Nikolai scratched his chin as he stared at his female Scions that he ended up giving the task of handling Mineah's surprise birthday party to. He was supposed to talk to her shadow maidens, but he quickly realized that doing so would end up spoiling the surprise since her wife would probably just read their thoughts if not outright just order them to tell her what was happening.
In the end, he ended up deciding that if he wanted this done right, he had to use his own men for his purposes. At the very least, the female shadow knights before him now weren't usually around his wife anyway, so Mineah shouldn't be able to see or read their thoughts even if they worked around her.
"How is everything going?" he asked them.
"Smoothly, Your Majesty," one of his female Scions reported. "We're just about done with the preparations and will begin distributing the invitations the night before Her Majesty's birthday."