Northstar Vale Sleep off the destruction

A diverted quiver strummed at the corners of shorn lips at Aiolos' words; for indeed was she courted, notwithstanding the furtivness of it: none have assumed nor asked after such, and so the stricken had not felt to voice it unless enquired after. Was it truly secrecy, then, if there was no shame within her of it? But ... then there was the matter of queenship, and at this the amusement shied away behind curtains of private pensivity. No doubt her patrons thus far had believed her to be so.

And yet, having been before birthed as heiress, there was now a very visceral fear at the prospect that she had set in motion that which she now wished to lead. It is an incessant heckling at the spiderwebbed, half-known recesses of her hollow mind; a vehemnent vaugery that she indeed had tread the preposterous path of one deluded into sweet shepherdry. That the ferocity of her downfall had elicted within her a maddened state of mind: to go forth from motherhood in favor of nurturing a different sort of upbringing.

"Begging your pardon, I ... am no queen. I am only a servant to my people, you see,"  tone delicate, careful; a glance to Dagwood, then back again,  "for I do not seek to command. Reign alone, yes, but in that there is guidance to be had. I present judgement to my masses, I allude to ze direction that they might take, but ... their wills are their own, and I am but a vessel through which their voices might be heard."

Nothing more; she could not be;
and so, upon her awakening, she had decided to stay upon the only path that now seemed viable. She has since given up faith that there were those who would come to understand her, for she could not make them. Not her first brood, who no doubt faced myriad frustration in her absence; but safe would they be with the imperious Hydra, who had last bared upon the stricken scornful fangs.  ( To have taken her whelps from one dictator, only to have them reside within the care of another! )  An alliance sundered, she supposes.

Doubt herself she might, but she could not bring herself to doubt those who followed her; who had, for what-ever reason, had continued to choose doing so. Yet:  "Your invitation of partnership humbles me, ránë. If it please you, however, then I give you my blessing to appeal to your shores of our Court. Might an accord be agreeable?"

Still he knelt; and still the stricken wished to suggest that he should bow to none. Her features remained as distilled as her choice of word, and she soon quieted.