A Worthy King?

Essence prowled the Mini-Palace, looking for the King. No, she did not care about the Queen. From her experience, the Queen was simply the child-carrier, to be ignored or pampered, and she didn't care for the second one so she chose the first. Of course, she hadn't seen the King yet, but she was already narrow-minded about this whole idea. She wanted a worthy King to serve under after King Rodric, but what if it was just a bratty child or a lazy old man?

Her thoughts bounced around her skull as she clenched her teeth, running a hand through her white hair. Ugggh, what if it was? She'd feel so horrible if this was a lousy King, she'd have no one loyal to follow, to put her faith in, to follow orders without a second thought, and that had been what Essence was good at. Her King had been her best friend, and now he was gone, along with his Kingdom. She let a loud groan rip as she prowled another hall, still finding nothing.

Walking through the halls of the Mini-Palaces office, Skye happened upon this pale girl, looking rather lost.

"Looking for the main office, it's this room here.."

He spoke annoyingly, opening the door he was referring to and walking inside.

Essence raked her eyes over the boy before her, tilting her head slightly. He looked like a child, but perhaps he was not King? Frowning, she followed him in, her blue eyes studying him suspiciously.

"...I'm here to meet this 'King'..." she said, mimicing his tone with a scowl. Jeez, if he was King... That might not bode well. Then again, she couldn't judge from first appearences... Could she?

"I told you, in that doorway!"

He shouted from his office, a tad annoyed that he wasn't even recognized right away by one of his own citizens... The crap he had to put up with sometimes...

Essence stood with her back pressed against the wall beside the door, in the room and yet not wanting to go any farther.

"Huh",

She sneered, folding her arms over her chest, the light but durable white armor clinking together as she moved, the rapier on her hip bouncing as she moved.

"You look nothing more then a child. I bet you're what, maybe twenty?"

She taunted, her upper lip curling into a larger sneer, even though

"Tell me, what do you know of ruling? How do you plan on managing this Kingdom? Why should you inspire loyalty?"

Essence asked, pelting him with questions from the get-go. She'd haver her answers, one way or another, and she had plenty of time.

*from outside of the office, a golden dagger came whizzing in the inside of the office at high speeds. It ran in a very straight horizontal line and it aimed dangerous at Skye*

((This looks like itll be fun...))

When Essence finally did enter the office Skye had already begun to work of a few extraneous bits of paperwork, holding them up to his face lazily. He didn't give her even the slightest glance, nor did he the dagger flying at his face. Without looking away from the papers regarding recent recruits to the nation and medal awards to some Hero or something, he caught the dagger with a mere two fingers, inches away from his face. He twirled it in his hands, now using the dagger as something to fiddle with as he kept reading.

"If ya still have those kinda questions, girl, then why did you join in the first place?"

All the while he still gave her no optical attention.

*a few moments later, Alyss walked in, the aroma of freshly washed hair. She had it pinned up today to a high ponytail, with bangs pinned and clipped firmly to the sides of her head, close to her ears. She came in with the clicks of the metal heels of her boots, went around the desk that was next to Skye's. Pulling open the rolling chair, Alyss sat herself down and glanced her eyes over at the papers on the desk, paying little, rather, no attention to the man next to her and instead took herself to reading the papers left by assistants*

Essence kept her sneer, watching the dagger fly by. She paid it no attention, assuming her'd be able to catch it. Good, he had basic skills.

"Why does any creature come to water? Because it knows it will get something satisfying, though it might not know if there is poison in their water"

She said, her eyes narrowing at his comment. Girl? Girl? Oh, he'd regret that some day...

"Well then if you see poison, nothin's keepin ya here."

He tossed the dagger towards Alyss, spinning in midair before landing about an inch deep in her desk. Along with countless other similar marks on that particular corner.

"Think you misplaced that again."

He went back to shuffling papers, holding those he was done with by the window and having them burn into nothing as the sunlight hit their edges. It was now that he looked up at his apparent client, with bored golden eyes.

"I'm wondering, did you really go through the trouble of finding me just to spit in my face? Shot get a better sense of priorities, gal."

"Ah why thank you for finding my dagger Skye~"

*Alyss replied with a worn sarcastic remark, coming out in quite the bored tone. Not once did she look up from her desk. Instead of taking the golden dagger, she left it in her desk and looked more upset towards the piece of paper she held in her teal polished nails. Crumpling it, Alyss threw it aside and into the trashcan on her left. As she did, her eyes caught the figure of the white haired girl in front of Skye's desk for just a second, then returned to her papers*

"You really need to work on inspiring loyalty"

Essence finally said, watching the little dispute between him and the pink-haired girl with little to no intrest, though she was wondering who the pink one was. An assistant of sorts? What a lazy King.

".....No"

She replied after a few moments of thinking, her expression going slighty numb as her eyes went rather dark, as if she was remebering something.

"I came to see you to find if out for myself if you were a worthy King to put my service under, to fight with my life for like I have done with my last King"

Essence said, spitting out the last part with great diffuculty, as such was a subject she did not like to talk about.

"How do you know if your subjects will not all turn on you on a moments notice if you cannot inspire loyalty?"

She questioned, looking stricken as she did so, as she did feel strongly towards this subject, as where she had grown up it had been like the Medieval Period, and Kings were not things to take jokingly.

"If they turn, then they turn I say. We cannot enforce loyalty, loyalty is enforced by the subjects themselves. We were fighters before we were royalty."

*Alyss spoke up before Skye could. She looked up from the papers and tilted her head curiously at the guest, nodding*

"Excuse me for speaking I haven't introduced myself. I'm Queen Alyss of the Sunlit Kingdom, at your service~."

Essence huffed at the pink-haired ones reply. That was true, but how could one enforce loyalty if there was no grounds for it to blossom on? Though her eyes widened considerably as Alyss introduced herself as her Queen, especially because of where she was sitting, doing paperwork beside the King, not at all like her previous Queen, and all the Queens she had encountered.

"You're the Queen?"

She finally managed, still looking bewildred.

"Then what are you doing here, working?"

She asked, simply asking because it seemed odd to her from her experience, and yet she would be happy to hear of a hard-working Queen. Any Queen like that would have her respect.

"What do you mean what am I-- I don't even--..."

*Alyss looked up at Essence just as bewildered t what she said. She looked down at her papers under her arms then back at the guest*

"I'm working so this kingdom can run like clockwork. I don't see a problem with that."

*the girl behind the desk replied quite proudly*

"Y'don't think I run this whole shebang myself do you..?"

He was starting to get annoyed at the girl in the office now, and it showed in his voice.

Essence swallowed roughly, clearing her throat as she dipped her entire body into a formal bow directed at her Queen. Raising her head slightly, her face taking on a more masculin charm for a moment, as she did hide beneath a male guise for years, and she smiled.

"You have my respect then, Mada-"

She frowned, cutting herself off.

"My Queen".

Her haze flickered to Skye in a quick moment, her soft look forming into a hard glare before softening slightly, though not enough to see.

"...I suppose I can give you some credit for not spoiling her like so many others..."

She said hesitantly, her eyes going misty as she drifted back into her memories for a moment. It was obvious he was getting annoyed with her, but she was not one to back down to someone who had not earned King yet in her eyes.

"Here's the deal."

He put down his papers now, leaning back and propping his feet up on his desk. He was now looking at her himself.

"We're the two leaders of this kingdom. I don't give two shits whether you like that or not. If you wanna leave, then leave. Only thing that'll get ya in trouble is open attack on me or the Kingdom. Other than that, I don't give a damn what you think of me."

He picked up a larger piece of paper with a blue-ish picture on it, looking at that again.

"I can run this kingdom just fine without 'moral support'"

"And please. Call me Alyss. I don't like those formal names anyway. I wasn't raised a 'princess' or whatever you usually call them."

*she shuffled the papers again, signing one, throwing it into an already made pile on the left of her desk, and then sighed, leaning back into the chair since Skye was already relaxing. Alyss had thrown him a hard expression, almost to tell him he was being too noisy or too mean, but she reverted back to a content look. After so many days working with this man who was....quite infuriating sometimes, she was used to his asshole-like behavior. Absently, Alyss fixed a pin on the right side of her head, gently sliding it back into place, then paid full attention to their guest*

"That's...."

Essence began, frowning while ignoring Skye for the moment. She shifted her jaw in thought before beggining to speak again.

"Interesting. I've never seen a Kingdom run that way before..."

She explained, scartching the back of her head embaressedly as she hinted at her childhood.

"Though you should care more about what your subjects think. I've seen it bring down Kingdoms before"

Essence advised, watching Skye as she said this. She then returned her attention to Alyss, bowing half of her body quickly.

"Alyss it is. My name is Essence Ectera, former Knight of the Orageon Castle in Allieu".

Essence paused then, blinking a few times as to draw back the memories.

"...I doubt Orageon is standing anymore, though. Or Allieu, for that matter..."

She said with a dark chuckle, brushing her hand through her white hair as she recalled the war with Nutryll.

"Argh, don't bow I'm just--nevermind."

*a sigh escaped from her and she turned to Skye, nodding a little at what Essence had said. She turned to him teasingly*

"You know she's a bit right. You can't be such a hardass all the time..."

*turning to Essence again, she blinked seriously*

"But...if citizens here don't trust us, it's their job to want to learn to trust and respect us, and in a positive way. How does one expect to be friends with someone else if the other one judges them so harshly the first encounter?"

*Alyss reached her hand to her desk for her usual cup of tea....which was not there. Baffled she wondered what happened to her "helper" who usually made the tea in the morning for her. Standing up from her chair, she said*

"Excuse me for a moment."

*then strutted out of the office smoothly*

Essence blinked, digesting Alyss' words as she left the room. Judge....Harshly? Had she been doing that? She turned to Skye, and was overcome with a wave of guilt. Of course, she had been comparing every aspect of him to King Rodric. That was not fair to him, not fair to her. She'd never have another Rodric, and she needed to get over that, find someone else to put her life out for. Of course, she'd always do it for Shift, but Shift was not her King, more of her little sister.

Sighing, Essence went down on her knee, hanging her head in shame in Skye's direction.

"....You have my apologies, Sir Skye..."

She began, still not adressing him as King quite yet. That might take a little longer, but he'd gone up a little in her opinion, and so she adressed him as she might've another Knight.

" I have indeed judged you too harshly for our first encounter. I have compared you to my late King, which made me so judgemental. I simply need to get over the fact there will never be another Rodric. You have my apolgies"

Essence said, rising from her kneel and turning away, making her way to the door way where she had entered.

"Mm.."

He nodded to himself and put down the papers for a second, looking at her seriously this time himself.

"We all have our losses. No harm done."

A seemingly rare case for the King deemed an 'asshole' by most, to give some remote sense of comfort to one of his subjects. But hey, sometimes he surprised people. Few people could say they knew the guy afterall. Regardless, he gave her a nod and went back to his papers.

*Alyss rushed in with a cup of tea, looking like she moved at fuckin lightspeed. With the cup of tea she stopped immediately at the front of Skye's desk, where he he was leaning back since he had put the papers down*

" 'Ey Skye."

*Alyss said casually. Now she spoke quickly with a tinge of excitement of sorts in her voice*

"Guess what."