King Hugo did not miss the meaning of Kiara's words despite her sugary-sweet tone. He locked eyes with her, refraining from taking another bite of his food, all attention on her. The color on his face deepened as anger slowly settled in, his eyes narrowed dangerously, and the queen looked on between the two, her eyes gleaming in interest.

Kiara's last comment derailed him. His expression faltered for a split second, registering surprise, before snapping back to the resolve of a steely warrior king. "I'll believe it when I see it," he remarked coldly. "Let me make a few things clear with you, princess. You are correct -- we probably shouldn't take up pretenses. You are useless to us until you wed our son Lamont, produce an heir, and raise that heir to eventually take the throne. Until then you are a royal hostage. Your family knew this when they agreed to have you wed to my son. Nothing was sugar-coated for them. I didn't like the idea any more than they did, but we all agreed that this was a better solution than seeing more of our people die. War is tiring for even the best of us, and we are all very tiring indeed.

"Lamont doesn't need a meek, compliant wife. Right now, you show more promise of being an effective ruler than he does. However, I will not have our customs, traditions, and culture snuffed out by whatever Astoran sentiments you decide to bring into this castle. I don't expect you to grovel at my son's feet because how you feel about each other does not matter in the grand scheme of things. You [i]will[/i], however, comply to my orders and the Berinike way. You will learn, you will assimilate, and if you don't agree to that, then I can treat you as a hostage ought to be treated by locking you in a dungeon until the wedding."

With that, he rose from his chair, it scraping obnoxiously against the floor, and strode away, abandoning the rest of his breakfast.

Queen Alexis eyed Kiara with a neutral, almost haughty gaze. "How did you do it?" she remarked. "How are you getting Lamont to listen to you when he has outright defied us his whole life?"