Owain broke the seal on the first decree with a practiced motion, the blue wax cracking cleanly beneath his thumb as he unfurled the parchment and held it at arm's length before the assembled court.
"In accordance with the traditions of Lothian March," Owain said, adopting the formal cadence used for reading formal proclamations. "The Marquis has decreed that the following debts and obligations are hereby absolved, in recognition of loyal service to the march and the Lothian family."
He read the names clearly and deliberately. A wealthy grain merchant who had extended generous credit to the Lothian treasury during the lean months after the War of Inches. The widow of a minor knight whose husband had died fighting demons on the frontier and whose family had been drowning in the debts he'd left behind. A bladesmith who had supplied arms at a steep discount in the early days of the War of Inches before any of the wealth of Airgead Mountain had begun to flow into Lothian coffers.
