Sadly Sings Destiny

13

Queen Conroy the Wolf Hound took control of her country in truth the next day. On that same day, Martha was brought in from Albion and put into a position that Verona had made up from thin air. Martha became the first, and only, Cabinet Head of Lotherania. The job did not entail any real work, nor was it of any benefit to the Crown or the people of the nation, but it was Verona’s way of thanking her for all of the help she had given by volunteering her incredibly expensive printing press and risking being arrested.

With the help from her newly elected cabinet and a questionable amount of aid from said cabinet’s head, Verona Conroy began her plan to scale back the involvement her throne had in the day to day life. At first, she put an end to a majority of the welfare programs she had deemed unnecessary. The schools were left untouched, and they were opened up to both genders equally, the nation's unemployment program had its financial belt tightened and was also opened to both sexes. The welfare that had been paid out to women who were simply unwilling to work was ended, but the funding for single parents was opened for benefits to those with male children as well as female children. On top of this, she was able to bring down the costs by limiting what would qualify a person for benefits.

Verona was able to do all of this only because she had a battalion of Sabbistahni trained accountants in her tax offices and her Welfare Agency. The accountants helped her to cut down the number of costs she had to pay out, then showed where they could cut taxes to ensure that there was barely any excess money that her agents could swindle out of the system. Every action Verona took in the name of her Crown was to reduce the cost of government and to reduce the power that it had. The months passed as laws on a national level were removed, and assistance from the federal level was taken away from the people.

As the years passed, Lotherania degraded into a community of city-states. The Crown in the Swallow’s Nest became nothing more than something that people could use to settle disputes between the cities of the land. Verona had accidentally legislated, or de-legislated as the case was, herself out of any real power. The areas between the towns became dangerous, filled with highwaymen and roving gangs of bandits that harassed travelers and villagers and anyone who was too far away from the safety of the cities. In the cites, laws varied from location to location, and travellers would often find themselves fined or in jail for something that was considered normal in the city they had hailed from. With little assistance from the Crown, most of these people were left to pay the price of their ignorance in gold or amounts of their precious lives.

The months drug on into years, and the situation failed to change for the better. Verona had worked quickly to push herself into a position where she had little power to regain control of the situation. The cities around the country took advantage of the void of power at a national level. Each city governor began to feel their power grow, and many of the governors saw a way to take advantage of the situation. However, after two years, the aid from a national level stopped coming. The tax money was no longer redistributed to the cities to be used for civil projects or civil expenses. The police and city guards suffered, as did the condition of the prisons, and there was little interest among the city guards and police to arrest more people they couldn’t manage.

Across the country, crime rates began to rise. There was simply nothing that the guards and enforcers in the cities could do, and the people in the cities knew it, whether they were criminals or ordinary people. In the gaps between the cities, there was even less that could be done. There were many towns and villages that were far from the cities, too far to have requested help in even the best of times. Most of these people were the good, hardworking backbone of the country, and none of them were ready to call on the throne for help. The people of the countryside took up their own arms and fought to defend each other with swords and single-shot rifles and any other weapons they could muster. Women and men would work together to protect the small towns and their people. But, for every band of defending farmers, there were two bands of roving marauders.

In the cities, there was little help. Dark alleys became dangerous in the day, and in the night, even the most well lit and popular ways were unhealthy to walk. Governors would plead to Verona to give them more help, and in return, she would send her soldiers to patrol the streets. It was the best she could do, and at first, the governors were thankful for the assistance. However, with the throne taken, the Sabbistahni soldiers were sent back to their homelands and outposts, and the only ones left to guard the cities were to soldiers of Lotherania who were just as clueless as to how to proceed as the people were. The soldiers, at first, did their best to help the situation. The months under the rule of the soldiers drug on like a knife through flesh. The soldiers quickly found that there was not much to convince them to keep the laws as they were written. It served them better to enforce laws in their own names, and soon the soldiers were seen as a liability that couldn’t be gotten rid of.

Three years into the rule of the Wolf Hound Queen and the cities of the country were ruled by the military commanders and their soldiers, working without direction from the Crown or from the democratically elected governors. The countryside was loosely controlled by bands of farmers with bows and rifles. With the focus in the country falling to self-protection, the farms dwindled, and fields went ignored, leading to less food and grains being sold to the rest of the country. Famine began to sweep through the country, leading to crimes of desperation on both the part of the people and to soldiers who were supposed to protect them. As the winter came, and the situation became more desperate, people began to flee to Elsiderian to the north, and across the sea to Sabbistahn.

“Queen,” Martha said to Verona as she walked into Conroy’s office, “I have a letter here from Grandmaster Valerian in Sabbistahn.”

“Oh? Anything interesting?” Verona asked dryly as she looked up from the stack of reports she had in front of her.

“See for yourself,” Martha replied, handing her the letter, “He says that his country will no longer allow refugees off the Gateway Island and into his country.”

“He can’t do that, Vendempt can’t handle a large population like that,” Verona said, letting her annoyance come through in her voice.

“I think that’s the point he’s trying to make.” Martha said, “Did you read the rest? He gets very clear that he doesn’t want to deal with our refugees.”

“I don’t think anyone should be dealing with our refugees. We shouldn’t even have refugees at all. I haven’t been in power that long, we’re still going through some growing pains is all.” Verona said, rubbing her temple. “This isn’t as easy as when Andretti took over, you know? She didn’t have to undo years of issues, she could just hit the ground and run.”

“You don’t have to remind me of that.” Martha said, taking the letter back, “You’re doing fantastic, things are certain to turn around.”

“Look, two more months and we’ll have the loan paid off for the Sabbistahni mercenaries, and the damages for the airship that they destroyed. Once that’s all dealt with, then we can make the big changes. Then we can bring everything back in order.” Verona said, looking up.

“I know that you know that. Your advisers know that.” Martha shrugged, “We just have to make sure that the people know that. I need you to sign something for me so we can make a print plate of it and distribute a letter to everyone we can reach.”

“Just like the old days, right?” Verona said with a smile, “A good old pamphlet to keep them on my side.”

“Exactly, my queen,” Martha replied with a little wink on the final word.