"Am I?" The day feels like a blur of names and faces and political undercurrents I'm still learning to navigate.
"You ask the right questions. Listen more than you speak. People responded to you." He pauses, looking tired but pleased. "Kieran would have approved."
The compliment warms me, but it also highlights how much I still don't know. "I committed to reviewing food distribution policy. I don't know anything about food distribution policy."
"Then you'll learn. The same way I'm learning that being king involves more collaboration than I expected."
"Is that what this is? Collaboration?"
"It's what we're building toward." He pulls me against him, and I can feel his exhaustion through the bond. "It's messier than I thought it would be. Harder. But..."
"But?"
"But I think I prefer the mess to the alternative."
The letter arrives with the dawn messengers, and it changes everything.
Father's handwriting is shakier than I remember, but his words are clear: "I am coming with those who have authorityto speak for human interests. If you are truly choosing this life, then help me understand how. If you are not, then know that we will not abandon you."
I read it three times before the implications fully sink in. He's not just bringing political pressure—he's bringing a formal delegation with the authority to renegotiate treaties if necessary. This could mean war if we handle it wrong.
"Seventeen lords," Aratus says, reading over my shoulder. "Including three who sit on the High Council. They're not just questioning our bond—they're questioning the entire legal framework that allows it."
"What does that mean?"
"It means they could demand changes to the treaties that govern Fae-human relations. They could argue that the current laws don't adequately protect human women from coercion." His voice is grim. "If they succeed, it could affect every Fae court's ability to claim human omegas."
The scope of the crisis makes my head spin. "So this isn't just about us."
"This is about the prophecy. About whether the eight bonds can be formed at all, or whether human resistance will make them impossible."
I think about the other courts, the other women who might be watching our situation to see what their own futures hold. If we fail here, if we can't prove that this bond is real and chosen, we might doom them all to whatever comes after the prophecy fails.
"What do we do?"
"We prepare. We present our case as convincingly as possible. And we hope that whatever we've built between us is strong enough to survive political scrutiny."
The morning passes in a blur of preparation. Advisors brief us on human law, court precedents, and diplomatic protocols.We practice answering questions about my consent, my treatment, my current mental state. Every possible challenge is anticipated and rehearsed.
But as the day wears on, I realize the most difficult questions aren't the ones they'll ask in formal session. They're the ones I'm asking myself.
Did I choose this? Really choose it? Or did Aratus simply condition me so thoroughly that I can't tell the difference between choice and compulsion anymore?
The bond hums between us, stronger than ever after days of negotiation and conflict and slowly building trust. But is that strength real, or is it just a more sophisticated cage?
"Having doubts?" he asks during a quiet moment between briefings.
"Constantly," I admit. "Aren't you?"
"About whether we can make this work politically? Yes. About whether what we have is real?" He considers this seriously. "Less than I expected. Yesterday's fight convinced me of something."
"What?"
"That you're still capable of genuinely disagreeing with me. That the conditioning hasn't made you into a perfect yes-woman." His smile is rueful. "If you were still broken the way I originally made you, you wouldn't have fought me about the funeral. You would have just accepted my decision and thanked me for making it."
It's a good point, but it doesn't resolve the deeper question. "But am I disagreeing because I actually disagree, or because you've given me permission to disagree within acceptable parameters?"
"Does it matter?"
