Nadia had arrived at her destination. The ship she was on took her a few hours away from the city, to the far side of the bay. It was only just visible in the distance. The land was mostly untouched, only a few homes sat within sight of the shore around a small, rickety dock. The soldiers asked her to stay back and let them handle it, but she rejected them and moved to the nearest home.
A pair of soldiers had followed her and she stopped short of the door as a woman with a child in her arms stepped out. "I'm sorry to ask this of you ma'am. I am Princess Nadezhda Iola. I wish to ask your village for assistance." Nadia curtsied politely to her.
The woman couldn't help her directly, but it was a start. The woman took her to the village elder, who gathered everyone and began helping them. Nadia's work was relatively simple, but just talking out problems in person was enough. It wasn't her father, some distant king who they'd never seen, nor an armed soldier demanding obedience, but her, a young woman asking nicely and looking to make things easier for everyone.
By the time the sun started to set most of the work for her had run out and another ship of people and supplies had arrived. No more space could be found in the village and tents started to get set up.
They had set up a space for people to rest, an open space surrounded by cloth walls to keep the breeze away. Every once and a while she would look out. The walls didn't block the view to the city. She wanted to see what happened to it, but as the sun set the city disappeared in the gloom. She remained, offering words of encouragement to anyone who came, but eventually only the Night Llae, the nocturnal people of the city were there.
She turned up to see the glow of Abba as it's red-brown surface swirled slowly. Ben and Nephesh sat beside it their motion barely perceptible. She prayed to them privately, asking for help, maybe they would come down and save her home, everyone's home. A sigh slipped from her, then turned into a yawn. There was nothing left for her to do, so she followed Lilley to the town hall, the nicest building in the village and went to bed.
--|+|--
They woke to the smoke rising and a message that the battle had started the night before. Though no one panicked, everyone was frightened. Nadia could see this plainly, and did what she could. The morning started with a prayer to the Seven Archangels, to Eisen and Faustine the Patron Angels of the Peninsula and City respectively, followed by various other prayers to countless other gods from across the land. Nadia did everything she could to keep the people occupied. Setting up sturdier housing, cooking, helping the sick or elderly, anything she could think of. The one people were most thankful for was her story circle.
She had a number of books amongst her things so she grabbed the best one she could and began reading to the children. At first it was just the restless children, the ones who came without family or only with their siblings. Then the adults, started joining. During the lunch break, almost everyone sat there, listening to her read. It was pointless, but it was better then nothing.
As she read, doing her best to keep her voice strong she thought of her family, the servants who stayed behind, and Dante. She wished there was something more she could do.
The next message they received was not better. By the end of the first day, the demons had penetrated the first wall, and were entering the city proper. She didn't let the others know. It may cause the people to hate her, but it was better to keep them hoping, it was all they had right now.
