Houses and Heraldry

[Gifted]

Roseanne frowned, upset. Where was this sudden lack of confidence coming from? She returned to her tent without speaking to anyone and wrote her mother back, quite upset

My dearest mother,

While I am deeply honored by your offer to entrust our home to me, I'm feeling a little damned by faint praise by your given logic and really your letter as a whole. Any one of my sisters would also be a better ruler than Marshall would. Furthermore, your seeming assumption I don't already have sufficient information on many of your points confuses and baffles me, as it seems an underestimation - though well-intentioned - of my competency. Since you seem truly concerned, allow me to put your mind at ease.

We are well aware of Adams new advisors and the outside assistance he has obtained. Our spies inside Corus have informed us of the new additions and they have yet to fail us on information. I'm aware of the politicking outside of the camp but thus far we have managed to withstand the disadvantage it has left us with.
I'm more than aware of the effects of the weather on a camping army. We have just recently established another supply line in order to get our reserves to our armies, and though I would prefer not to use them, I am versed in all of the contingency tactics to ensure rations to my troops should our supply lines become strained. We have fortified in our current location and intend to continue both conservatively and defensively to last through the winter, especially as Adams forces too will be adversely affected by the cold.

As I have been working alongside him several months now, I have no delusions about Kenny'so maturity level. He is naive to the core and far too trusting of those he once called friends. It at times can make him very difficult to work with when we need to be strategic with our decisions. However, he is far from the only one here. I have been blessed with many more competent captains of those who defected from Aaron's military, and these men are more than competent enough to assist beyond what Kenny is capable of. I never expected him to be an enormous help and have already recognized cases in which it is better to work around him and have not found him any great detriment. The weakest pillar still lends some strength to the structure, and though he is naive he can be insightful at times. I don't feel he is any great hardship to the overall goal.

Finally I will address your point about Adam himself. Personally I'm not sure why you felt the need to bring this up, especially as your intention seems to be to convince me to abandon my men. Adam has a base cunning and abilities I'll admit I was utterly caught off guard by, however in battle he himself is useless. His greatest asset is knowing he himself is limited in what he knows and allowing much cleverer people to do his job for him. He does not intimidate me. Furthermore, what he did to me is not a reason to abandon the fight but a reason to press on! What kind of Nagarr would I be if I allowed a man, particularly one as base and crass as him, to humiliate me the way he has without striking back? I'm hardly in this for Kenny, mother. He is merely a convinient means to an end. I'm here to wrest Clark land out of Adam's cold, dead fingers, and I am still confident I can still accomplish this.

With love,
Rosanna

[Raven]

Dear Rosanna,

I apologize if the way I offered made you feel under appreciated, Rosanna, but I must press on all the same. I would place you above your sisters as well as your brother, apart from Braelynn you have been my most promising daughter - but I urge you not to make mistakes like Embry did. I do not mean to tell you things you don't know, merely to emphasize their importance, which is something you don't seem to grasp. For this purpose, allow me to be perfectly clear, if somewhat blunt.

While you may be aware that Adam Clark has outside help, if you knew from where this help came you would not be so eager to dismiss it. Not even I can face the crown, Rosanna, Kenny Clark's band of misfits certainly can't, not in the dead of winter, facing men who, while still affected by the cold, will be far less so with the suplies they will no doubt receive. They are well funded and well trained. Perhaps Kenny has yet to get in your way, but how sure are you that he won't? He doesn't seem the type to sit idly by. I admire the boy's ambition, but it's ill matched with his naivety. He's a dreamer, and for that reason, he won't abandon his own cause no matter how inadvisable it may be. Don't get trapped with him, my darling. You can crush the Clark castle to the ground while Adam is inside of it when you rule Dragon's Keep. You can show him the true might of a Nagarr woman in his last breath.

You cannot do that if this foolish endeavor gets you killed. Please, be sensible, Rosanna.

Love,
Your mother.

[Gifted]

Roseanne went pale when she received her mom's second letter. The 'bigger forces' at play here was the crown itself? Hmph. Rodrick could have bothered to mention that. This was alarmingly serious, but Rodrick's words echoed in her head - that this was temporary, that they could still get through this if they waited it out. But was she really trusting the man who had a vested interest in them not freaking out after he straight up abandoned them? Still, it wasn't like he was actively trying to screw them over - Roseanne actually did believe the bit Rodrick mentioned about their hardships being an 'unintentional casualty' that wasn't precisely aimed at them. She frowned and began her letter back.

Dear mother,

I apologize if I came off too strong. I understand your concern, as I will readily admit I'm not in a situation that is easy to deal with, and you must be nervous watching from such a distance. Your offer is generous, but I am reluctant to throw away everything I've worked for here.
It's not easy, I know it isn't, but we're taking measures to give us the best possible chance. I'm aware we seem to be more of a casualty of politics than anything else at the moment, and I won't deny we've had allies pull away because of what's going on, but we haven't yet lost our chance. At the risk of saying too much in case this letter is intercepted, I'm willing to tell you we have no plans to provoke the sleeping dragon, as it were. We understand the danger of challenging Adam with powerful figures at his back,but no political upheaval lasts forever. That factored in with the fact no one really wants to be fighting in the winter is why we've mostly fortified our current position and intend to run a purely defensive strategy through the winter, adjusting for potential food crises. This will increase the likelihood of us outlasting the unrelated politics that have given Adam such a disproportionate advantage, as not wasting our resources on offensive menuvres allows us to always defend at maximum strength. I'm not cocky enough to challenge them head on, mother, you don't need to worry about that. The crown cannot stay invested in some unrelated war forever, and should they wish to bring a quick resolution purely for the sake of such we would also receive contact as Rodrick Ashford did when he moved against his brother. As such I don't expect we will be beared down upon by the crown forever. Kenny is agreed to this strategy, although not for the most intelligent of reasons. Essentially, upon contact with Lord Rodrick after he rescinded his support we were given similar advice and promise that he would come back as soon as the politics resolved themselves. I don't believe it, but Kenny is convinced and so wants to hold out until then; I choose not to protest the flawed method of his decision making when we essentially reached the same conclusion.
Kenny is an interesting character. Not one I would choose as an ally had I had the choice, but not one that has been hugely detrimental. He is quite capable of being convinced when his ideas are faulty, provided it is done sparingly and without judgement. He understands when other people are smarter than him, and is willing to learn, but it is still often necessary to pick my battles. That being said, I have had success in circumstances where we disagree in working in the correct manner myself without his knowledge if we ever come to a disagreement I cannot fight over. An example of this is one of our spies in Corus, who was gifted to us by Lord Rodrick in the early days and has continued to send us information after Rodrick said he wasn't helping us anymore. Kenny still trusts her. I don't. I've gone behind his back to double check anything she's given us multiple times, and thus far she's checked out. Should I discover otherwise I don't believe I'll have any trouble getting Kenny to see reason, but until then it simply isn't worth the argument to get his help in verifying this information.

I understand you're worried. Sometimes I'm worried too. The situation sometimes can seem dire. But after the amount of time and energy I've invested working with these troops, planning and fixing my reputation with the population, I don't know if I want to throw it all away at the first sign of difficulty. We're in a tough spot right now, but it is far from hopeless. I will never get another shot at this if I walk away. Even were I to take revenge on Adam and claim his land for my own at some later date, after being let down twice the people here will never respect me as a ruler. I am not sure now is the time to give up my claim. However, I want to thank you for keeping my options open and giving me a place to run to should the situation become well and truly hopeless. You are the best mother a daughter could ask for. Please give me a chance to work on maintaining the situation.

Lots of love,
Roseanna

[Raven]

Dearest Rosanna,

I still do not think this a wise choice, but I cannot force your hand. Do not expect further direct assistance from me - I will, of course, still tell you anything you wish to know, but I will not be attacking Adam Clark again. You cannot rule anything if you are dead, Rosanna.

Love,
your mother

[Gifted]

Rosanna sighed and went to approach Kenny. "My mother has told me she won't be assisting us anymore." She told him. It really did feel like they were being left out in the cold. Was she really making the right decision here?

[Raven]

Kenny frowned, but then sighed. "Things were beginning to go so well for us," he said. "Hopefully she'll get past this once we've made it through this trial."

[Gifted]

"She doesn't want to risk it. Apparently lord Rodrick just 'forgot' to mention the larger power on your brothers side was the king himself."

[Raven]

"... What?" Kenny asked, shocked.

[Gifted]

"Yeah. My own mother wasted no time informing me of this. That's why everybody's been bailing on us."

[Raven]

"So what do you want to do about it?" Kenny asked.

[Gifted]

"There isn't much we can do, I just feel like that's a pretty important detail to omit. I mean we might be able to look into establishing contact ourselves, but there's a lot that can go wrong there, we'd need more information."

[Raven]

"Well, we have time to plan," Kenny said. What he'd really been asking was if Rosanna was going to stick it out. "We should see what we can do about getting more information and more spies. If we can get some information from King's Landing, it would no doubt serve us well."

[Gifted]

"It would, but didn't we already have this conversation on spies several days ago??" Liek she was going to tell Kenny if she decided not to stick it out. Which may not be the worst decision... her mom did seem extremely anxious, and she'd love the ability to rule Dragon's Keep...

[Raven]

"Things have changed since then," Kenny said.

[Gifted]

"Nothing relevant as. We're still low on money and resources. How would we get a hold of another spy?"