[i][color=f7941d]It's strange,[/color][/i] the King could not help but think, [color=f7941d][i] how she manages to look so meek and timid while she defies me all the same.[/i][/color] It was true. The Princess sat there draped in pastel pink and a grey woollen shawl, hardly dressed for battle. In her person, Ozragad could see the nervous tics she possessed, that tendency to fidget, the incessant tapping of her fingers against the table top. She was just a girl practically, a young girl who was clearly, obviously afraid of him. 

[i][color=f7941d]And yet...[/color][/i]

Yet she sat there, with fire in her eyes, and sought conditions from him. 

It made him furious of course. He was a King, and she was enemy of him and his people. If Ozragad had gotten his way he would have trampled her and her family beneath the dust of his armies. He was not surprised that it made him angry. Most things had, for a long time now. There was however another feeling deep inside him, a tiny, minute pang of something other than anger. Respect? Perhaps, but no, he didn't think it was that. As the silence held while he waited to hear her condition, it finally dawned on him.

He was glad. By the gods, why was he glad? Ozragad had cause to be glad in some of this, she was agreeing to the marriage, agreeing to the peace after all. But that wasn't the source of his feelings, no, it came from somewhere else. He was glad he had not broken her, that she was not just submitting to him like a docile little lamb. Why was that? 

[i][color=f7941d]It's because you are ashamed of what you did to her, and you know it to be wrong.[/color][/i]

No, it was justified. It was all justified. Anything to make it mean something. Anything to make it all worth something. 

[i][color=f7941d]Is that how a man should behave to his wife? Is that how you treated your wife?[/color][/i]

No.

[i][color=f7941d]Would you apologise to her?[/color][/i]

I have nothing to apologise for.

[i][color=f7941d]Blame the Eorzian's as much as you want, Liveuta's blood is on your hands as-.[/color][/i]

[b][color=f7941d]"Silence."[/color][/b] Ozragad's voice echoed harshly in the high ceilinged  stone chamber. He had not intended to speak aloud. His golden eyes frantically searched the room. Had she noticed that he had not meant to? He could see Manawyndan arch an eyebrow from the back on the room. The King coughed into his hand and attempted to recover his composure. [b][color=f7941d]"I have heard more than enough."[/color][/b]

The King rose from his seat and stalked over the stone flagged floor to one of the high narrow windows that threw long line of dim twilight across the room. He stared out at the ghostly city and his own ghost haunted palace. [color=f7941d][i]You do it all for them. You have to make it worth something for them.[/i][/color] He had been ready to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. He had been ready to commit murders and atrocities in order to get what he wanted. And now all that stood in the way was one little apology? Well, one little apology and his pride of course. 

[b]"Ahem, perhaps you wish time to reflect, sire?"[/b] It was Manawyndan who spoke first. There was that wheedling edge of the old man's words. As soon as the Princess left this room he would be trying to convince him to just apologise, through gritted teeth and lies if necessary. 

[b][color=f7941d]"No need. I have come to my decision."[/color][/b] Ozragad turned from the window and faced the inhabitants of the room once again. There was spark in his eyes. Slowly, he approached the table once more, but he did not walk towards his own seat. He walked towards where the Princess, Elise Hydaelyn, sat at the other end of the dark polished surface.

[color=f7941d][b]"I want you to know something."[/b][/color] He began in a low husky tone, as he approached her chair. [b][color=f7941d]"Everything I said that day? I stand by it all. I was completely sincere. There are only two options before you, marrying me and peace, or defying me and the bloodiest war our countries have ever seen. I will not apologise for that."[/color][/b] By now the King was standing directly behind her chair, he rested his hands on either side of it. 

[b][color=f7941d]"But you are not a warrior, and that was not a battlefield. My conduct was not that of a man to his bride-to-be, the conduct of a man to his wife."[/color][/b] He stepped to the side of her chair, and knelt on one knee. Their difference in height meant that their eyes were almost at a level - cool blue and burning gold. [b][color=f7941d]"When I raised my hands against you, I shamed myself. I am, or at least I once was, a better man than that. So for that I can, and will, apologise."[/color][/b]