He sounds so pathetic when he says that, like - like he's just given up hope and wants to curl up and cry.
"According to what selection process? Nataliem can be locked up. But I doubt even if you were doing your due diligence for once you'd detect every minor noble whose - parents were pressuring them to try to marry you, or whatever. For that matter, did I really earn my tiara on the basis of that survey, it was a reasonably well-made survey, how good was second place?"
"Second place," he says, "was not terrible, but not particularly good, either."
Zevros returns, a little while later. "Okay, let's go kick ass. Edarial, you're my backup."
He's shaking. Months of misery have not left him very sturdy.
"I have a forty-one second knockout spell. If it were faster I could've got Cricket out when I first tried. Will that do?"
He looks at his brother. "Suck it up, Daisy."
"Suck. It. Up. Don't act like you fucking can't, you're the smart diplomatic one and I need you."
Iobel gets up, Cricket draped 'round her shoulders. "Let me know when to start charging."
He eyes Edarial. "... I'll let you know when to charge, both of you. Ari, know where the bastard is?"
"He's got a house in this city, if he's in the city it would be there."
Off he goes, to do that.
"Do you know anything about what spells he knows? I can be invisible if I'm not going to be doing much else and he might not notice me."
"No idea," says Edarial. "But I'm treating it as 'he should not get any spells off' - they could be lethal."
"I'll turn invisible, then. Lasts an hour, should be plenty of time."
Edarial doesn't even remember where his sword is. He takes a few seconds to think, puts its most likely location as being in his room, and then heads off in that direction.
Iobel goes to the gate, Cricket left safely behind so she doesn't have to blow two spells on the invisibility.
Off to the gate.