The fact that the Chistopol royals home was tucked out of the way was a further insult to the royal heritage and standing. Đurađ felt sorry for the family, they had lead their nation to freedom and shed their blood in doing so and yet now this Laine guy was making them look weaklings. Some of the Palace needed obvious care which lead him to the conclusion that they either had little money, little say over the place or a combination of the two. He did though like the idea of the land being worked and the closeness of the woods. That appealed to his youngest wife, Jožica, who would disappear for hours at a time into the woodland, often reammerging with a basket of wild food that she would prepare herself in their own Palace kitchens. Now before beginning to eat the Queen said some short prayers while holding her husbands hand.
"I believe that the human world needs to take a leaf from nature. In nature things work so well. Take for example the Bee, the most magnificent creature on Mundus. It arranges itself into social groups, each person knowing their place and their role. It has a Queen guiding its every move and ensuring everyone has what they need. There is no time in the swarm for discussion, for debate, for questions, there is only time for action and through action they find success. Look what happens when we permit these institutions to fall. If we remove the Queen the hive becomes disjointed, chaotic and for three days it stands on a knife edge until, hopefully, a new Queen emerges. Nature needs a strong leader able to take the measures needed to ensure the strength of everyone. To use Laine is making your hive weak. We need to show that you have the strength and the power to lead Chistopol. To do this we need to tie you to other strong leaders, people like myself, like Aosta, Lijiang, the list of strong monarchies goes on and on. We need to ensure that it is you that makes these connections not Laine. As such I would like to suggest an actual physical tying of our royal families. This will raise your prestige and our people see a strong family come into our hive if you will. There are several options. The first option is that we have my nine year old son Prince Karlo, marry a similar aged member of your family. We also have Prince Hrvoje who is four however we believe that he is perhaps better suited for a life in the service of religion." The King and his Queen shared a glance and for the first time the Queen's icey expression changed to one that looked a little sad, Hrvoje had a deformed spine and was in the view of Đurađ something he and his wife argued about. Đurađ was certain it was a curse because his lust for Jožica had seen him persuade her to break a marriage contract while Jožica was more confident that the deformation was there because the boy would become a great royal and show the people that no matter what weakness they are born with they could raise to greatness. It was the one matter of disharmony in their family. "We could also of course look at a marriage between myself and Lady Viktoras. She would become a Queen in her own right rather than a Royal Matron." She was a pretty enough woman and had royal blood making her a useful addition. "I know this may be a surprising first move but I believe if we're doing something we should do something big."