A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1821 - 1821: The Stirring of Great Winds - Part 6

The High King, in his rising jealousy, began to apply a pressure. It was childishly done, pathetically, and the realm was their audience to it. He gave dictates, that the Treeant King was forced to acknowledge, despite his disgust, for fear of the war that would inevitably follow it. The High King's solution was a lacking freedom. He created his reasons, and he had Persephone brought to the Capital permanently, and moved into quarters that he could keep a watch on her. In the process, he practically killed all chances he had of having the Treeant King agree to have her married.

He used the fullest amount of his influence, merely to exert that degree of control, but it became clear to all that his desires of marrying the fair Persephone was never likely to be, no matter how much he dug his claws into her, or forced her to sit in his company.

He limited that freedom that she coveted above all other things. Once, she had a pleasant enough opinion of him, if a wariness, for the suggestion her father had given all that time ago. But now, she outright hated him. Worse still, she lost all respect for him, for the weakness that he so presented, and the freedom that he so limited in her.

It was Blake's fault, he knew, as much as the High King's. For he made way for the High King's emotions. Fear blossomed, and all sorts of avenues presented themselves. Terrible decisions were made. Slimy, corrupt decisions, just for a little less fear in the present moment. The High King used whatever means he could to limit Dominus from seeing her. His dictates came, and he made war with the Patrick House ever so pettily. But Dominus was not a man easily deterred. No longer did he have his honour limiting him, for the High King had cast it all aside.

"I love you," Blake imagined Dominus saying, finally, after so many years that the two had spent, dancing in each other's company, toying with each other from a distance, simply enjoying the magic of being in the other's presence.

The High King might have managed to exert control of Persephone, by limiting her movements, by tying her to him, in some sort of sudo marriage, in place of the real thing, as if they really were a couple, as if they really were together. But in doing so, he had underestimated Persephone, and he had underestimated Dominus Patrick. They all had.

The two of them were opposites, but they were birds of a feather. That limit to their freedom – they were both the sorts of creatures that would fight against it. Dominus belonged in the forest just as much as she. That lowly country house that he had been born in. A childhood spent running through the woods, hunting, and riding. That was where he'd been meant to live. Quietly, in obscurity. It was the pressure that they forced on him that made it so – it was that brought out that which Arthur had seen in Dominus all that time ago. Arthur had seen something dormant in a man that had seemed so normal, despite his hard work, and his climbing. When that pressure was exerted, indeed, Dominus Patrick was a monster, who chose personal war with the High King.

Could there have been a more brave decision than that? Dominus was up front. He said it aloud, on his honour. He voiced it so that the realm would know, and they could judge him for it. He put himself in the foulest of positions when he made it known to all that he was in love with Princess Persephone. He invited a hundred thousand swords to pierce him, and dangerously, did he stand his ground.

It ought to have been a reckless move, but Dominus Patrick survived it. The High King saw him berated, his reputation torn apart, his lands halved, and almost entirely snatched upon him. He saw Dominus suffocated in the same way the Persephone was. He made it impossible for Dominus to come to the Capital to see her.

But nature, it would seem, always found a way for the two of them. Months they were forced to spend apart, until a chance happening, through the way of a foreign envoy from the Verna, presented Dominus with an opportunity. The Verna envoy had asked to see Princess Persephone in particular, and the issue, all of a sudden, transformed into one of Treeant business – it wasn't something that the High King could get in the way of, or easily deny, lest he truly make his tyranny known, and easily attackable.

It was for the span of a week, but she was allowed to go free from the Capital walls, to tend to this foreign envoy that had heard tell of her, and naturally, Dominus Patrick was swift in following.

As soon as that happened, all was lost. That the two were allowed to reunite once more, it brought the realm to trembling. They ought not have been. The gossip of months, the nasty talk that had spread about the two of them, quickly transformed into sympathy, and then support. Not that the two of them were particularly in need of such things.

But without even knowing truly why, Blake had been certain that, when the two of them came together again, his High King's cause was lost. Pathetically, had he gambled it all, merely to keep some fraction of control over Persephone, and still, the strange whims of nature had found a way, against that mighty wall of resistance. All those cards, and the Gods had swept through it, bringing the two together once more.

Even after she had made her return back to her quarters in the Capital, it had been quite clear that something had changed, that they were no longer in a position to make demands. They were forced to compromise, one bit after another. The High King tried walking back on his denunciations of Dominus Patrick. He tried to get closer to Princess Persephone himself. But all he managed to achieve in the process was the fact of making himself look weaker.