?


    "That has to havee up before, right?" asked Kat. "I mean… you''re older then us and have had this marriage thing as an active part of your life for at least a decade so it''s a bit hard to imagine you''re only now considering the idea properly. What turned things around so fast?"


    "Oh that''s quite simple," said Oditr, "I hadn''t considered from the perspective of just handing everything over. At first, it was more about not having anyone that I love. My grandparents married for love, Thyme constantly marries for love. Really the only person I''m close to that hasn''t is Titania, and possibly my parents? I''ve never actually asked them. What I didn''t think about was Ulf. He didn''t marry for love, he married first and love cameter.


    "Still, I realised that wasn''t necessarily in the cards for me quite some time ago so I started to consider it more from the angle of ''if I had to marry someone who could I trust'' but I realise now that I don''t actually need to trust them all that much. I just need to find someone that wants the best for the kingdom, and likes politics. Marry them, and then say ''well have a go''. As long as they don''tpletely screw up, it could work…"


    "I feel like you''d start to creep back into their business as soon as they did something you thought wasn''t good for the kingdom," said Marigold. When Oditr turned a raised eyebrow to Marigold, the elf continued. "Look, not to say that you don''t want to retire, or don''t wish you could do something other than rule, because obviously you''d like a break… but at least for now it seems like you''re going strong.


    "The real problem, is the weight of responsibility. You''ve been carrying it for a long time. At this point, even if you intend to give it all over to someone else… I imagine you''ll still feel responsible for it all. It might take you years or even decades to get to the point where you can just ept that you don''t have to keep the whole kingdom together anymore,"


    "Surely it wouldn''t be that bad," said Oditr. "I''m usually bored in meetings, I don''t always pay attention when ambassadorse and visit, and I''ve been trying to find more ways to get free time for years at this point. In fact, I probably spend too much of my free time looking for more and not enough of my free time enjoying it, but that''s beside the point. Why would I want to go back to working if I can avoid it?"


    "Right…" said Marigold clearly not believing Oditr. Marigold let the word hang in the air for a few moments as she tried to think of the best example for Oditr to understand. It took a minute, but she had a lightbulb moment. "Ok, I''ve got it. Oditr would you say you''re perfect?"


    "No, of course not, what kind of silly question is that?" asked Oditr.


    "Look, just humour me for a bit, ok?" asked Marigold. When Oditr nodded she continued. "So you agree you''re not perfect, so anyone you try to find to rece you won''t be either. Correct?"


    "Yeah… where are you going with this?" asked Oditr.


    "I AM getting there trust me. So you''re not perfect. Your recement isn''t perfect. We''ve established that. Now… how well did you do when you first started ruling?" asked Marigold.


    Oditr sighed, still not seeing where Marigold was going. She decided to just humour the elf until she finally got to the fucking point. "It wasn''t easy, but I had my parents there to help me a lot. The cab was mostly old guard as well. I didn''t exactly go about recing them all, but quite a lot of them wanted to retire with my parents so it happened. They did stick around for a while though, so it wasn''t too bad. I only caused a few diplomatic incidents. Nothing major,"


    Marigold smiled and said, "Of course. It''s nothing to worry about… except… what happens when your recement starts making mistakes? Do you just… let them go about it?"


    Oditr shook her head, "No of course I don''t. I had my parents to help me so I''d help them out at least a bit at the start. Why?"


    Marigold made a ''slow-down'' motion with her hands. "So you''d stick around as an advisor for at least a little while… how many hours do you think an advisor works?"


    "Depends on the subject… but I guess around the same amount of time as me? They do need to double check all my work after all, at least for a bit," said Oditr.


    "Right, so you''d have stepped down from ruling, handed it over to someone you only sort of trust with the understanding you''d quickly stop ruling and allow them to take over. That way there''s no betrayal or anything. Then you stick on as an advisor until they''refortable… but how long is that? And when would they start to think you''re reneging on the deal?" asked Marigold.


    "What do you mean?" asked Oditr, even though she was starting to work it out. The confirmation would still be useful though.


    "Well if they were brought on as your husband or wife to avoid political issues… but you promise them you don''t want to run the country anymore… then you advise them for decades… they might start to think either that you just wanted someone to do all the paperwork, or make the public appearances or heck, maybe just act as assassin fodder. It''d probably get messy," said Marigold.


    Oditr let her head rest on the edge of the table so her hair wouldn''t end up in her food. Once situated she let out a pained groan before sitting back up and saying, "Yeah… should''ve known there was going to be a problem with that. You''re right I would totally do that. I don''t like to think of myself as super controlling… but my kingdom is important to me. It''s basically like my child in a way.


    "Which… is weird as all heck to say out loud let alone acknowledge. Now that you''veid it out for me, I''ve got no idea how I''d ever be able to just hand it over. I''ve probably had this realisation before, but it''s certainly sinking in this time. How the hell did my parents do that? Just… up and hand everything over to their daughter?"


    Marigold shrugged, "How should I know? I only know so much about how hard it is to step down from things because like half of my family is constantlyining about how hard it is to retire. I think it''s more of an in-joke then a seriousint at this point, but I still hear it all the time. As far as I can tell Dad isn''t nning to retire anytime soon and I don''t think he''s grooming anyone to take over yet… I mean, we''ve still been given some lessons. Mostly as a ''just in case'' type deal you know? If something happened… well… you know. Actually do you? What''s your n for if you end up in aa or… something,"


    "I''m… not entirely sure I should answer that one Marigold," said Oditr after a moment of thought. "That''s really close to ''military secrets'' type of deal. I mean, we have a n, obviously, but I probably shouldn''t share it,"


    Marigold shrugged and said, "That''s fine. I''m not sure if I should''ve told you what our n is, but it''s not exactly a major secret. All the kids are trained at least somewhat in our mother''s jobs should the worst happen, then we''re also trained a bit about being king, but like, not too much. Though maybe that''s just because I''m so young. Perhaps my older siblings got the training,"


    "I can''t say," said Oditr.


    Marigold raised an eyebrow, "Wait a second… do you already KNOW?"


    Oditr grinned back, "Of course I do Marigold. Remember, little sister of the group. I know all sorts of things I really shouldn''t. Heck, I know more about Auctifer and Titania then they know about each other. They both try to keep things a bit more professional with each other. Though in the case of Ulf… urgh,"


    Oditr winced. "It''s probably something that should''vee up back when we were going over him, and it sort of did… but there was no n for if something happened to him. I''d guess there might''ve been one millennia ago right back at the start of his reign… but they never made a new er on. It''s probably another of the many reasons that the kingdom is doing so poorly without him,"


    Marigold winced and said, "Yeah that does sound like something that would happen to Ulf. He wouldn''t have wanted to make that sort of n, and I know his wife wouldn''t either… so I guess it never got done, or if it did, the guy who did it died, and the n fell apart as well,"


    Oditr nodded, "Ulf became a constant, and nobody knew what to do when he left,"