Never before had she seen him quite so emotionally vulnerable before. It comes as a bit of a shock, wringing her heart to hear the soggy tremor of his voice, to hear him say those things. She wants him to look more like he does in the memory, not fraught with tears. Maintaining her own smile in hopes of encouraging one of his own, she balls her hand in her sleeve and wipes the trickle from beneath his eye.

"We don't have to be apart. Slaine, you are my best friend. If there is one benefit about no longer being a princess, it is that how I spend my time and what company I spend it with is all a prerogative of my own. We have plenty of time ahead of us to share together."