Calyx moved to a side table where a decanter of wine sat beside a single glass. He poured slowly, as if he were thinking about the next set of words he was about to say to his brother.
"You look at me as if I were a monster. But you have been in the central palace for too long, and you have no idea what it takes to keep a city like this alive. Stormfall is not the capital. It is not the great cities of the Ascendants, where the walls are high and the enemies are far away. We are on the edge, we are always on the edge. The mountains, the desert, the sea… they are all hungry. They are all waiting, and the only thing that keeps them back is strength."
He raised the glass, looked into it as if he could see the future swimming in the wine. "To keep this city safe, I will be passing across all benefits to the crown and pushing them towards the next generation."
