.
