Title: Eminence Gris
Synopsis: Why hasn't Keli ever considered a suitor?
Pairing: Cutwell/Keli
Rating: K
A/N: Mort was my second DW book and has a special squishy place in my heart. I believe this is actually the first DW fic I wrote, which I am ambivalent about... What a totally forgotten pairing, eh?
The kingdom... er, queendom of Sto Lat was quietly prosperous, with not many real occurrences save a brief concert some years back.
Queen Keli was the sovereign, and there was no sign of this changing (especially since she was firmly rooted in everyone's memories now). She liked her job, she was good at it, and she wasn't about to give it up. Or share it.
The kingdom was curious--and when it came down to it, so was Igneous--about the question of her actually marrying. There had been suitors, and she had gotten rid of them through various subtle and not-so-subtle methods.
Eventually, he got the nerve up to ask her.
"So... er... Are you ever going to consider one of these... bachelors?" Cutwell whispered to her over a particularly dull dinner with one such suitor.
Keli thought a moment. She wasn't fool enough to believe in marriage for love anymore, and all the political subterfuge was really unnecessary in such a backwoods place.
"Probably not," she replied at length, her tone as offhanded as if she'd merely turned down a dish offered to her.
"Oh--ah... oh." He wasn't quite sure where the sudden rush of relief came from, but it felt rather un-wizardly.
"Besides," she continued, "why would I get married? I have you."
He choked slightly and almost asked her what she meant, but decided for the sake of his sanity and magic that he shouldn't.
Keli just smiled inscrutably and kept eating.