The Dragon King of Velkaris had just told the Wolf King of Nyros that he was suppressing an investigation into his wife's actions to protect her mental health, and both men thought they were talking about the same actions, and neither of them were, and the resulting goodwill between them was built on a foundation of mutual misunderstanding so structurally unsound that a stiff breeze could collapse it into an international incident.
"That's generous of you," Nicholas said, and he meant it. Genuinely. The man who had been marked by another king's wife was telling the husband that his grace was generous. The husband received the compliment about grace and mentally filed it under Shadowfell approves of our cover-up strategy.
"She's my wife," Maddox said, as if that explained everything. "I will handle the politics. She handles the recovery."
Nicholas gave a nod of respect so sincere it could have been framed.
