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“Fair enough,” I responded as I headed back for the bed.
Do the Assemblages truly work for Wylan?
That seemed like a random question. I gave a shrug as I settled back in bed and propped my head under my chin as I turned to face the door where her head sat. “Not really. My father loved them. For obvious reasons. And he chose my mother not out of love but because of her power. And I believe my great grandma was chosen for the same. It was supposed to give all levels of the kingdom a fair chance at the most powerful bloodline in the country, however, before Jorah, it wasn’t ever really fair.” I paused. “It was just a way to find another powerful bloodline. My brother’s Assemblage did work, though, to be fair. He just had to steal her away from mine.” I laughed.
At the time it had felt like the end of the world. Now? Now it just felt like a part of my story. A part of my story doused in regret for all the hell I put the women of my Assemblage through, yes, but it didn’t feel as shattering as it did at the time. All was well in Wylan. All was how itshould bein Wylan. I knew that in my gut even if my pride had taken a long time to get over it.
They seem barbaric to me,the queen noted.
“Oh, they absolutely are,” I agreed. “You get to marry for love here, yes?”
She sighed.Yes, though it is highly encouraged I produce heirs, numerous heirs as fast as possible. That is the main reason my parents wish to give the throne to Jagen. He is engaged to be wed in the summer. He will produce the heirs for Dra Skor I cannot.
“What the hell does it matter? If you can’t, then Jagen can still be next in line. Then Jagen’s children. You also have cousins. Dra Skor’s royal line is far more secure than ours.”
She sighed.But heirs show an element of health. An element of power. Fertility is seen as a blessing.
“There is a lot more to this queen business than I ever even considered,” I joked. And yet because of my own upbringing, I understood entirely what she was saying.
She wiggled her head as she got comfortable. “Tell me about your Assemblage.”
This was a topic I did not want to cover with another woman. Not ever. “Are you sure? Not exactly a happy ending.”
Her eyes snapped to mine.Was it that bad?
“Well, how much do you want me to gloss over?”
She had the nerve to smile. Smile.With the promise of a story like that, none of it.
“You asked for it,” I mumbled. I found I wanted to begin and tell some grand story of how I did my best and it all went to hell, but instead I found myself at the beginning. Explaining how my father had always shoved us onto women, particularly women with Savaryn ties that my father wanted to secure loyalty from.
So I explained it all. I explained my relationship with Aiyana and how it had been purely physical for me, while also being a piece on the board for my father. For a while I had fancied myself a salacious prince. Doing his country “duty” while getting to satiate some fleshy desires.
But then as the Assemblages were called, it became increasingly more complicated.
And I continued to explain it all, leaving nothing out. How I felt pulled in a thousand different directions. How I feared that I would fall in love and my future wife wouldn’t want the crown. How I feared my future wife may want the crowntoo much. I didn’t leave anything out, explaining how Jorah caught me more than once with someone, and yet also explaining how my father set Jorah up to see me with Aiyana to teach her a lesson.
An intricate web of lust and power,the queen offered as I finished.
I leaned back to look at the ceiling. “I messed up. Repeatedly.”
You had your father breathing down your neck the entire time. And from the sounds of it, you rather intentionally made yourself look more malleable by him.She paused.He forced you onto multiple women for his personal gains.
“Yes, but I was the jackass who still went through with it,” I argued. “I should have known better. I had also just watched him kill Krew’s lover Cessa, so I knew I could not afford to become emotionally attached to anyone until my Assemblages began. And then when they did, I was staring down so many different paths and pairings, that I started to feel things down multiple paths. That is until I decided upon Jorah, just for her to reject me.”
Do you still love her?
“I will always love her in a way. But the lust has been dead a long time.”
You did the best you could,the queen defended.
“No, I did the best I knew. And at the end of the day, that is no excuse for the way I acted. All the masks and scheming overlapped, I was in entirely over my head, and people got hurt in the process.”
Including yourself.
“Including myself,” I agreed. “I think I got over giving the crown away faster than I did the fact that my Assemblage had been a failure. Molly, Gwen, and Delaney were all amazing women. As callous as it sounds, I could stay away from them for a day or two and not care. Without a throne attached, marrying any of them felt a little like settling. And I was too lost to the dark shadow my father thrust upon us to figure out what I truly wanted.”
And now? What do you want?
