"Mmm. I don't know if I think it possible, in truth." He tended to be more honest with Max than nearly anyone else. It was something of a relief to not have to keep up the act of complete confidence constantly. "Though I do remember, dimly, what it was like." When his mother had been Queen; things had been so different then. And he tried not to think about it too much; it was more pain than he wanted to inflict on himself.

"Or we'll be dead," he said equably. "So it could be worse."