"Who agreed that Wessex would be a good choice?" Jigano said softly, an ember of frustration finally flickering to life. "I asked you if Ronin could be a king, and you agreed. But you didn't ask me before you made Wessex a Queen as well. I might have fucked up, Edrei, and I'll apologize to you for not being as strong as you needed me to be. But don't pretend you were the only one hurt by finding things out after the fact."
Not that there had ever been a chance of him remaining king after the anger boiled over in the basement, and it had become clear just how badly he had screwed things up in his attempt to make everyone happy. Instead he'd managed exactly the opposite, and while some had bitterly told him to keep the crowns that Edy was handing out like candy, he had burned any chance of acting as a mediator between Ronin and Edrei.
That had been his own doing, but the chanting that had ended things, the cries of 'Queen Wessex?' That had made it clearer than crystal that he had never been an equal, no matter the fancy title. He had been as much a pawn as he had accused Rexanna of being, and no less deluded than the new Ascended in thinking himself free of the gameboard when he had let himself be maneuvered into position to take the fall. Damned if he'd turned Edy down, damned for accepting. In trying to find a middle ground he had instead lost almost everything, and he held tightly to his staff as if it were a lifeline as he watched another bridge he'd set alight burn more literally than most, given the Queen's fiery halo.
Not that there had ever been a chance of him remaining king after the anger boiled over in the basement, and it had become clear just how badly he had screwed things up in his attempt to make everyone happy. Instead he'd managed exactly the opposite, and while some had bitterly told him to keep the crowns that Edy was handing out like candy, he had burned any chance of acting as a mediator between Ronin and Edrei.
That had been his own doing, but the chanting that had ended things, the cries of 'Queen Wessex?' That had made it clearer than crystal that he had never been an equal, no matter the fancy title. He had been as much a pawn as he had accused Rexanna of being, and no less deluded than the new Ascended in thinking himself free of the gameboard when he had let himself be maneuvered into position to take the fall. Damned if he'd turned Edy down, damned for accepting. In trying to find a middle ground he had instead lost almost everything, and he held tightly to his staff as if it were a lifeline as he watched another bridge he'd set alight burn more literally than most, given the Queen's fiery halo.
