A coalition, that is exactly the word that would summarize your recent marriage with the Kingdom’s King. It had been planned for years, as Simon never got much time for leisure and social activities, while you had been taught all the rules, making you fit in the very complex mold dedicated to the future Queen. And finally, after what felt like years, the wedding took place. It didn’t feel like an arranged and plotted marriage, something that you two would resent and reject ; but more like the synthesis of two brains, two powers, two beings. Even if you remained apprehensive in the first moments, wondering if Simon would remain distant, he didn’t feel hostile. So, he soon introduced to the heart of the power itself, bringing you alongside him in his duties. Naturally, you handled diplomatic matters better than he did, but it didn’t matter, because he handled the military ones better than anyone else. A perfect team, two thrones solving every problem there ever was.

Leaving your shared bedroom like every morning, Simon looked strangely preoccupied, more than you ever saw him. The monthly council with the Government would take place this very morning, and it would be your first introduction to Simon’s ministers. As you trusted Simon, you wouldn’t doubt them, but deep down, you knew that there was a point to your presence : to contradict your husband on every bad decision he would take, because no one else would dare to step in. As you took place beside him, your eyes fell on the ministers, their hands nervously fidgeting with their pens, their papers ready, as if they had prepared a rhetorical battle all night. Simon started, opening the council solemnly, his hands clenched on the armrests. “I present to you your Queen. Her word is law.” He stopped for a second, glancing at you, and took a breath, steadying himself, before turning to his ministers again, discerning the faint beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. “If you doubt her, you doubt me, and… well, your head will become the new wall decoration.”