During the past month, the families of some prisoners from Aleppo delivered ransoms as promised, making some of the Knights a great deal of money. Other Knights, who had no prisoners, furiously denounced them for profiting in God's name, calling their actions despicable.
Eric received a great deal of news, all of it brought by Brinyos. Emperor Alexios, with the help of another Crusader army, had won the Battle of Ankara and captured the capital of the Rum Sultanate. Suleiman Shah had ultimately failed to reach the battlefield in time.
What surprised Eric was the news concerning Emperor Henry. He had reached Trabzon along the Black Sea two months prior and had unexpectedly forged an alliance with the Kingdom of Georgia. He had engaged the Seljuk Turks in several battles in the Armenian Highlands and made some headway.
