“I think there has been more than enough focus there as it is. But you are the Queen.” He lifted his glass in a thoughtless toast to that fact and that the final word on even such minor matters were now hers. He couldn’t run and tell on her anymore.
He listened to her next words with a quiet consideration which suited him. All of him. Judgment and Archduke Alcaeyn, even simply Mikino, they had some things in common; some constants maintained no matter which role he fell into. It made for simpler transitions, and some sense of being grounded. “I am more Judgment than aught else, I think… I have my duties as well, and I have always seen to them.”
It sounded neutral, as if he hadn’t much of an opinion on that big truth. He offered no remark to her gestures, which could have been taken as a taunt. He chose not to let himself see them as such. Especially not with the topic at hand being what it was. “She thought me worse than the lot of you. Opinions change, and she is an emotionally driven woman, no matter what she would have the world believe. Or what she believes herself, for that matter. When I spoke if marrying Sidonie, I was power-hungry and a tyrant. I wish I could tell myself she did not mean the things she said, but I know better. In all fairness, Highness, if I did not know you as I do I would hold the same doubts. I would await the same. Granted, I would do so with a touch more tact…”
He would never have let her see that hesitation. It would have been even more imperative to keep her close and trusting him if she had been incompetent, or worse. It was why he had sought out Azyebel Salicar in the manner he had. “Do you believe the trouble between you is a matter of politics? The whole world thinks I am pursuing you. In any case, I suppose I do you a kindness by wedding her. You had obligations to interact with the warden of your Western borders… You’ll have no such need to waste time with any wife of mine. I could lose everything in waiting. I doubt there is no magical moment where everything becomes clear. We have known one another for centuries. If time was going to offer up any answers, would it not have done so by now?”
His eyes were cast to the side, irritation settling in, concealed swiftly. “We ought to be talking about your Asrai, not my personal life.”