[P] everything's coming up green

[Marisol]

i wish i could say everything i've done and still be loved.

She wishes she could trust him; as implicitly as her people trust her, or as Asterion trusted his fellow sovereigns. But that is not the kind of woman Marisol was taught to be—and certainly not the kind of leader that she wants to look like, not in front of anyone but much less in front of someone who holds just as much power as she does.

Perhaps her stance is a little stiffer than it needs to be. Perhaps some part of her will not really relax until she is outside the walls of the city and back in the cold but familiar embrace of the gray sky. But when he smiles and offers her a drink—something warm—with, seemingly, the sincerity of someone offering a gift to their friend, the knot in Mari’s chest unwinds slightly and her shoulders fall a little further. 

Gently, she shakes her head no again, but the offer, small as it might be, will certainly not be ignored.

I have no desire to start animosity with your Court, Lady Marisol, the Dawn sovereign says as he moves toward the citadel. It’s the answer she was expecting, but still the Commander finds herself both pleased and relieved to hear the admission aloud. She follows patiently at his hip, a position that she rarely holds—trailing instead of leading, letting someone else take charge—but whatever prickle of discomfort she feels at being second-in-line is soothed by Ipomoea’s warm voice and the view of the courtyard around them. 

Dawn’s beauty is what she expected. Heart-stilling and warm. Every place they pass is tinged pink and fogged over faintly like a dream. It is a calm, understated kind of loveliness, serene as the bottom of a river or the swirling of cherry blossom petals; she understands, finally, what its citizens find so alluring about it. 

The boy-king’s voice breaks through again: If you are willing, perhaps we can work out an arrangement to ensure our peace will hold?

“Absolutely,” the Commander answers. Her voice is quiet but doubtless, a confident response delivered with little a pause, if any; a little smile even works its way across her lips as she ducks her head at him in agreement. "I would be honored to come to such an agreement with you."

Is this what diplomacy looks like?

And when he leads her out of the courtyard and into the rest of the world, she follows willingly.


"Speaking."

queen marisol

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