In the early days, in the era when demons were still a young species, Maenscul was not yet Deity of Kings - only the powerful Deity of the Sun. As such, other deities regularly challenged their authority. One such deity was Sciekles, daughter of Carmesso, Goddess of Storms, and Cegae, God of Fire. She had discovered her first domain in mortal war and felt her power as a martial deity was enough to challenge Maenscul.

The battle between Sciekles and Maenscul did not last long by the standards of the divine - and Maenscul was the uncontested victor. Sciekles swore her fealty to them - and as was typical, Maenscul responded by courting her. Between them was born a new goddess, who learned from her parents for some time.

In this way, she discovered her first domain in Stagecraft - the art of defensive warfare. She took the name Iescula and decided to travel the Demon Realm to teach the mortals her ways. This allowed demons to establish strongholds and better defend their settlements from both nature and other demons. This would later give rise to kings - those with the power to protect larger settlements from stronger opponents.

But Iescula felt unfulfilled - her current domain combined her parents’ skills, and she desired an identity of her own. So she left behind the walls she had gifted to demonkind and traversed the wilds.

There, she found the predatory plant life all demons fear. She saw the ways they hunted and the ways they defended themselves. She fell in love with the fierce, independent plants that could rival both demon and beast - and saw their potential in enhancing the defensive measures of strongholds.

She gained the domain of plants and adopted them as her mortal children. Iescula gifted knowledge of taming plants for use as defensive measures, then returned to the Divine Realm to show the fruits of her labor to her parents.

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard that story.”

Jurao looked up from his reading in surprise and greeted, “Ah, Prince Forvi.”

The prince nodded, approaching from the veranda, “So this is the human you like?”

He was as Jurao had remembered him last - a traditional demon, taking after Ergirri rather than their other parent, Vallen, as Morvvan did. Forvi did have Vallen’s powder blue skin tone, with wavy golden markings like his sister and father. His eyes were gray, and his hair was wavy ginger. He had the generous proportions favored by the nobility, and his eyes tended to droop.

“Yes,” the King replied, “This is my partner, Braelin - he’s recently been through surgery.”

“Oh, you’re courting?” Forvi asked, “Well, it is a fair distance from Caslavven and Gaevoyga…”

“Morvvan visited previously,” Jurao replied.

“Yeah, she’s been staying in Mesgaesculs,” Forvi said, experimentally reaching out to pat the flowering hedge, “These aren’t…?”

“The white blooms are harmless,” the King said.

“Oh,” Forvi hummed, “So, why are they around your partner like that?”

“Braelin is also the Royal Gardener,” Jurao smiled, “He slipped through a rift and gained the plants’ affection by caring for them.”

Forvi hummed again, then snorted, turning away, “Well, if Morvvan was here, she’s probably beaten me in writing about all this to Dad and Zaza, so I can hear more tomorrow. I think I’ll borrow Feyl for the night if you don’t mind.”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you again,” the King replied, noticing it had gotten later.

Forvi waved over his shoulder, yawning as he walked away.

Without much else and the late hour, Jurao decided it was best to return himself and Braelin to his suite. The nurse on duty recommended sleeping separately to prevent accidental injury, and Jurao saw the wisdom in that.

When he finished cleaning up after training the next morning, Jurao felt out of place. Though he had chosen to take the time away from his duties as King, he was unaccustomed to having so much unstructured time on his hands. It felt as though he should be somewhere else, despite logic telling him otherwise.

Feyl and Forvi joined him for breakfast in his suite, and once again recounting the events that led up to his courtship with Braelin helped ease the feeling of displacement. They ate at the larger table, which Jurao had returned to its usual place, with Feyl choosing to sit in Forvi’s lap.

“Morvvan must have thought this was all terribly amusing,” Forvi yawned, “And ‘so cute’.”

“She certainly did,” Feyl rolled his eyes, then sighed, “But I can’t exactly deny that it’s cute, either…”

The prince hummed, “How’s the court taking it?”

“It’s a fairly even split,” Feyl sighed.

“It is,” the King asked.

His best friend sighed again, “Yes - though I suppose it is difficult to keep track of when you aren’t attending court events.”

“Oh, you took the full grace period?” Forvi asked, then held up a hand, “Never mind - I forgot you don’t actually like court for a moment. Of course you’d take the full grace period.”

“There was a lot of work to catch up on,” Jurao replied, “Especially reports on the state of the Realm after the Union Campaign.”

“Yes, but most would still attend events sporadically to stay abreast of the feelings of the court,” Forvi arched his right brows with a slight smile, then chuckled, “But when you have someone as competent as Feyl as a valet, you can afford to be a little lax - especially when the Realm isn’t facing any kind of crisis.”

Feyl grinned and kissed the prince on the cheek, “Thank you for that,” then he turned back to Jurao, “You’ve always been walking a bit of an invisible tightrope as King, Jurao. The conservative faction is in favor of your physical prowess and reserved personality and can even accept your commoner origins since your mothers were at least in a venerated profession. They weren’t even the most vocal faction against your nomination.”

Forvi nodded, “The progressive faction assumed as a former General, you would want to institute a more militant rule - especially with your stoic personality. They were more in favor of a commoner-born King without knowing your specific origins. They quickly relented when they discovered your fair hand and level-headed decision-making that didn’t favor traditions over common sense.”

Jurao nodded - he was aware of all this, but it had been several decades since his initial nomination and appointment. He was sure the reminder would provide helpful context to the current situation.

“Now it’s flipped around,” Feyl sighed, “The progressive faction has always pushed for adopting helpful human innovation, if not outright peace with humanity. Your relationship with a human that brings such innovations has them fully in your favor. The conservative faction, however, is staunchly anti-human - they might have eventually been convinced by Braelin’s skill as a gardener, but then you brought his family here before the initial negative sentiment could be overcome.”

“I see,” Jurao frowned - then had a realization, “Ah, I see.”

“Not sure I understand the repetition…” Forvi snorted.

“Yesterday… ah, hold on,” the King said, rising. He turned to Klae, the morning duty nurse, and asked, “Would now be a good time for morning medication.”

“Oh,” he rose from his seat across the room with a glance at the siren-engineered clock in the room, “Yes, your highness - I’ll start heating water for the pain reliever.”

Jurao nodded and went to rouse his partner by gently shaking his shoulder, “Braelin, you need to wake up for a bit.”

It took a few minutes of gentle cajoling, in which Forvi and Feyl moved to the closer coach before the human rose. The pair also turned it to better face the daybed in anticipation of conversation.

“Morning,” he said with a yawn.

“Good morning,” Jurao smiled and asked, “Sleep well.”

“I did,” Braelin nodded, blinking as he looked around the room.

“This is Prince Forvi, Morvvan’s older brother,” the King introduced.

“Nice to meet you,” the prince replied with a wave.

“Forvi and I enjoy each other’s company, but we aren’t courting,” Feyl added, as he was still electing to sit in the other man’s lap.

“I see,” Braelin nodded, “Nice to meet you, your highness.”

“Forvi is fine,” the prince snorted, “Especially when we’re technically peers - by demon standards.”

“That’s true,” the human agreed easily enough, accepting a bottle of sedative from his partner.

“We were discussing the state of the court over breakfast,” Jurao explained, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, “And the part I was about to explain involves a few things I haven’t been able to tell you about yet.”

Braelin downed the sedative before replying, “Ah, and since I needed to take my medication anyway, you thought to wake me.”

“Yes,” the King smiled.

“So?” Forvi prompted, “What was the second thing you realized?”

“The High Priest of Iescula is currently in residence here,” Jurao replied, “And he has decided to formally grant Braelin status as one of her faithful.”

“He has?” Braelin asked, unenthused.

“Yes, as an apology for being an ass when he arrived,” Feyl snorted, “And I’m afraid, due to the current political situation, you won’t be able to refuse.”

The human sighed, “Well, these things do happen…”

“With this occurring at the same time as the end of my grace period for not attending court events, as well as Braelin’s recovery, Hujur suggested holding the ceremony for it in the gardens,” Jurao went on, clasping his partner’s hand in silent apology, “And to make it a slightly larger event welcoming Braelin as a peer of the court and celebrating his health. I had not understood why Feyl said it was brilliant at the time.”

“And now you do?” Feyl asked.

Jurao nodded, “In addition to the conservative faction being in favor of adherence to faith, most of the older generation belonging to that group do not regularly spend time in the gardens.”

“I’m sure most would say it’s out of a healthy respect for the dangers the plants pose,” Forvi agreed.

“By hosting an event in the garden, particularly one meant to honor Braelin,” the King went on, “We’ll be challenging them - they can attend or admit they are afraid to walk into a place where a human willingly treads.”

“Exactly,” Feyl snorted, “And it’s very difficult to argue with how affectionate the plants are towards Braelin when you see it in person…”

Braelin sighed, “I’ve never much enjoyed politics - but I see how the situation makes this necessary.”

“What kind of politics did you need to deal with as a gardener back in Jost?” Feyl asked, “If any.”

The human hummed, “Well, I didn’t deal with anyone directly - but Malson would often come to me for advice. He usually just needs someone to hear him out and talk through things with - so besides tutoring, most of my experience is in that regard. Though…”

“Yes,” Jurao asked.

“I know broadly the difference between domestic and international politics,” Braelin said, “But with the Demon Realm being Unified…”

“Well,” Forvi started, “You have a point - but it’s not quite so simple. Our domestic politics tend to be on the scale of individual cities and the few smaller settlements surrounding them - it would be better to consider each of the fifteen cities as city-states and the politics between the capital and them as international.”

“I see,” the human nodded.

“Our population is highly concentrated in our cities as well, in comparison to most human countries,” Feyl added, “And, as a unified realm, Jurao also needs to manage inter-realm politics - particularly within the Strength Triad.”

“A large portion of our plant-based food supply comes from the Beastkin Realm,” Forvi nodded, “Though we’ve become much less dependent on that in recent centuries, our level of agriculture still isn’t enough to support most of our cities without supplementation. Caslavven might be the only one that could manage it - and, I’m sure, as the caretaker you know the castle garden is meant as an emergency supply in the event of a siege rather than a main line of supply.”

“Yes,” Braelin agreed, “Human castle gardens had much the same intention.”

“Most of our salt for food preservation comes from the Troll Realm,” Jurao added, “And the majority of leather products use fish leather imported from there since they have much larger aquatic life suited for that use.”

“Not to mention blubber for lamp fires - and the siren trade for it,” Forvi nodded, “Which, of course, has to go through Vede and our discrete channels in the Human Realm.”

“It’s very effective for keeping their machines running,” Jurao said, “And we have been able to obtain several convenience goods for it in bulk - such as printing presses for books, self-inking pens, and the mechanical timekeepers.”

“And the extensive oil lighting system,” Feyl said, waving to one such light on the wall, “Humans and demons may not get along, but sirens and demons are like a smith and their hammer. If it weren’t for the one realm of separation, I’m sure we’d trade far more extensively.”

“Ah, I almost forgot,” Jurao said, getting up and walking to his desk. He rarely used it, as he had no one he regularly wrote personal correspondence to, but he did have his personal mail delivered there. He retrieved one of the small boxes left recently, taking it back over to his partner.

“What’s that?” Braelin asked, dutifully drinking his medicinal tea.

The King pulled out a watch, which had been fitted with a red leather band and rendered with gold plating. He gently buckled it around his partner’s wrist, saying, “A timekeeping device - a smaller version of the one on the wall. I thought this version would suit you.”

Braelin pulled his arm back and smiled as he looked over the watch, “Thank you - this will certainly make it easier to keep track of time.”

It made Jurao smile in turn - his partner’s gentle gratitude leaving a warm spot between his hearts as he said, “You’re welcome.”