He was still pushing back against the shield, and Tor definitely had to admire the determination, even if the effort was useless.
“Could you please start at the beginning?” he requested. “I can’t respond to your accusations if I don’t understand them.”
Pelun was still looking at him with stark suspicion in his eyes, and a hard anger that made him look much fiercer than usual.
“Lashuna!” he spat out, finally. “She already has a partner, did you know that? Or did you just not care?”
Oh.Oh.Tor didn’t know whether to laugh or hit his head against the wall. This was definitely not how Tor had hoped to get Pelun’s attention.
Varex and Rin would say that it served him right, and Tor supposed it did. Would they allow for extenuating circumstances?
Tor took several deep breaths, trying to decide what he could and should explain to this particular man.
“First of all,” Tor said, “did you actually talk to her, or did you just leap to conclusions?”
“What is there to talk about?” Pelun demanded, still hammering against the shield with his bare fists. He was going to wind up with bruised knuckles.
“In this particular instance, whatactuallyhappened would be what you’d talk about. I’d explain it, but it’s not my story to tell.”
Pelun scoffed.
“No, seriously.” Tor met those angry brown eyes squarely. “I can tell you that you’ve got the completely wrong end of the stick, and while I’d like nothing better than to setyou emphatically straight, that’s not my right. Now, if I let you out, will you go talk to Lashuna instead of making an ass of yourself?”
Pelun was still glaring. “You know that I can’t do anything while I’m stuck like this.”
“If you would like to be treated better,” Tor said acidly, “then try treating others better first.”
“That’s rich coming from you!” Pelun snapped.
Tor raised an eyebrow.
After a moment where he was clearly still fuming, Pelun lowered his fists and ground out, “Fine.”
Hoping he wasn’t about to get jumped, Tor pulled his magic back into himself, but he kept it just below his skin, though without manifesting the swirls of magic that would make it clear he was braced for attack.
Pelun just stood there for a long moment, hands still clenched at his sides, chest heaving. Tor watched him carefully, not about to turn his back.
After a long standoff, Pelun turned abruptly and stalked off, still radiating tension in every line of his body. Tor watched him go and wondered if Pelun was ever going to speak to him again.
Even once this got straightened out, didn’t it say an awful lot about what Pelun thought of him?
Ugh. Tor needed a drink. Then he grimaced. He hadn’t started dealing with his problems by drinking, had he? A smirk curled up his lips. No, clearly not. If he dealt with his problems by drinking, then he’d have spent his entire time as drunk as King Forex. Pelun was a problem with a capital P.
No, it was just habit to think that drinking an ale—or twelve—would make it easier to work out what to do next. It might feel wonderful in the moment, but the fuzziness didn’t actually solve anything, and the head the next morning was terrible.
He couldn’t imagine dealing with King Forex when he was hungover. The man got louder and more strident the more he drank—and he drank a lot.
And clearly, Tor needed all his wits about him while he was dealing with Pelun, trying to charm a man who was determined to think the worst of him. He rubbed at his sore jaw and reflected that he was impressed with the punch, but Pelun probably wouldn’t take it well if Tor offered a compliment.
He’d said that Pelun’s hair looked nice one day, and the man had touched his head as though to make sure that his hair wasn’t in disarray, glared at Tor, and stomped off.
Seriously. It had been a banal opening gambit, and the man had reacted as though Tor was deliberately mocking him.
And now Pelun thought he’d gone around seducing unavailable women—or worse. Tor wasn’t ashamed of his behavior, but he hadn’t really thought about the story being shared.
Short-sighted of him, really.
Pelun’s assumptions had been incredibly rude, but it wasn’t everyone who would try to take the High Prince to account for his behavior towards a servant. And Tor had to admire that.
