>>5923692>>5923683>>5923673>>5923653A dozen possibilities race through your brain—including, again that this is all some sort of clever trap by the Prince Consort (or the Queen herself) to ensnare you. However, the longer you see Queen Ekaterine of Hawksong stumbling around in the dark, very nearly tumbling off of her bed with a yelp of dismay, the less plausible that seems. Maybe it was just that brief instance where her… Whatever-it-was was affecting you that made her seem so threatening If this was a planned ambush, why does she seem so groggy and disoriented, even AFRAID? Where are her guards? Where, for that matter, is the Prince Consort?
No. You are no assassin, no thief. You came here to talk—with both she and her husband, ideally—but that REMAINS your intention. You shake your head at Zith_Zi, who cringes and whose eyes flit towards the exit… But who then sighs, relenting and throwing the pages of paperwork over her shoulder with a dramatic slump.
“Not like I’d get far without ya’ anyway, huh?” she sighs.
When next the Queen steps and starts to stumble, you catch her. She flinches away from you, slapping and flailing , and actually gets a few good licks in… But this woman, whoever and whatever else she may be, is not a warrior, nor especially physically imposing even to a slim and studious half-elf like yourself.
“Get off of me!” she shrieks, pulling back from you and falling backwards upon the bed. “Guards! GUARDS!”
“Please, Queen Ekaterine, calm down,” you whisper, taking a step back and raising your hands—pointlessly, you realize, since she can’t see the gesture. “It’s me… Ah, Archmage Henzler’s apprentice. We met once before. Do you remember?”
You see her eyebrows knit together in concentration and confusion.
“Van Houtzmann, wasn’t it?” she whsipers. “Ezreal van Houtzmann?”
You nod, and then sigh when you remember that this, too, is pointless.
“Yes,” you say aloud. “It’s me.”
A long period of tense silence follows.
“What are you doing in my bedchamber?” Hawksong’s Queen eventually hisses, “and why should I not have you arrested and jailed right this instant?”
There’s some ferocity in her tone, and some steel in her spine as she sits up… But she still strikes you as quite helpless. You know you are a skilled mage with many esoteric techniques at your disposal, but it DOES alarm you a little to see how easily you were able to slip through her defences, if she really ahs no defenders nearby enough to rescue her by now. You can only speculate that there must be some reason for this… But not what that reason is, necessarily. Regardless, it’s not the subject at hand.
“I’m here for an audience,” you say.
