Those emerald eyes shone with so many different things, giving away nothing more than the conflicted emotions that were swirling around in her pretty head; the only thing I could see that informed me of something was how her dainty hands clutched at her heavy, opulent dress that barely concealed the rounding of her belly.
And yet even that seemed almost deliberate, the strong flood of indecision and conflict that swelled within her leading her to tighten the dress a little around that area, showing off the simple fact that she was pregnant.
It might not have been deliberate, but I noticed it immediately, and upon noticing I turned towards my wife to see her clenching her jaw slightly, a rush of mild pain darkening her eyes for a brief moment before she let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Giselle... or should I say Lady Giselle..?"
Keeping her tone flat and staring right at the woman, Rhefia earned herself a soft intake of breath before Giselle also steadied herself, gathering her emotions and crisply replying "Lady Giselle works well enough, Miss Rhefia.", treading that line between acceptable and antagonistic.
"Miss Rhefia, I want to go ahead and extend an apology immediately. It excuses nothing, but I knew nothing about this situation until it was already too late..."
The softer, kinder voice of Heria finally managed to tear Rhefia's attention away from the Gazellekin, and in turn that earned the scholarly Deerkin a rather flat gaze that made her smile wryly as she bowed her head.
"I know it excuses nothing, but I wanted to apologize. On my behalf as well as on Giselle's, however..."
She paused and turned towards her wife, cracking that maintained facade immediately as the Gazellekin spun towards the Princess to cry "What?!", though all that did was earn her an immediate "Giselle." from the Queen.
And yet she almost seemed determined to try and maintain this facade for a little while longer, only to deflate when she noticed that both her wife and her Dama in law were giving her a rather pointed look.
"The purpose of this meeting is to arrange the necessary agreements between us and you, all for a better, more peaceful future. We already know some of what you want, but we do not know how you want to achieve those things..."
The Queen continued on before letting out a sigh as she sank back into her luxurious chair, resting her cheek on her palm sweeping her gaze over our assembled party before turning towards her family.
"You desire the clearing of your name, that much is obvious, but what I do not know is how you wish to go about resolving... this..."
She waved ambiguously between Rhefia and Giselle, causing the two to stare at one another again; the emerald eyed brunette clenched her jaw and clutched at her dress again while Rhefia just remained still, meeting her gaze and eventually forcing her to look away.
The silence dragged on for a few seconds, no one willing to speak first or incapable of thinking about what to say, though after those seconds dragged by slowly Giselle spoke again, this time with a strained, unsteady voice.
"You know what you did, what you promised... That is why I will never apologize to you, 'Miss' Rhefia. Never."
"Did I promise anything, Lady Giselle, or did you simply convince yourself that I swore something I never once uttered in my life?"
The Queen let out another sigh while the Goddess just smiled, looking between the two with clear amusement as she kept to herself; I wanted to tell the Gazellekin off and let her know she was an idiot, but I also didn't want to piss off my wife, so I kept my silence intact as well.
The one who wasn't scared to interject was Heria, who immediately stepped forwards and placed herself between the two while staring at Rhefia; she was still calm, serene, but there was a bit of edge to her voice as she spoke, edge that was only there as a warning and nothing more.
"I know not what happened between the two of you, but I would be entirely thankful if we can make the past remain the past. So much has happened between then and now, and I want nothing more than to focus on the here and now. Does that sound acceptable, Miss Rhefia?"
"Heria, what-!"
Without even turning around Heria calmly said "Giselle, my love, be quiet.", that same edge making the woman flinch and swallow hard as she glared both at her wife as well as at Rhefia; the falsely accused Deerkin just tapped her finger against the armrest for a few moments before letting out a sigh.
"There is no reason to cling to that past anymore. I want to move forwards. I want to walk around my city without having to hide myself, to go to my home and simply live without worry. I want to show my children the places I frequented when I grew up... That is what I want."
Heria seemed a tad surprised that Rhefia was letting go of so much 'emotion' there as she just leaned back in her chair, yet after a moment the Princess took a breath and turned towards her Dama, who just gave her a small nod.
"Obviously we cannot simply just drop everything and call it a day. It would be disingenuous to a horrible degree to do so. As such... On top of dropping the charges, we wanted to let you know that all of Camara's property has been kept secure and safe in the vaults, and the land she owned was protected by the Crown.
They belonged to you anyways, so this is nothing more than what is right, but we wanted to also give you the armor that had been recovered from her final battle, at least that which was salvageable. It is currently on display inside of the Temple of Blades, but if you desire it..."
My own immediate reaction was one of disgust since I thought that was so little and practically everything that was owed to Rhefia anyways, yet the moment I turned to look at everyone else I saw just how surprised they were.
Renna and Leonisa were wide eyed while Fenkar was smiling wryly as she scratched her chin, while Rhefia herself now sitting straight up as she stared at the Queen in shock; it made it abundantly clear that despite everything I knew about... well, a lot of things, the norms of the city and its culture were still very much unknown to me.
That was made so crystal clear when I noticed that Rhefia's eyes were watering slightly, something that I had never once seen from her, so since I had no idea what was happening just moved closer and laid a hand on her shoulder, comforting her a little.