"So... uh. What did you do to Saymar?" I asked. We were walking back through the palace, and the Master of the Realm was holding my hand, firmly. I was trying to ignore that. βThat and the nearly overwhelming urge to plaster myself to his body like some kind of parasitic octopus.
He shrugged. "Sent him back to where he belongs."
"Like, hell? Or?"
"That's a lot of vengeance you're desiring against someone who obviously just wanted you for his own," he said with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"He scared the shit out of me."
Eric began to laugh. "I guess! Gosh, Dor β you were crying! What happened to my little badass?"
"I'm not little," I snapped, embarrassed. "He just, he startled me. He caught me off guard. ...I didn't even hear you say a spell," I said, changing the subject. "How'd you disappear him?"
"It was the palace. I have it rigged to throw out unwanted guests. I actually had to say a spell earlier when I realized he was trying to get in, just so he could get in."
I stopped him there. "Why did you let him in?"
"I wanted to see what he was up to. So once I figured it out, I let the spell go, and the security system kicked in and sent him home."
"Oh," I said. Something wasn't working in my head. He just sent Saymar home. It wasn't that I didn't think that was fair, but...
He looked at me curiously. "Are you okay?"
No.
No I wasn't.
I let go of his hand suddenly. I couldn't touch him; it was frying my brain.
He seemed surprised by this. "What is it, Dor?"
"Are you lying about Saymar?"
He now looked at me confounded. "Why would I lie about Saymar?"
"Why didn't you kill him?" I demanded.
"Should I have?" he asked.
I was beginning to feel sick. Saymar invaded his home and tried to kidnap me. And I thought I recalled Eric referring to me as "his woman." Regardless of how inaccurate that statement was, it seemed to me Saymar should be top of the list of Eric's enemies.
But Eric had only killed my family.
-Not the man who tried to take me away.
Was it that my parents' lives had been somehow more offensive than Saymar's?
Or was it that Saymar hadn't really committed that large of a sin in Eric's eyes?
I was just a servant.
Maybe if I hadn't said anything, Eric would have just let Saymar take me.
Maybe that's how simple it was to him. Men want women, they take them. Nothing personal.
Eric reached out for me, but I couldn't. I couldn't touch him. I put my hands up and ran away.
Down the halls that only began to light as I ran through them. Up the stairs of cold, smooth stone. I wasn't going to cry again. Not where he could see me.
Problem was he could see me anywhere.
I ran into my room, and pushed past him, already waiting for me by the door, looking all confused and frightened by me. I ran into the bathroom adjacent, and started to wretch.
He came to stand in the doorway. "What. The. Fuck," he said.
I finished, crumpled beside my toilet, sweating.
I wanted to scream at him! Why my family! Why not Saymar!