The return to the castle took a week. Slow progress because of wounded soldiers and exhaustion.
I spent the journey thinking about the cost of victory. About whether holding territory was worth eight hundred lives. About what kind of queen I was becoming.
"You're thinking too much," Kael observed. "I can see it in your face. The overthinking."
"Eight hundred families lost someone. Eight hundred funerals. Eight hundred empty chairs at dinner tables. That's the cost of holding the southern provinces."
"Yes. But tens of thousands of people still living in their homes instead of being refugees or conquered subjects. That's the benefit. You have to weigh both."
"How do you weigh lives against territory? What's the math that makes eight hundred deaths acceptable?"
"There is no math. Just decisions and consequences. You made the decision to defend. The consequence was eight hundred deaths. But the alternative was worse. More deaths. More suffering. More destruction."
