this is the road to ruin - anyone

[Kreios]

kreios don't you tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash I am too fond of the herd life to be monogamous; the idea of a single true love has always seemed to me to be a kingdom’s substitution for the natural order of things. It is well and good, of course, and I do not deny that those who feel it do in fact feel it, but it has never been something that I wanted. Even Lucrezia - who if I had been the romantic type would surely have been my true love – with her smiling eyes and our spotted son, has never caused more than the familiar warmth of being needed to burn in my chest. Love is something that I feel for my family – my herd mares and my children – but it is not something that I seek out. Though I suspected that the blue-tipped twins belonged to stallion other than Mandan, I had never mentioned it; who Ygritte chooses to lie with is her own decision. I had wished briefly that it had been me instead, but with that thought came a streak of possession that I was not entirely comfortable with, and I have not thought of it since. Still, when Ygritte says that Mandan is gone, I do not feel the appropriate disappointment at the loss of a member of our kingdom. I should mourn his absence, not picture Ygritte rounded out with pregnancy and a pink spotted foal at her side. I do anyway, of course, and its only respect for the formality of kingdom life and the respect I have for the bay mare that keeps my gentle touch on her shoulder platonic. The teasing jealousy in her tony is only that, teasing, so when I tell her: “Maybe one.” I do not expect her to react with anything more than surprise, the way I would were Mandan to return and renew his claim on Ygritte. “Teali will be here soon,” I tell her, “So I suppose I did manage to do some recruiting of my own.” At that I smile, knowing that finding a mare to play house with a king is far less daunting a task than recruiting a willing and loyal member to the kingdom.