He has finally enticed someone to clean the throne room, and is sitting next to the throne, busily telling people to do things. But not too busy to smile at Carrabella and Erian when he sees them.

This conversation might be best had not in front of servants.

"Can we go talk to you somewhere?" says Erian.

"It has occurred to Erian that you are possibly better suited to being king than he would be."

"Do you want to be king?"

"I don't think that's the question," he says. "I think the question is, should I be king? What's better for the kingdom? And it seems like what's better for the kingdom is probably me."

"That is the question, but what you want is still relevant. If you're going to burn out in five years because you hate the job - for that matter if your father has completely obliterated this royal family's ability to convince anyone to marry into it absent force - those are important considerations."

"I will be okay," he says. "And I think that might be the kind of problem I could talk to a mysterious old woman about. Probably somewhere in the world there is someone who would not mind marrying me, and magic could help me find her. Even without magic I think someone might be okay with it if we explain about the magic problem, but it might take a long time in that case. I'm young, though, I have time."

"All right. So I guess Erian's going to abdicate in your favor, probably simple enough. This leaves the question of what about me."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, as it stands now I'm the queen. I kind of like the idea of being the queen, but not enough to attempt to demand that Erian be the king to enable it. There remains the question of whether we should stay married or have you pronounce us annulled, and whether you're interested in my advice in any capacity or would rather I just go home."

"I'm not sure if doing things to your marriage might cause magic-related problems," says Taphinieu. "I think if you want to stop being married you might want to ask a mysterious old woman about it, just in case. But if you want me to annul it anyway I will. As for your advice, I don't know what sort of advice you give so I don't know if it will be useful, but if you want to stay and give it, you can, and we'll see."

"Your point about consulting a mysterious old woman with respect to the possibility of annulment is well-taken. I may have already collected on my 'agreeable results' just by successfully averting further devourings."

"Or she might have thought you'd like being married to Erian once you got to know him, or might have thought you'd like the opportunity to advise a king. It's hard to tell with mysterious old women."

"Right."

"And if you would like the opportunity to advise a king, you may have it."

"I'd like that. Do you have anything non-obvious needing decisions now or is this a good time for me to go mope outside?"

"Not really. Go on."

So she goes out in the garden and leans on a tree and sighs loudly, looking up at the sky rather than any directions from which a mysterious old woman might care to surreptitiously approach.

"Well," says Carrabella, "I'm married to a man I barely know and don't even get to be queen in the bargain and I'm unsure whether continuing to be married is part of the deal the last mysterious old woman gave me."

"Are you quite sure that is the problem you most want to solve?" inquires the mysterious old woman.

"...Knowing whether I have to be married is definitely important for anything else I might want to do. But now that you mention it, there are other things that trouble me so. For instance, there are a lot of dead people, and on a quite routine basis there are more."