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The Southern Lands are giving them trouble, and after they are forced to send the army to pacify the mobs, after more killings and the leaders are imprisoned, Kaddar is left in a depressed and angry mood for days.

Kalasin is frustrated at his moods—after all, couldn't he see that it had been necessary?

During dinner that night, he is restless, pacing, venting his anger at the rebels. After a while, Kalasin realizes that she has to calm him somehow, and rises, pushing her oranges aside. After chasing him around the table for a few moments, she corners him behind the sofa, and reaches up on the tips of her toes to put her hands on his tense shoulders. "Calm down."

"Don't tell me to—"

"I can tell you to do whatever I please, thank you very much," she interrupts smoothly. He moves to walk away, irritated, but she pulls him back, hard. "Now, sit, my lord."

Kaddar sits, grudgingly, and she begins to attend to his aching back. It hurts more than it soothes, really, for she is using her thumbs far more than is necessary—

"Ouch!"

"That didn't hurt," Kalasin replies sweetly, hooking one slender leg behind his, efficiently tangling them together. "You're so very tense…"

Kaddar closes his eyes, and they fall silent. "We were just trying to help," he says, after a while, "can't they see that? It was for the safety of the people."

Kalasin thinks it's best not to reply, and moves her attentions to the base of his neck.

"You were hurt, too," he continues distantly. "Ow, more to the right—you were sick last week—and one of your maids said that you were wandering around at night—you have smudges under your eyes."

Kalasin is a bit startled at the swift change of subject, and abandons the massage. "Oh, really?"

"Well, you did," he tells her, sounding a little annoyed. "You need to take care of yourself."

"I am perfectly capable of doing that," she frowns. "But since when did you ever…"

Kaddar shrugs with one shoulder, before taking one of her hands and guiding it to his back. "You give me too little credit."

"…Oh." There is an awkward silence between them, before Kalasin resumes the massage, much more gently than before.

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