Sixty-five thousand silverii in cold coin. Two years of back-breaking, relentless toil. Three thousand five hundred forced laborers, one hundred and twenty-five engineers, fifteen hundred paid craftsmen, three hundred fifty supply carts, and eight hundred workhorses.
The numbers lived in the back of Alpheo's mind like a persistent headache. And that was merely the material cost. To even break ground, he had been forced to endure a grueling political siege against Lord Damaris, bartering away lands and duty-exemptions on several of his most lucrative holdings, he had been forced for example to give away the city of Thyma that held the crossing all Yarzat merchant had to go unless they wanted to go the Oizenian route if they wanted to reach Malshut.
