It Must Be ~{Fabulous}~ (Echo)

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide looked at his pocket watch as he did, and then sat down on the bed beside him. "Hm. I like being outside. Perhaps we could sit outside. I am working on embroidering this set of pillowcases," she suggested.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Nazeal nodded in agreement. "The ash didn't seem to be falling too heavily this morning," he said. "Grab your parasol and we'll find a place on deck to sit."

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide nodded and smiled, grabbing her parasol and sewing kit before walking outside. The ash was falling, but not too heavily. The sailors paid it no mind.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Nazeal walked across the deck to the starboard side, ignoring the men that scampered around him. There were small benches set into the wall in certain places, for what purpose he wasn't sure. Perhaps for this very reason. Nobleman, after all, would expect a place to sit. Travel wasn't terribly common in the Final Empire, but nobles did have places to go. Every ship was probably outfitted in some way to accommodate them.

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide smiled. "This is perfect," she said. The woman sat and took out her sewing, threading her needle and returning to her stitching.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Nazeal leaned back against the ship's railing and watched the men work. Now that they'd been under way for awhile, the activity had lessened, but there were always things to do. He wondered what this life would be like. These men had it far better than the skaa in the city or on the plantations, but they still led a hard life of grueling work. What had he done his whole life? He'd sat in his luxurious keep and learned politics.

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide looked up at him after a minute, noting his pensive face. "What are you thinking?" she asked softly, her purplish eyes watching him shrewdly.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Nazeal shook his head slightly, clearly hesitant to share. Eventually, he decided he ought to. "The skaa," he said, his voice low. "The Steel Ministry teaches that they are lesser to us, but all I can see are people. Hard-working, oppressed people. Miserable people."

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide blinked when he said this, looking down at her sewing again. She wasn't sure how to respond, knowing thy what he was saying was walking dangerously close to a precipice. She looked up at him again. "Nazeal... I understand what you mean. But you can't tell anybody else. It's too dangerous."

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

"I know," he said quietly. He wasn't looking at her, staring at the wooden planks at his feet instead. "I just felt like I could trust you." At that point, he raised his eyes and met her gaze, a shadowed look on his face. "Was I mistaken?"

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide frowned at him. "Of course you can trust me. I'm your wife," she said, her eyes narrowing slightly. "And I would never betray you."

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

"Well, I know people I trust--people I care about deeply--that I wouldn't dare share information like that," Nazeal said. "It's the sort of thing you keep to yourself, no matter who your company is." And even if he could trust those people not to betray his personal thoughts, you never knew who might be listening.

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide didn't reply, deciding it was best not to continue speaking of this. She tucked a tendril of ebony hair behind her ear and continued stitching on the pillowcase.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Nazeal turned his head to peer off to the side, past the edge of the ship and toward the nearest ashmount. Tyrian, the closest ashmount to Luthadel, had a small cloud of ash and move hovering around it that day, but he'd seen it more active before. In fact, he foresaw a good part of the day being ashfall-free.

[echolight4eva]

Adelaide put down the stitching for a moment, giving a small sigh. "If you don't trust me, why did you tell me?"