August 24
Sidonie, Miki, and maybe some Reihana! Royal Gardens (So Rei can snuffle) Evening
He had done well to tend to everything thrown at him in the past months, which came as no surprise to anyone. There was no doubt that Mikino had it in him to rule and to do it well. There were those urging him to turn over his lesser titles for a place at the Queen’s side—to join that unseemly fray of suitors. And yet there were those who resented even this new involvement. It was not his place to have a taste of this world when he had titles of his own already. Bad enough he should think to continue holding the reigns officially within House Alcaeyn whilst also holding the title of Judgment, but now he sought to meddle in the affairs of the Council directly as well, acting as the Word and Will of a Queen?
The question on everyone’s mind, friend and foe, was whether that taste of new, fresh power would strike him as sweet or bitter.
Sidonie herself must have wondered it by now, and he speculated that perhaps that was why she had agreed to this little change in the balance at all. He was the one to seek her out, which was only proper. If she wished to see him, it was more suitable that she should send for him than show up at his door. As if Sidonie had ever shown an interest in that particular bit of propriety. He trusted that he could find her here this evening, as it was her favorite place and Mikino knew her well enough to know most of those. Perhaps Sidonie had her secrets, even from him, but Mikino saw more than he was given credit for. An irony, that.
He would have liked to splay those magnificent wings of his lazily as he once had. He knew well enough that having them tucked up gave him a terse air of business that he didn’t always prefer to convey, but anything else felt awkward at best, and typically was painful as well. He would not accept the Chaldean shouldering any of that burden for him, but he did regret the limitation to his mobility more and more as the guilt behind where it had begun faded over time.