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Being a Servant, the Queen of Sheba did not need sleep.
Simply put: it was something she did not need. It did, however, make it necessary for her to spend the long nights somehow. She most enjoyed cuddling with her husband or watching him sleep.
This was her hobby, back when he was still Solomon. All the worries that plagued her husband disappeared from his face then. He seemed younger, more fragile.
The same was true of Romani Archaman as well. When Sheba looked at him, sleeping, she had a feeling as if she was going back in time. How many nights had she spent simply watching Solomon?
They were different. Of course they were different. They looked different, acted different - but in their own way they were still the same person.
Usually that was enough for Sheba. She could spend all night looking at her husband.
But not that night.
No, tonight there was another reason why Sheba was unable to sleep.
“Solomon,” she spoke up.
Silence.
“Solomon,” she nudged him with her finger.
“I'm sleeping,” she heard in reply.
“This is important, Solomon.”
Romani turned toward her, clearly half-conscious. His gaze was a bit hazy.
“What's going on?” He asked. He must have been really sleepy, because he switched to Hebrew - something he hadn't done in a very long time.
Few people were aware that he was able to understand Hebrew. Even fewer were aware that he was Jewish - probably because he tried to keep his connections to Solomon out of it as much as possible.
“I had a vision," Sheba spoke up, leaning over him. “Concerning you and Goetia.”
“Goetia...?” repeated Romani. “Ah, so it was him after all. Just as I thought.”
He turned to the other side, clearly intending to fall asleep.
Sheba grabbed him by the shoulder.
“I saw what you were going to do," she said. “I saw what your Noble Phantasm is capable of doing.”
Some part of her counted for denial or surprise. Instead, she received silence.
“Solomon," Sheba said after a moment. “Why are you silent?”
“I don't recall telling you what my Noble Phantasm can do.”
“Because you didn't tell me that," she confirmed. “I saw it in a vision.”
When he did not answer, she added:
“Solomon, this is the moment when you deny it. When you say that my vision will not come true.”
Romani turned to her, and tiredness appeared in his eyes.
“Why are you asking me this when you know the answer to your question?”
Sheba wishes she could say that she felt like the world had just ended. That she was surprised by this answer. That she felt rage or despair.
Instead, she felt resignation.
A simple resignation.
She already knew from the moment she had her vision that this was a future that would not be changed. She knew Solomon's determination; she knew Romani could be just as determined.
He had decided that there was no other option, and he was not going to change his mind.
In vain Sheba would beg him to look for another option. In vain she would speak various words to him.
“Sheba...” Romani tried to grab her hand as she rose, not even looking at him.
“Don't say anything to me for a while," she asked. “I need to be alone.”
Some part of her hoped that he would stop her. That he would ask her to stay.
He didn't.
He never did.
She herself did not know how it happened that she found herself in Leonardo Da Vinci's workshop.
It was the middle of the night, but the woman was still working. There was a mug of coffee somewhere at the desk - nothing new, as far as she was concerned. Sheba had long ago realized that both Leonardo and Romani were addicted to coffee. She would try in vain to stop them from squeezing more of the beverage into themselves.
Leonardo raised her head, glancing at her curiously.
“I'm furious," Sheba announced, taking the chair usually occupied by Romani.
How many times had she seen the two of them, sitting next to each other as well as talking about something that only the two of them could understand? At first she was jealous; then a little sad that she missed a rather big time in her husband's life.
And then... then she probably began to enjoy the fact that Romani had a friend by his side. Leonardo was important to him, in a different way than Mash or Sheba.
If Sheba was important to him.
“What happened?” Leonardo's eyes fled to the coffee mug, as if she was considering whether to offer it to Sheba.
Sheba hoped Leonardo wouldn't do that. She wasn't going to get addicted to coffee. With Romani and Leonardo as examples, she knew it was a bad addiction.
“My husband is going to do something very stupid," Sheba confessed, looking around to see if by chance there would be some alcohol around.
It would help her to be able to keep going. Or be further enraged.
“This is nothing new," said Leonardo. “I would say this is practically his definition.”
Sheba glared at her.
Leonardo put down the papers she was working on. With a quiet sigh, she sat down across from her.
“But I'm guessing that we're not talking about foolishness like “I'll spend all my salary on Magi☆ Mari gadgets” now. How bad is it?”
“Bad enough.”
“Mhm," mused Leonardo. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“That's where the problem lies. I don't know if anyone can help. Should they help,” Sheba was unable to look at the woman. Instead, she busied herself sweeping Leonardo's workshop with her eyes.
Leonardo had really gathered lot of things here. Sheba couldn't guess the purpose of half of them - but she'll blame it on the fact that this was the first time in more than two thousand years that she had been summoned. No, wait, maybe it's already been three thousand years?
“What my husband wants to do is both stupid and incredibly clever," Sheba said. “The truth is that it will help us strongly. Besides, it's true that it's his way of responding to the fact that this whole situation arose largely through his fault.”
“You mean the fake Solomon?”
“Yes," Sheba confirmed. “As you might have figured out, whoever uses his name and face has the ability to take advantage of his power and the demons that Solomon summoned when he was alive. For this reason, my foolish husband thinks he is responsible for this. And he is right, just the way how he wants to end it...”
She did not finish.
Leonardo waited in silence for her further words, drinking coffee.
Verily, wasn't this woman aware of what time it was?
...well, Leonardo was a Servant. She didn't need sleep. Sheba didn’t need to worry for her. Probably.
The woman pressed her lips together, realizing which way her thoughts were headed. She wanted to think about everything, just not the main problem she was facing. She just wanted to forget about what she had seen.
Leonardo took another sip of coffee.
Somewhere far away the clock began to strike the hour. Once, a second time.
“I know I shouldn't be mad at him," Sheba said when the clock finished striking. “I know that I should actually accept this fate. Or despair, too. But instead... after I had my vision, after I realized what he was planning and that no words from me would change his decision... I felt resigned. I'm going to lose him again, and I can't stop it. When I realized this, I became furious.”
She slammed her hand on the table.
Leonardo prudently clutched her coffee cup to herself.
“I'm furious because this bastard won't fight for himself. For us. In the end, I'm not worth anything to him, but I'll still love him.”
“I don't know what exactly you saw in your vision...” Leonardo began slowly. “And I can't comment too much on the vision, because I'm not clairvoyant, but perhaps you misinterpreted your vision?”
“I don't think so," Sheba said in a bitter tone. “It's hard to misinterpret a vision when you see the death of someone you love.”
“Romani is in fact King Solomon," Leonardo pointed out. “Even if he died, his Heroic Spirit would remain, right? So-”
“I mean real death," said Sheba. “Rejecting his own place on the Throne.”
Leonardo remained silent.
“Is something like that possible?”
“Apparently for him, yes,” Sheba shrugged her shoulders. “How typical. Keep silent until the last minute, lie as much as you can, hide the most important information, and then sacrifice yourself to create a path to victory. Isn't this the perfect way to make sure others don't remember you as the biggest villain of the story, but as a martyr?”
“...I feel like I'm still missing some important information, but that's fine. I am able to act with what we have," Leonardo glanced at Sheba. When she made sure that the latter would not hit the table again, she put her coffee mug down on the table. “Let's analyze everything. It has to do with defeating the fake Solomon, right?”
“Yes.”
“And this is the only way to defeat him?”
“Probably yes?”
“Probably yes or yes?”
“I don't know," said Sheba. “But I think he thinks it is.”
“In your opinion, is there any other solution?”
Another solution? Sheba hesitated. If such a thing existed, Romani would not have considered this step at all. He would not have tried to destroy himself.
Unless there was something that Sheba did not consider. Some other factor that made Romani not even want to look for another possibility to defeat Goetia.
“I need to talk to him," muttered Sheba, standing up.
“With whom? “ asked Leonardo with interest, as if guessing that Sheba was not thinking about her husband at all.”
“Isn't it obvious? With the only person who may know more about Solomon than I do. I'm going to go find my father-in-law.”