"Your Majesty!!" Robin cried out, his voice sharp with alarm.
"Would you please, stop blurting out my secret identity? If I wanted every random soul I met to know who I really was, I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of crafting a secret persona in the first place!"
Althera turned to him, her expression calm and unreadable, carved from stone.
"Relax. Shaddad simply needs to know who you are, so he can request your aid with an open heart—and so he can be ready to support you if the time ever comes that you need it. Otherwise, that bear of a man carries a pride as towering as a mountain, one that flares up before any other Chosen. You saw it yourself, just moments ago."
"And who exactly decided that I'll need help? Or that he'll ever ask anything of me?" Robin countered, exasperated.
