"Why in Demara's name would you do that?" Cassy hisses, voice nothing like it was a second ago. Not soft and delicate and kind. She's upset, and you're one of the few people she can be upset with. You won't report her to her mother like she knows any other guards would. She can speak her mind around you, even if it's filled with insults for you.

Cassy tugs, trying to get your grip on her arm off as you drag her out of the busy streets of the festival, her other hand holding up the ends of her dress so she doesn't trip.

The Empire had one week every five years where the Moon Light Festival was held, it was one of the only celebrations royals were permitted to attend freely. Besides Cassy, of course, because unlike her brothers she has you. A knight assigned to her, keeping her in line, away, isolated.

She hates you for it. Hates that she cannot stray a few feet out of your presence, that she cannot simply talk to another person without you swooping in and shoving a sword in their face. Which is exactly what you had just done.

"I was only talking to him."

Flirting, actually. He didn't recognize her as the princess. Treated her like a commoner he was trying to court. It was nice, he was nice. Nicer than you, and she'd barely spent five minutes with him.

The point is, she wasn't in danger. She didn't need you to swoop in and take her away like she was some little kid sticking her hand into the cookie jar. Especially on a day like today, representing freedom.

She doesn't feel very free.

There's a final pull of her arm, when the two of you stop in a less busy area behind one of the many food stands, probably for you to scold her. She beats you to it. "You had no right to push him to the ground like that," She dusts off her arm like you were something gross to touch, to be petty. "He was more respectful to me than you ever have been, matter of fact."

Cassy isn't really that angry at what you did to the town's boy, she just hates that you could boss her around. Hates that she has no control.