It felt like an age since Persephone had last spoken in the conversation. Not that it had been. Barely a few minutes - if that - had crawled passed them at a pace slowed by tension and anxiety. For those few moments, Persephone could have sworn she felt every churn of her stomach and every pounding of her own heart in her ears.

She wanted to yell, scream, stomp her foot. Insist that this wasn't the time to play lovestruck imbeciles. For that was, she was beginning to understand rather quickly, exactly what Thalia and the pirate captain were to each other. The only thing greater than their desire to monopolise the other were their own individual egos. Their entire relationship - in the two meetings she had shared with them - could be summed up as a battle between pride and lust.

Persephone struggled not to sigh or roll her eyes.

It sounded exhausting.

Instead, she kept her cool, deliberately adjusted her posture and the angle of her head in a way that diminished her presence in the room. The glimmering flecks of candlelight still sparkled over the silver woven into her hair and the ring plate around her neck, but otherwise her inky gown and dark skin and hair, blended into the shadows without her straight posture and the domineering set to her chin.

Despite all of her instincts wanting to take control of the situation before her; to snatch back the lead of the conversation and negotiations, she forced herself to remain quiet. While it was her family's legacy, her kingdom's rule that these two were putting in jeopardy, any word from her could have disturbed the fragile balance of compassion and hostility in the air. And it could have sent it falling the wrong side of the line.

In the few heartbeats it took for Thalia to throw up a brazen obstacle in the middle of their negotiations and for Lukos to swallow his pride enough to growl out an equally challenging response, Persephone's mind hurried through its calculations. Could she force Thalia to marry the man in order to settle the agreement? Could she get the Nikolaos House behind her? Would the Captain take her if it was an unwilling arrangement on Thalia's part? Would he change up the deal? Would she have to physically restrain either of them from leaving the room in order to complete these negotiations?

That last was unlikely to be doable herself, but there was a reason she had guards.

All in all, Persephone felt near mentally exhausted by the time Thalia snapped for the man to sign the agreement, effectively sealing all of their fates and allowing the princess to exhale.

Gesturing to the little scribe, Persephone had to motion a few times before he drew his widened eye gaze away from the two squabblers and, upon realising her had missed an entreaty to royalty, the man scurried to comply, his cheeks turning a ruddy shade of puce.

At her instruction, he handed the two slips of parchment back to her and she laid out the lands agreement beside the deeds to the ship. Both required Lukos' signature to be valid. The testimony of our own intentions was only incriminating to her alone if his name was left off of it. Persephone rolled at one tight and gave it back to the little man, indicating the candles in the corner.

The man was skilled and smart and, without verbal instructions, was again able to pick up on her meaning, as he hurried across the cabin, lighting the underside of the wax seal and pressing it back into place, fastening the scroll tight.

At that point, Persephone simply waited on Lukos. She said nothing as she watched, intent on seeing him complete the action himself without coercion or sway. They were only two signatures away from changing the fate of Athenia. And they would both bear his name...