The king nodded, his eyes distant and his mind on decades old memories. The smell of the smoke drew his attention back to the present. He stared, feeling his craving flare up (a vice he allowed himself behind closed doors) and in a shaken voice quite unlike the exacting tone he'd had so far asked the boy if he could have one. He needed it to settle his nerves, to ask the final question on whose answer a very difficult decision hinged.