Once again, the word 'marriage' came up. Funny, she had just broken one engagement and was now apparently slated for another. She couldn't say she was surprised, though she wasn't exactly expecting it, either. Emiri looked away from Jaakuna, instead staring at her hands as she played with the hem of her dress. What should she say? That she had already known because his grandfather had flat out told her that it was her desire? No, that wasn't what she wanted to say. She knew this would come up again someday ever since Jaakuna had fallen into his Mist-induced coma, and the fact that he felt the need to clarify that he had wanted to do it before it had been requested of him made it worse. What was wrong with her? She should have been happy, didn't she always want to be by his side? Gods knew she did, she never wanted to let him go, she wanted him and only him. And yet she hesitated. Why?

She had been silent for much too long and she knew it. She avoided his gaze at all costs. She didn't want him to be disappointed or hurt. But she couldn't. She just couldn't. She didn't know if it was the shock or Jaakuna or Grant or anything, she felt so confused. No, she wasn't confused. She was angry. Once again she didn't have the choice to make, and now she felt trapped. And that thought was terrible to her. Marrying Jaakuna should not feel like this at all, and yet she found her anger stirring within her. But he did it because he, too, had no choice. She held her head in her hands, clearly not taking the news well. Boy, he certainly got the drop on her.

"[b]I know.[/b]" She found herself saying, what was worse she felt her voice crack, coming out as more of a plea than anything. "[b]We met at the Mosphoran Highwaste, he told me...the same thing. Though it wasn't a demand.[/b]" So then she had no say in the matter after all? Would she just accept it? She then found herself laughing, though it came off as very forced. "[b]That...I admit that was not what I was expecting. Is that all?[/b]"

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Wesley agreed with her, and then he asked her what she had thought of marriage. It was funny, with all her romance novels and visions of grandeur, Nadeline never really thought about it much. "[b]My father married my mother out of love and nothing more. Though...I was raised to see marriage as a political tool, a way to further strengthen the family bloodline as well as relationships between providences and the like.[/b]" She admitted half heartedly. She must have sounded very much like a member of the royal family. "[b]It's...as a woman, as a princess, I've always known that at any given moment, I could be given away to any royal man. We women never did have options...until Reia and my father broke the mold. But my grandmother was given to my grandfather. Even Emi...she was brought up expecting to marry Grant...arranged marriages are the norm, I suppose. As for my own personal feelings...[/b]" She thought about it carefully. "[b]I hope to be like my father. I hope to marry for love, and not politics.[/b]"