The Empress Who Balanced the Ledger
Chapter 2 · free to read
Dawn. The ministers came to bury the famine under fresh arithmetic. They did not expect the clerk to be waiting for them.
Grain that rots leaves a smell and a shortfall. This grain had left only the shortfall.
The gate weighed the wagons. The ledger swore they were empty. The difference — grain that existed and then didn't — had to go somewhere. I only had to add it up out loud.
Half the palace guard answered the throne. Half answered the man who fed them. In a famine, loyalty follows the grain.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.