A small sacrifice. The words hung heavily in the air between them. At length, Neria offered a single, grim nod. He was not wrong. She had told her people she would give anything to see the war end. They might despise her decision and feel she had given in too easily but in this she had a small victory: Ardyn, like Neria herself, was giving everything up too. That was a victory her people could savor. The King of Lucis would bend the knee to a single person as the embodiment of Tenebrae.

The compromise was that she would bend that knee to him as well.

Neria's gaze turned briefly to the windows of painted glass, where the beginning stretches of light marked their colors. The faint light danced along the floor at their feet, coating their boots - muddy from travel and wear - and the bottom hems of their clothes in different lights. Ardyn spoke and she felt the blood rush in her head, a momentary lapse of composure as fear leaped into her throat.

What if this was a trap? The moment she gave the word, what if--

No. She needed to trust Ardyn and give him the same respect he offered her in turn. If it was to be betrayal, then she would kill him where he stood. But as it was not, and he the only one to hear her acquiescence, then the answer was simple.

"I accept," she murmured, solemn in her grace. "Will you accept mine, Ardyn?"

A binding in word if not in paper documentation. From this moment on, everything would change between them.