I’m sure I’ll probably write how ridiculous it is to wake up next to the Queen every day for a few more weeks still, because I still can’t believe it. I’m also just not used to being held. I do the holding, usually. But with our sizes, it just makes more sense like this.
She’s also way more in control now, than before. I suppose I shouldn’t find that a surprise. With anyone else, it would probably annoy me. But honestly, it’s kind of relaxing, after everything that’s happened, to know she wants me. Besides, I have confidence I’ll figure out how to turn the tables back at some point.
“You do not have to get up with me,” the Queen said, stirring. “We had thought that obvious by now.”
“Too much to do,” I said.
“The lich is gone, and you have no major projects at this time,” the Queen said.
“Sure, you may think that, but you told me to take this stuff off of you, so I am. I still have a bunch of groups of your aides to get on board,” I said, yawning. “Fitz, over in your commerce bureau, he looks like he wants to claw me to death every time we talk.”
“Yes, we suppose he would be like that,” the Queen said. “But he knows what he is doing.”
“Yeah, you have good people picked. Anyone would be frustrated about me being just pushed into the system like that.”
“They will see reason,” the Queen said. “You will show them.”
“I still think it would be easier if we got everyone together at once and had you explain I have your trust,” I said. “It’s easy for them to dispute it when it’s just me talking to them.”
“We have said as such to everyone who asked,” the Queen said.
The Queen got out of the bedding, much to my sadness. “It’s not a bad idea. Perhaps a dinner. It will help everyone to adjust,” the Queen said. “We have been busy adapting to this new form of existence as well.” She turned back to me and smiled. “Of course, organizing it should likely fall to you, Gloria.”
“I’m starting to think you like giving me work,” I said.
“It is still liberating for us, giving tasks away and knowing we need not check in and intervene,” the Queen said. “That said, you may always refer to us if you need assistance.”
We both got cleaned up and ready for the day, and soon I was tending to the Egg while the Queen went over her morning correspondence. The Egg was glowing happily as I rocked it. It had seem happier since we moved in here. Or maybe it was just responding to me. Maybe I was the happy one.
Eventually I realized the Queen was just watching me.
“You are good at that,” she said.
“You… never struck us as a mothering type. Your first son was somewhat of a surprise to us.”
“Well, I wouldn’t really think of me that way either, but I guess I grew into it,” I said. “Do you want to hold it?”
A bit of fear flashed across the Queen’s face. “Perhaps not.”
“Come on, it’s your Egg too,” I said.
“We are too big, and it is very small,” she said.
I frowned. “Your highness. Come on.”
The Queen reached down gently and took the Egg from me. She could hold it easily in a claw, and did so, cradling it gently.
“It does not like us,” the Queen said, looking at the Egg, whose glow had dimmed.
“It doesn’t know you yet,” I said. “But it will.”
“Hello,” the Queen said to the Egg. “We… are going to be your other mother. If that’s alright.”
The Egg glowed a little, cautiously.
“See? There you go,” I said, grinning.
She’d just started to calm down while holding it when there was a knock at the chamber door.
“Yes?” the Queen said, handing the Egg back to me.
“Your highness, I have some news you will want to hear!” said the adjudicator at the door.
“Come in,” the Queen said.
The adjudicator opened the door, and seemed shocked to see me there.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“S-sorry, ma’am, still not used to… anyway, your highness,” they said with a bow. “The diplomats you sent to human lands have returned.”
“Thank you. We shall make arrangements to meet. Ensure they are given quarters and whatever they need, and inform them we will send an aide with information on when we have time to meet,” the Queen said.
“Yes, your highness. And, uh, sorry again, ma’am,” they said, bowing to me too.
I would really prefer they didn’t do that, but there I was. “It’s fine, as long as you don’t have a problem with the Queen being my wife. I know it’s a big change.”
I could tell on their face they were somewhat shocked by my word choice, claiming the Queen instead of her claiming me. But that’s a good shock, likely. “Of course not, ma’am,” they said, and then bowed again before heading out.
“We are your wife, hm?” the Queen said.
“Something inaccurate about that?” I asked.
She leaned down and licked me. “Not at all. But we must go. Look at our schedule and make a time to meet with your son and Nobody. During a meal if you have to. It is a matter of urgency.”
“I’ll get on it just as soon as I get the Egg to the nursery,” I said.
The Queen nodded. “We shall see you later.”
After most of a morning running around and attempting to push things on the Queen’s schedule here and there, an exhausting time, I had managed to free up a decent chunk of time before dinner, that could bleed into dinner if needed. I didn’t know how much there would be to say. I couldn’t imagine Flare would be involved in any sort of deal or negotiation that was complicated.
I got to the Council chamber, where we were meeting to talk, early. Turned out to be a bad decision, because then I had some time to worry. Whatever they said would affect Merry and her family. But I had to trust them.
“Mommy!” Flare said as he entered the room, and then stopped, seeing my wing. “Oh no, Mommy, are you okay?”
“You knew I was hurt, terror,” I said.
“Well, yeah, but you weren’t supposed to be that hurt…” he said.
“That’s what fighting is,” Ivana said. “Not all games like you seem to fucking think.” Then she saw me. “Fuck, though, a whole wing, huh?”
“Not your fault,” I said. “Terror, come here and hug me already.”
Flare came over and gave me a big hug. And with that, I relaxed a bit.
“What, you want a hug too?” I said.
“Fuck! No!” Ivana said. “I mean, where’s the Queen?”
“She’s coming. I had to reschedule a lot of things on the fly. I’m sure she’s running a bit behind,” I said.
“YOU had to reschedule?” Ivana asked.
“Oh, Mommy, did you hear? One of the adjudicators told me the Queen got married!” Flare asked.
“She might have,” I said, chuckling.
“Fuck, seriously?” Ivana said.
“The Queen and I got married while you were gone,” I said.
“What!” Flare yelled. “I missed the wedding!”
I chuckled. “Oh, now you want to be around for things.”
“Yeah, I want to be there for you and stuff!” Flare said.
“Well, we haven’t really done any official celebrating yet. When we do I’ll let you know,” I said.
“Oh dang, that makes the Queen my Mommy too!” Flare said.
“No,” Ivana said. “I will not allow that.”
“But she’s married to my Mommy!” Flare said. “That’s just facts and stuff!”
“No, that is too creepy no!” Ivana said.
And then the Queen walked in.
“What is too creepy?” she asked.
“You being my new Mommy,” Flare said.
The Queen looked taken aback by this. “We had… assumed you and your brother had no interest in us actively being a stepmother… but if that is what everyone desires…”
“Just ignore that for now, your highness,” I said to her. “We can discuss it later.”
The Queen nodded. “Yes, perhaps it’s best to handle the matter at claw first. Please, tell us about your mission.”
Flare started to speak, but Ivana put out a claw. “Please let me handle this?” she said.
“Fine,” Flare said, pouting a little.
Ivana took a breath. “So I think we’re okay, but for odd reasons,” she said.
“Such as?” the Queen said.
“Well, the human Queen is apparently a little kid,” Ivana said. “Like, not even a year old, from what they told us.”
“What?” I said. “Terror, what’s going on?”
“She was an older lady when I left!” Flare said. “I don’t know!”
“Why would the humans pick a child that young to rule?” the Queen asked.
“According to what I gleaned from our conversations and from what Flare told me, they rule via family bloodlines, like we did back before the Unification,” Ivana said. “This Bulle was essentially serving as Queen until the actual Queen could come of age.”
“That all makes some sort of sense and stuff. Bulle said that the little Queen’s mom died in childbirth?” Flare said. “But they kept introducing the baby as Philomena Ivalice the Second, and that was the last Queen!”
“Didn’t Philly say she was the Fifth?” I said, thinking.
“Yeah! That’s why she fit the prophecy and stuff about the Fifth running underground!” Flare said.
“It seemed a silly lie to call them on for no gain, so I made Flare keep his mouth shut, but it does seem odd,” Ivana said.
“Yes…” the Queen said, thinking. “We are unsure what could be gained by this.”
“Maybe it’s something we should ask Philly about,” I suggested. “I hate to bring that stuff up, because I know it was a really bad situation, but maybe she’d be more comfortable talking about it now that she’s a dragon and not in any danger of having to go back to it.”
The Queen nodded. “We shall leave you to that in the coming weeks. Please, Nobody, continue with your explanation.”
“After getting past all that, we sat down to talk about Philly,” Ivana said. “When we said we could not return Philly, we were told it was too late, and not a problem as long as she was dead, and would not be returning to claim the title of Queen.”
“I tried to explain she wasn’t dead but Nobody stopped me,” Flare said.
“If they want her dead it’s easier just to say that than to explain all the shit that happened,” Ivana said. “Safer for Philly too. She doesn’t want to be human Queen, from what I’ve gathered, but someone might assume she does, if they know she’s alive.”
I nodded. “Don’t want them coming for her. That’s the whole point.”
“Right,” Ivana said. “Anyway, after that, I figured I should try to actually get something done instead of just this vague ‘I’m not interested in war’ I got, so we worked to draw up a peace treaty like we should have after the war. It was a huge fucking pain. I started with the most bare-bones thing and he kept saying no and by the end of it we got back to my original fucking offer!”
“It was a lot of building up support,” Flare said. “I ran a lot of ceremonies and did things in Forward at the temple while I was down there! I missed it. And I got a lot of people on board with wanting a secure peace, as I talked to followers of Progress and told them what was up with the dragons and stuff, and I think they talked to this Bulle guy!”
“Yeah,” Ivana said. “It was Flare that did it, really. I kept getting angry and having to step out. He eventually got the agreement together.”
“I had help!” Flare said, smiling. “Clearly, this is what Progress wanted, and guided me in the deal-making!”
“Sure, terror,” I said. “But good job. I knew you could do it.”
“Anyway, here,” Ivana said, pulling a piece of parchment out of one of her pouches and unfolding it. “In theory they signed this. It’s so fucking small I can’t really tell. But here is a peace treaty, your highness.”
The Queen took it, and put on her lenses to read it. “This is very simple.”
“I’m not a diplomat, really,” Ivana said. “I just tried to get something in writing.”
“No, we can work with this,” the Queen said. “Though we will have to get a lens powerful enough to confirm the humans have signed off on it.”
“I’ll get someone on that,” I said.
“Thank you, Gloria,” the Queen said.
“They have a copy too,” Ivana said. “Fuck if I know what they’re going to do with parchment so much bigger than them, but I wasn’t going to sign something I couldn’t read.”
“We shall have to remember to send appropriate lenses if future negotiations are required,” the Queen said.
“Yeah. Anyway…” Ivana said. “I hope we helped or whatever.”
The Queen nodded. “Yes, we believe you did. Thank you.”
“It’s about dinner time. Would you like to join us?” I asked.
“I should go see the kid. Haven’t had time yet,” Ivana said.
“Go get Plato and bring him, then,” I said.
Ivana hesitated. “Okay, sure, fuck, why not, I guess…” she said. “I’ll be back.”
Ivana left, and I made sure enough food was going to be brought. And then it was just me, the Queen, and Flare.
“Do you truly desire us to act as stepmother?” the Queen asked as I came back into the room.
“Yeah!” Flare said. “Though I guess I don’t know what that involves and stuff, but if you’re with Mommy, you’re important, right? Just like Maumau!”
“Maumau?” The Queen asked.
“You know, Mommy’s friend, Maude?”
“Don’t pester the Queen, terror,” I said, sitting back down.
“I’m not pestering… she’s just family now, right?” he asked.
I wanted to say yes, but I knew what kind of pressure the Queen had on her. I’d seen how hard she was trying to make time for me, now that I was around her so often. I hadn’t put much actual thought into what relationship I wanted her to have with my sons, honestly. Too much had been going on.
But the Queen spoke before me. “Yes, we are.”
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes with family and stuff,” Flare said. “Going back to Ivalice, and Forward, just kind of reminded me of that more. Like, I have good memories there, with the humans and stuff, learning about Progress. It’s all important to me. But I know I lost sight of those who care about me. I’m not going to do that again. So if you’re part of the family, then I want to welcome you! Even if you are the Queen and stuff.”
The Queen smiled. “Thank you, Flare. We appreciate that.”
Soon, food was brought in. Ivana returned with Plato.
“Oh, your highness! Miss Gloria! Congratulations on your marriage!” he said, giving a little bow.
“When you left the hospital, I was a bit confused as to what was happening, but I was pleased when I learned the answer from Miss Maude,” Plato said, smiling.
“Hi again, Plato!” Flare said.
“H-hello, Mister Flare,” Plato said, expression turning a bit nervous.
“It’s good to see you again,” Flare said, smiling.
“Are you going to hug me again, sir…?” Plato asked.
“No… you didn’t want me to, right?” Flare said. “I’m sorry, I got excited last time… Nobody had told me so much about you! And there’s something about you that I can’t quite...”
Ivana made a loud cough to cut Flare off. “Look, the food is getting cold, let’s eat.”
“Oh, right, good idea!” Flare said, nodding.
We chatted and had a wonderful meal. Then the Queen needed to attend to other things, and we all went our separate ways. It wasn’t until late that evening, when I saw the Queen again, that we could talk about the repercussions.
“We believe it would be safe for your friends to return home to Orin,” the Queen said. “We shall ensure the treaty is processed and approved by the Council soon, and then they can leave.”
“They’ll be happy to hear that,” I said. “I’ll let them know to get ready.”
“...we hope to continue to do right by your family, Gloria,” the Queen said. “In this current incarnation, we were a bit of a hermit, as you are aware… we are not sure how much is necessary.”
“You’re doing more than I could ask for, honestly,” I told her, and stretched my neck to the limit to lick her cheek. “Thank you.”
“Mm…” the Queen said. “Let us finish up our evening business and get to our bedding.”
And now I’ve written this, and I think I’ll do just that.
