Long ago, before Handor graduated from prince to king, he had imagined ruling as mostly sitting on a throne and making wise-sounding proclamations. Now that Handor was old enough to possess some wisdom, he realized that wise-sounding proclamations were for pacifying the masses. The actual business of ruling was exactly that: business. Revenues and expenses, inflows and outflows, policies and addendums, and all of it done in smoke-filled rooms far from prying eyes and listening ears. Things had been done that way for generations when Handor took the throne, and the only change he’d made to the
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