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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He gets more withdrawn.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 Dark circles under his eyes, the withdrawn, blank expression, unkempt hair.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
"I'm surprised too," Iobel volunteers. "I have previously observed you to make jokes, but not to direct them at me; I am terrifying and upsetting."
royal_obligation
Well that just kind of depresses him, now. She hasn't seen anything of what he's actually like, only when he's freaking out because he's married, or freaking out because he's married to her, who demonstratively hated him.
He sighs. "I am perfectly capable of them."
He sighs. "I am perfectly capable of them."
come_midnight
Iobel sighs.
"I'm going to go see if Nataliem has anything worth hearing to say. Are either of you coming along?"
"I'm going to go see if Nataliem has anything worth hearing to say. Are either of you coming along?"
royal_pain
"Don't care, should have killed him," shrugs Zevros. "Do whatever you like."
come_midnight
Up goes Iobel, followed by Cricket and presumably the kingly wad of misery.
royal_obligation
Yeah, he follows, along with Berathyme. He's rather quiet, on the trip to Nataliem. Unless Iobel wants to talk about something, he'll just leave it at silence.
come_midnight
She's not going to push it.
And here is the dungeon. It's so dungeony.
And here is the dungeon. It's so dungeony.
royal_obligation
It is quite dungeony!
Edarial actually already knows where Nataliem is in this dungeon. He'd checked to make sure living conditions weren't terrible, before dumping him here. "This way," he says.
Then, there is Nataliem. His familiar is with him, since she can't fit through the bars. He glances up, at them both. "Ah, your majesties," he says, getting up to bow with only a trace of spite, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Edarial actually already knows where Nataliem is in this dungeon. He'd checked to make sure living conditions weren't terrible, before dumping him here. "This way," he says.
Then, there is Nataliem. His familiar is with him, since she can't fit through the bars. He glances up, at them both. "Ah, your majesties," he says, getting up to bow with only a trace of spite, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Oh?" says Nataliem. "And what would you like to know? Why you should let me go? Or are you simply planning to leave me in here, my familiar bound, until I take my final breath?"
"I'll accept the other charges, but certainly not treason. Everything I did was in the name of the crown."
"Really! Tell me you are not better off with her than you would have been with other candidates!"
come_midnight
"I have letters out to the other candidates to find out if they were coerced too. But perhaps you can tell us and perhaps you'll even tell the truth, was I the only one to be so thoroughly kept captive?"
"Well there's really no point to lying, considering where I am, so... No. But you were the most troublesome."
come_midnight
"Lovely," snorts Iobel. "Why did you jump straight to commanding my presence at the palace? I'd have accepted a politely worded invitation. Perhaps Edarial and I would have gotten along famously under better circumstances."
"Most people are more persuaded by commands than invitations," shrugs Nataliem. "And I'd offered to get you an invitation, but you'd turned me down."