"Yes, and Jennah is my queen, so..."

Giggle.

"I'll show you where I hid it. It wasn't even in a particularly inspired hiding spot, I wanted to make it ridiculously easy to find if I turned out to want to hide under the covers while you still had adventuring to do."

To the bedroom! And the pile of clothes that conceals the letter!

He laughs and follows her. When they reach the letter, he carefully unseals it, opens it, and reads it. The frown on his face... is not exactly upset so much as bemused. "Uh... The Queen wants to meet you," he says when he's done reading, handing Vetareh the letter.

"Uh. Okay. Why." She takes the letter to read, a puzzled expression on her face.

To James Orland, Lightbringer of the Order of Whispers, Commander of the Pact, Slayer of Dragons, Peacebroker of the Maguuma, Unifier of Races, Conqueror of Madness, Guardian of the Egg, and Lord of Shaemoor,
and,
to Lady Vetareh, Spellbreaker and Professor of the Orrian Crown,

Her Royal Majesty Jennah, first of her name, Queen of Kryta and Regent of Ascalon, does humbly request a visit to the palace. Lady Vetareh's presence in this meeting is required, and until such date as she is available to parley this meeting is not to take place.

Please report to the Royal Guards at your earliest convenience.

The Royal Scribe

"Good, ah, gods I don't worship, the list of titles is longer than the letter." Pause. "Wait, did she actually get all of my titles right. How did she even know that one. Except Lady I suppose, since, technically no, but she'd be allowed to add that one as queen." She squints at the letter. Understanding dawns.

"Ohhhhhhh she wants to check that I'm not using you as a pawn in a mad scheme to topple her kingdom or whatever. That makes sense now."

"...well, I suppose it makes as much sense as anything else," says James, shrugging.

"It does, random mesmer shows up out of nowhere and starts dating the important powerful heroic guy that's adventured at lots of stuff, it's smart to check to make sure she's not a fraud, power hungry, or crazy." This sentence sinks in and she makes a face. "But I don't want to be involved in politics, nooooo."

"This is your chance to run."

"Aughhhhhh but then how would I date you without your queen suspecting I'm out to kill her, I probably just actually have to meet her if I don't want to go to, ah, what would I do, oh, to Rata Sum and bunk with Taimi and write a couple papers on ancient magic until I can live somewhere that isn't going to be filled with rampant murderous magical anomalies every couple of hours."

James raises an eyebrow. "I meant you can run from the 'dating me' thing."

This earns him a look.

He laughs. "Just saying, I'm a package, princess. Lord of Shaemoor and all."

"Yes, but, but at least let me dramatically complain about the challenges and hardships I'm facing to date you without insulting my honor! Of course I'm going to go talk to your damn queen, just, just—, look, if I just said that, you wouldn't have realized that I really don't want to do any of this at all! This is a sacrifice I am making because I care about you! I will grudgingly tolerate being paraded in front of your country's royalty until all of my aspirations and ambitions are laid bare and everyone is well and truly convinced that I'm not using you so they can go away and we can snuggle in the morning in peace!" She huffs, and crosses her arms. "Even though I definitely have other options."

Well that deserves a hug. "I know, I know. For what it's worth, I think you won't be paraded."

She leans into the hug. Grumpily.

"Uh huh. What about interrogated, is interrogated a more accurate term?"

"Well, there will be a conversation, and they will come out of it knowing more about you than they did before, but I think you might not notice it's happening until it's over."

"Aughhhhhhhhhh," bemoans Vetareh. Dramatically.

Lots of hugging. She's very adorable.

"Commiserate with my pain, damn you," she mutters into his shoulder. "Jerk."

"There, there?" he tries.

She snorts, rolling her eyes.

"Nevermind." Huff. "I will just have to make the best of it. What do you think, would she appreciate me sliding a paper on the nature of resurrection signets over to her in lieu of actual conversation? Maybe something on lost Orrian spells?"

"It would certainly dispel any thoughts that you may not be who you claim to be."

"Okay. Great." Snuggle. "I'll probably just stick with the resurrection signet one, and save the papers on Orrian spells for when I have... Much less interesting things to do than my current options."

He grins. "Sounds like a good idea."