now you're falling away

as do i! As always also, if any of this doesn't line up let me know. She gets away from me sometimes :)

Manauia's expression hardened at his rebuke, but she did not growl back. He may be a Prince, but her position was such that she felt she had earned the right to speak freely on some matters. That he would feel the need to defend an outsider against her words did not sit well. At least it was not Malachi. She did not know that she could have stayed silen were that the case.

She did deign to make one more remark before leaving the subject. "If she is to be queen, it is her job to make her intentions known. Otherwise she does not deserve the honor." A leader could not expect others to hold their hand. He should know this. "He is a weak king. Even if he was not, she could take it easily."

She mulled the rest of his words over for a moment, divided. She knew it was her queen's desire to have her son back. But for the first time, she thought to what the future might hold. His title was 'prince', but never would her sisters or her bow to a king. Not even one chosen by their beloved queen to rule in her stead. Was that her intention? She had never spoken of them, and Manauia was not privelidged to ask such things, but she wondered at it. Perhaps, if his destiny was to be king, then this foreign place was the one to do it. And though she feared going back to her queen empty-handed, she feared even more what her queen's favoritism would cause their future. Manauia was never one to blindly trust or follow. She questioned all, and at that moment her questions were many.

Instead of refuting, she gave him a calculated look. "You would seek to claim these lands?"