<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/b/b9/Mirevia.jpg)</div>“Such foolishness, Omar!” Mirevia said after her husband, aghast, putting a hand to her bosom. Her mind still spun from his suggestion. “You are the heir to Aserit; you will not waste your status on a foreigner. Your father is right, one of your siblings may take up the mantle of marrying another, but you will be wed to a full-fledged Aserit lady.”<br/><br/>When Omar replied, perhaps she would not have struck him as hard as her husband did, but saw no need to add her hand as well. Instead, her blue eyes merely sparked with disapproval at her son’s attitude.<br/><br/>“My love, stay your hand!” she snapped as Archibald rattled off to him. “Lest you knock a more ridiculous idea into his head.” She reached out and caressed the afflicted spot on his cheek with her cool palm, but the touch was brief. Her fingers instead went to his chin to lift his gaze to hers.<br/><br/>“Such words can crumble an entire kingdom, my son,” she spoke carefully. “A king must pick his words carefully, whether it be speaking to diplomats, or to his own father and mother. You are past the age in which my cane frequents your bottom, as it still does with Lenally, but the discipline I lavish upon you is merely a kiss compared to the teeth of the world.”<br/><br/>She dropped his chin, the lesson planted in his mind for him to think about. “We will speak of this subject no more. Go and prepare yourself for the journey to Theiri.”<br/>