[ She was stunned at first, by the offer of affection, which is a word she does not yet know. She is frozen next, by her confusion over those words, and then by how his armor becomes robes from one blink to the next. When he finally sits on that throne, there is a part of her that wishes she could hide beneath the floor of the castle, close her eyes and burrow under her own skin.
All this time, she had wondered and asked what the Blade King was like, and all this time the soldier had offered her responses in kind: that the King was a monarch of compassion and choice. He did not lie, because she had witnessed firsthand how he had offered both those things to her, a lowly child who had fought in the Pit as a matter of survival.
It does not register to her that he is looking straight at her, but it is mostly because she cannot bring herself to check if any of the other children are held by his gaze. She does, however, shut her eyes and bow her head because she cannot look upon him without feeling like she might as well be looking at the sun.
She does not know which is worse: that she had harbored a wish that the soldier who had treated her with such care was someone she might ask to be given to, or the fact that that soldier had been the King himself. ]
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All this time, she had wondered and asked what the Blade King was like, and all this time the soldier had offered her responses in kind: that the King was a monarch of compassion and choice. He did not lie, because she had witnessed firsthand how he had offered both those things to her, a lowly child who had fought in the Pit as a matter of survival.
It does not register to her that he is looking straight at her, but it is mostly because she cannot bring herself to check if any of the other children are held by his gaze. She does, however, shut her eyes and bow her head because she cannot look upon him without feeling like she might as well be looking at the sun.
She does not know which is worse: that she had harbored a wish that the soldier who had treated her with such care was someone she might ask to be given to, or the fact that that soldier had been the King himself. ]