Of Sound Mind

[cipherspeak]

The cane he still carries scrapes across the stone floors of Club Castle, signaling the King's arrival even if the King had wanted to move silently. Only a few more weeks, he tells himself as he gives the cane a baleful look and then casts a more curious - and more concerned look at the door.

Argine is no longer Queen, but she still knows how to issue a summons. These days, when she does - it isn't the best of news.

But perhaps he's just being pessimistic. People tell him he has a tendency to think the worst.

He knock; he waits, and when he hears her voice, he steps inside. "You asked to see me?"

Comments

[theless]

"She loves you."

It's that simple, really. There's more to it, but this late in everything, it's also absolutely that simple.

"And she'll be safe with you." It might, actually, be the first plan for her daughter's safety that she didn't fear would backfire completely. "She'll have something like... stability, in spite of everything."

[cipherspeak]

Parenting had never been something he planned for himself, certainly not for a long time - the spectres of his mother and Sebastian Dietrich had accounted for that. He wasn't even sure he'd be good at it; it was different, now. As ill as Argine was, she was still the primary parent. He merelyy filled in the gaps.

"I love her too," he says. And it really is that simple, despite the coiling tension in his belly in the face of something unplanned. He wouldn't have been able to leave her with Maximilian or Tobias; he would have made some arrangement with Rachel. "Have you talked to her about this?"

She would be fifteen soon, after all. A matter of months. And even Outside, that was more than old enough to have an opinion on her future.

[theless]

The shake of her head is careful, eyes closing just for a few seconds before she can meet his again. This isn't an easy conversation, after all, for all the easy affirmation from the King settles her heart that much more.

This is the right thing to do.

"Not yet. I didn't want to... get her hopes up if you... didn't want to."

[cipherspeak]

He nods. "If I'm what she wants..." he begins, and pauses. It's a lot of responsibility, what he's about to take on. Responsibility he would have never chosen for himself. But isn't that his life so far? What makes this so different.

Well, that it's a person. That it's Eileen.

"If I'm what she wants, then I'm honored, Argine."

[theless]

There's no distinct sigh of relief. There's just a slightly calmer sort of exhale among all the careful breaths.

"Thank you. That... makes all of this easier."

It would make talking to Eileen easier, certainly. It would also make the idea of leaving her daughter behind easier.