"I never sleep deeply."
He might be hinting at something but at that point she was fed up and no longer cared about what she was going to say. The atmosphere was awkward, and she felt the urge to escape.
She replied in a detached manner,
"…Too bad. But we must admit the truth even if it's unpleasant."
He stared at her,
"It is a pity you haven't managed to sleep soundly too. Bad night's sleep often has... unpleasant consequences." He made a pause that seemed menacing, and then added calmly and slowly, "For example, you could become irritable the next day."
She raised her eyebrows, "No. Nothing shall disturb my equilibrium."
"In that case, I am glad. My equilibrium was quite 'disturbed' tonight," he informed her. He bent forward close to her, "But let me be serious when I tell you this: spying on me, stealing the key to my room and entering at night is a major crime punishable by death."
She blinked at him speechless. Was he threatening her? She hadn't exactly expected that.
She was trying to find a reason to escape. There was a book on the table they were sitting at. She took it as an excuse to stand up. She went to return it to the shelves of books.
He was quite startled and then angered by her silence and the way she'd turned her back to him and literally ignored him. He went after her. She hadn't even put the book back on the shelf when he caught her wrist, clutching her tightly and wresting the book away from her hand. She turned her head to stare at him and he said darkly,
"It seems that you do not understand the seriousness of what you did. I will ignore that once, only because it was you who did it," he whispered because there were other people in the room as well. "Your actions were not only rash and inappropriate but reproachable in every possible way. If you do something similar again, I may decide to be rash too." It almost seemed it had taken all his patience not to attack her on the spot during the night visit.
"My actions?" she exclaimed. She looked at the bookshelf.
~There are no coincidences when it comes to his behavior,~ she realized. Why had he befriended her of all passengers on board? Could it be that he had actually intended her to go aboard this ship? These questions lingered in her mind and she was overwhelmed by memories. It was simply unbelievable!
She remembered she'd spoken with him about her amulet. Maybe that's why he'd befriended her. He seemed rather offended at her blunt behavior, but she did not care. She exclaimed,
"Is there anything you've ever done that has been sincere?" she unwittingly raised her voice.
A few faces in the room cast a glance toward them. Aristhaeus did not appreciate this attention.
Anger could be read in his eyes. He turned about and left the room with measured steps.
No. How could he leave?! She had to be the one who storms out the door angrily!
***
She returned to her room. A few moments after, she felt somehow weak as if she would start quivering any moment. She had to sit on a chair. She couldn't believe there had been so much insincerity in his actions and then he was the one who had come and blamed her.
Well, so it was truly him. People even feared uttering his name and they just referred to him as "the archmage." But in every seemingly bad situation, there could perhaps be something good that was hidden.
He was the archmage. Wasn't it a good opportunity? She'd never had the chance to speak with him before. Perhaps she could ask him to help Wild Wood. Perhaps she could talk to him and explain in detail the situation of he forest.
~I'm an emissary of Wild Wood.~ Elyre thought. ~I shouldn't react in a personal way to this situation.~
After all, which was more important: who was right or wrong just now, or the future of Wild Wood?
For a moment, she was a little bit worried because he' been angry at her. She hadn't said too much. She hadn't been too sharp, indeed, but she had forgotten one thing: the archmage probably expected to be treated as a king. If he had expected that she would pay respects to him, the way she had actually reacted might have seemed too unapologetic.
Did she have to apologize to him for "spying" on him? No. She was the one he lied to… She just felt it was… wrong. But she could try to speak with him about the condition of Wild Wood.