The King looked away. Something wet glistened at the corner of his eye, quickly blinked away.
"Then what would you have me do?" His voice was hoarse, scraped raw. "Watch my people die in a war we cannot win? Watch my wife waste away while I play at being a king? Every day she grows weaker. Every day I sit in council chambers discussing tariffs while the woman I've loved for thirty years fades."
He laughed—a bitter, broken sound.
"You don't know what it's like. To be helpless. To have all the power of a kingdom and none of the power to save the one person who matters."
Northern was quiet for a moment.
'He's not wrong. I don't know what it's like to watch someone I love die slowly while I'm powerless to stop it.'
'But then again... I'm not powerless.'
"Your Majesty," Northern said slowly, "what exactly is wrong with your wife?"
