"How's that fool doing?" Zalyric asked casually, his eyes skimming over the ledgers piled on the table, as though the question were nothing more than idle curiosity.
His voice, however, carried an edge that made Evan's shoulders stiffen.
It had been several days since the clean-up in the North had begun.
Order was slowly being restored—compensations distributed, families aided and justice delivered for the common folk who had suffered in silence for months. The atmosphere in the palace was still heavy with unfinished work and yet, in the midst of it all, his king's thoughts had drifted elsewhere.
"Who… who are you talking about, Your Majesty?" Evan asked carefully, adjusting his glasses with deliberate precision. His Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed, though his gaze stayed trained on the king. "Surely you don't mean Johann, right?"
