Tilda maneuvered quickly through the halls as she carried a platter of the day's lunch. When she finally made it to Cosaria's room she set the platter down on a small table.
She said, "Sorry I'm late milady, the castle's all in a buzz with the upcoming trip."
She had been running all day, collecting and packing supplies. Every hand was needed for the work, the kitchen especially was working double time in preparing transportable meals.
"Upcoming trip?" Cosaria asked.
Tilda said, "Lord Delrik is planning some relief trip to the Southern area by the desert. It got hit with a terrible sandstorm or something. They requested aid and it seems the Duke is going to oversee it himself."
"A relief trip?" Cosaria said, "Do you think I could go too? I've never been to the desert."
"Uhhh..." Tilda said. It had been a while since the Spring Festival incident and it would be good for Cosaria to get out of the castle but Cosaria attracted trouble faster than manure attracted flies. It made her hesitate. She wasn't even sure if Delrik would allow Cosaria to come. She finally said, "Well, let's draft up a letter of request and see if he'll agree."
༻✧༺
Derlik was busying himself in his office preparing his plan for supply distribution. He had records of how much supplies had been requested and how much supplies had been collected. He needed to make sure the numbers matched.
Felux knocked lightly, opened the door and presented the letter to Delrik.
Felux said, "From the magnanimous Lady Arquix."
Lady Arquix my mother? That's not possible, Delrik thought.
"Lady Arqu- my wife?" Delrik said as he remembered he was married.
"Aye Sir."
Delrik snatched the letter, saying, "Felux, don't speak in riddles like that." Delrik had never once heard Cosaria referred to as Lady Arquix. But that was her title. They were married, even if it was only contractually. He wondered if she would even allow herself to be called by his name, Arquix. Why would she, when she won't even call him Delrik. It's always, 'Lord' or 'Duke'. For being married, she was always painfully formal. He would have to attempt to rectify that as soon as possible.
Delrik quickly opened the letter and scanned its contents. He said, "Hm... tell her I accept her request."
༻✧༺
The carriage arrived as Cosaria stared out the window at the forsaken desert land. Crops, dead and wilting. A layer of sand covered houses, fences, barns, any available surface. The people trudged along with sunken hollow eyes. It was heart-breaking.
Delrik stepped out of the carriage first and held out his hand to Cosaria.
He said, "Here we are, Cosaria."
Cosaria took his hand as she descended out of the carriage, saying, "Thank you, Delrik."
Tilda watched as the Duke and Duchess blushed at the use of their names so informally in such a public setting.
Tilda thought, Well, I guess they figured that out.
Delrik had spent the majority of the carriage ride scheming ways to make Cosaria address him informally. Finally, he had insisted, saying something along the lines of, "It is good for our public image as Duke and Duchess." She had reluctantly agreed and spent the rest of the carriage ride psyching herself up to call the Duke by his first name with no titles attached. Neither of them had planned that being informal with each other would bring such heart-pounding excitement.
As the nobility strolled away Felux walked beside Tilda and said, "What's with that?"
Tilda asked, "What?"
Felux explained, "The fidgety name blushing. A name's a name. What's the need fer all that..."
"Embarrassment?" Tilda finished.
"Aye."
"Well," Tilda started, "In our Kingdom how you refer to someone shows your level of closeness, even, dare I say, intimacy. So how a person uses a name and who the person is, it's very important. Your surname is Lothar, right?"
"Aye."
Tilda said, "When I say Sir Lothar, it's more distant. More respectful. When I say Felux, it's more familiar. Don't you think so, Sir Lothar?"
Felux said, "Miss Attaway, any of my names'll sound good when you say them."
Tilda said, "So you like it when I use your surname, Sir Lothar?"
"Aye," Felux said, "I'll let you keep it, if you'd like."
"You'd better beware," Tilda said, "If I start using it, I won't stop."
Felux said, "It's all yers, anytime you want it."
"Wait," Tilda said, realizing she may have misunderstood him, "Did you, you don't mean-" He wasn't talking about how a woman takes on a man's surname, like in marriage, right? No way.
Delrik called over, "Sir Felux, get over here."
As Felux started towards Delrik, Tilda said, "What did you mean?"
Felux shrugged and with a sly smile said, "I donna mean nothing." Then he turned quickly to meet with Delrik.
Tilda blushed, thinking, He was flirting with me! They had an agreement to just be friends. He was crossing that boundary. And she was mad that it didn't annoy her as much as she thought it should. Maybe she actually didn't want that boundary in the first place. No! They needed to be friends, just friends. Because of Cosaria. Because of... she couldn't think about this right now. Regardless, she couldn't deny that she liked the attention she was getting from Felux.
Delrik was standing in front of a broken down inn. It had two stories and was the nicest establishment in the area. He said, "We'll rest here for the night and distribute supplies in the morning."
It was the best they could do, given the circumstances.
༻✧༺
The team went right to work, distributing materials, as soon as the sun came up. Delrik sat at a table with Cosaria, talking with the peasants, taking tallies, and allocating rations as needed. Felux handed out water jugs while Tilda divided out fresh linen cloths.
The work took all day and it wasn't till the sun began to set that the line of impoverished peasants diminished. Finally, Delrik said, "We'll stop here for the day."
The knights waved away the stragglers as Delrik stared at his piles of paperwork.
Cosaria said, "It must be a lot."
"It is," Delrik said as grabbed an empty sheet and began scribbling down numbers.
Cosaria said, "I wish I could do more for these people."
Delrik said, "Just a moment, I need to tally these numbers."
Tilda finished packing up the remaining linens when her eye caught on a group of kids huddled in a circle playing marbles. Having finished her job, she wandered over to them and asked, "May I have a turn?"
A little girl gave Tilda her sparkly purple marble and Tilda aimed. With practice precision she flicked the marble. The kids held their breath as Tilda's purple marble flew so fast it blurred. It shot one marble out of the circle, then ricocheted back and hit out another marble. The kids exploded with excitement, one asked Tilda, "How did you do that!?"
Tilda grinned. She wasn't known to be the queen of marbles for nothing. She gathered the kids around and began to instruct them on performing her legendary two-for-one shot.
From a distance, Felux smiled as he watched. He thought it might be fun to join them and soon found that his feet were already carrying him that direction.
Delrik sighed. He said, "It's worse than I thought. Their water supply has been contaminated by the storm. At this rate, they won't last."
Cosaria asked, "What can be done?"
Delrik said, "At this rate we'll have to evacuate this entire town. We'd be uprooting these people's entire lives. Most of these people were born here."
Cosaria said, "Can nothing else be done?"
Delrik said, "We could ask the church if they would provide some priests that could pray for rain, but they would demand payment in some form of 'loyalty', which is one of their ways of saying control. Control over my people, control over me. I can't do that."
Meanwhile, Felux joined the kids and Tilda at the marbles game. He had flicked his marble into the circle, but with ease, Tilda knocked it out with her marble.
When nobody was looking, Felux kicked Tilda's marble out of the circle. The kids yelled, "Cheater!" and tackled Felux. He jerked around as kids clung to his arms and legs, determined to take him down.
"Why do you need a priest?" Cosaria asked Delrik.
Delrik tapped his finger on the table, saying, "It's the diving power they wield. They can..."
Suddenly, his eyes jolted up towards Cosaria.
"What?" Cosaria asked, noticing how intensely Delrik starred.
Felux, who was being ridden like a horse, finally fell down as Tilda and the kids laughed and celebrated their great triumph.
Delrik stood up and called, "Felux! Come with me."
Felux jumped up and waved goodbye to the kids who were sad to see him go. Delrik then strided towards the building with Felux close at his heels.
Tilda approached Cosaria, asking, "What was that about?"
Cosaria said, "I don't know. He suddenly stopped talking when he mentioned the priests and divine power."
Tilda starred at Cosaria. She wondered, Does she remember that she has divine power?
The young girl with the sparkly purple marble tugged at Cosaria's dress. She asked, "Are you a princess?"
"Oh no," Cosaria said, "I'm just a simple lady."
Tilda said, "Simple my foot. This woman here is a Duchess."
"Wooow!" the little girl said in unabashed awe.
Cosaria mumbled, "Well I..."
Felux appeared from inside the building and approached Cosaria.
"Lady Cosaria," He said, "Lord Delrik's callin fer you inside, if you'll join him."
"Of course," Cosaria said.
Tilda asked, "May I join?"
With enthusiasm, Felux said, "Don't see why not."
The group entered the rundown inn. There were holes that implied mice and places in the wooden floor that were cracking and falling apart. The owner had generously given the entire establishment to Delrik as temporary housing, securing a place of privacy for the Duke and team.
Delrik began the discussion by getting directly to the point, saying, "These people won't survive without clean water and I believe you, Cosaria, have the power to help."
"Me?"
Delrik said, "Sir Felux thinks he can secure some prayer scrolls from the nearby chapel. Perhaps you could use your divine power to pray for rain. What do you think?"
Cosaria said, "I've never done that before."
Cosaria looked at Tilda for comfort and reassurance. Tilda kept her face completely blank. She knew that if she conveyed even the smallest fraction of emotion, Cosaria would read into it.
Think for yourself, Tilda thought, Make your own decisions. She needed to learn that lesson sometime and now seemed like a good time to start.
Cosaria turned to Delrik and read the need in his face. She said, "Well, I suppose it's worth a try."
Delrik said, "Of course I expect to compensate you for your efforts, should it be fruitful."
"My Lo- Delrik, there is no need. I want to help these people anyway I can. After all, they're my people too."
Her face took on a determined expression as she pursed her lips and scrunched her eyebrows. Her eyes still told of frantic uncertainty which expressed themselves by growing big like bug eyes but even her anxiety was cute.
Delrik said, "I'll leave the task to you then."
Then he and Felux exited the inn.
As Felux prepared for his trip to the chapel, he told Delrik, "I'll have the scrolls by mornin tomorrow."
Delrik said, "Don't get killed."
Felux said, "I'll make it my top priority."
Inside the inn, Cosaria turned to Tilda and asked, "Do you think I could really do it?"
Tilda remained wearing her blank face as she said, "I don't know. But like you said, it's worth a try. I don't see any harm in it."