September 18
Mikino and Sidonie Throne Room Early Evening
Reconstruction on his Courtroom was still underway, but the Throne Room had been a top priority. The room he now stood in was as good as new. One could pretend it had never happened and things were as they had always been. He walked with his customary graceful ease once more, thanks to Chaldean Reihana. His wings were still tucked in close and taut, but there was little hope they would ever be returned to an pristine state. He stopped before the throne, his bow gracious enough despite his distaste for granting her that respect tonight.
Once he straightened, his head tipped to the side to indicate the nearest guard. "I need to speak with you alone."
He was not typically so blunt in his requests. It bordered on not even being that, but he was not going to outright try and give her orders. Usually the words were sugar-coated though, even at the worst of times, blunting the impact of a sharp wit. It was a crisis of faith Mikino was being faced with now. In all his life, he had never had to question to many things he had believed to be fixed and reliable as he was now. Deception was his specialty, but in truth it was not a thing he had much personal experience in. He saw too much, and he surrounded himself with the sort of people that he had an easy time of loving. Sidonie's presence in his life had never been a choice, which made her something of an exception in the way Aranui Reihana was one, but it all came right back to that terrible fact; the one thing holding the realm as they knew it together. He loved her too.
She wasn't the type of girl he wished to marry, even had she not been Queen, but he needn't have spent so much time in court, and he hadn't done it merely to cultivate her favor. If anything, all this time together was wearing that thin. No, Sidonie de la Sidra was his friend.
Or she had been. It seemed he would know shortly enough if that remained true still.