“Now you ask the proper question. Imperator Magus executed dozens of your nation’s nobility in an effort to quell the uprisings, and he claimed their lands and titles as his own. Of Thanet’s four realms and their lords, three were deposed, with only Lord Mosau maintaining both his life and his rule, through what trickery or show of loyalty, I have not yet surmised. When I arrived on Thanet, Magus’s retainers were all too happy to sell the empty property to a citizen of the Everlorn Empire. I’ve rehired much of the staff, for the previous owner was fiercely loyal to Thanet, and would be proud to know his estate now helps us in our own rebellion.”

Cyrus hardly considered himself brilliant on matters of accounting, but he knew such a purchase couldn’t have been cheap, or easy. Did he bring gold and silver with him across the Crystal Sea? And even if he did, surely he’d risk running out between funding the rebellion and snapping up properties both inside and outside Vallessau?

“How do you afford all this?” he asked.

Thorda’s smile faded, however briefly.

“I make and sell weapons, Cyrus. The term ‘Ahlai-made’ carries significant weight throughout Gadir, but that is not all. Through either my company, or others I have purchased in secret, I control the only organization large enough to sate the hunger of the Everlorn Empire. I funnel the money they pay me right back into the insurrections I cause. And when those rebellions and crises force the empire to recruit and expand?” He shrugged. “As I told you, be it by blood or coin, I make them hurt. For my haste and their high demand, I make them pay. Exorbitantly.”

“Then it seems you fare well off the rebellions you incite.”

Cyrus hadn’t meant it to be so accusatory, but from the moment those words left his lips, he realized how vicious they were. He had accused the man secretly funding and organizing Thanet’s only resistance of doing so solely for profit. The older man steepled his fingers, and his jaw quivered. He wasn’t just angry. He was furious, yet somehow he kept his voice firm, and controlled, so only the faintest hint of that fury behind it dared show.