Atau had stormed into the king's study like a whirlwind suffering from mania, but Corco's unusual reaction had both confused and calmed the storm. In the end, the captain took a seat in the study's guest chair. Although the guest chair was a permanent feature of Corco's study, it was rarely used. Usually, there was at least one chair ready for the guests in front of the king's desk, but most of them preferred to stand, out of respect for their ruler. However, Atau had no such reservations and thus plopped himself down straight away. Yet when he did, he realized that something was wrong.

His cousin, the king, sat in front of him, in an elevated position, even though Atau was the taller of the two. Now he realized that the guest seat was a good bit shorter than the king's fancy chair.

At the same time, Fadelio's desk was behind Atau and to the side, where he couldn't be seen without the admiral twisting his head to an uncomfortable degree. The third guest was the king's new wife Sumaci, who sat on a couch arrangement to his left, in another blind spot. As he looked around, Atau felt more and more like he was surrounded.

A look up into Corco's smug face made him realize that all of this had been planned. If Atau had to guess, he thought that his cousin had arranged the room like this on purpose to put pressure on his guests and make negotiations easier. However, all his plans had proven pointless since no one ever had the balls to sit in the presence of their king.

Now that Atau had finally sat down, Corco was elated to finally see his long thought-out arrangements put to use, even though Atau would be the last one this psychological trap was intended for. Still, even though it wasn't meant for him, the admiral felt its uncomfortable effects nonetheless. If he had a choice, he would rather not talk like this. Thus, he looked over his shoulder and towards Fadelio's position again.

“Hey, buddy. Do you mind?” he asked in a deliberately casual tone to break the tight mood. “This is sort of a personal thing, and I'd rather have the talk with my cousin in private.”

With his tone, Atau was trying to reduce the pressure that came from his position in the room and made him uncomfortable. However, that wasn't the only reason to get Corco's attendant out of the room. After all, Fadelio was not only the king's right hand man, he was also Tamaya's brother.

If Atau had the choice, he would rather not recount last night's story in front of her brother. He didn't expect to get out of the marriage if he did, and he was afraid that he'd end up in some life and death duel with Tama's overprotective brother. Although Atau's request seemed reasonable to him, Fadelio didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked past the admiral and towards Corco. Only when the king showed agreement did the attendant nod.

“In that case, I'll be informing the office about the apprentice tests and begin their organization,” Fadelio said as he stood up. “I will return once the work is done. Maybe by then, we will also have a new overseer for the operation,” he added with a strange look towards Atau.

“Have fun!” Under Corco's exaggerated shout and wave, Fadelio left the room. However, there was still another person left that Atau would rather not talk to. Although the new Queen of the South wasn't too close to Tama, and by all accounts her enemy in their pursuit of Corco, she was still a woman. And Atau didn't expect a woman to side with him on this issue. Thus, he turned to Sumaci next, though with a much more polite expression than the one he had used on Fadelio.

“Uhm... Queen Sumaci, not to be rude-”

“Sumaci is fine, cousin. You are so close to Corco, wouldn't it be strange if you addressed me in such a distant way?” she asked with a polite smile. Though her smile was kind, her interruption was not. Even more, she was still sitting in place as if she had no idea what he was about to ask. Apparently, she had no desire to leave any time soon. Since she was playing dumb, Atau just had to spell it out frankly.

“Queen Sumaci,” he repeated, “could you please let me and Laqhis have a talk in private? It really isn't appropriate for you to be present for this.”

“I really wanted to hear it though,” she said with a naughty smile. “I really want to know what juicy gossip Saniya's famous playboy has brought to us today.”

“That's...” Troubled at the girl's shameless confession, Atau's words drifted off as he looked towards Corco for help. However, his cousin seemed to have no intention of siding with him and against his new wife.

“Is it really something that secret?” Corco asked before Atau could insist on Sumaci's departure. “If it is, I don't mind, but somehow, I have the feeling that your story will be more embarrassing than classified. Let me guess. Yesterday, you slept with the wrong woman, or the wrong women, and now you need my help to bail you out. Is that about right?”

Stunned at his cousin's astute guess, Atau didn't know what to say for a second. However, the wise king wisely took Atau's silence as confirmation.

“In that case, I'd rather have Sumaci stay and listen,” Corco said. “It won't hurt to have someone left in the room to keep your shamelessness in check. Also, if the story's funny enough I'll eventually tell her anyways, so there's no point in leaving her out. At least this way, I'll save myself some breath.”

“Fine.” Atau sighed. “You're not that far off anyways, so I may as well tell you. Last night, I drank a bit too much, and now I've got... somewhat of a problem with a woman.”

Again, he glanced over at Sumaci, in hopes that she would show some feminine shame or grace and leave the room. However, the queen simply ignored him. Instead, she stood up and turned towards a small fireplace in the corner of the room. On winter days, the hearth was used to warm up the room, but today it was opened to warm the small pot of water on top of it. Sumaci retrieved the water from the fire, and then took down some expensive Saniya porcelain as well as a small wooden box from a shelves above the fireplace, before she sat back down again. While all of this was happening, Corco began to interrogate his guest.

“So what happened this time?” he asked. “Normally, you just handle those little girls with ease. Since you are who you are, even their parents usually don't say anything. Don't tell me... Is her father someone important?” As soon as he said it, Corco's face changed. “Wait, there were only nobles at the banquet yesterday. You didn't sleep with a lord's daughter, did you? At least tell me it wasn't someone's wife. Fuck me, even drunk you're not that stupid, right?”

“No, no. I know how to measure things.” Atau waved off. “No angry fathers and no jealous husbands. Even if there were, I'd somehow handle it myself. This time is different though. The main problem is the woman herself. That one's tough to deal with.”

“Well that's a first. Isn't it usually you making trouble for the women, not the other way around?”

“Cousin, do you want some tea?” Sumaci asked from the side. When Atau looked over, she had already readied three tea sets and begun to steep the leaves.

“No thank you. I won't impose on you for long,” Atau replied, before he turned back to Corco. “Either way, this time, things are bit different. This time, I need your help.”

“Sure thing,” Corco said this time, “So who's the unfortunate soul that got tricked by you yesterday?”

“That's... complicated.”

“What the hell is going on?” an annoyed Corco asked. “I keep asking you and you only give me vague, sinister hints like it's some sort of mystery novel. Can you tell me who you banged, or can't you? If you want my help, at the very least I'll need a name. You know that, right?”

Again, Atau hesitated, since last night's story really was a complicated issue and not his most glorious moment, at least not from what he could remember. Yet before he could finally reveal the truth, Sumaci chimed in from the side.

“Wait one moment. I still saw you in the hall late last night, just before we left the banquet. You didn't look in any state to pick up girls and and I didn't see you with any women then. You were just drinking with Lady Tamaya at the time.”

“That's...”

Again, Atau was unsure how to reply. He felt caught in the act and became more and more embarrassed as a result. Corco alone was already bad enough. Did he have to pick a smart wife as well? As Atau hesitated in his explanation, the two smart people seemed to draw the right conclusions. Both their eyes enlarged, but their expressions went in opposite directions. While Sumaci seemed amused, Corco looked more and more distressed.

“You're not serious,” the king said with a hand over his face.

“What bravery is this? You actually put your hands on Lady Tamaya!” Sumaci added as she stifled a laugh.

“That's why I told you that I needed your help!” Atau begged Corco. “It was an accident. Both of us were drunk and neither of us really wanted it. I thought we may as well try to forget the whole thing. But now she's talking about purity or whatever and wants to force me to marry her.”

“No, wait,” Corco raised his hands to interrupt his cousin's outburst. “You do this all the time. This isn't the first time you sleep with someone after you're drunk, and at least you still have some level of measure, even if you forget the next morning. Don't tell me you had no idea what you were doing at all, or with whom. At least at the time, you knew perfectly well... So now you're trying to weasel out of this? Doesn't this just sound like it's all your fault and Tama is perfectly in the right?”

“Listen to me,” an increasingly desperate Atau replied. “I didn't want it, and she didn't want it either. There's no way either of us will be happy with this, but she suddenly went crazy. Earlier, that woman put a gun to my face and threatened me. I'm sure she'll realize how bad an idea this is as soon as she calms down. I just need you to talk some sense into her and help me win some time until she does. I'm sure she'll listen to you!”

“I think you seriously overestimate my influence,” Corco said with a troubled smile.

“Please, Laqhis. We're family, right?”

“...fine, okay,” Corco said after a long pause. “I can't talk to her, that won't help one bit. But here's what I'll do for you. In the next while, you'll be staying at home in Saniya, right? That means you'll be constantly harassed by Tama, and you'll have nowhere to hide. To combat that, I'll give you something to do, some official work. Just today, we've started to plan the tests for all the apprentices of the Arcavian masters. I can set you up as the figurehead of the operation. Just show your presence there and make sure the bribery stays at an acceptable level. That way, you have something to do during the day and get an excuse to stay away from Tama. Even if she goes near you, she still can't touch you since your position in the court will be much more high-profile. In the meantime, I'm sure she'll calm down somewhat. Maybe once the tests are done, I can talk to her and see if I can fix this issue.”

“Thank you, Laqhis. You're the best!”

Normally, Atau would never agree with taking over boring official work. He hated paperwork, and he hated anything as complicated and rule-laden as this even more. However, now the boring office work seemed like a heavensent. Satisfied, Atau excused himself and quickly left the room, before Corco could change his mind.

As soon as Atau had left the room, Corco stood up and took a seat next to Sumaci. In front of them, their tea was still stewing in a little pot.

“You won't actually talk Tama out of the marriage, will you?” Sumaci asked with worry. However, Corco only laughed.

“No way. This is perfect! Tama's been struggling with our marriage too. I'm sure you know that she's had a thing for me, so it's good if she finds something to take her mind off things. Atau's a decent husband for her, both in terms of status and ability... and my cousin needed someone to finally reign him in. He's not twenty anymore, he should settle down before he drinks and screws himself to death. Plus, it'll look good for Aunt Guanca as well, who I'm sure wanted some grandchildren any time soon.”

“And you even forced him to head the apprentice tests and made it look like you did him a favor,” Sumaci added.

“Brilliant, right?” Corco was overjoyed. Talking to smart people was always fun for him. “Yeah, sometimes I really have my moments. Anyways, Tama's a good girl, so I'm sure Atau will come around if I give him some time. For now, they should just slow down a bit and think things through. If either of them is still unwilling to marry after a while, we can still consider other solutions.”

With that, Corco picked up the pot. It was about time for the tea to be done.

“Now that that's out of the way, how about we take a short break until Fadelio comes back?”

“With pleasure,” Sumaci replied with a smile.