[u][b][i]The Emerald Keep, Astica, Serene Kingdom of Osetina[/i][/b][/u]

Thea sighed resignedly, “You’re certain there isn’t a way to increase our yields?”

The decrepit book keeper simply shook his head as his eyes scanned the document, “I’m afraid so.  Most of the dukes and duchesses have already instituted rationing.  As I see it we could try and seed the fallow fields, but to do so would only make things worse next year.  There’s simply not enough farmland in your domain your royal highness, and to be wholly truthful there is not enough farmland in the kingdom if these number speak true.  I must advise you follow your peers and institute rationing.  Our only choices are scarcity or famine so long as Lynnfaire tears itself asunder.”

“Then go and see it done.”  She shook her head even as her words conceded the point.   The news hadn’t surprised her, but then she always did have a knack for expecting the worst.  As it was the Kingdom would withstand another few years of this before some fool decided to heft a pitchfork and lead a revolt.  That was if what little grain was still coming from Lynnfaire didn’t dry up, though.  

The old man had left the room the moment he’d been dismissed, but the silence did little to calm her thoughts.  Pulling out an ornate chair and sitting at the meeting table meant for more than a dozen she pondered the situation, how had it come to this?  The war in Lynnfaire had always been a concern, but to think that foolish Queen and her idiotic Cousin would go so far as to set their whole country on fire?  Nobody could have predicted that.  Her father could preach neutrality all he liked, but that was a mistake that had cost them.  She disdained her brothers for playing their little games of power by sending aid up north, making that destructive expression of chaos worse, but perhaps it was time for her to follow suit.  The scales were slowly tipping towards the Queen, and minor heretic or not the girl was the rightful heir.  It’d be helping Edmund in a roundabout way, but the war had to end.  The Queen had the heartlands of Lynnfaire and if the war was to end her gains would have to start multiplying.

Standing up Thea made her way to a desk covered in parchment, ink bottles, and pens at the back of the meeting room.  Finding a suitable combination she cleared a space on the old table and began drafting a letter.

[i]Your Majesty Abigail d’Montigue, Queen of Lynnfaire,

It is my foremost wish to congratulate you on your most recent victories in that most senseless war which has been forced upon you.  Though this is our first correspondence I have long sympathized with your plight. 

In the past I have abstained from displaying such sympathies publically or acting upon them when perhaps it would have been prudent to do so.  Though had merely sought to follow my father’s, his Majesty the rightful Serene King of Osetina, wishes I see now that my inaction in the face of crises has shamed me. 

I am again shamed to learn my brother, His Royal Highness Prince Edmund, has seen fit to demonstrate his support before me.   It is my hope to remedy this failure in my judgement by sending aid to you in the form of fighting men, and if it is your wish a substantial loan free of interest, posthaste.

I eagerly await your reply and wish you swift victory,
-Thea d’Montigue, Princess of Osetina[/i]