Things could not have gone worse, Prince Lechlian thought grimly, as he scanned the latest report from yet another disgruntled lord whose holdings had been ravaged by raiders. It was a familiar refrain—one that had been echoing relentlessly in recent months. Each letter, each dispatch, brought with it a new wave of bad news, dragging his already precarious position further into the depths of despair.
The peasants, once pliant and subdued, had risen in rebellion, striking at the very lifeblood of his princedom. Fields that should have yielded enough to stave off the impending famine now lay scorched or stripped bare. What crops remained were pitiful remnants of what could have been a modest salvation.
