You always give such marvelous feedback! :D You are completely spot-on in your reading of the differences between Richard and Henry in this fic, although you put it into words better than I could, seeing as how I wrote the bloody thing. But especially the part about Richard needing some sort of generative capacity -- that is exactly what I was trying to do, hence the emphasis on the bees. (I was going to make it more explicit by putting in more childless-widower!angst, but I do that a lot with Richard, so I figured it would show through anyway.)

Anyway, I am so glad you liked it; it was a pleasure to write (once I figured out some of the specifics of the magic, which was the tricky part. Also, the bees).

Also, I am not surprised at all that you got the Elyot reference, but I am very pleased. I heart Elyot.