ARTIST TAG
HAAKON FREDERIC NISSEN
A chill set in, first a rush of anger at the thought that Elswyth believed that the throne had been rightfully hers. Hers, when blood clung to the crown and the sword that ordained them. Blood of his parents and, as she revealed, what she believed to be his as well. Haakon's anger flared, his eyes burning at the memories resurfacing of the night he was smuggled out of his own room and his own castle, and the morning in which he was informed that his king-father and queen-mother were no more, sacrificed to the people.
The accusations that surrounded a dead man that couldn't defend himself left a taste of bile in the back of his throat. Haakon had no delusions about his father, old and aged, twice the age of his queen and already close to senile. At best, Artem had said, the old man had enough time until Haakon came of age, or maybe even before and his queen-mother could have been regent. She had been wise and kind and the sunshine in Haakon's life, taken so prematurely, but they couldn't even allow that.
"My queen-mother," Haakon had growled, this time allowing sadness to rise at the thought of how his queen-mother had died. The kindest soul in the castle. Married too young to a man too old. Her youth ripped away as was so common in their courts, but with wisdom so beyond.
And then, then, the idea that Elswyth thought him death like he had wanted, and the realisation that she knew who he was. The suggestion alone was dizzying as Haakon tried to think of when and how she must have figured it out.
The overwhelming sense of betrayal he felt stalled Haakon's words whose whole being felt like he was on fire, years of aversion accumulating clear in his every expression as he stared at Elswyth, the one person he had wished well despite everything, because she had been just a child like he had been, but who now so firmly believed in her own cause.
"Throne of lies, crown of blood, what makes your father a better man than mine? His youth or the lowered tax? Isn't your marriage to that old fool across the border not to fatten up the depleted treasuries like mine did before through taxes?" the accusation fired right back at the supposed princess in front of him who so believed in the cause and reason for his parents' fall.