He shrugged.
"He touched you."
"So you severed his hand?"
"What?" She couldn't see his face but by now, she had come to know that he would be wearing a light frown beneath that mask. "You were not expecting that I would just allow him to go scot-free after what he did to you, were you?"
"You could have just locked him up in one of your many dungeons to teach him a lesson that takes an important body part from him forever."
"His presence was tiring." He ran his fingers through his brown hair that was so dark, sometimes it got mistaken for black, his nails clicking against his crown as he did that. "I wanted to get rid of him as soon as I could."
"You can't just go severing people's hands like that, Eli."
"Why not? He attacked you. He attacked my Bride, his future Queen."
She bit her lips.
"You've made him handicapped."
"I kept him alive as you wanted, that is what matters. He should be grateful that I did, the ones that had boldly made the same mistake as he did, did not live past the very hour."
"You should--"
"Enough." He commanded, his voice firm and cold. "What difference as he from the people that attacked you at the market square? I eliminated them, remember?" The hall went oddly silent. "You did not seem to have any problem with that, Donna, why have a problem now?"
She opened her mouth to speak but she quickly realized she had nothing to say and she closed it right back.
"Listen to me very carefully, my Donna, whosoever attempts to bring harm to you will certainly suffer the consequences, not even your plead for mercy will make them completely escape it."
"That seems very tyrannical."
He scoffed. "Tyrannical? I am anything but a tyrant. Let me rephrase that, I am King and I will not let anyone, commoner or otherwise, assault my future Queen and go scot-free with only a few sentences in the dungeon as punishment. That scale just does not feel very balanced to me."
"How despotic."
At this point, she wasn't thinking. She just wanted to win the argument and she knew it.
His anger showed with how he raised the goblet to his lips with stiffness.
"You are taking this too far, Donna." He set the goblet down on the table with a gentle force. "You are starting to make me think you harbour feelings towards this boy and I do not want to entertain such provoking thoughts."
"Feelings for Lytio?" She gasped. "Now that's just absurd."
He wanted to believe that too, but he was scared that now that she saw him as a victim, her feelings for him were rushing back and there was nothing standing in the way for her to refuse them.
"Who do you have feelings for then? Tell me, who do you love? Your King, perhaps?"
Why was he doing this?
"You know I love you, Eli." Her voice was quiet when she sensed the hurt he was trying to hide in his question.
"Then stop making me doubt it by doing things like this. It is tiring. I do not make you doubt my love for you, please, stop doing it to me."
The silence passed on for too long, it was starting to feel suffocating and the crack of the door of the dining hall, which would have been a disturbance, at that moment, was a save.
"Your Majesty, Lady Belladonna," Kestra greeted as she glided in. "There is something that requires---" her voice trailed off immediately, observing the tension in the room, and she turned to leave. "I will just return shortly."
"There will be no need for that." The chair scraped slightly against the floor as the King stood up. "We are done with breakfast."
He walked to her, titling his mask a little, and pressed a kiss against her forehead.
Then he left with Lady Kestra and the dining hall was filled with silence.
She clenched her fists, angry.
So that was what this was about? His insecurity?
Annoying.
His insecurity was not making him see her point.
What difference did this make from the others?
Those at the market had a story worth her sympathy too, just like Lytio, but Lytio was...
He had...
He...
By Ignas, why couldn't she think of something?
Mad at herself and at everything, she left the dining hall too and went straight to her room. Picking up a book from the stack Eli had gifted her some months ago to read, but that hadn't helped much.
So she opted for a walk instead, thinking about what he had said, Anok's presence completely forgotten.
No matter the direction she took in her thoughts, it kept feeling insignificant to be mad at him for this, and by the end of the day, it felt stupid.
Absolutely stupid.
Was she stupid?!
She should have reassured him.
He had come to her with his fear and she had said nothing. She should have rendered his doubts groundless immediately. It seemed that he had considered Lytio as a threat. She noticed this behaviour had been after she had ran down and risked her health to save him.
Could it be because he was scared she would see Lytio in a different redeeming light that would make her love him again?
She knew that could never happen but did he?
She felt pity for Lytio, not love. Her feelings were clear to her but they seem not to be clear to Eli.
By Ignas, she had better find him right now and sought out the situation before it would become a bigger problem.
The consequences of that just weren't worth it.