“You just sent me…across the continent…made me cross the great sea…for a man that didn’t exist?!” Sorel demanded, dripping wet from head to toe. Oriana smiled down at him, the crown of golden leaves around her head glittering in the sunlight.

“Sorel, please, you’re getting the carpet all soggy,” she mused, putting on a fake pouty face.

“That’s all you’re worried about!?”

“Alright, perhaps I did send you off on a wild goose chase, but I was bored! I needed *something* to do. And, bonus, it got you out of my hair for a while,” Oriana flashed him a grin as she passed by him, her steps barley audible on the marble floors.

“That is not a good enough reason.”

“How about this one? I. Am. Your. Queen. You mustn’t disobey me,” she grinned even wider.

“Come on. We’re married,” Sorel rolled his eyes.

“Even better,” Oriana’s eyes lit up with mischief. The baby in her arms stirred, letting out a small cry.Oriana immediately turned all of her attention to her daughter, completely ignoring her soaked husband. Sorel, though he was still slightly mad, smiled.

“Shhh, oh, did someone have a nightmare?” Oriana asked in a hushed, gentle voice as she spun from side to side. “I get those too.”

Sorel’s smile dropped. He knew what she was talking about. The things they had seen together. The blood, the agony, and everything that came after. Oriana had come a long way since her dark days, and still had a long ways to go before she was truly okay.

Now he understood why she sent him off on the chase. She wanted to remind him. She wanted to make sure he hadn’t forgotten. She wanted him to feel the things she had felt. Except, she hadn’t been the hunter, she had been the prey.

“One day, I’ll tell you why…” his wife was whispering. “But for now, you want to know how I get over them?” She asked, smiling down at the light of her life. “I imagine your father, and your god mother, and your uncle. I imagine them all in one room. They’re all smiling and happy, and I’m there too, feeling completely fine. And now you’re in that room too, laying in my arms,” Oriana pressed her forehead against their daughter’s. Letting her small hands brush the side of her face. The baby giggled.