Post #2701043 in The Prince and the Shieldmaiden, a roleplay on RPG

"It is in a father's nature to see the good in his son even if it is obscured by the darkness in his heart," Beorn stated and Evangelina looked up at him. She knew that, in fact, she thought it herself, but to hear it from someone else, made it all the more daunting.

"We are taught that no man is pure evil. Even the most vile man can seek redemption... But we choose who we are going to be, Evangelina. You are strong and good. If you cannot bring out the good in him, then he has chosen to murder the evil within himself of his own free will. I would try to fulfill your promise, but the king would not hold you accountable for his son's own actions." He said with an urgency that unsettled her. He was telling her to leave, he didn't mean it, not in some many words, probably wasn't aware of it, but he didn't believe that there was hope, and she would only be putting herself in further danger. He was likely not wrong.

She was quiet, she didn't want to argue the point, and for some odd reason, she didn't want him to know how badly she wanted to make Brynjar to submit...to her. She wanted to win this game. . She realized then that King Artos while he truly did want her to find the good in his son, wasn't her entire motivation for staying. It was....pride. However small, it was pride that drove her to stay, to put up with abuse that any other man would have been feed his teeth for. There was a thrill that she got from this. Something that made her otherwise provincial life more exciting. She did not want to tell Beron that. She hardly wanted to admit it to herself, though it was true. She felt guilty, and a little ashamed for it and Beron, while it was clear his feelings even if they weren't entirely clear to him, for her, was part of his motivations and she couldn't say for certain that she even felt remotely the same, meant something to him. His opinion mattered. He really was a friend and she didn't want her pride to cause him to think less of her. What did her staying in the lions den, knowing full well she was want the beast lusted after, and baited it, constantly, got a strange thrill, a rush from him, say about her? Some of the other servants, thought she had been sleeping with the King, and enjoying it while most of the other women feared being chosen for his next meal. She wasn't afraid of being chosen, and she wasn't sleeping with him, but she was...enjoying it..whatever it was.

Beron looked out of the window to the rising sun and she hoped her thoughts were betrayed on her face.

"The Northmen are getting ready to leave. I should see my prince." He told her and she nodded. "Of course." She said, and rose as he did. All this time they spoke and they didn't work on a single lesson. She could have chuckled, if her mind wasn't so clouded. She wanted to clear her head, or at least think without Beron being in the room, eyes appraising, surely he must wandering what demon possessed her to stay. She wandered that very thing, what crazed spirited snuck into her mind and make her feel all of these things.

"I'll be in the gardens, if you need me." She said and they both made their exit.

As she made her way to the gardens, she noticed an unmistakable smug voice. King Brynjar. She couldn't hear what he say, but there was another voice with him, smaller, softer....timid. Evaneglina sighed as she watched the King and his chosen victim, the one she'd tried to turn his attention from the night before. She never caught her name, and wished she had. She would have liked to tell the woman that she had an ally here, but how? When?
A small voice in Evaneglina's mind, sounding oddly like her own said "why?"

Why save her when she didn't fight back? Or was she fighting back in her own way...or, like herself, did she too get the same odd rush from Brynjar's sick attention. Granted, he wanted to break her resolve, he wanted her to give into him and all she wanted to was prove to him that he couldn't, but there was something about that, him wanting her to give in, was where the rush had been coming from. She wasn't a prideful person, but maybe it had something to do with her so used to being invisible, that the attention of a King, two kings, now, had done something to her. Changed her thoughts on her self, one King thought her so unique, so different, that he thought another King -however recent, would find her interesting too....and he did. Or was it that, she won earlier today, and was ready for another challenge. Ready to win again?

Watching the two as they walked on, Evaneglina found herself walking in their direction, thankfully she stopped herself before doing anything foolish. She shook her head. This was wrong, so very wrong. She should not care what a man- using the term loosely- like Brynjar thought of her, if he saw her or not.

So she shouldn't have felt the almost overwhelming urge to go call his attention away from the other woman and back to her. She should feel bad for the girl....not jealous of her.

That sudden realization sent Evangelina urgently toward the gardens and away from the couple, to where things made perfect sense, unlike the acute insanity that she must be suffering, that caused her to turn her head, and secretly -and stupid wishing that he turned to see her, meet her gaze. He wouldn't not, and she shouldn't want that anyway.

Snippet #2701043

located in Europa, a part of The Prince and the Shieldmaiden, one of the many universes on RPG.

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