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So, if Edarial wasn't sure that his wife hated him before, he's really, really sure of it now. It's pretty usual that if they're in the same room, he feels nothing but silent, seething hostility from her. Usually, his reaction to this is a poker face followed by running. He doesn't like having someone hostile just - there at the dinner table, glaring at him with her hissing familiar.
Zevros doesn't hate him, Edarial's certain of it, but he's not helping. He's literally never seen his twin this angry before. This is coming from someone who has seen his twin be angry loads of times. At meals, he just - sits there. Stabbing his food and glaring at Edarial while he does it. He gets why, he knows that Zevros is furious with him for the whole 'cold political marriage' thing. It still hurts, though, to have his immediate family just be so openly hostile.
He gets more withdrawn. Meals get delivered to his room rather than him eating with Iobel and Zevros right there, being near-openly hostile. He stops sparring with Zevros nearly entirely, spends an unhealthy amount of time in either his office or his room, and Berathyme spends all her time coiled around his shoulders, offering what little comfort she can.
She's pretty terrible at advice, but at least he has someone that doesn't actively hate him nearby.
He throws himself into being a king, gets lots of things done, and is generally considered by the public to be good at it. A good king. It's sort of tainted by bitterness, now. But the country does not fall apart, it does not break down into civil war - he handles it. The education system gets a shove in the right direction, the canals get cleaned up, various unemployed people get jobs. He wonders what on earth he's done wrong when he's doing good in the world, but he supposes it doesn't matter.
He knew what he was getting himself into, when he made this choice. He knew that Zevros would be upset with him. Maybe to the point where their camaraderie will just never recover. He doesn't know. From the beginning, he knew that he'd be shackled to someone he doesn't love. Edarial hadn't been expecting the random hatred from his new wife, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be happy.
Just, well. He wasn't expecting to be so miserable, either.
It shows, the misery. Dark circles under his eyes, the withdrawn, blank expression, unkempt hair. He loses some weight due to skipping meals just to avoid his close family. Or, other times, he just forgets, burying himself in work so he doesn't have to think 'What did I do?' over and over again.
But he's a good king. So that's something.
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royal_obligation
come_midnight
"If you have spells and know any healing that fellow's probably next worst off," Iobel says to Edarial, pointing.
royal_obligation
He nods, then gets to healing them. He's not the best with healing spells, but - hey, they're useful.
The raven is fetched without problem.
come_midnight
She puts the bird on top of her binder and waits for the party to be ready to go.
They're ready to go reasonably quickly. Nataliem's dragged out, along with someone unconscious that was on their side. Injured parties are patched up, and then either carried off or escorted to prison. Several guards surrendered - they will be detained for a little while and questioned about Nataliem. Servants and people who obviously had nothing to do with anything nefarious are left to their own devices with the caveat that if they need to be questioned they should be findable.
Once all prisoners have been dropped off at the prison to be processed (and Nataliem's familiar is bound with a hex), there seems to be little else to do besides wait at the palace for him to wake up for questioning.
Once all prisoners have been dropped off at the prison to be processed (and Nataliem's familiar is bound with a hex), there seems to be little else to do besides wait at the palace for him to wake up for questioning.
royal_obligation
Which means that Edarial's run out of distractions. It's okay if he's got a goal, a mission to do, but now that it's gone and he's just waiting for Nataliem to wake up - well. He's got nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. Mostly the guilt, and all of the various things he could have done better. Things that would have prevented an innocent woman from being married to him against her will.
Out of habit, he curls up in his room. He has a lot of things to think about.
Out of habit, he curls up in his room. He has a lot of things to think about.
come_midnight
When everyone who was found at the house has been handled, Iobel says to Zevros, "What would be the best way for Cricket and I to check over the palace guard and identify the other involved parties, ideally without causing further injuries?"
royal_pain
"Uhh... I could make up a fake training thing that's mandatory for all guards ever, then have you and Cricket show up and point people out to me?"
royal_pain
"Well, normally this sort of thing takes days of planning and coordination. But I'm a prince, and I scare people, so - give me a few hours."
come_midnight
Iobel goes up to her room and pulls out a notebook and writes, Cricket on her shoulder. It's his language she writes in, but he's illiterate, so no one can read her thoughts except for her.
royal_obligation
Her husband's certainly not going to try.
Not only is it against his morals, but he's kind of busy right now. Wallowing in misery.
Not only is it against his morals, but he's kind of busy right now. Wallowing in misery.
come_midnight
So, Edarial didn't do it. He was neglectful to the point that it almost strains credulity, but seems to have been legitimately upset about having to get married, which is - some excuse, if not much - and is now quite willing to resolve the problem insofar as it can be resolved.
She has very little sense of his personality on a social level under all the despair - approximately, what she knows is that he's the sort of person to get married for some combination of national benefit and brotherly sacrifice despite finding the prospect hideous, he is not a rapist (lucky him; that would have gotten her thinking very seriously about murder), and that he smiled when she healed the fallen enemy combatants. And that he filtered candidates for queenhood on the basis of the quality of their politics in a way that made Iobel the best choice by a significant margin.
(She leaves a note in clearly readable Marlese for Zephrys: she wants the names and addresses of everyone else who was being considered so she can find out if she was the only person being coerced at any point in the process. She somewhat doubts that Edarial would think of this.)
He's willing to divorce her. She's not sure if that would be best, although she's scarcely going to cling to his sleeve and weep if he insists on it because he can't stand the sight of her.
But she thinks she's a good queen, and could be better if the king weren't avoiding her; and he has to be married to somebody; and maybe if he ever lightens up he'd be all right; and maybe she can cook up a spell to get her pregnant with the heir to the throne without having to trespass on his distaste or her unease.
It's more complicated than that on paper, but those are the conclusions she has by the time Zevros's few hours have elapsed.
royal_pain
"All set!" he agrees. "I will actually be training them, because half of them are okay but not great at poking things with sharp objects."
come_midnight
"Okay." Iobel picks up Cricket. "And we'll tell you which of them we know were involved with taking my cat."
royal_pain
He does! Oh look, guards.
Zevros gets to actually training them! This involves calling them out by name for Iobel to hear. This isn't necessary for the actual training part, but it'll certainly help for identifying who's who.
Zevros gets to actually training them! This involves calling them out by name for Iobel to hear. This isn't necessary for the actual training part, but it'll certainly help for identifying who's who.