A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

That was not to say the condition he was currently in was all that bad. It wasn't optimal – far from it. But he still believed he could fight with teeth bared, and he hoped that he wouldn't be collapsing any time soon. That was still mere supposition though – it wasn't as though he understood the nature of his affliction entirely, nothing beyond the fact that it came when his progress seemed to be at its most vigorous. The Princess looked conflicted. There was a wrestling in that shrouded heart of hers – a heart that Oliver could not easily reach, despite his new understanding of Command. Hers was a soul that was too difficult to grasp. "I shall try," the Princess said, a fraction of courage about her. The old her. Oliver nodded, acknowledging the bravery. It was a bravery difficult to understand – to confront a fragment of oneself, and to accept it, or even acknowledge it, that was a battle that did not seem so glorious on the outside, but still took a tremendous amount of willpower. Delicately, she reached her hands up towards his face. Her fingers were trembling, and her reaching came halting. Oliver stood still, and bowed his head, accepting the touch. Her golden rings felt cool against his skin as she placed her palms on both of his cheeks. It might have been better to close his eyes then – for both he, and for the Princess – but curiosity forced him to keep them open. He stared deep into the green eyes of Princess Asabel, wondering if he could see through them what lay beyond her. All of a sudden, he felt a shock, like a pinprick to his skin. It wasn't painful so much as it was alarming. It made him twitch, but that was all. The real reaction came from Ingolsol and Claudia and both fragments radiated unease – but he could hear neither of their thoughts. They seemed to have been overridden by something more powerful. Oliver watched, and the green of Asabel's eyes glowed just a fragment brighter. Enough that it would have been easily dismissed, had he not been looking directly at her. He was hit by a wave of compassion, enough to shake his knees, though he did his best to stand firm through it. "Once more, I feel resistance…" Asabel said, frowning. "I cannot heal you, Ser Patrick." She began to draw her hands away. "Oh, but you have," Oliver said. He was quite sure of it. It was as though a weight had been lifted off his back. A weight that he himself hadn't even realized that he was carrying. The accumulated fatigue of progress came steadily, day after day, in the smallest amounts – without the foundation to bear it, the weight had clung to him, slowing him subtly, ever increasing. It was so subtle that he himself hadn't really been able to comprehend its vastness. He'd felt fine, he thought, but now that it had been removed, the difference was extraordinary. He seized the hand that was pulling away from him. The surprise on the Princess' face was obvious. In all her life, it was doubtful that anyone had ever treated her with anything more than the lightest touch. "That confirms it for me, Asabel," he said, holding her in place. She didn't try to pull her hand away any further – she was merely searching his face with intelligent eyes, trying to understand him. "For whatever reason, your power has an effect on my ailment. Now that I know, I shall be even more forceful." "W-what are you saying?" The Princess stammered. "I cannot have you wasting yourself, when I have a need for you," Oliver said. "If you continue to make such nonsense insistences about you being sullied, or whatever other drivel has come fallen out of your mouth lately, then I will take matters into my own hands and see them corrected." "Just what are you threatening, Oliver..?" The Princess said, halfway between horrified and stunned. "Just what I said," Oliver replied. "If my head remains attached to my shoulders when I return, and I still see you mopping, looking like a fraction of yourself, I shall become such a scourge on you and your people that you will be forced to return to yourself just to save them." "That's the most outlandish threat I've ever heard…" the Princess said, taking it all in. Oliver's threat, made in all seriousness, that he would make an enemy out of her. Had he said it to anyone else, they would have looked at him like a criminal. Of all the people, a Princess had that right. His eyes sparkled with Ingolsol's mischievousness, as he knew thoroughly just how outlandish his threat had been. However, from the smile that crept to Asabel's lips, that normally unthinkable threat might have been the right thing to see. Her canine tooth snuck out from under her lip, revealing the fangs of a lioness that had been hidden for far too long. "There you are," Oliver said, recognizing the smile, still caught up in Ingolsol's playfulness. "There's far more beauty to you, Princess, when you're smiling like that." The other daring line might have been the right thing to say at the right time, but apparently, this one was one step too far. The smile was halted by a heavy blush, and a second later, a slap collided across Oliver's cheek, with more force than one would expect from a little lady. Indeed, it was the force of at least a Second Boundary individual. Now, it was Oliver's turn to smile, as he thought he glimpsed a part of Asabel that was normally kept ever so carefully hidden. She seemed surprised by her own actions, seeing the red mark that she'd left on his cheek, and her own raised hand, but soon her own smile returned, with a hint of exasperation. "If this is how you treat your allies, Ser Patrick, I think I finally understand just why your enemies are so exasperated with you," Princess Asabel said. "You're a cruel man."