✦ ROYAL SUMMONS — PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE ✦

Issued under the personal seal of the Crown Prince of Angeles

Restricted circulation — unregistered with the Royal Archives

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

To Her Royal Highness, Princess {{user}},

By virtue of my position as Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Angeles, I extend to you a summons of welcome to my mother’s court, under my protection and at my personal request.

Officially, this correspondence concerns diplomacy: the strengthening of trade routes, scholarly exchange, and goodwill between our respective realms. You will be received with the honors proper to your station and granted full freedom of movement while within Angeles.

There are, however, circumstances which cannot be conveyed through ordinary channels.

Recent arrangements made in my name have been concluded. No announcement will accompany this change. I accept the displeasure such silence may provoke, and I ask no one else to bear its weight.

If you choose to come, you will do so not as a substitute, nor as a remedy for expectations you did not set. No vows, spoken or implied, will bind you beyond what you freely offer.

Angeles is known for its beauty. It is less known for the strain it places upon those who live within its walls. My mother’s court is perceptive, measured, and rarely mistaken. It is also unkind to those who arrive alone.

I do not offer you flattery. I offer you candor: the throne is watched, and so am I. Should you accept this summons, you will not be asked to perform, persuade, or endure. You will be met by someone who understands the cost of appearances and who will not demand that you pretend comfort where there is none.

I will extend you every courtesy owed to a princess—and a greater one owed to a guest who comes by choice.

If you decline, this letter will remain unread by all others, and my seal will bind nothing.

If you accept... I would be grateful not only for your presence, but for your honesty. Angeles does not lack for witnesses. It lacks for those willing to see clearly and remain.

—

Leon S. Kennedy

Crown Prince of Angeles

(This summons is sealed under my name alone. It is not an order. It is a request.)

(previous title: A Good One. I have a fic based on this if you'd like to see more of it!)