“Thank you for taking time to meet with us this afternoon.” King Reigh drew them into an antechamber room with a large oval table set as the centerpiece. He took one head of it and let Varis and Ghreid take the other with a kind gesture to a servant to have their chairs pulled out. The priests, however, stood until they were seated and pulled their own chairs out.
“You are to give us the accounting of events.” One priest’s demands were met with a scorching glare from King Reigh. “If you would so kindly.”
Varis pulled a folded and sealed parchment from within his robes and slid it across the table. “This is from a priest that was left behind when the church abandoned the temple there.”
“There were no priests left behind.” One stone-faced male pulled the letter to himself and frowned, opening it carefully. “Or were supposed to be.”
The priest continued reading, passing the first page off to the next. “Such a loss…”
“A quite educated young male. Not sure why he was left behind.” Varis drummed his fingers as they continued reading.
“He was a ward of the church, turned over due to his family’s poverty,” the priest said. The answer came too quick to be a lie. “In this case, it seems they were leveraging him from a wealthy patron’s endowments and when the money stopped—they kept him as an errand boy. Perhaps pocketing…”
Varis waited as patiently as possible.
“Definitively pocketing.” Another priest shook his head. “And what is your account?”
“Lurin saved the life of myself and my eggs. Everyone that broke into my nesting chamber set on harming my eggs was devoured.” Varis stared the men down as they nodded with wry disgust.
“Naturally, the church seeks reentry into the port nation of Sauria with governance over our properties.” The priest, staring at the paper, twisted his face unpleasantly.
“Your properties were funded by the crown and belonged to the crown as an agreement for your exemption from taxes.” Ghreid pulled out a wrapped bundle of his own parchments, deeds to every property the church had claim to. “The king made an offer to you to sell the properties back, you refused, and theywere assembled into the greater assets to cover the kingdom’s mounting debts.”
“This was a grave oversight on our part.” One of the robed men shook his head.
“You understand, if there was a presence of the Baltheirian church in the ports, we’d have been less generous. You know we do not tolerate your narrow views on love and the shame you place on innocent people for natural things.” Ghreid stared the men down and tapped the papers. “Natural things that you engage in, yourselves. Quite frequently.”
Steely gazes homed in on Ghreid.
“Now, the presence of the church is not up for debate. Neither Sauria nor their independent territories will accept them. And we demand restitution.” Ghreid stared the men down as they flinched. “And the kingwillback me up on this andwillseize any assets the crown holds.”
A dry noise cracked free of the center of the three priests. Speechless, shaking, and defeated, he waited.
Varis extended a hand and took a short list on a page from Ghreid. “You will surrender all ashen ones you have captured and kept hidden. Yes, we know. We know where they are, what you’ve done to them, and we will take a sum of no less than a cask of gold per each of them as compensation for their ongoing support and education.”
A short nod, no denial, no argument, was all they got.
“Good. No need to outline the life-for-life consequences to not turning these men, women, and children over. How many are there?” Varis raised a brow, the gesture practiced.
“Nine, at the moment. Soon to be ten. A young boy is on his way to the capital.” The priests cowered as Ghreid hissed.
Varis nodded, his admission corroborating his intelligence.
“We want enough masonry tools to set up thirty stonemasons for a career. Money is no good to us. We can tradewith Rammolia or Kaliman if you like, but we’d rather get it from Monsmount first.” Ghreid tented his fingers and stared as the three whispered among one another about who they knew could supply the tools, one comment being about the tools they’d taken with them when sweeping the port before leaving…
“Agreed,” the middle one said.
“Five tons of fiber waste,” Varis said, staring the three down. “Wool ends, cotton offcuts, flax fibers, or shredded corncobs.”
“This is an odd request…” The priest on the left glanced at the other two, sharing confusion between them.
“We’re still cleaning up the oil your priests poured in the bay. This sets back our full opening potential by two months.” Varis glanced at his sheet. “We need lumber to repair the docks. Fortunately, we can extract some of the bog oil to treat the wood.”
King Reigh tapped the table. “The kingdom will offer the lumber as a gesture of goodwill.”
“Are you certain? It’s their orders that triggered this event.” Ghreid gestured at the men who balked in protest.
“We had no prior knowled—”
