Adrian convened the estate council on the fourth morning after Marta's removal.
Not the family gathering Berengar preferred. Not an intimate conference where soft voices could turn theft into regrettable necessity. A proper council in the lower hall, with clerks present, account tables brought in, and enough minor officers summoned that the news would spread in exactly the form he wanted.
Berengar came unwillingly. Alric came angry. Father Corren came because absence could too easily be interpreted as weakness. Oswin attended because he still hoped to shape outcomes from inside the room. Hugo, under guard, was led in pale and exhausted, a living exhibit of where ledgers led when someone finally read them.
Adrian let them stand while the clerks arranged the books.
Then he began.
"Greyfen's present crisis," he said, "will no longer be discussed in the language of weather, inconvenience, misfortune, or unavoidable decline. Those are imprecise words used by men who prefer fog. We will use numbers instead."
He nodded to the first clerk.
The man read out the western grain discrepancy.
The second read household coal allocations against actual distribution.
The third read garrison rations issued to abandoned forts.
Then Adrian himself read selected lines from the Bastion Exchange contract and the side letters hidden in Oswin's office. Not all. Only enough. A practiced administrator never exhausted evidence in the first encounter. He displayed just enough to force imagination to complete the rest.
By the time he finished, several of the lesser officers had stopped trying to hide their shock.
Berengar spoke first, voice heavy with controlled outrage. "You stage a performance and call it governance."
"No," Adrian said. "I stage arithmetic and call it overdue."
Alric slammed one palm on the table. "You are poisoning confidence in our own house before merchants, church, and retainers."
"Confidence built on false books deserves poison."
Father Corren leaned forward. "If every hidden failing is dragged into light without regard for consequence, scandal itself may destroy what fraud only weakened."
Adrian looked at the priest. "Then perhaps those who built power on hidden failure should have considered consequence sooner."
He reached for a final paper.
"Effective immediately," he said, "the following orders stand. One: all household and county disbursements require my seal and direct clerk entry. Two: steward's office keys are rescinded pending full audit. Three: all private requisitions from county stores by branch households are suspended. Four: illegal emergency levies are void. Five: guard pay arrears for men serving the keep directly will be restored from recovered stores and seized reserves beginning this week."
That last item created the first real stir.
Not among the nobles.
Among the guards at the back of the hall.
Adrian noticed and filed it away. Men whose pay was restored often developed principles very quickly.
Oswin spoke then, more carefully than the others. "And who administers all this, my lord? You have dismantled existing channels before replacing them."
"Incorrect," Adrian said. "I have dismantled private channels pretending to be public ones. Replacement begins now."
He named the appointments one by one.
Nurse Branwen to temporary household mistress over stores and room assignments.
Sir Roderic to direct supervision of gate traffic, messenger movements, and seal security.
Two younger clerks, neither tied to Berengar's household, raised over their superiors into a provisional audit office.
Master Iven given charge of household health and work exemption certifications so that illness could no longer be invented by collectors or ignored in servants.
No grand reform. Merely leverage where leverage would bite.
Berengar's gaze on him had gone flat with hatred.
Good. Hatred was often clearer than paternal concern.
When the council broke, Adrian remained seated until the room emptied. Only Sir Roderic lingered.
"You have declared yourself," the captain said.
"I was declared long ago. I am simply revising the text."
Roderic's mouth twitched. "That is almost witty."
"Do not encourage me."
The captain glanced at the closed doors through which Berengar and the others had departed. "They will not stop here."
"I would be disappointed if they did."
The System text appeared as if in answer.
Parasitic node two destabilized.
Administrative sovereignty: 61%.
Household command threshold not yet achieved.
Adrian let out a slow breath.
Not yet.
But numbers, at least, had begun to move in the correct direction.
And unlike men, numbers had the courtesy to reveal whether pressure was working.