New Plans

Morgan shoved aside the tent curtain with a near animalistic growl, "How could you plan something like that without me?"

Astraea looked up from her book with a grimace, "What are you talking about?"

"This dumb Coming of Age ball you are planning for me that has my troops snickering and pointing."

"I haven't planned anything. It was merely mentioned in passing as a way to boost morale."

"In passing? IN PASSING?? Were you passing the barracks or do my soldiers gossip so much news spreads that fast?"

"Do not raise your tone at me. I may be your sister but I am also your queen. You may not think this is necessary, but we are at war, Morgan. Our people need to see that all is well and they have nothing to worry about. If it comes to this, we will need you to set aside your pride for a week and put on a happy face and a good show."

Morgan's mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish. She was shocked that her sister would speak to her like that. She wasn't surprised because she had known something like this would happen eventually but shocked that it had come out like this.

Astraea shut her book and stood, "Now, you've brought it up, it's a good time to go to the planning meeting."

Morgan kept grabbing for things to say in response to her sister but couldn't figure out what to say. So instead, she walked behind her sister as they walked to the council meeting.

Inside the tent, the council was gathered around a table. Astraea sat at the head and the rest followed suit, sitting down one by one. She shuffled her papers, looking over the list of items to go over today.

At the top of the list was Morgan's birthday so they started with that. Astraea began by saying, "We will need to make arrangements to travel back to the capital to host the party for Morgan's Coming of Age."

Morgan stewed but said nothing as they talked about the costs of the party and formal dress codes and the like. Her head spun as she thought about the costs until she finally couldn't take it anymore and said, "Enough! This will be too costly for us to afford in the middle of a war."

Council Member Thomas smiled condescending at her, "What do you suggest instead, Princess? We must through this party to show Vallsia that we are strong and to show our people that this is not affecting us too much."

"By emptying the castle coffer's a dumb party? That seems very excessive."Morgan pondered this for a minute. "Why don't we host the party in the nearby town? If we invite everyone in the village and do it as a birthday party for any girl coming of Age in the nearest money that is likely to raise the spirits more and be significantly less expensive."

Council Member Thomas stroked his chin, "In theory, that would work. We really should consider bringing the noble girls that share your birthday instead of letting the peasants girls into the party with you."

Queen Astraea spoke up here, "Absolutely not. That will make us seem shallow and snobbish. We can invite the noble women if you wish Council Member Thomas, but we will not barr the young women who live in the town from celebrating their birthdays with their Crown Princess. This is a special time with the birthdays and with the war and we must embrace it."

"Very well." Council Member Thomas sniffed and tapped his hand on the table. "She must go shopping in the next few weeks to show that all is well though. She must be seen spending money."

"Are you kidding me? I was on the battlefield yesterday and you want me to play the pretty petty crown princess?"

Astraea patted her sister's hand to calm her down and said, "We will arrange a time. Is that all related to this matter?"

No one spoke up so Astraea said, "Alright. Moving on then. We need to discuss the recruitment of more soldiers and other funding issues. We had minimal losses yesterday which was good but we still need to discuss how to get people to sign up. We would like to avoid forced recruitment as people who volunteer fight better but we may be approaching that time."

General Lysis spoke up, "The other generals and I have discussed the idea of setting up tables in the town squares. The recruitment numbers went up when the troops did the training marches through the squares. This would be a similar concept but with a table were people could come up and ask questions."

Morgan nodded, "That is a good idea. How many people would you need to run the tables?"

"Less than 100, there wouldn't need to be many people at the tables. Maybe travelling in groups of five and there are less than twenty towns with populations that could afford to lose people for a season."

Astraea made a note on her papers, "Ok. Let's implement that plan and move the idea of requiring every family noble or otherwise to have each child sign up to the bottom of the list for right now."

General Taok nodded and consulted his own list. "Ok. For the funding issue, are we going to up the tax on luxury goods?"

Astraea nodded, "A slight increase should have a minimal impact on those who can afford luxury items and will bolster the funds needed for necessary supplies. General Taok, I would like to have a meeting with you later today to go over the books so we know what the war has done to our financial situation."

General Taok nodded and Astraea turned to the rest of the group, "Ok. If there are no other issues, we can end this meeting here. Taok, I will see you in thirty minutes to go over those books."