Damien Fobar scowled. The meeting had gone well until that weasel Borowyn had wormed his way into the investigation with his wife's agents. Didn't even have the decency to do it himself! I know he has his own agents! Just hides them behind his wife's spies that even I don't know who they are.

"Darling, calm down you will give yourself frown lines!" Gretchen spoke up from the other side of the room. 'She knows better than to interrupt me while I am thinking!"

"Quiet, Gretchen!" Damien barked and it instantly quieted the foolish woman. "Give me a chance to think!"

Blessedly the floozy remained quiet and demure. That was how he liked it. He was the master of this house after all. He had to acquiesce to the King, at least in his presence. He would find a way around this restriction.

Damien huffed as he sat in this throne like chair behind a huge monstrosity of a desk that took only a small portion of the room.

Gretchen cowered in one corner now afraid to speak. He knew the effect he had on her and honestly he didn't care if she feared him. There's was a marriage of convenience and he harboured no love for her, not she him. But that had always been the nature of court marriages. That was simply the way of it for nobles. Damien had never even thought to question it.

"I have....." Gretchen tried again only to be stared into silence. This insolence could not be tolerated. He had things to think about!

"I'll just go." Gretchen finally said, quietly and moved out of the room, knocking lightly on the door for the guard to open it. Damien sneered and watched her leave.

'At least I don't need to listen to her battling now.' Damien wondered why she had even bothered to walk into the room after him. But it was likely some inane reason that only she thought important. 'I don't have time for her frivolities.'

"What can I possibly do to make sure the queen's idiots don't get in the way of my 'investigation'?" He wondered aloud to the empty room. This could be a useful situation to get ahead. He would not allow people to simply have their way with Brewyn or Darf for that matter. It was his home after all. No matter who sat on the throne currently. It might even be the king drumming up mock enemies to force them into uniting behind him.

That Isabella is a crafty one. Much more use than Gretchen I should think. Why did I have to get saddled with an idiot!

Damien continued to sit and think as the sun slowly waned in the sky, eventually leaving him in darkness. He hadn't thought of anything yet.

But he would, he always did.

******************************************

'That man!' She thought, as she walked with perfect poise from the room. Her mother had always told her that outward appearances must always be maintained. Trained her from the day she could walk so make sure she married well. Taught her as much as she could about the politics that pervaded these places. But she could help her stubborn streak from running through her head. 'Mother always said I was too stubborn for my own good. That it would get me in trouble.'

She had almost let her irritation show on her face, almost let it out of the tightly reined in hold she had over it. Her anger at being ignored and dismissed so thoroughly in her own home. But she had decades of experience in this, in holding her tongue. Of smiling politely and getting out of the way of the powers that be. What she wouldn't give for a taste of that power herself. To ingrain in her 'husband' that she was far more capable than he gave her credit for.

*********************************

Methis Gomery was tired. He had been running himself ragged for the last two months and didn't know when he would be able to stop. His darling wife Leticia was working on some of the other spurious businesses she had started that brought in a sizable part of their wealth and he had no choice but to deal with his commitments to the King. He was the reason they had been given the space to expand their empire and Methis was not one to forget his assistance. Not only that but he worked himself to the bone making sure his businesses were a benefit to the country and its citizens not simply leeching from them.

Never let it be said that a Gomery did not settle their debts, neither would they suffer anyone saying they cared more about profit than people. He had sacrificed much to make it so. His employees were better paid than most and all his industries worked to the highest efficiency because of the people he selected personally. He demanded much but paid accordingly.

It had been his collaboration with the King and an alchemist called Haemish that some of the potions and such available in the city had become a common mass production item. His manufactories were working overtime to make enough to export with the King's trade subsidies and routing.

Darf had remained a power in Fryst despite its size because of their exports, negotiations and Academy. Training and churning out the best and brightest showed the other nations that they were not a trifling nation to be taken lightly. But all were aware of how precarious their standing was. Methis heaved a great sigh at the daily pressures of his office and wondered if meeting with the King was in order, it had only been a few days since their convened meeting of the heads of houses but it seemed something more casual would be appropriate.

Surprising him in his strategy room office, Leticia entered. "Methis, are you busy?" He had to raise his eyebrows at her words. When was the last time he hadn't been busy? But then she knew that, likely just making conversation as she was accustomed to. "Of course, when are we not." He inclined his head in response, no more was needed.

"Boren and Ignius should spend time together again. It has been a while and Boren is not able to go to the Academy. It might be good for the two to get together again." Methis once again nodded. He had been thinking along similar lines but they were too overwhelmed with their respective businesses, so much so that an evening away might slow the momentum they had painstakingly built. 'Perhaps just the children getting together?'

"It would be good for us to also get some fresh air and some new perspectives with a little distance from this situation. We have been working like mules for the last few months and apart from the occasional dinner with Ignius when have we taken time out? Just because he is at the academy doesn't mean we can’t take a break, it is easy enough to take him out of the Academy for an evening.”

“You are right of course, burning the candle at both ends can only work for so long. I am feeling a little worn down and on top of that now we have these additional commitments for the efforts against Berserkers in the city. Can you believe it?” Methis’s tired question wasn’t a question of the king’s truthfulness but more the disbelief of such a situation even occurring after so long. “We thought we had put an end to it all those years ago.”

He sighed heavily for what felt like the fiftieth time and pinched the bridge of his nose hard. It did not make the headache go away but it distracted from his other pains.

“Leticia yes, I think that is a good idea, if the King and Queen are available we should meet them it had been too long since we last meet casually. It will be nice to meet him and call him Borowyn again.” A short mirthless chuckle escaped his lips and Leticia smiled at his mood.

“What do you think I did before I came in here?” She laughed a loud before walking out of the room. “Be ready for dinner in thirty minutes, even you have to eat, my superhuman! Investing in physical stats does not stop you from needing basic sustenance!”

Methis smiled fondly at his wife’s retreating back and then dropped to her swaying hips. She absolutely does that on purpose, he thought. There was no way that movement from side to side like a pendulum was natural.

But how would he know. He had been besotted with this woman since day one, never looked at another. Her soft curly hair arranged perfectly on her head so it bounced as she walked. Her full figure and sweeping grace enticed him initially, but then he had gotten to know her and interest had turned to excitement and intrigue. She was fabulously intelligent, without a doubt far better at managing things than he was. He tended to fall into snares and holes when he became focused on one thing it was to the exclusion of all else. He had to actively temper his curiosity to make sure everything got done. It was an exhausting task to manage every day.

This dinner might be just the thing. And the perfect time to discuss a new invention he had been working tirelessly on…but first dinner with a gorgeous woman, he couldn’t say no….she would have me flayed, he thought with a grin.