It was always difficult to sleep in a new place. Olympia huffed out a sigh and stared up at the ceiling, looking to where her husband had lain before he retired to his own room. It wasn't as if she had expected love to spring up between them right away, but they had always shared a sort of affection at least. When she had just been his mistress it had been impossible to keep his hands from her, but now they were married and the bastard child she carried made legitimate he seemed to prefer to avoid her.

He had just lost his father and older brother, been thrown onto a throne he hadn't been expecting, and she certainly hadn't ever expected to become a queen. Their coronation was soon where she would be presented before the court and be expected to behave perfectly, as if she had been raised to be a queen. She was to be the feminine and gentle and charitable match to Stephanos' masculine and powerful and fierce energy. The fact that neither of them had ever expected to be thrown into such roles was hardly going to spare them from the gossips of the court.

Her stomach rumbled again and she placed her hands on the swell where the baby rested. Five months was over halfway, and sooner than she could fathom she would hold her child in her arms instead of kept within. Pregnancy had been a tricky adjustment, it had made her sicker than she'd expected, though it had helped in hiding the growth when she had kept it to herself. And the cravings had been entirely bizarre. Evelli of Leventi had told her daughter all about the changes to expect, the food and drink that she herself had most desired when carrying each of her five daughters, but hearing of it and feeling it were different things.

Slipping from bed, Pia wrapped a robe about her shoulders over the loose chiton she'd been sleeping in. Forgoing any sort of shoes or ornaments, she wound her way through the still strange palace halls until arriving in the kitchen. Pomegranate, it had to be around here somewhere. The young queen had hardly stepped into the room before a noise frightened her and she turned, searching for who she had disturbed on her trip. A small human form caught her eye and she placed one hand to her heart, the other to her stomach and gave a relieved laugh.

"Forgive me, I wasn't expecting to see anyone else at this time of night."