Steffan von Warrick

To hell with the crown. Politics never did a damn bit of good for anyone, anyway. The larger a mob you gather your people in, the better they get at finding reasons to kill each other, and the better they get at doing it. Just look at how things are going today. War with the Outworlds, then war between the inworlds. Ships blowing each other out of the sky, platoons of infantry gunning each other down. You think things must have been purer somehow, back before Man took to space - if you had a disagreement with someone, you could settle it between the two of you. Maybe you'd come to blows, maybe even one of you would end up dead, but you wouldn't destroy cities in an argument between two brothers. Politics or technology, you don't know which is worse, but working together, they give people the means and the motive to destroy the world.

Of course, that's not the only reason you're thinking of renouncing the crown of Heidelmere. And, you have to admit to yourself, it's not even the most important one. The real reason is Arista. She came to Heidelmere a few years ago, and has been staying at Evensong Castle, one of Father's spare estates. You were the one to arrange much of her settling in, providing a stable and the like, so you had many opportunities to come to know her better. She's a beautiful tangle of contradictions, you've never met anyone like her. Both defiant and resigned, strong and worried, independent yet still, somehow, unguarded and open. And over the course of time, you've come to care for her, far more than you could have imagined, until you realize you can't imagine life without her in it - nor do you want to.

But she came to Heidelmere in renunciation of politics, and becoming the wife of the Crown Prince would hardly be that. Let alone become Queen, when Father dies. So, you've decided. You've bought the deed to Evensong Castle from the house treasury out of your own pocket fund, and you're going to offer to renounce the crown, and join Arista in her seclusion. If she'll have you.

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