Chapter 584: Rumors Light and Dark
"Rumors have already begun to spread, Mistress," Thane said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his ankles in front of him. "Some rumors say that you’ve brought men from the High Fen because you intend to submit the Vale of Mists to the rule of High Fen City. Others wonder if you’re about to take friend Savis as your husband to gain the support of High Lord Hamdi’s progeny in fighting against the Lothians."
The first rumor Thane mentioned drew a handful of scoffs from people who knew Nyrielle well, especially people like Heila, who had seen the way Lady Nyrielle interacted with High Lady Erna. Some of them could envision the serpentine High Lady offering up her domain to her teacher, but no one could imagine things flowing the other way.
When Thane mentioned the second rumor, however, the entire room broke into laughter, though Savis adopted a detached posture, as if the idea of a betrothal between himself and Nyrielle was too ridiculous to acknowledge enough to laugh at.
"Those are tame rumors compared to the ones I’ve heard, Sir Thane," Marshal Jakob said from the far end of the table, interrupting the moment of levity with a serious tone and a worried expression on his weathered face.
The aging Marshal from the Horned Clan had presided over the villages across the Vale for more than twenty years at this point and there wasn’t a village elder, wise woman or prominent figure in the entire Vale that he hadn’t spoken to within the past ten days since Lady Nyrielle returned to the Vale of Mists at the head of a vast army.
Perhaps more importantly, as the Marshal of the Vale, Jakob was responsible for keeping the peace within the Vale. Normally, that involved mediating in instances of minor disputes and arranging a few strong men to watch over ale houses late at night in case things got out of hand, but lately, with so many strangers mixing together with the natives, his constables had been strained to their limits trying to keep minor conflicts from turning to racaous brawls.
"We’ve taken in thousands of refugees from the outlying villages," the old man pointed out, tugging at his snow-white beard as he began to make his point. "We were able to endure through the summer without hardship, and thanks to Sir Ollie, the village of Refuge has begun to sustain itself."
"While some people settled in the castle town, the ones who have are the ones who are looking to be around others, to ply their trades and open shops of their own. They don’t create much trouble. Still, whether it’s the village of Refuge or the newcomers in the castle town, half of the food they consume needs to be gathered from other villages."
"We’re working as fast as we can to solve this problem, Lady Nyrielle," Ollie said awkwardly, feeling compelled to speak up on behalf of his villagers. "Some crops take longer to be ready, and it was already summer by the time we began to plant our fields. Next year, the crops will be more abundant, and the herds of goats and sheep will be larger too. We just need to make it to the next harvest in order to stand on our own."