The Divorced Queen

Chapter 7

TANHYA

On my tour, I was visiting every major city and town in the kingdom. My journey started from the regions that had lower water levels, so the Western and Northern regions. Then I would work my way into the more heavily flooded South and East regions which I hoped would have lowered by the time I reached them. We skipped the capital because as it was a city for mostly Dukes delegates and other nobility.

A lot relief supplies had been given to the citizens; food, water, as well as other things. Some of them came from the palace and some from donations from nearby kingdoms. Temporary relief homes had also been set up to accommodate many of the citizens whose homes had been affected. In the North and east regions the water levels had already decreased in many of these areas and renovations were already underway. The damage wasn't to the extent of having to completely rebuild the infrustructure.

I gave speeches in each city and town then interacted with the people as best as I could. Trying to empower and give hope to them so they were better able to cope with the effects of the disaster. That also included taking the time to listen to their pleas. My entourage and I would stay for in each place for no more than 3 days before moving on to the next location. With many locations to visit, after a brief wellness check up on the citizens, making sure relief supllies were sent and inspecting the renovations taking place we left.

My entourage and I would take accomodation in the homes of the duchy that governed the city/town if their homes hadn't been damaged or in tents that were specially set up by my knights.

Not every town/city's Duke was present at the time of our visits, certainly not the high ranking Dukes that goverened several territories at a time.  As most Duchys' ran multiple territories spread out across the kingdom they often delegated the running of each of their territories to either a baron or marquees. The lowest ranking among nobility.

About a week and a half into my journey I saw the construction of the reserve tanks as we travelled through Duke Maurices and my own families territories. As soon as my father had received the letter and been informed of the agreement  he immediatley contacted Duke Mauris and they began the contruction. We had to hurry and collect as much water as posible not just from the flood waters but from future rainfall as well. As it was still summer it did continue to rain but thankfully it was not as heavy. The collected water from the rain could be useful in future seasons. I was quite happy with the progress made.

It was month later when we reached the South and East regions that the tone of my tour would drastically change. I was taken aback by what I saw. The damage was devasting, almost all infrustructure had been destroyed. The people were far more depressed and distressed than those in the North and West regions, thus it was much harder to boost their moral.
However, I did my best to adjust my approach to the people and try harder to encourage them as we continued to move from one town to the next. Effectively, we had to spend more time in each town now. However, things slowly continued to progressed.

It was when we reached a particular town that I noticed something interesting. I'd just finished giving my ususal speech and was now interracting with the towns' people when among the knights in my entourage that were controlling the crowd I was talking to, one had abandoned his duties. He was focused on a young woman who was holding a baby. I recognized he was the knight who'd seemed rather enthusiastic to join my entourage.

He held onto her protectively as he talked to her. The woman seemed weak and frail in appearance. As he took the child from her. I considered having him called in but then decided against it. From the way he was talking to her I sensed something.

Later in the evening on that day, when we had set up camp for the night the knight from earlier came to my tent and asked to see me. I allowed for him to see me. I was seated at a desk in my tent going over some reports of repairs in the town. Kumar lay by feet taking a nap.