<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #8080FF"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-weight: bold">Leon Aeide</span></span><br/><span style="font-size: 120%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-weight: bold">The eldest son of the Earl of Eastshire</span></span></span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/Galvin_Fugazi/1a5b9afe-0161-4354-bc75-a3a3c40a5d28_zps38f9d31e.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Leon watched Adelaide walk away, her hips swaying alluringly in her dress and her long hair flying behind her in the wind. Adelaide was a beautiful woman, but Leon still doubted some of her words. Their ally was actually a fragile building, not having seen the first storms rushing against its walls. Leon was willing to give Adelaide a chance, maybe even two, but he held no illusions about the young lady. She was ambitious, she was cunning and she was dangerous. He wasn’t so sure about her loyality. Yes, she had come to him to excuse for her actions, but he knew that the words of the Reeve had made her aware of the dangers she was facing. Would she have talked to him otherwise? He doubted it and the fact that there was doubt within him rang some warning bells. As alluring the idea was to unite the lands of the Aeide and the Bleddyn, as tempting as the idea was to own this wicked beauty, as dangerous was it to make a bet on it.<br/><br/>Leon was sure that he was plan A and the Queen was plan B for Adelaide. The one working better would be the one being followed. Hah, finding out the weaknesses of the Queen for their benefit. He needed no Adelaide close to the Queen to know her weaknesses. She wasn’t popular with the folks, maximum accepted with the nobles and to a lot of nobles she was the last obstacle to turn their plans into actions. The Queen was isolated and isolation leads to strange allies sometimes. Maybe Adelaide was betting on that, on the fact that the Queen would need some of the powerhouses behind her to survive. In an ideal world the Queen and her allies would face those opposing her and would get rid of them. In the real world the Queen’s allies may suddenly turn on her or they got isolated too. Adelaide was playing a dangerous game, if she believed that Leon would take her back with open arms, if she left the Queen’s party in the last minute.  <br/><br/>There was one thing Leon had to do. He had to make contingency plans too. There were two ways to become king. Replacing the Queen or marrying the Queen. She was a young thing, beautiful and she had some character traits he liked. She wasn’t giving up easily. She was careful and mistrusting. The problem was, that his reputation worked against him. Or maybe not. He needed to change a few things, needed some people speaking in his favor and maybe the Queen would give him a chance. Replacing was the easy way, marrying the difficult one. But Leon had never shied away from challenges. And he had always been a strategist and mastermind.</div>