Dominique tilted her head slightly sideways, casting a questioning stare at Shadow, letting her brown hair fall down over her right eye. She stood there for a moment, looking at the demoness, not thinking of anything. She glanced down at the ground, and kicked the kitchen knife further away, out of sight from the two, before turning her head back to Shadow.
"Do your people know that you're... Taking a break?" Dominique asked, "Because, I don't know, it doesn't seem very... Royally, if you see what I mean."

Shadow's expression of slight joy turned to one of slight guilt.
"No, they don't know, but they should be able to handle a couple of days without me until I can make a decision and get my head back on straight." She said, sighing deeply.

"Well," Dominique answered, smiling again, "it's great to have you back here, even for a while. I'll try to make your days here as joyful as possible." Dominique nodded quickly, and glanced around. She padded away into the corridor, disappearing in another room. A lot of noises could be heard from inside, such as things being thrown on the floor, or put up back into the closet.

Shadow smiled slightly, although her hands were shaking slightly while she held the mask. The words of the last audience came flooding back into her mind, causing her hands to shake a bit more. She took a deep breath, steadying herself. turning the mask over in her hands.

Dominique stepped out of the room, quickly walking over to Shadow. She stopped in front of her, looking up at her with smiling wide eyes. She smiled herself, lending out one hand to the room at the end of the corridor, the entrance bing merely lit by the lamp from above.
"That'll be your room, Shadow," Dominique explained quickly, "I'll have enough space with Bart."

Shadow looked up at Dominique and smiled warmly.
"Thanks for this Dominique. It is really short notice and I hardly asked you..." She said quietly, biting her lip.

"Who cares if it's a short notice?!" Dominique replied, throwing her hand in the air over her shoulder, "As long as it's a good short notice, it should be worth working for, no?" She turned her head down the corridor, and beckoned Shadow to follow her, as she descended the hall.

Shadow followed Dominique, still turning the mask over in her hands, unable to quite grasp the fact that she needn't wear it for the few days that she was here. The demoness smiled slightly, wondering if the female Kraferr had always been this hyperactive.

Dominique halted at a room, lending out one hand into it, showing what was inside to Shadow. There was a small wooden bed with white sheets and two comfortable-looking pillows. The floor was made of dark wood, with different hues of brown and yellow. A gray carpet was neatly put on the floor next to the bed. A whole library of books was put up on shelves on the wall at the opposite side to the bed. The books were mostly on Kraferrs, their history and other things concerning them. There was also philosophy. Next to the bed, stood a light blue wooden shelf at about a little bit higher than Bart's knee. On the shelf, was a lamp, and an alarm clock.
"This is my room," Dominique explained, "I'll be using Bart's for a while, I guess. Normally, I don't let him inside -and it actually quite annoys him- well, because there are some things here that a normal certain male kraferr shouldn't be looking at. It'll be yours while your time here."

Shadow looked at the room before turning a questionning look at Dominique.
"Are you sure? I mean..." She trailed off, being lost for words for the first time since she had taken over the throne.

"Absolutely," Dominique insisted, nodding quickly, "I mean, Bart doesn't bite or anything." Dominique smirked, laughing quietly, "And he can be a pretty sound sleeper. Well, when he does, actually. He sleeps one day on two, nearly," Dominique commented, "it doesn't seem to be any bad for him, so I just take it as fine, and leave it as it is..."

"Ok, well, thanks..." Shadow said, smiling slightly. She took a deep breath, looking at Dominique. "Maybe you could help me with that problem..." She said, her expression changing to slightly hopeful.

Dominique pulled Shadow inside the room, and closed the door behind her. Dominique put an ear to the door, checking if Bart was outside or not. After having checked, Dominique turned to the demoness, smiling. "If you didn't talk about it to Bart, there must be a reason," Dominique replied, "but don't worry, as far as I'm living here, the words of this so-called problem won't come out of my mouth. What's wrong?"

Shadow had laid her mask and circlet on a small table, running a hand through her coal black hair.
"Ok, I'm going to keep this simple," She said, looking at Dominique. "I either get together with a warlord prince from another dimension, or my dimension goes to war. I didn't want to tell Bart because he tends to worry about things a lot more that I do."

"Ah, yes, forced marriage, I know that," Dominique muttered, "stupid freaking males... Even though, I have to admit, I kinda did the same thing to Bart..." Dominique shrugged half-heatedly, turning away. She looked up at the kraferric books on the shelves, glancing up and down. Of course, there was no book on marriage. Or any book that could help. "Yeah, that's pretty bad," Dominique added, "but, in royalty, that tends to happen fairly often..." Dominique turned to Shadow, and sighed. "And, of course, you have no right to say no, huh? Because you're a woman?"