Morning light pierced the mist, bathing the study in the Governor's Palace in pale gold.
Aegon stood by the window, holding an intelligence report delivered overnight.
Luciana's handwriting was neat and restrained, detailing every unusual movement inside and outside Lys over the past day.
"Everything's been suppressed?" Aegon asked without turning.
"The Skull Band's soldiers arrived faster than the rumors could spread."
Standing beside the desk with her hands lowered, Luciana answered softly. Fatigue shadowed her pale violet eyes, yet they still shone. "Seventeen arrested, six killed on the spot. The rest..."
"Put them in the dungeons and send someone to interrogate them." Aegon cut her off and tossed the scroll back onto the desk. "I want to know who's pulling the strings, not hear confessions from these small fry."
"Yes."
"Those covert informants of yours..." Aegon turned, his gaze settling on her face. "It's time to expand their ranks."
"The Disputed Lands, Tyrosh, Myr... I want eyes everywhere. As many as possible."
Luciana's breath quickened slightly before she bowed. "I'll make the arrangements."
"Go." Aegon waved her away.
Conflicting emotions crossed Luciana's eyes, something more intimate flickering in their pale violet depths. In the end, she said nothing. The door closed softly behind her.
Aegon returned to his desk, running his fingertips over the open register. It listed the heirs and household soldiers the surrendered nobles had "offered" him.
Two thousand three hundred.
He repeated the number silently.
Had King Ghidorah's shadow not still loomed over the city, had the scorched furrows in the Governor's Palace's Banquet Hall not still burned through every noble's nightmares, those two thousand blades would never have rested so obediently in his hands.
As for where to put those blades...
Aegon frowned slightly.
Throw them in with the Skull Band's desperadoes, men steeped in