[Lauchenoiria]

“She’ll probably get an abortion anyways,” Prince Kristofer told his father after explaining exactly why the Robinsons fled in the night.

“That is not a good thing!” King Osvald shouted, slamming his hand on the desk. “Life is sacred! And, also, it would look very bad if it got out,” he added at a lower volume.

“Why would she tell anyone?” Kristofer replied.

“She’s a Kerlian! I warned you about getting involved with a Kerlian! What did you expect would happen!? That she would marry you in a white dress and promise to love and obey? They’re practically feral when it comes to these matters! The moment she told you, you should have stopped her from leaving.”

“Keep her prisoner, you mean? You’d have me do what your brother did to Aunt Rebekka?” Kristofer scoffed.

The King’s brother Tómas had gotten his now-wife pregnant when they were both nineteen, and their father Aleksander had told him they had to marry. When Rebekka tried to run away, Aleksander had blackmailed her into staying, threatening to reveal some ancient scandals from her family if she didn’t acquiesce. Very few outside the royal family knew about this whole matter. Rebekka had tried to run away several times, until they locked her in her suite. She later died from alcohol poisoning in her late 30s.

“I will do what I have to in order to keep this family safe, and I expect you to do the same,” Osvald told his son.

“There’s no way Natasha would do as you say,” Kristofer replied. “Besides, the Robinsons are all out of scandals, everything is way out in the open.”

“There are other ways of convincing someone, son,” the King snapped. “The misandrists know of many themselves.”

“Since when were you so… horrible?” Kristofer asked. “You sound like Grandfather. You’re being really… xenophobic.”

The King stood up and slapped his son on the face. “And how do you know that this was not a deliberate plot by these Kerlians? You realise how this could destroy us? We have to find Natasha Robinson and bring her back. This is about survival!”

“Do you know something I don’t?” Kristofer said, stepping back and rubbing his face. “You don’t normally act like this.”

Osvald took a deep breath and sat back down. “You’re right, the panic is making it difficult for me to explain. I do not want to be a monster, son. I do not want to have to do things like this. I liked Carmen Robinson; I want to be gentle, I want to be kind. But there is history here, son. Kerlile has had designs on Zongongia since their foundation. They want coastal access, and they have sought an excuse to attack us for decades.”

The King sighed, shaking his head. “There have been far more close calls throughout history than we have allowed to get into the textbooks. Our policy towards them, allowing them to transport goods down our river unrestricted, has been a way to prevent them taking more radical action. But there has always been the risk that they would escalate. I am not saying that Natasha tricked you in order to manufacture a casus belli. What I am saying is that I cannot guarantee that she didn’t.”

“You think she, what? How would this help?” Kristofer asked, puzzled.

“Hell if I know,” the King muttered. “Kerlian logic is impossible to understand. But this sort of thing – babies, marriage – is very important to Kerlian ideology. I don’t know what they’d believe is justification. But we cannot leave a Kerlian with a baby of royal lineage. Especially your firstborn. You say she will have an abortion, but we don’t know that. And if she does, her killing your firstborn makes you look weak regardless.”

“What exactly are you proposing?” Kristofer asked.

In response, his father looked him in the eye, and leaned closer.