The bombshell news spread the palace like a plague, swiftly and decisively. The emperor has returned.
From my isolated roost, I am not privy to the madness that ensues in the capital and the information the returning vanguard brings. The pages of newspapers are awash with the same news: Baron Bourdain, the baron of a sleepy province within the Duchy of Avernall had financed the upheaval, prompting the common people to demand for their tiny region to be seceded from the Erudian Empire and join with Sarsaval, the neighboring kingdom. It was an irrational demand, as the area had been conquered from Sarsaval over 100 years ago and it wasn't treated any differently from any other province, town, or region within the Empire.
