Jenn wasn't sure what she expected as a reaction to that statement, but blank looks certainly wasn't one of them.
"What other business?" Polelin asked, sounding more confused than Jenn would have liked. Especially with all the people she'd had accompany her when she returned here.
Jenn wished she didn't feel like she was about to put her foot in her mouth. She wasn't sure what the reason behind that feeling was, just it was a little unsettling.
"Well, for one, we need homes for the people I brought back with me," she said, feeling like that should have been obvious. "As well as their families."
"Wait, I thought you were going to just get slaves who had skills in carpentry and masonry," Zirisia commented, her tone almost making Jenn wished she'd have kept her mouth shut, even though she knew it was necessary. "How did you get their families as well? How many slaves did you purchase this time around?"
"Actually, I only got one," Jenn admitted, suddenly remembering her worries about how her advisors would react to her spending the money on helping the people in trouble with the debt collectors.
While not everyone she'd helped had accompanied her back here, the majority of them had, making it almost like a caravan with how large the group had gotten. Although, they were a little light on the supplies due to their financial situation. Jenn merely hoped that her people would be able to absorb them smoothly without any trouble with their food supply. As she was pretty sure that they were still working on growing enough food so that they could stop having to buy the food from the cities to feed everyone.
Plus, while she'd expected everyone to be surprised at how many slaves she'd gotten, she didn't expect her advisors to get upset with her. Where they seemed to recognize where she spent the money she'd been given without having been asked about that.
"So, you… what? Decided not to look for more slaves like you said you would and decided to try and hire the help instead?" Laer asked, her eyebrow twitching in a way that Jenn didn't like the look of.
"Actually-" Jenn started to say when she was interrupted by Polelin.
"If you're going to change the way you go about getting the people with skills we need, you really should have run that by us first."
"Agreed. We can't advise you if we don't know what you're going to do. While I accept there's times when you'll have to make split second decisions on your own, you could at least have sent someone back to run this by us. After all, you were gone… what? Just over two weeks?" Maelia added before Jenn had a chance to even try and say anything.
When her advisors had said their piece, Jenn waited a minute before she was confident she'd be able to respond without getting interrupted. She wasn't sure what the deal with them not letting her respond, but she wasn't going to complain. At least not if it didn't continue happening.
"So, first I want to say was that, I guess I could have taken the time to run this by all of you," Jenn said, wondering if she should start having meetings with her advisors using the dream conference regularly. That way they'd all be able to have the updates of everything going on without having to meet in person like this. Especially with how Jenn wouldn't be pulled into meetings like this again if the reason for that was already taken care of before she'd even arrived.
Jenn waited to see if there was a response to her statement, but all she got was satisfied expressions from her advisors, which she couldn't say surprised her. So, she took a deep breath and continued.
"What happened was that there wasn't any slaves who had the skills we were looking for at the slave auction house when I arrived. The people who accompanied me were people I helped out by getting their debts paid off when they were being called in. Some didn't accompany us back here, but the majority did. Though, I'm not entirely sure what everyone's skillset is, I'm sure we'll be able to find a place for them here."
Jenn had hoped that when she explained how the people she'd brought in would be helpful to them, that she'd be able to move on, but that's when her advisors started speaking again. All at once, though Jenn was only able to make out a few of the responses.
"If there wasn't any slaves with the skills you needed, why'd you get the slave you said you'd purchased?"
"How do you know that the people you brought will stay once they realize we're still building this place up?
"What possessed you to pay off the debts of people you didn't know? Couldn't you have found another way to have gotten them to accompany you here? How do you know that they won't be a burden to us with how they'd gotten in debt in the first place?"
While Jenn could hear more questions, she wasn't able to understand what they contained due to everyone talking over each other. The only ones who were quiet were her stand-ins, who also seemed as surprised by the outburst as Jenn was. Not that it helped Jenn make sense of most of what was being said. Though, with what she did understand, she couldn't say that she was surprised. Not with how she'd been expecting those questions to come up anyway. She just hoped that they wouldn't, as she still wasn't sure how to answer them, other than the one regarding Shirley. That was at least one she was confident she'd be able to answer to everyone's satisfaction.
Even though she knew it wouldn't help her out in the slightest.
When the clamor started to die down, enough that Jenn was able to feel like she'd be able to make herself heard, she cleared her throat, which seemed to be enough to get everyone to shut up who hadn't already stopped talking.
"Thank you," Jenn said, feeling like it'd probably be best to start off with a pleasantry rather than explaining how she really hadn't known what she was doing because she still didn't. "First, off, the slave I got, was actually someone I knew. I felt I needed to save her, even if it made it harder for me to complete what I needed to do on that trip. Second, I don't know really anything else about the people I brought with me. As far as I know, they're good people who just ran into some unfortunate circumstances, though I suspect that the circumstances they did run into are merely a symptom of a greater problem that's going to sooner or later cause problems for the queendom that we're buying the slaves from. However, that's another matter altogether. What I want to say about it is that I'm confident that at least two of the people I brough here will have the skills we need from them and that all of them will be able to pull their own weight, even if we need to figure out where we'll need each of them."
When Jenn finished speaking, she felt a little short of breath. Almost like she'd finished running for PE class and needed to catch her breath. She wasn't sure why she felt like that, but she couldn't deny that she did.
"So, what you're saying is that you decided to gamble with the future of this settlement," Polelin said, even though Jenn could hear the question in the statement itself.
"I guess you could say that," Jenn replied, hoping that admission wouldn't create more problems for her.
"Maybe we should appoint someone as a regent for our Blue Rose until she's old enough to take over herself," one of her advisors suggested, startling Jenn. She hadn't expected this to happen, though she felt she should have given what had happened on that trip.
"Maybe, but we first need to work out if her gamble paid off," another remarked, another that she wasn't able to identify right away. "I mean, it's not like any of us have tried a gamble on things that we probably shouldn't have."
If a regent was appointed for Jenn, she had a feeling that her movements would be strictly monitored and could possibly make it so that she wouldn't be able to do what she needed to if she found any information about griffin canyons that could lead her to where the crystal with Alairna's memories was. Nor did she think that she'd be allowed to return back to her family when the time came.
Which meant she needed to find a way to keep from having a regent appointed for her. Which from what she could tell, it would essentially be a 'vote of no confidence' in her if it happened.
Jenn looked at her advisors, knowing that none of them wanted to hurt her, but she couldn't say that they really knew what would be best for her people any more than she would. Though, if she didn't have a choice in the matter if she had a regent or not appointed to oversee things, she hoped that she might at least be able to help sway the selection of who might be appointed. Such as Tchisa.
However, that would be if it was absolutely necessary. As she certainly didn't plan on letting anything like that happen. Not if she could do something about it.
"Um, isn't that a little drastic?" Jenn asked, feeling like she should at least try to say something in her defense. "I mean, I don't see what the problem is. I helped others keep from being made slaves and got more than I would have been able to join us if they had been made slaves. As each adult woman I brought is skilled in a trade, craft, or other occupation that should be able to help us out. The only ones that aren't skilled are either their husbands or children."
Jenn hoped that no one detected her bold-faced lie, in that she didn't see what the problem was. She certainly saw what it was when she was helping the women in the first place. She just hoped that she would be able to move them with what she was able to accomplish rather than the perception of how she'd screwed up what she was supposed to have done.
"We'll need to make a tally of what occupations they do have before we can decide if what you did was acceptable or not," Zirisia said, her tone sounding almost like a tolling bell sounding Jenn's doom. She wasn't sure if it was intentional, but that's how it sounded to her.
"Uh, is there anything else I need to know about?" Jenn asked, deciding the best course of action was to change the subject. Especially with the final note of Zirisia's response to Jenn's statement.
Jenn felt a little surprised when there wasn't an immediate response. She'd thought that if there was that they'd know what it was and if there wasn't, they'd be able to say as much right away. Yet, with the silence that came with her question, Jenn couldn't help but feel like there might be something that she should know about but no one wanted to say anything about. Even her stand-ins, assuming they were aware of whatever it was.
However, Jenn wasn't sure if she should wait for them to decide if they should or shouldn't tell her whatever it was that they weren't saying. Unless it was in regards to the topic of her having a regent appointed. She felt she should be able to have a say if she had one appointed or not, but she supposed that it might be a cultural thing, again, for her people, unless it was the way they were used to their own government working. Such as a check and balance on whoever was the ruler. Which Jenn wouldn't argue with. As it certainly was something she could relate from what she'd learned about the government of the country she lived in on Earth. Even if there were some details that she wasn't quite sure of right then.
However, unless her advisors had already been talking about appointing a regent for her, she couldn't say for sure that this was what they weren't talking about. After all, she'd only heard it brought up in regards to what she'd done on this trip, making it less likely that whatever they were quiet about was due to that.
Finally, one of her stand-ins spoke up, sounding almost nervous about being the one to say something.
"There's been attacks on some of our expeditions," Saelea said, her eyes darting between Jenn's advisors, as if to see if she shouldn't have spoken up.
"Any idea from what?" Jenn asked, feeling like this should be easy to figure out.
"A large wolf," Tchisa said, looking almost apologetic herself. Though, Jenn couldn't say what the reason behind that was. Unless she somehow felt responsible for the attacks, when it Jenn was confident she wasn't coordinating things like this.
"You mean-"
"Exactly. I'm certain it's that one we saw kill that horse," Tchisa replied, suddenly staring at Jenn, her eyes boring holes in Jenn that made her wonder why there was such hesitation to begin with on this subject. After all, it wasn't like they'd had any way of predicting such a thing occurring or even how to prevent it. Especially since they'd pretty much hoped that the wolf would follow the horses and leave them alone.
"Has anything been done to kill the wolf?" Jenn asked, hoping that the hesitation was more because they hadn't completed the task more than anything else right then.
Tchisa suddenly couldn't meet Jenn's eyes, giving her all the information she needed. "So, I guess that really should have been the first order of business," Jenn said, feeling a little annoyed that they'd not let her know about this and insisted she head down to the duchess' for whatever reason she had for calling Jenn to her.
"It's not that we haven't done anything to try and stop the attacks, it's just that we haven't received word yet from the unit we sent out to take care of the wolf," Oleania said, sounding almost desperate to pacify Jenn's growing annoyance. Though, Jenn couldn't help but wonder if they thought that she might be angry with them for not having the task completed by the time she'd arrived.
"Well, if that's the case, then what's the damage? What have we lost from the attacks?" Jenn asked, feeling a little exasperated with how things were being handled.
While she accepted that they wouldn't be able to handle everything right away, she wished that they would have at least been ready to give her a report about this, even though they were still waiting to hear back from the unit they'd sent out to eliminate that wolf. Especially since Jenn could see the wolf becoming a major problem if the unit sent wasn't able to handle it or if the wolf was just able to keep from getting caught by anyone they sent out after it.
"We've had twelve people killed by the wolf and eighteen donkeys," Tchisa answered immediately, sounding almost apologetic in her tone.
Jenn sighed. She hoped that those who died weren't anyone they couldn't afford to lose, especially since there was still arguments about how to increase their population faster than just bringing slaves into the settlement. That they should start setting women and men up together, despite Jenn's initial ruling that no one should be forced to partner up with anyone if they didn't want to do that.
While she'd hoped that ruling would have been the end of it, the whole issue kept popping up in different forms. Though, she did notice that a few of the women in the settlement were pregnant, mostly from those that she'd officiated their marriages. A point she hoped would have kept that issue at bay longer than it seemed to have.
Though, with the deaths of any of her people, even from something that she couldn't control, like wild animal attacks, Jenn couldn't help but feel a significant loss. Like she should have anticipated when and where the attacks would have taken place so she could have put in appropriate countermeasures to keep the damage to a minimum.
Which then suddenly brought another thought to Jenn's mind. "Have you done anything else to deal with the problem?" Jenn asked, suspecting they hadn't.
Zirisia shook her head. "We could only agree on sending out a unit to track the wolf down and put an end to it," she replied simply. "Though, there wasn't much else to discuss about it."
"In that case, assign units to any expeditionary plans we have from now on until we eliminate the wolf," Jenn said firmly. She didn't care about how shocked her advisors were about that, all she could say was that until the wolf was taken down, that it could attack again without warning and when they least suspected it. "Also, station units around our farmers. We don't want the wolf to think that those are easy targets it can attack."
Jenn wasn't sure why this wolf was attacking them, as from what she knew of wolves is that they tended to dislike being around humans, but at the same time, they did like livestock and if this wolf was having trouble getting food for itself, it certainly would likely find Jenn's people with their donkeys and other livestock a juicy temptation that would be hard to pass up. Which Jenn knew she needed to do something about and quickly. As they certainly didn't know when the wolf would strike again.