It would not be long before they reached the capital at the rate the Crown Prince and royal family were responding. It seemed that the informants for the Crown Prince were loyal to the enemy and were feeding him false information which he was believing without hesitation. The Princess was sure that if things continued as they were, the kingdom and most likely themselves, were doomed to fall to the hands of the enemy. With much haste, the Princess began contacting the broad network of connections she had built over the years doing the work of the Prince. He often “delegated” important tasks to her in an attempt to free up time looking for new women for his collection. It would not be long before she heard replies, but she needed to bide time until their backup and support would arrive. With this all explained to the other women gathered in the room there was a moment of quiet only broken by the calm and determined voice of the second wife.

“I can buy you the time you need. When I still lived with my family in our territory I trained an elite group of warriors that followed me to the capital. They have been finding work as mercenaries here in the capital but I know that they are still better trained than any other group in this kingdom. I will pretend to go visit the capital for a shopping trip for a new sword dance performance and will take my weapons with me to get new sheaths and decorations for my blades. This is the excuse I will give the Prince and then I will leave with my men to defend the border until assistance can arrive.”

The Princess eyed the second wife with a critical eye, looking for something that the others could not see within her steady gaze. Seeming to find whatever it was she was looking for, the Princess gave a slight nod and with a slight pause to give the second wife time to change her mind, then began speaking again after adjusting a white knight on the board. 

“That will help a lot, and if you can hold the border, we have a chance to possibly survive this war. However this is just the start- we will also need supplies for war. This country has been a peaceful one for a long time, and there is much we lack. Things like weapons, armor, and arrowheads will be hard to come by en masse because even if we can make them we do not have a big enough iron supply to keep up with demand.”

The Princess pressed her index and middle finger into the side of her temple, a habit she had had for as long as she could remember. With the way things were going, she suspected that she would be sporting some hearty stress lines and would come out of this war looking quite the crone- if she came out of it at all she reminded herself grimly. Soon a timid voice broke her train of thought.

“I think I can help with that. I can sneak away with the second wife and say that I am helping her to have matching colors. Everyone knows I am the most fashionable of us all. The Prince will believe it since I usually do the clothes shopping for us and the decorations as well. I will split away with her in the town and go back to my homeland. The mountains are rich in iron and other materials, the thick forests providing all the lumber and resources we could need. My family will be more than happy to get the village together to create and ship our weapons and armor. There are no better blacksmiths than the ones in my town I can guarantee.”