6 New Advisor

Dawn stared at the man kneeling before her. Head bowed low, he was in the position that was normal for such vows. It made her wonder what this man's past was that he knew so naturally that even without his memory he could still pull it off perfectly.

She had tried to find out more about him but no one knew anything about the odd man. By all looks it seemed as though he was not from around here. Perhaps he had been on a ship and gotten shipwrecked. It would explain the bedraggled state he had been in when she had found him.

She frowned slightly. As Raven was blind, she was not entirely sure that accepting his service would be a good idea. However, she found herself incapable of saying that with him kneeling before her with such a serious look on his face.

Raven reminded her much of a lost puppy. He needed a purpose and he was trying to find it. As such, she could not quite bear to take it away from him.

"Alright." She spoke quietly, "Rise, Raven, servant of the throne of Lumna." She paused, and then tacked on, "We will have to figure out what exactly you can do."

He rose from the ground and smiled softly, "Of course, my queen."

It was two days later that she discovered Raven's value. It was during a meeting about the city and plans on how to handle things when she was gone with the advisors who had served her husband for years. She had Raven attend because she had figured that as he was blind that if he could pick up some of the mental skills that would be useful to her it would be for the best.

He had been quiet during most of the meeting. Listening intently from where he stood by the wall. Dawn had forgotten he was there.

She found herself thinking as she listened to the older men drone on how much she missed Arrion. While she always missed him having to attend one of these meetings made her miss him all the more.

Arrion had been good at this sort of thing. Highly intelligent, with a good eye for the best course of action, her late husband had been a remarkably good king. It had been why the other civilized kingdoms had all looked up to him.

There was no way she could fill those shoes completely. She had never enjoyed sitting in on these meetings, though she had upon occasion as her husband pulled her into it. He had always said that her insights were valuable to him. Personally, she thought he just wanted her near him as he really did not need her help. It was not that she was actually terrible at putting her brain to use for her country but he could reach a conclusion much faster and it was usually a better one anyway.

She let out a sigh. She really did miss him a lot. Nights were the worst; she had gotten used to having him burying his face in her neck as she drifted to sleep. He had made her feel safe. Why had she never appreciated him like she should have? She wished….

Realizing that Plutio was talking to her and asking her opinion she pulled her mind back to the present and looked back at the papers spread across Arrion's desk… her desk now.

She sighed and tried to think of a solution to the problem. While she was gone chasing the people who had destroyed her husband's life, her city would be in need of several things. A stand in leader was easy. Plutio would be fine for that. He had already served as regent when Arrion had been orphaned at fifteen.

It was another issue that gave her pause. There was an influx of crime in some of the poorer parts of the city and she had no idea how to deal with that. Especially as she was going to be leaving and might not have time to deal with it properly. And people were suffering from it. Thievery and murder really did make people feel on edge.

She was quiet for a few minutes as she contemplated what to do. Arrion would have been able to figure something out….

She nearly jumped when she heard Raven's hoarse voice finally speak up. "How about a two-fold plan? Put some extra guards in the area that way they are more likely to catch the criminals." That much had been a given, but there was a chance it would not completely work. "But, also, it might help if you supplied the poorer people with weapons to allow them to defend themselves from having people attack them. Of course, this could give them temptation to use the weapons in a wrong way, but the extra guards should deter some of that. And most people who would commit such crimes would find a way to do it regardless."

She blinked surprised. That might actually work. Letting the people protect themselves, or anyhow providing them with the means to would help take care of the problem. Lumna's population tended to be fairly happy with the government so there was not much to worry about in the way of a coup.

She looked at Raven in interest. He had a fairly good head on his shoulder. "Alright. That sounds good to me." She looked at the commander of the guards, "See that it is done." As the men began to leave, she turned and looked at the blind man by the door, "Oh, and Raven, I am instating you as an advisor. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders."