So... I wear a crown and make babies. What else?

[Kender Bard]

I hope Dusk won't mind telling me what must be very obvious to her, Locket thought, a tad nervously, as she sought out the Queen. Nagi would be busy with the regent today, so the timing was at least good. She knew she was supposed to be making a good impression; somehow, she doubted that appearing so inept and helpless would go far in that respect.

But she had to start her education somewhere. "Queen Dusk?" she called out, entering the room the servant brought her to.

[Darastrix]

Dusk looked up from the papers she was perusing with a smile and rose to greet the young woman. "Hello, my dear. What brings you to me today?"

[Kender Bard]

Locket bowed her head to the queen. Well, this was a bit awkward. How do you ask for this sort of thing?

"Could you teach me how to be a Queen? Nagi made me realize yesterday that I know pretty much nothing and if something were to happen to him, all of Khelek will go up in flames because I'll have to rule with my poor, politically uninclined, chaos-infested head."

There. That was a good start.

[Darastrix]

Oh dear.

"First of all, Locket, relax. Some concern is a good thing--it helps you make sure you're doing your job well, whatever it happens to be--but you don't want to drive yourself to distraction with worry. Otherwise, nothing gets done, or at least not done well."

Dusk walked over to a small sofa and sat, patting the seat beside her. "Come, sit with me a while and we'll have a chat."

[Kender Bard]

Locket let out a great sigh of relief and sat down by Dusk. She really liked the woman. She seemed to invite a sense of ease and comfort.

"I love Nagi and I don't want to do anything to disappoint him," she said, and looked momentarily guilty. "Is it bad if that's my biggest concern than the welfare of Khelek? I mean that's there too, but it's so big."

She nervously fiddled with the tips of her hair. "Here's the thing. I always thought that now that I was his wife, my duties as queen would be like my duties as the wife to a normal husband. My mother raised me with the instruction to be a good hostess, who sees to the needs of her family first, who provides her husband with a son, and who is the charming, social, graceful, living example of the prosperity and breeding of the house."

[Darastrix]

"Well, to that end, appearances are very important," Dusk told her. "A queen or king is looked to as an example by their own people, and others, especially those who will never set foot in your land, will judge your nation based on the picture you present to the world. So that much remains the same, though on a much larger scale."

She wrinkled her nose slightly. "Now, providing your husband with a son is all well and good, but honestly, that's nothing to do with being a 'good' anything, so I'd try not to get too hung up on it. It's not as though you get to choose the sex or signs of your children, after all. That remains in the hands of the Forces, so it's not worth worrying over."

"As to your priorities...." Dusk paused for a moment, thinking. "None of us want to disappoint the people we love. Even with my parents gone for so many years now, I still stop sometimes and wonder, 'Would they be proud of me? Am I letting them down?' It's perfectly natural to feel the way you do, and I can't fault you for it." She held up one finger. "That said, however, you cannot allow that concern, that fear, to stop you from acting when you see that you should. You're two different people; you'll see things differently and you won't always agree. If Nagi is on the cusp of making a decision that you feel in your heart to be bad for Khelek, you have to bring those concerns up with him and not fret about whether he might be disappointed that you don't agree with him."

[Kender Bard]

Locket chewed her lip and gave a small nod. "What if that happens a lot over and over though?"

She was going to feel bad for asking this, and she prayed Nagi never found out she did. "What if..." She lowered her voice. "What if he turns out to be a bad king, Dusk? What do I do?"

[Darastrix]

Dusk frowned thoughtfully. She'd never had to wrestle with that particular problem, thank Love. "If he is a poor king, but truly has Khelek's best interests at heart, chances are he will know that he is a poor king. That is, I think, the best of the worst-case scenarios. In that case, he could be prevailed upon to delegate more to his advisers, to his regent, and to you. Nagi doesn't seem to me to be one who would cling to the crown just for the power it gives him, so I don't see him as the kind of man who will insist that as king, his word is infallible law."

"I do advise you to approach Twilight on the matter as well if it's worrying you. I have, blessedly, not had to deal with that issue myself, but as he was raised in the royal family, he may have a better idea. I was raised in a noble family in Kalina, with no district to oversee, and became an acolyte when I was ten. But for my part, say, for the sake of a comparable setup, I were to remarry. My husband would become king. Now let's say he's a fine choice for a husband, but as a king, not so much. Well, I am still the queen. He may be the head of the nation, but I am its neck." Dusk smiled. "And the neck can turn the head in any direction that she wants."

[Kender Bard]

Locket smiled at Dusk, feeling reassured. She really didn't think that Nagi would be a bad king and certainly agreed that he wouldn't cling to the crown, as she put it.

"About that - the priesthood, I mean." Locket reached up and touched her namesake lightly. "I understand that a true priestess never really leaves her faith-" she thought of Nalani and added, hastily, "Unless she wants to. But will I need to hang up the robes? Can I be an active priest and an active queen or will I need to set my priesthood aside?"

Not that she cared too terribly if she did, though a part of her really had hoped that now she would have the chance to really reform the temple at home.

[Darastrix]

Dusk tapped her cheek lightly. "Mm, that, I believe, is a question that only you can give the answer to. It brings me joy that I am able to not only lead my people as queen, but to also return to the temple and give them solace and counsel as one of Love's priestesses. It means I have that much more work at times, but I couldn't imagine giving up the cloth entirely. You may end up feeling differently, and I don't think either choice is any better or nobler than the other."

[Kender Bard]

Locket smiled slightly. "I don't think I could give it up either. If nothing else, now my words will have considerably more weight when I go down there and tell my Proud brethren to bend a little. Not that they may listen but it's one of the things I intend to do no matter what."

Well, now she was feeling a little more at ease. "Any general advice that you can give me?" She knew that there was still work to do but she decided most of that would come best with study and experience and sitting around being lectured to wasn't the best way for her to learn anything. She'd likely pick up more of what it meant to be a queen just by keeping an eye on Dusk for now.

[Darastrix]

"Since you only recently moved to Khelek, I'd suggest, when you're there, going out and meeting the people. Not simply viewing them from an outsider's perspective, but going among them and keeping in mind that these are your people now, and you are one of them. I know the Khelekians' reputation for being cold and unfriendly, but as their future queen, you need to have an understanding of them beyond what's seen at the surface."

Dusk rested a hand above her heart. "Every one of those people holds dreams, fears, wants, needs, and love. Anger you may see, but always try to remember that the angry, frustrated person before you still cries and laughs and feels pain and worry just as you do, and then do right by them as well as you can."

[Kender Bard]

Locket nodded, quiet. She felt a bit, well, humbled. "I hope someday I'm as good of a queen as you are," she said with a shy smile for the woman. And she liked that advice. Even if the people were grumpy or angry with her, Locket figured she could manage to shake that off; especially when she had a family she loved to return home to at the end of the day. "Thank you, Dusk. I feel much better now. If you don't mind I'd like to come to audiences with you a few times. And not just for my amusement." Though there was that too of course.

[Darastrix]

"You're quite welcome, dear one. And you can come to me any time you have a question or would just like to talk." Dusk smiled at her. "You're welcome to come to Audience, and I'm fairly certain Twilight will extend an invitation to Nagi as well during the course of their talk, but be warned--sitting on the dais while people come up and give their complaints and petitions isn't the most entertaining part of the day, even if we do have a couple of talented, not to mention handsome," Dusk winked at that, "court bards."

[Kender Bard]

Locket giggled quietly. She did like bards. "Thank you, Majesty." She started to rise, to leave, but paused as one final question came to her. Dusk had told her not to thresh herself with worry over an heir, but this had nothing to do with sons and signs.

She tilted her head slightly and asked, "Ah... One more thing... Dusk, is being a mother nice? Isn't it hard?"

She thought of Harmony and Coral. Harmony had been fun to take care of, though during the couple few times the girl had needed the comfort of a mother when Filly had not been there- and turned to Locket - had been oddly heart wrenching. A sensation that Locket found to be both painful and poignant.

And, well, Coral had just served to show her that kids could cause you headaches the size of your country.