Immediately, Glolieh jerked the chains of Drokn’s shackles, urging him to stop. Her face hid any urgency, however, the tightened grip on Drokn’s shackles implied otherwise.

“No! I’ve had enough!” Unwilling to comply with Glolieh, unwilling to be spoken for as if he was incapable to handle his own affairs, Drokn would not listen any further.

For,

he was a king.

“All this back and forth is getting us nowhere!” Drokn voiced out his frustrations with the nonsensical dialogue. His voice commanded authority, loud and booming within the room. Where the queen’s booming voice crept her words into one’s skin, Drokn’s voice shook hearts. Instead of cowering under power, they looked.

And as they looked, he spoke again, ignoring all the gazes scrutinizing him. His focus was on the icy figure far in front of him, without the slightest bit of intimidation nor the slightest bit of doubt.

“So what? You want me to pay the price for breaking in and hurting your precious elves. And you won’t believe me that I won’t do that again. So, what exactly do you want to do? Lock me up? Torture me? Kill me? For what? Giving your guards a few bruises? Are your guards so weak that you need to make a big deal about hurting them? Because they were doing their job?”

The crystal eyes of the queen grew frostier, and Glolieh hands tensed. Glolieh glanced at Drokn before staring once again at the queen, vigilant of her every reaction, and subtly keeping the demon at bay with her arm behind him.

“Just be honest, you just hate me, just like I hate you.”

A chill went up the necks of the researchers present, sweat piling from the audacious words, and inadvertently, they lowered their heads. The guards holding onto Eial, although motionless, every so lightly creased their brows, their lips curling downward, heated from the insult to the royals they’ve sworn to serve.

“You just want any excuse to just lock me up and show that you have power over demons. Or maybe just me. Fuck do I care which. But do you really think you can do that? The moment you lock the king up, you don’t think the demons are finally going to find a reason to retaliate? Demons fucking hate elves.”

Gritting her teeth behind her locked lips, the queen suddenly burst a flat ring of ice behind her back with pointed ice shards at equal increments rotating slowly along the ring. The guards holding onto Eial shifted their stance, left foot forward, knees bent, ready to move if necessary.

Eial’s pulse rose at the shift in energy and the words his demon spoke. His eyes wavered to look Drokn’s way, unsure of what he would see. Drokn’s unbridled confidence had often led to impulsive decisions that have ultimately hurt himself. However, this time, the demon had the look of grounded determination, a foresight to his words. Although guarded to the movements of everything around him, Eial’s heartbeat settled as he continued to listen to the demon’s words.

“We hate each other enough to not want each other in our territories. Then, what do you think will happen if you imprison me? Did you want to start a war? What exactly will that do? Take lives, both demons and elves. Waste resources. Destroy homes. And then what? We’re still going to hate each other. Nothing’s solved. It’ll just be so much bullshit over an accidental territory entering and a few bruised guards.

“So, how about we start talking about some actual fucking diplomatic solutions rather than dancing around bullshit words like ‘repercussions’ and ‘consequences’ without any idea of what that means or what would come from it. The ‘consequences,’ in your own words.”

Feverishly springing up tall, the icy ring behind the queen expanded wider and the ice shards rotating within grew larger. Sparks of ice splattered from the queen like electricity and the expressions of the researchers turned grim. The elven king, who had been but a doll this entire time, reached out to hold the queen’s stiff fingers, causing her to spin her head to face him in a jolt.

“Sit down, my love,” he calmly voiced, gently stroking the back of the queen’s hand. “Don’t let his words affect you so. I am not too happy either with how he speaks to you, but we do have to be careful as it is true that he is a royal.”

Slowly, the magic ring around the queen’s back shrunk until it became thin and broke into glitter before disappearing completely. Heaving a grave sigh, she gracefully sat back in her throne and curled her fingers to softly hold the elven king’s hand. “I apologize, my love. You had to see me in an embarrassing and childish manner.”

Smiling kindly, he looked to his queen with eyes only of warmth. “Nothing you do will make me see you as less, my love.”

Whenever the elven queen and king interacted, Eial’s attention would curiously turn their way. This time was no different, and as they continued to hold hands, Eial looked over to Drokn and then to the floor, as if in thought.

Meanwhile, Glolieh unintentionally started to let out a deep sigh of relief. But when she felt her warm breath touch her lips, she immediately stopped herself, recomposed herself, and went back to focus on the queen in front.

“His Majesty speaks the truth. We have to be careful of how we approach this issue as we are now faced with a royal. Likewise, King Drokn does make a good point. The guards were doing their jobs and failure to stop a threat primarily reflects poorly on our guard training rather than the injury a single threat had caused them. Punishing King Drokn for this reason would only reveal our poor security to the demons and may even make our territory become a target.”

“Then what,” the queen questioned, her voice reverberating within the ears of everyone present, “do you suggest we do?” Every ounce of anger that boiled within the queen equally eased within each stroke of the king’s thumb. “We have to hold him accountable in some manner.”

“First of all,” Drokn interjected, tilting his head, his teeth and lips turning into a sort of a half snarl. “I know you don’t like talking to me, but I am talking to you, too.” Then, tilting to the other side, Drokn’s brows rose high and his lips curved with a mocking grin. “So, ask me too, huh?”