Several hours have passed since Princess Tori showed Elise exactly how much she still cares for her, and she’s still struggling to move properly after surviving the experience. Even just shifting positions on the bed is taking a lot out of her body, she’ll likely be sore all over for several days, not to mention the injuries. She had expected the bruises, she saw the state those mercenaries were in, and the scratches weren’t exactly shocking, but she never could have foreseen the biting, the intense expression of Tori’s pent up desires needing another outlet.

 

She also didn’t expect one of those bites to draw blood. It’s a good thing that the princess had some basic medical equipment in the pouches that had been thrown to the ground at the beginning of their reunion, she’s not sure how she could have ever explained this situation to other members of the staff in order to get it treated. Tori took good care of her though. After they were both satisfied, and Elise was too exhausted to go any longer, she gently treated her maid’s wound, and has been holding her in her arms ever since as she fades in and out of consciousness.

 

Elise starts to properly wake up, which is a slow affair as she’s also processing everything her princess did to her, as she basks in the afternoon sun pouring in from the window. The sheer number of feelings and sensations she was put through, both pleasant and painful, was staggering. If she wasn’t still in pain she’d almost believe Tori killed her at some point during their lovemaking, and yet, somehow she feels like she wants to experience it all again, even if she needs the better part of a week before she’d be up for it.

 

“Thanks for waiting so long for me, my love.” Tori says, feeling Elise squirm a bit as she wakes.

 

“Mmm… Thank you for returning, I had begun to fear we’d never meet again.”

 

“To be honest, not sure I ever would’ve come back if it weren’t for you.”

 

“...Do you not wish to be queen, my princess?”

 

“Oh, I do. Trust me, the only thing I want more than to put mother in her place is to be with you, but dealing with her, going up against the council… Not confident I could put up with all that without you keeping me going... keeping me grounded.” Tori starts running a hand through Elise’s short, black hair, and seems to hold her just a bit tighter with her other arm.

 

“Grounded?” Elise asks, somewhat puzzled. “Has something been troubling you?”

 

“...Nah, just thinking out loud.” She replies after a period of silent contemplation. “Wouldn’t wanna go through any of this on my own, is all.” Tori pulls her in with both arms, keeping her close.

 

“We’re in this together, remember? Every step of the way. It might not happen any time soon, gotta make sure we can get away with it first, but you’ll be queen too one day, I promise.”

 

Elise can’t help but shiver a bit upon hearing that. Sure, they’d talked about this before, about casting out both Tori’s mother and the council, and ruling together, forever in charge of their own destinies, but it always felt like a bit of a pipe dream to her. Even if Tori did succeed in becoming a queen who wasn’t controlled by her mother, would she ever be allowed to marry a woman, let alone a mere servant? Maybe it’s just the afterglow talking, but thanks to this new Tori, the exceedingly powerful, confident woman who is currently cradling her, the idea suddenly started to feel much more real, like they actually have a chance to pull it off now. She does her best to put a hand to her lover’s cheek.

 

“If anyone could make it happen, I know it’s you, Tori.”

 

“Thank you, Elise. We just have to get through this next week, then we have the rest of our lives ahead of us.”

 

“Do you have a plan? I can’t imagine your mother would let any of this happen without a fight.”

 

“Not exactly, but I’m gonna have my mercs look into the council, see if they can dig up any dirt that could help, and I’ll investigate the royal archives in case there’s something useful there. Wouldn’t hurt if we could get the people on our side as well.”

 

“That makes sense… If you can establish yourself as a more capable ruler than your predecessor, it would be harder for her to take any action against you without causing dissent… That’s why you’re so intent on holding the fight between your mercenaries and the knights, isn’t it? To show how well you can train a military force.”

 

“As sharp as ever, I see. Although I also think it’d just do them some good to toughen up a bit. If Freddie was the best of the bunch, I don’t know how they’d fare against an actual threat to the kingdom.”

 

“I have a feeling you may have just set your standards a bit too high after all you’ve done for yourself.” Elise replies with a laugh. “I agree that it’s not a good look for them to be so outclassed by their princess though. After that display I wouldn’t be surprised if you could take them all on and win.”

 

“...That’s exactly it. I could…” Tori says coldly. “Not even sure it’d be that hard…”

 

“My princess?”

 

Tori blinks a few times and shakes her head as her speech returns to normal. “Sorry, all this talk about stopping the council got me thinking too much, I’ll be okay.”

 

“Okay, as long as everything is fine. Is there anything I can do to help with your efforts? It sounds like there’s a lot of work to be done to get the outcome we want.”

 

Tori smiles warmly, and gives her a small kiss on the head.

 

“Thanks, my love, just having you around already helps a lot, but there is one thing. There’s a good chance Mother will be trying to do the same thing to us, looking for information that could work against me, give her reason to cancel the coronation since I’m not going to bow to her. People all over town are gonna be talking all about the princess who beat the strongest knight in a landslide, and she’ll want to get any info from those people that she can, so if you get a chance it would be good if you could give them some… more interesting… things to say about me, muddy the waters a bit, you know?”

 

“I believe I can manage that.”

 

“Great, it’ll help make things that much easier for us.” Tori lets go of Elise and sits up.

 

“Is everything okay, my princess? Do you have to go somewhere?”

 

“I think we both might have to,” She says with a sigh, “people will probably start getting suspicious if we’re both missing for too long, only a matter of time before someone finds us like this, and it’s all over if they do.”

 

“You raise a very good point…” Elise quietly grunts while slowly raising herself up. She’s had enough time to recover that she can get up now, but she’s still sore enough that it takes a while. “I truly wish that we didn’t have to, though.”

 

“Think of it this way.” Tori puts a hand to her lover’s cheek. “This might be one of the last times we need to worry about it, soon we’ll be free to be together as much as we want.”

 

“I look forward to that day.” They both get off the bed and start getting dressed. Despite her earlier fervour, Tori managed to restrain herself enough so as to not leave any marks on Elise’s hands, or above the collarbone, so when she wears her uniform the exposed skin leaves no traces of the princess’s earlier actions.

 

“Well, I guess I’ll spend the night looking into the archives.” Tori announces. “Would be good to take care of that before things get too busy around here.”

 

“Oh no! Apologies for forgetting, but your mother is hosting a special dinner tonight in commemoration of your return, several members of the council and other important people will be there. She didn’t get a chance to mention it due to how the situation in the courtyard played out.”

 

“I see, sounds like she already had the whole night planned…” Tori says, deep in thought.

 

“Indeed, we still have some time to prepare, so if we go now-” Elise turns to move towards the door, but is stopped by a powerful hand around her wrist.

 

“Hey.” her princess says with a grin. “How about we go somewhere more fun instead?”