Alliance

Chapter 18- Protego

Protego

Latin

Protect

-

and,

you're just like the mountain

hyacinth,

trodden by the shepherds

next to the purple

blossoms

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Trigger warning: discussions of past attempted rape.

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"Queen Susan, would you mind if I converse with Queen Sanya for a moment?" Rabadash stopped in his tracks as he saw his former betrothed trying to walk unnoticed to the dining hall. "We are old family friends- and we haven't had a chance to catch up."

Please say no, please say no, please say no, Sanya mentally begged but-

"Of course. I'll see you straight at supper?"

Rabadash nodded at her, and bowed his head.

Susan smiled at him, and then at Sanya, before taking her leave.

"No one around to save you now." The Prince turned to the young woman.

"I can save myself, thank you very much." She snarled, digging her fingers into her palms, feeling something very unlike her.
Fear.
She felt nervous and trepidation and awkward, but fear was rare for her. It was not an emotion she enjoyed. "The scar on your hand will testify to that."

"Handy you may be with a sword, but in a match of brute force? You'd be pinned down in seconds." He stepped towards her threateningly, his usual leer springing up. "Coincidentally, that is how I like my women- below me."

Sanya didn't falter, and stared up resolutely, "Want to bet? I am not a weakling, Rabadash, not physically or emotionally. You want a wrestling match, I consent to it. But let me just say- if you come near my son again-"

"Little Jem is precious." He nodded, ignoring the first part of her sentence. "And if the child wishes to spend time with me-"

"He does not." She cut him off at once, eyes blazing- but she managed to calm herself before they flickered blue. "No one does. Least of all me."

"Oh, but my little princess, surely by now you know I care nothing of if you consent or not."

"I'll have you hanged if you touch me- actually, I'll personally slit your throat-"

"And with what proof to back your actions?" He challenged, not backing down. "What proof? The bedrooms are far too soundproof for anyone to hear your screams- and, after all, if anyone does hear so, screams are usual in times of ecstatic euphoria. Did you not know that?"

"I did- do." She said stiffly, thinking that the only person she wished to experience ecstatic euphoria with was also the one person who loathed her entirely. "How dare you-"

"And-" He continued speaking over her, inching even closer- it was only because of Sanya's raised hand that Tolland didn't pounce- "no one sees what goes on under the dining table-" his hand touched the back of hers and slid up to her elbow "whose foot kicks whose, who accidentally touches another, where fingers might slip-" he stroked her forearm, and her blood pounded in her ears "one might say such behaviour is alright between people like us-"