Natalie POV
The heavy rustle of parchment clearing the grand gallery table signaled the quiet, devastating realignment of the northern empire. One by one, the minor lords who had stood behind Lord Thomas stepped forward, their leather-bound administrative sigils and keys hitting the oak surface with a series of sharp, metallic clicks that sounded like executioner's bells in the dead silence of the hall. They did not speak; they did not look up to meet my eyes or the lethal silver glare of the king standing directly behind my flank.
Marcus moved with swift, military efficiency, gathering the dropped crests and titles into his leather ledger case, his face completely empty of emotion as he stripped the eastern sector of its historical autonomy in a matter of minutes.
"The eastern granarie
