Houses and Heraldry

[Gifted]

Rosanna awoke to the sounds of one of her men calling her. "Just a minute." She tied her hair up and quickly had something - anything thrown on over her nightgown so she would look at least somewhat presentable. It took several minutes, but she quickly then exited her tent. "Sorry about that. What is it? What's going on?" Roseanne asked, getting right to business.

[Raven]

"Th-there was damp from the other day, everything froze last night - I've been told that there were considerable damages to supplies."

[Gifted]

Roseanne's breath hitched in her throat. "How much? Has everything been sorted and evaluated yet?"

[Raven]

"They're working on it now, but it looks to be at least half, my lady," he said.

[Gifted]

It was like a slap in the face. At least half her food, gone. Just like that. "How did this happen when it survived the storm? Was there a leak in the building? Do we know?"

[Raven]

"We're not entirely sure, but that's what it looks like, my lady. It seems that it sprung night before last, and continued throughout the day without us realizing. When it grew much colder again last night... We were instructed not to bother Lord Kenny with anything, so I came to let you know as soon as we found out."

[Gifted]

"He told you not to bother him with emergencies?" For the first time, she looked dangerously angry at Kenny oin front of one of their troops. She normally put on a front of always approving of Kenny's actions even if she didn't truly agree - it was just proper form and prevented fractionalization when everyone in a leadership position presented a united front out in public and kept their issues with each other behind closed doors. But she was pissed Kenny thought he could put his own war on the backburner, and for a moment, it showed on her face. "Whatever, I'll deal with tht later. Let's focus on this." She sighed, and her expression neutralized. "Alright, we need to get someone to determine where in the building the leak is coming from and if the building can be salvaged as a food storage; if not, we'll have to assign some people to inspect the buildings we've got around for somewhere to move whatever is still good. As for supplementing our losses, depending on how much we've lost I can put together some small parties to make their way down some of our supply lines to retrieve more food from our stashes with supporters in the area, but it's risky depending on how many troops we need to send. Let's look at what we have, first."

[Raven]

The man nodded a bit nervously, and they went about doing just that, attempting to salvage everything that they could and go about ensuring they wouldn't lose anything else. In the end, they determined that it was just over half of the food that was corrupted - most of it being grains that were corrupted with the damp. The building itself was unusable until it could be repaired, and they set about finding replacement, as well as seeing about having it fixed.

[Gifted]

The fact that the corrupted was mostly grain was something of both a blessing and a curse - they were the easiest to gather replacements for, but also the most essential, and every day they were low on grain would hurt. Roseanne was at work most of the day helping clean out the storage, assigning certain knights the power to inspect all the buildings (including ones soldiers were living in) for durability as a place to move the food to so this didn't happen again, separating the remaining good food into smaller rations, breaking to the people living in the decided upon building that they were going to have to move, moving the rations, and finally setting up a committee they could send out to replenish their grains. She was exhausted and irritated when she finally made it back to her tent.
She'd never asked for a war. She'd just jumped on this because it was how she was going to get the land she'd been promised, why was she even here? She was totally okay with ruling all by herself - hell, she'd expected to be doing that with Adam - but that hadn't been part of the deal when she'd agreed to work with this mess. Anyway, Kenny was just going to expect to be able to walk back in here and resume command like that was okay after everything she'd helped his troops through. All his allies had left him, her own mother offered her an out, and she had no real reason to be invested in these people. so why was she still here? Especially when she had an open invitation to just as much power - in a much easier to acquire fashion, in fact?
Her mom was right. Her staying here had been a ridiculous, stupid decision. Forget being able to beat the crown; her being here was the only thing stopping Kenny from falling apart entirely. Well, she hadn't promised to keep his ship afloat for him. She sat down with a quill and parchment, and began to write.

Dear mother,

I apologize for my previous responses to your letters. I know you were only looking out for me, and I may have put more faith into my companions than they truly deserved. If your offer is still open, I'd very much like to cease trying to hold up a quite frankly sinking ship and compensating for the poor captain at the helm. I intend to make my escape quietly in a day or two at night so the troops don't see me leave. I will see you at home soon, mother.


With love,
Rosanna Nagarr.

Rosanna got up to find a bird. Where did they keep their damn birds again? Right, she'd just have to go behind the kitchens. On a day like today, with the shortages, no one would be in there eating any food-
her mind drifted back tom a memory and she paused in middstep. Just a few days ago, when she saw Ryan in the kitchens and the smile he had put on her face. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she looked down at her letter again. Was she really going to do this? He'd been there for her through everything. After everything he'd done for her, everything she'd put him through, was Roseanne really just going to walk away? Would she be able to look in a mirror again if she did? But it was the right thing to do here, wasn't it?
She tore the letter in two, and then in four, tears beginning to fall from her face. She tossed the pieces into a corner, not precisely hidden, and went to the back of the tent where her bed was to cry. She knew what to do, why was this choice so hard? Why did Ryan have to make things complicated?

[Raven]

It was a couple hours later that Ryan was outside of Rosanna's tent. "Lady Rosanna," he called, sounding excited.

[Gifted]

In a couple hours, Rosanna had stooped crying, although her face was still a bit red. She tried to hide this with a broad false smile that she hoped would hide her unhappiness. "Ryan?" She looked out of the tent.
At least by her usual standards, she looked pretty bad. She'd gotten ready in such a hurry this morning she'd only done the barest essentials, and had been hard at work all day so never had time to go back and fix herself up properly. It would, to Ryan, be an unusual sight. "What is it? What's got you so excited?"

[Raven]

"We finished," Ryan said, smiling. "Hopefully this will help, and Kenny won't be away so much."

[Gifted]

"Well, it'll help, but Kenny's going to have to deal with the being away thing. He's caused some problems neglecting his forces." She told Ryan. "I'm glad it's done, though. I can put it to good use."

[Raven]

"I know, hopefully he can fix it... Are you alright?" Ryan asked.

[Gifted]

"I'm fine." She lied through her teeth. "Doesn't matter anymore anyway." She replied, but her lying - at least to Ryan, who knew her - wasn't very good.