[center][h3][u][b]Theris Soneillon[/b][/u][/h3][b]King of the Region Caerulmoste[/b][/center]

[i][u]Caerulmoste
The City of Perierat
Auditor's Keep[/u][/i]

"Announcing his royal eminence King Theris Soneillon, lord and master of Caerulmoste and highest power therein by right of merit." The herald spoke in Common for the convenience of those few visiting dignitaries present in the hall - if it could even be called such. The Royal Auditor's Keep, home to the Perierat Guild of Auditors, had been built within an old church to Eirtu that had been seized centuries prior when order at large had either failed or been unable to pay their taxes. The pews cleared away to make room for numerous long tables and desks. Makeshift renovations had taken place to add several walkways to the walls within the tall room, each supporting wooden shelves packed to the brim with scrolls and books. Near the rear, the old altar had been converted into a raised dais for a throne, though it seemed comically out of place - with auditors and calculators freely roaming up and down the chamber and forlorn, discarded scraps of paper littering the ground the church interior looked more like a trade-house than a court. 

Despite the Herald's powerful voice cutting through the din of murmurs and rustling of parchment, few of the building's occupants bothered to so much as glance at their master as he entered. At a mere 21 years, Theris was the youngest ruling king in living memory, and even after three years of rule he remained largely an unknown figure in his own home. Dressed in simple robes bearing only modest silver lining and with only a badge pinned to his breast to signify his stature, he could easily have been mistaken for one of the younger clerks roaming the shelves above. His face was thin with a nervous cast to it, and the unkempt length of a beard still being grown did him no favors - a boy trying to change his appearance in order to be taken seriously, and failing.

Theris trudged across the center of the room, heading for the rear where the throne and the chief auditor's desk resided. Halfway there a calculator carrying a large stack of books nearly ran him down, giving him a nasty look as they veered out of the way just in time. Restraining the urge to apologize, Theris grit his teeth and kept walking. He was used to not being afforded much respect or attention from earlier in his life, but he still found it somewhat ludicrous that having been made King had done nothing for his personal image - unlike certain other individuals.

One such individual awaited him at the large desk at the end of the hall - more ornate than the others with carved details and paneling, it was positioned directly and awkwardly in front of the throne. Sitting there calmly reading through a sheath of papers was Sarapis Soneillon, Chief Auditor for Perierat and presiding over the Royal Keep. A stern if striking woman in her late twenties, with long black hair and an effortless countenance of authority that Theris envied deeply. Her accomplishments were lesser than his, in a purely technical sense - he had a Mathematical Theorem to his name, after all! He had been made King when he was barely eighteen! He had studied with the scholars of Laevo, delving into the secrets of the Astral Realm!

All Sarapis had ever done was manage the accounts of Perierat for a decade as Chief Auditor. Which, as far as everyone in House Soneillon was concerned, was all that mattered. Theris may have been King of all Caerulmoste, but within the paradoxically cramped confines of the massive keep interior Sarapis was a goddess. Within the jumbled and chaotic hierarchy of House Soneillon, she was well respected with far-reaching influence. There were rumors that said she had been offered the throne herself when Alchalchlea stepped down, but had declined because she thought it would be a waste of her time and effort.

"My liege." She greeted Theris as he approached her desk, turning her head look at him evenly - at least for a moment. Not but a moment later, she cast her eyes back down to the sheath of parchment on top of the desk to keep reading even as she spoke to him.

"Chief Auditor." Theris replied, his cheeks starting to burn from the absurdity of his position. Something about speaking with Sarapis specifically always unnerved him. "Please tell me you have good news."

"None." Sarapis replied flatly. "We have been scrounging everywhere we can. Somebody came up with the idea of taxing large gemstones coming in through the Iugulum Canal, but we are still paying in a deficit. We managed to revert a few of the land purchases via default clauses, but a few in particular - most notably the Ecefrod Account, amongst others - are watertight."

"Well, I was prepared to hear worse than that." Theris admitted as he pulled up a wooden stool to rest on. "I wrote to Mountebank and had him prepare several issues of confidence to the various estates. As of last week, fiscal irregularities caused by the Godfall have resulted in several forfeitures and illicit rescinditures regionally with the royal treasury owning all involved liquid assets. The estates will be told their account installments will all be paid in full by their final deadlines, but that several intervening installments may be missed during the interim period while the irregularities are being investigated. Any further questioning on their part will be redirected to the courts, and whoever has been the latest soul thrown to the mob will pick up the claim."

"Sufficient, up until we hit the deadlines. Where, pray tell, do you intend to come up with the bulk tender?" Sarapis finally looked up again from the sheath of papers, a faint frown on her face.

"By finding the source of our irregularities, hopefully." Theris grimaced. "As good a job as our agents have been doing, more [i]direct[/i] investigations are going to be needed. Do you have anybody who will not be missed, or that can at least run faster than an arrow?"

Sarapis treated him with a brief and nasty smile. "A few. Be sure to send me the list of accounts to be investigated. I will have a word with the Questor's guildmaster and see if any of their more troublesome members can be put to appropriate mischief in the meantime. I would also like to bring up this, however." Sarapis idly reached into one of the desk's drawers and pulled out a letter - the broken seal marked by the crest of house Flitton. 

"Our nervous friends at Laevo - whose anxiety shall heighten considerably once I have had words with them concerning this matter - apparently missed one of the aftereffects of the Godfall. A shard of Elonar apparently escaped Eirtu's grasp and fell onto the Isle of Bread."

Theris raised an eyebrow. "Was it large enough to survive entry?" Sarapis gave him a blank look, and he was once again reminded that he education as an Astronomer was something of a hindrance more oft than not. "I mean, was it big enough to survive impact?"

"There is no telling." Sarapis replied. "I have not even heard rumor of it, 'til recently. I might have not even read this letter, if one of my calculators estimated its potential worth as a jest. The author claims an intact shard might be worth a deed for a hundred leagues of land."

"Unlikely. Elonar's surface tectonics suggest little to no precious minerals of note on its surface - were none, in any case." Theris gestured errantly. "Any remnant would only really have value as religious paraphernalia."

"Actually..." Sarapis' eyes gleamed, and her smiled widened. "In proportion to mass, on the investor's market an intact shard is worth approximately..."

The Chief Auditor rattled off a long string of numbers. Those nearest to her desk looked up at the two in surprise. A passing clerk dropped the bundle of parchments they had been carrying, and then fell over a chair. A calculator who had been taking a small break to eat a sweet-roll choked.

"Per stone in weight?" Theris finally asked, eyes wide, mouth parted in shock.

"Per [i]quarter[/i]-stone." Sarapis said, chuckling softly. "Of course, the estimate is based on a few letters of inquiry written to a few individuals of discerning interest. Value will diminish over time as interest wanes...but yes."

Theris was overwhelmed by a number of conflicting emotions. On one hand, seizure of even a small portion of the intact Godshard would go a long way to resolving the issue of debt with the estates the Soneillons had purchased land from - on the other, he felt humiliated. He had spent the better part of two weeks running around attempting to control the damage from the fiasco and contriving the scheme he had conveyed to Sarapis not moments before just to [i]delay[/i] the consequences - and then, in the span of perhaps a few days, Sarapis had delivered a potential full-span solution with nearly zero effort on her part. 

It just was not [i]fair[/i].

Regaining a small measure of his composure, Theris began to think a bit more carefully. "Have you determined the potential effects of the resulting deflation? in regional markets?"

"Yes. It is nothing I think you want to hear." Sarapis responded dryly. "In brief, acquisition of even a small chunk by one other house would make tracking the irregularities in relation to the gemstones difficult. With two or more houses...it would become nearly impossible."

"Right. Not to mention after paying our debt, they would come out markedly ahead. The plans for the bank would have to be put on hold indefinitely." Theris shook his head. "We need-"

"I have already sent word to Laevo, and the Questor Guildmaster has assembled our [i]very best[/i] for the purpose." Sarapis cut Theris off. "Rest assured, the Questors will doubtlessly see to the matter with great efficacy."

"You should [i]NOT[/i] have done so without consulting me first!" Theris snarled, abruptly slamming a hand down on Sarapis' desk. "This is a matter that could have the Church calling on me at the Island of Will! How [i]dare[/i] you go behind my back like this!"

"It was either then and certain or now and...less certain." Sarapis finally replied after a moment of consideration. "The Astronomers will need time to prepare the necessary materials and transport them, not to mention the precautions they will have to take considering the risk to their artisan. The Questors need time to make arrangements, and though oarboats make quicker time than a mounted party it is...quite a long way to go from the mouth of the Expanse to the Isle of Bread."

"I know all of this better than you!" Theris vented. "You will be bearing the consequences for this should things turn sour...and we [i]will[/i] be discussing this further at a later time. Do not leave the keep anytime in the next week." He rose gruffly from the stool he had been sitting on. "Now I need to go and begin my own preparations - since you did not see fit to so much as send a letter or courier to me before making such a [i]bold[/i] decision. I will return later."

Theris Soneillon stormed out of the Keep. Sarapis' gaze flickered with uncertainty for a moment as she watched him go, before she simply shook her head and returned to reading through the sheath of papers before her.

[hider=Summary]Theris and Sarapis obliquely refer to a whole bunch of things that make absolutely no sense out of context and will only become apparent later on.

What a gyp![/hider]