To Your Majesty the Queen,
I think I may have scared you with my last letter. I just want to make it clear that I wasn't writing you a goodbye note or some epiphany about surrendering. I wrote what I wrote because, at the time, I suppose I felt like you were the only person who would understand what I was going through. Virtually everything has taken me out of character all year; more flares are popping up on the island because a traitor purposely brought infected meat into the kingdom. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that things probably aren't going according to your plans right about now, either... . especially with this.. .."us" thing that we've been trying to make work for the sake of our political relations.
I did ask the captain to tell me how you were again, and he assured me that you were okay. Then I noticed that Fredmund was working aboard as a full-fledged first mate. He told me your snowgies have been rebelling against your homing spell lately. He also said your council is trying to marry you off to a powerful trade partner, that you're traveling between other nations due to the Kiribati situation, that you're also still trying to get your allies on my side, and something about you smelling like lavender. I'm certain that you already remember what my thoughts were about some of the above (minus the lavender part; I've never taken a whiff of your personal scent whatsoever, though I'm sure it's lovely), but what I will repeat and continue to repeat is this: please stop doing that. It drives me nuts about you.
Please don't keep trying to redeem me in the eyes of everyone else with that notoriously unbending perseverance of yours. Please, please don't spend any more of your energy on gossipers you can't convince. I'm never going to be the perfect king, husband, or person to anyone as long as I sit where I'm sitting. Your lovable habit of never listening to what anyone tells you, frustrating as it sometimes is, unfortunately isn't lovable enough to change that. Chatho and Zaria are still helping us with inoculations, so you've at least succeeded with two kingdoms.
You and I are also probably never going to live this love scandal down as long as we keep talking...or as long as I keep using adjectives like "lovable." But, if it would do our reputations any good in the grand scheme of things, I can do what I should have done from the beginning and write to you in a less "personal" fashion. No colloquialisms, no colorful catchphrases, no punchlines, and no intimate conversations. Just business and diplomacy. I can try to change and talk like an actual king is supposed to, which is better than me being me if I plan on wearing Frederic's crown to my grave
That way, if anything ever did fall into the wrong hands again, they can't use it as another "crime" to wave in our faces. Whichever way you slice it, I almost can't believe it's gotten to this point. Even I have to stop and ask myself, "Is this okay...?" because of everything that's happened. I've honestly been waiting for you to police me a little here, which you're free to do. Getting intimate with you was never part of the plan.
From Corona,
I of April, 1849
King Eugene
P.S. Happy birthday. I hope you and your sister still managed to have a frostmazing time.
