Snippet #2389877

"My Queen," he said, keeping the eye contact she seemed to require so badly. "Be aware that to keep the Magistrates alive for Sacrifice is extremely dangerous. Who knows what guards will be placed over them as they await their death. Who knows what hiccup might allow them to escape and seek refuge with allies? Indeed, who knows what allies might be willing to rise up in their names and act against us? Inevitably, their allies will act, but we can at least weaken them by my slaying of these men with my own sword."

"I will not tell you what you must do; as Queen, you must find the wisdom for both of us. I will follow you to my death never-the-less. If you wish to answer their summons, then please do whatever they wish of you and trust in me, with your body, your heart and soul, to save you from their evil machinations. Trust me to protect every precious hair of your head and foil whatever plans they might have. Trust that no matter how dire the situation, I will always bring you victory and arrive in time to successfully do whatever bidding you ask of me... For you are not only my Queen, but also my love and my future wife. No force of God or mortal has the power to stop me when you point and tell me to act, or when your life is in danger."

He kept himself steady, as though he almost expected their private meeting to quickly take a rather unorthodox turn. The image of her divine Queendom may have been broken, but he still saw her as a woman.