Aegis had been staring at the same grain tariff proposal for 20 minutes, and she was starting to suspect the numbers were breeding when she blinked.
Married life was great. Married-to-royalty life came with a desk, and the desk came with paperwork, and the paperwork came with more paperwork, like some kind of self-replicating curse the Fertility Goddess forgot to mention.
[I absorbed a bomb with my body. I should be exempt from tariffs!]
She signed the proposal anyway.
The office door opened without a knock. Evelyn walked in with a single envelope on a silver tray, which was never a good sign. Evelyn only used The Tray when she wanted something to feel official.
"A courier from the palace, my lady."
"Evelyn, we've talked about the 'my lady' thing."
"We have. You lost." She set the envelope down on top of the tariff stack. The wax seal was House Stone's, pressed deep. The kind of seal someone did on purpose.
Aegis cracked it open and read.
