Because everyone understood what the former king had just attempted. Provocation. Drawing comparison. Suggesting equivalence where none existed.
Aldrich looked directly into Thessian's eyes despite the blood streaking his face, despite being chained and broken and utterly defeated.
"You speak of love now because you arrived before she died."
A pause followed.
"But kingdoms survive by sacrifice."
His voice weakened slightly beneath accumulated pain, but the bitterness inside it remained sharp and cutting.
"If one daughter preserves a nation—"
The next sound that filled the chamber cracked through the air like bone breaking under pressure. Thessian hit him. Not with fists or claws or the measured strikes that had come before. His hand closed around the chains attached to Aldrich's restraints and slammed the former king hard enough against the stone wall to shake dust loose from the ceiling itself, particles drifting down through torchlight.
