Malia POV:
Malia's finger traced the line of print she read from her Aeonian history book. She wanted to brush up on her understanding of the Aeonian monarchy's rules of succession. Although most reigning monarchs in its history had been kings, queens could and had ruled over their male spouses in the past. Some had ruled as bachelorettes—taking many lovers. Some had ruled with female mistresses.
Succession favored the eldest child, not strictly the eldest male child, though most senior sisters seemed to have a nasty habit of dying young.
Queen Nesse, for instance, had ruled for forty years during the first half of the twentieth century. She had kept Aeonia neutral during both world wars, though battleships from both sides who ventured too close to Aeonian waters were rumored to have
