Three Must Decide.

Part 40 keeping can be harder than taking.

Chapter note. the first 3 chapters have introduced you to the Three. Each faction is controlled, to a degree, by a real life person so decisions have to be made.

Hidden consequences.

If you take all that you can you may end up being reliant on others to keep it.

Decisions.

The Grand Duchess is now short on money and food. the time for large armies is over so they have to decide to:-

Seek allies or Just keep going it alone. what Allies, trade, arms or influence.

Continued conflict or Peace

Read on to see what they have decided.

The Grand Duchess's tour was going well but they had become nervous of being caught away from Peregrin Run because surely it was only a matter of time until this false peace would be broken and she would have to fall back in to the mire of conflict again. Although they could no longer hope to keep the True Order under their banner in a short time trade had begun to flow and Dark Harbour had provided a boost to it that could not have been foreseen, nun the less if she has to battle again her army would be a fraction of the size it was. 

Caroline rode just ahead of her escorts. She had left Lady Jane to ensure the tour came steadily back to Peregrine Run. The road Caroline would take was direct, the feeling she had was unnerving and the only way she could see it mastered would be to reach her home. It was the centre that would allow her to take the next steps that had formed in her plan and the sooner she entered the walls the quicker she could set them in motion. Leaving Jane had set yet more questions running in her mind, it was the first time in longer than she could remember that they had not been together and a Grand Duchess without their most trusted hand servant was not a common occurrence. It was the more acute feeling of missing Jane that added to her unbalanced feeling and also that in giving Jane that task it highlighted how few she could turn to.

Caroline consentrated on the road ahead. They followed a road that cut through a wood full of ancient trees whos branches would shade those younger ones below keeping them from reaching the light. she noticed, as she rode down and through a small but fast flowing stream, that while the huge trees that filled the canopy had lost most of their leaves the ones below were still hanging on to thiers, seemingly stealing the light thought insignificant to the giants above them. Perhaps that was how the tiny saplings suvived long enough to either find a twisted way past to reach the clear sky above or hold enough energy to wait for the mighty to fall and then burst out in to the new clearing to become the new master of the earth in that part of the small wood.

The wonderings of her mind was a much needed distraction as they climbed back up to the main path, keeping the wood on their right. The struggle contained within the wood for the light that would likely out last her and all those that she knew. From there it was not long before they rode through the abandoned earth works from the battle, those memories were awful to recall, Peregrin Run had finally fallen in to her hands but on the ground between those earth works and the walls she had lost. For all of her triumphs she was always only a step away from failure.

Flags were raised as she approached the gates and the trade that flowed in and out was brought to a stop as she passed through. the city was alive. its scares were healing, new replaced old, it was still a poor place, you could see it in its people but you could not change that over night and Caroline had seen that steadily as the trade flowed and more certainty returned that the numbers of more prosperous people were growing. there was work to be done and coin to be earned so food and shelter could be afforded. The feeling was of better times she saw it and was told of it.

As she proceeded through the main street to her palace they came to the cross road which lay at the city centre, continue east and you reached the palace, turn north and you went down to the harbour. The fires had done much damage here but now one of the greatest areas of damage had been taken by Lady Ama Rollo, close to the cross roads on the side leading down to the harbour it was a place of prominence. Once housing warehouses and now a site for a new grand house with space for gardens that would likely be larger than the palace and as Caroline considered this so her eyes met with Lady Amas who had evidently come to great the Grand Duchess and would not be missed.