The war was not going well. News, filtered through the king's censors and delivered in sternly controlled broadsheets, spoke of "strategic withdrawals" and "gallant holding actions" along the northern border against mountain clans. But the Codex, always analytical, saw the shapes in the spaces.
Annotation: Royal War Bulletin #14. Claim: "Enemy repulsed with heavy losses at Serpent's Pass." Cross-Reference: Northern garrison grain shipments increased by 300%. Medical spirit deliveries increased by 500%. Chances of "Victory": 2.3%. Chances of disastrous defeat and rout: 97.7%.
The king was losing a war. And he was lying about it in order to maintain an illusion of power and continue imposing the taxes for it. The reality of the Founding Writ already had weakened his power domestically; a d
