Still she defied him. Even with her life on the line, even as he could see her terror clear as day in those deep blue eyes. How could this be? How could this Erozian girl defy him so? He was a King, she was at his mercy, in his own domain, surrounded by his armies and guards. He held her very life in his hands and still she found the will to stand against him. It was inconceivable to him.

As she trembled beneath his grasp he fought the urge to stab, to bludgeon, to [i]crush[/i] the life out of her. But Ozragad knew that he could not. Not if he wished to possess the lands promised to him without risking everything on one last desperate and bloody assault of his armies. [color=f7941d][i]Although it seems you've gambled everything on a desperate and bloody assault either way. This is course you have chosen, attack her some other way.[/i][/color] 

The King let the silence hang between them as they stood there, pressed against the bookcase, his calloused hand wrapped around her delicate neck. He stared into her eyes, intense, unblinking. His orange-gold eyes flickering like fire as the light caught them. When he spoke it was quieter than before, but it was soft, these were words forged in iron, quenched with blood.

[b][color=f7941d]"So you value your life as little as I do? Fine."[/color][/b] 

As he finished speaking the grasp around her throat tightened. Ozragad was no longer just holding her in place. He was strangling her.

There was a skill to strangling someone the correct way and Ozragad knew something of it. He had people whom he left most of the integration of enemy officers and spies to these days, but at the start of the war when his blood burnt fiercest, he had tried his hand at it numerous times. One could constrict the airway or the flow of blood to the head. To constrict the blood required more skill, it was faster, and a swift way to incapacitate or kill. Constricting the airway was easier, though it was also easier to cause permanent damage by this method. It was also much slower, and much more frightening as the victim became starved for air and unable to breathe. 

Ozragad was careful. He did not squeeze hard enough to damage the fragile bones that supported the windpipe, but he did stop the princess from breathing just for a few moments... until he released her.

[b][color=f7941d]"You should think more carefully before you ask such questions of me."[/color][/b]

The dagger returned to its sheath and Ozragad turned his back on the princess. He walked over to the mess of pages on the floor that used to be the book they had been so politely discussing just minutes before and knelt down to gather the debris. When he had retrieved it all he stood once more and set it on one of the tables set between the rows of shelves. The King examined the ruined cover in one hand and tutted in dissatisfaction.

[b][color=f7941d]"Besides, do you really think killing you is the worst thing I could do you? Or the only revenge I would enact upon your disobedience?"[/color][/b] 

He picked up a page and tore it in two. 

[b][color=f7941d]"I could leave you alive and make your life a living hell. Make you watch as I kill all those you brought with you from Eorzia.[/color][/b] 

He tore the two halves again. 

[b][color=f7941d]"Then I could keep you alive as I used our wedding day to launch a surprise attack on Novrandt. I doubt it would fully succeed, but that would not matter."[/color][/b]

He tore them again. 

[b][color=f7941d]"It would probably kill many of your loved ones. Your father. Your brother. I could fill your carriage with crossbow men, wouldn't that be a surprise when they came to greet you?"[/color][/b]

And again.

[b][color=f7941d]"I could cut away at every piece of your life. Every person you ever knew."[/color][/b]

And again.

[color=f7941d][b]"Until there was nothing left."[/b][/color]

The King opened his hands and let the tiny squares of paper fall on the floor.

[color=f7941d][b]"Just... dust."[/b][/color]

He smiled his cruellest smile for her then. Before calmly walking towards the doors through which he had entered. Gently he opened it and stuck his head through to speak to the bodyguards he had left outside.

[b][color=f7941d]"Please escort Princess Elise to her chambers, and ensure that she remains there until she has reconsidered her choices.[/color][/b]