Eric
Jax Brightwater
The Eclipse Sanctuary of Astoria
Roughly 3 months before the Council of Marin to deal with the Plague.

Jax's time in Astoria had been nothing if not interesting.  His first day he dueled the Head Knight, his second he was allowed to stay in the palace. Now he was to be tested by Moths.  The idea was alien to him, but so were many things he's seen in the last 15 years, and he wasn't in the business of pissing off queens.  So he kept walking, pushing branches out of the way, and constantly looking back over his shoulder.

"Do you know how much farther it is, Your Highness?  We shouldn't be in the woods after dark, especially without an escort."  Why they didn't have one was also alien, this had to be the only Monarch he'd met that never had any guards around.
Joseph
```
Anyanka Durkhan
Eclipse Sanctuary 
```

"You worry too much." She chided, though she wasn't actually upset that the man was concerned for their well being. She had offered him a position in her guard, blindly - mind you, and he'd been told in order to secure it fully there were rites to attend to. She would have been apprehensive too if she were him. Giving up a life he knew for one in a new Kingdom, under a new monarch, wasn't a decision she envied of him. 

She knew a lot about starting her life over. 

They moved through the woods, the forrests lining the coastal region of Astoria denser than those that had been cleared out for the sake of progress through South Feyshore. Grasslands started to give way to moss and looser soil the closer they go to the sea and the cliffs, and Anya clutched the front of her dress upward a little high to keep it from dragging. Her furs helped with the winds, but she was still generally uncomfortable and anxious with every step. 

She'd never preformed this ceremony before. It was one she knew of, but she'd never been the ruler on the other side of it. Whether it would work or just be for show was still to be determined, and she gave a glance to the man walking at her side. 

"Do you think I'm crazy, Brightwater?"
Eric
Jax Brightwater
Sanctuary of the Eclipse

Jax couldn't help but chuckle.

"Before I was a beat cop for the Romanovs, I served under King Cleburn.  I don't necessarily agree with the majority, that he was a mad and deranged man, but he was insane.  After you spend half a year guarding a monkey who just so happens to be the King's advisor on how much you get paid, you stop asking questions."  He then realized that wasn't an answer.

"No, Your Highness, I don't think you're crazy.  The craziest thing you've done is hire me out of the blue."  Another chuckle.
Joseph
```
Anyanka Durkhan
Eclipse Sanctuary 
```

He chuckled, and normally the sound would have made her tense. _'Do you think I'm crazy'_ followed immediately by laughter was usually a bad sign. But he'd yet to be malicious towards her or her court. If anything he was more respectful than she expected. Being picked out of the blue and asked to come home with a Queen surely was an ego boost if there ever was one. He could have taken it and run with it, and he hadn't. 

"I was in his court briefly, I remember the shenanigans." She had tried to keep her head down- but there were certain things you couldn't really miss back in those days. It had been a madhouse, even if he didn't think the man was truly mad. 

She nodded up ahead, before them on the cliffside was a small structure. New in construction but old in design, a small version of the confessionals that could be found scattered over Kath. It was made of three walls, the place where the fourth was missing an archway so the roof had some support to keep the interior safe from the elements. It's open face offered a lovely view of the treelines, and in the fall and winter one could see towards the cliffs. Now, the greenery was too dense, but she preferred the privacy.