The Paper Crown

18. Persuasion

The next day, as is becoming routine, I sneak off to the library in the morning for my language lesson with Konrad. He is waiting for me when I arrive, a new stack of books in front of him, the usual polite smile on his regular features, however when I greet him and sit down, he keeps his hands folded on top of the stack of books.

"We begin?" I ask in Selician.

"In a moment," he says in Rothalian. "First, we must have some small, er, argument."

"An argument?" It is impossible to decipher the emotion hidden behind his polite smile and firmly folded hands. "About your son?"

The polite smile deepens. "I am not angry, you know."

"But we are to have an argument?"

"A philosophical debate, perhaps?" Something real comes into his smile, the heat of genuine humour. "We must weigh the merits of force against those of persuasion. The incident at the lake yesterday shows that you favour force, but I find myself firmly on the side of persuasion."

"And you would rather I persuaded your son to cease his behaviour than forced him into regretting it?"

"Certainly." Konrad's voice is soft. "For one reason, I am naturally protective of my son and I was shaken to hear that he had been hurt. For another, I admit that his behaviour does need correcting but your manner of correcting it is effective only in the moment. He will not change his ways after yesterday. He will simply make sure that you do not see him make mistakes."

"He was not hurt. A little pinching, a momentary fear. I would not call that hurt."

"Ah, but fear can hurt. Fear can hurt more deeply than bruises and blood." Konrad caresses the binding of a book with his long fingers. "You are not easily afraid, I think, or you would understand."

"Not easily. But I do not believe Florian was hurt, even by fear. He seemed quite recovered when I saw him in Duchess Maria's rooms afterwards." I decide it would be unwise to call Konrad's son a whinger or a liar to his face. "Quite unafraid."

"Perhaps. But the fact remains, you used brute force against my son when persuasion would have been the stronger tool. It always is."

"Not always."

"No?" He raises one elegant dark eyebrow. "And how did your uncle take over this country? Did he send his army of thousands to camp in our villages, to slaughter our men, rape our women, and starve our children? Did he imprison our parliamentarians? Execute the king and queen and their children? No. No, not at all." Konrad leans on his elbows over the table, his eyes reflecting the shimmering candlelight. "He sympathised with King Adam when Prussia and Austria rattled their sabres at our borders. He offered his help, his protection, his friendship. And once it was accepted, he let King Adam know its price. Submission."

I don't want to talk about my uncle with Konrad. "That is politics. What happened yesterday at the lake was not."

"Politics is just personal relations on a grander scale, with greater consequences."

"And what happened at the lake was very much personal. I saw one boy bullying another, and intervened. I will not apologize for what I did, nor how I did it. If that affects our arrangement for you to teach me your language, then I will, naturally, regret the consequences of my actions, but I will not regret my actions themselves."

Konrad sighs. "And there you go again, with force, rather than persuasion."

"What force? I used nothing but words."

"And your words were bludgeons, not needles. You opened up no avenue for compromise, not even difference of opinion. You leave me with no option but to profess that I most certainly do wish to continue our little lessons."

"Then let us continue."

I reach out for the stack of books, but Konrad pulls it away from me.

"A moment, please, your highness," he murmurs. "See what your words have done. You have closed the door on our argument, though it is not resolved. How very forceful your nature is. But what happens when you meet a force stronger than your own? You end up, like Florian, crying for mercy. But persuasion, you see, as I am doing now, resists force and leads to permanent change in one's opponent."

"We are both talking," I say impatiently. "Though one of us is talking nonsense."

"And there you go again, closing the door!"

We fall into a brief and uncomfortable silence. Konrad plays with a ribbon dangling out of one of his books. I fiddle with the silk of my skirts and wonder how badly he is offended. I don't want him to stop these lessons. Even in only a week, I am starting to understand fragments of words which I never could before.

"I didn't want to hurt Florian," I say, which is true. "I only wanted to make him understand what it would be like to be that little mouse, thrown into the lake. To understand how cruel he had been."

"And that is why I am not angry with you," Konrad says. "Your intentions are too clearly good. But you raised your hand against a child, my child. I must beg you never do that again, no matter the reason."

He looks at me, his blue eyes wide and earnest. He clearly wants to make the promise not to, but knowing that is what he wants makes me wary of giving it to him.

I decide, instead, to evade the conversation.

"I lost my temper." I try to sound sad. "Perhaps that is what you mean by force. I am afraid I do not quite know what you mean by persuasion."

"Perhaps you have been too sheltered from the world, away from court, courtiers, and court politics. You were only a child when you were... imprisoned." He says the word delicately, as though he is afraid I will be hurt by it. "You're a little green, aren't you, your highness?"

My pride flares, but I resist the reflex to deny the insult. It will only remind him of what we are really arguing about. "For now, let us work on the assumption that I am ignorant. Teach me what you mean by persuasion."

His hands, still folded on the books, relax. "All relationships, whether between nations or people, are characterized by dynamics of brute force or persuasion. But force, ah, what does it do? It has everything its own way, or it has nothing at all. One wins through the other's loss. So commonality, accord, affection, in relationships of force eventually crumble away. Persuasion by contrast allows for a shifting in standing between two people. A coming together. An alignment of opinion."

"Compromise, in other words."

"Not always. True persuasion, political persuasion, will make your foes believe you have compromised with them, when in reality you have deceived them, shifted the terrain beneath their feet without them noticing, given them a choice that they believed to be free, which was in fact no choice at all." Konrad is silent for a moment. "King Edmund is very good at that, I believe."

I have no argument against that, but I still do not wish to speak of my uncle with Konrad. I don't even want to hear his name.

Our brief silence is broken by the sound of the library door opening. I turn to see Mariusz in the doorway. He stares at us for a moment, then goes over to a bookcase and scans the shelves. He takes out a book, tucks it under one arm, and leaves again, all without saying a single word to break our silence. We might not be there at all.

"Where does genuine friendship fall into your theory of force and persuasion?" I ask when Mariusz has gone. "If we are all persuading or forcing others into doing our bidding, how can genuine friendship exist?

"True friendship?" Konrad opens one of the books in front of him at last. "It is rarer than emeralds."

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2024-07-28: Konrad, stop mansplaining. You got no idea what you're talking about. None.