"Are you nervous?" Lady Rayla asked.

"No. I know she'll do well." Marisol closed her eyes as her favorite maid began the arduous task of brushing out her hair. She could feel the weight of Rayla’s skeptical look burning into the top of her head, and sure enough, it wasn't long before the raven-haired woman spoke again.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. We all know Thalia will be an excellent queen. Have you decided what you're going to do when you leave?"

Silently, she shook her head minutely, knowing that she had to remain as still as possible so as not to mess up her braids. The hairstyle was more important now than it had ever been. "I don't know what to do. I've been thinking about staying here just in case."

Rayla sighed. "I thought the plan was for you and the King to leave so that Apollo and Thalia had to stand on their own two feet?"

"Plans change," she said shortly. Truthfully, there was no need for her to stay, and she couldn't ignore that no matter how much she wanted to. Thalia had been shadowing her for months, learning the ways of the kingdom and its people. But she was loath to admit to anyone aside from Marius that she had nothing else to do. She had never thought to plan for the day when she would no longer be queen, and now that it was here, she was unprepared.