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. He put it on with a
bony hand, adjusting it carefully and standing straight. For
barely a moment he looked like some mockery of a real
monarch.
The stag said deliberately, "Long live the king."
"The king lived long enough." The dead king sat a
moment, looking much like a tired man, for the dead who
may not rest know more weariness than any of us. "Tell me,
did you see anyone this night?"
"You know I did. A knight, a mage, a half-elf, assorted
two-legged shortlings. They are important to you?"
"They are important, I think." The king said absently,
"You seem curious. I had thought you indifferent to
everything."
"To everything beneath me, which is much of the
world. And you, great and loyal Peris?"
"Much the same. Of course, more is beneath a dead
king"
The stag said drily, "Long though we have endured, our
standards are still better preserved than we are. May they
last forever. What is their importance?"
"The standards?"
"Their importance is self-evident, or it is none. I mean
the strangers; how are they important?" "To the future of
our wood and world."
"Ah. Politics." The stag nodded wisely. "I try to avoid
politics."
"I understand completely," the king said casually
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