PeaceMaker

Annabeth nervously chuckled, nervous and excited at the same time for the questions that the prince would have to badger her with. 

"Did I make you uncomfortable?" Dominic asked.

Annabeth looked up at him in confusion. "What do you mean, your highness?"

"Did I make you uncomfortable with my overly forward approach to communicating with you? I'm pretty sure anyone who had to undergo what you just did would find it suffocating and hard to breathe," Dominic smiled, "I'm asking if you felt like that too."

Annabeth chuckled again. It wasn't that she hadn't heard what he said, but rather did not understand why he said it. 

There was no way for her not to feel uncomfortable under the kind of stare he was giving her, but that was none of his concern. He wasn't supposed to care how uncomfortable she was but rather if the presenter could respond well to the question by herself. It felt like another trick question, one that was not able to be responded to with simple sucking up to his feet. 

Annabeth looked up into his eyes and immediately regretted it. Unlike what she expected, there was no gleam of curiosity. There was just nothing but blank. It was a bit terrifying if she had to be honest. 

She couldn't be quiet for much longer. Her time was running out for the question. There was no timer in the room but she could feel it, the subtle tics and toks ringing in her head getting closer and closer to the time limit. Something had to come out of her tightly closed lips. 

"Yes, your highness, your questions, and the pressure did come off as uncomfortable at times. Or should I just say, they were uncomfortable all together?" Annabeth smiled, "It was hard to think, not even speak under your strong, impactful gaze and that feeling made it kind of hard for me to answer questions or even want to answer them."

Dominic smiled, leaning back in his chair. "Ah… I apologize for that, should I try and-"

"No, pardon the intrusion, but you shouldn't your highness," Annabeth interrupted, "I understand that it was uncomfortable, but it was also for a reason. People under a lot of pressure tend to have to give rushed answers and therefore show that they are incapable of responding to harsh situations due to their behavior."

"If you're hard on the presenter, you get to filter out the ones that can't respond under pressure and ones that do," Annabeth continued, "Being a lady-in-waiting would be a stressful job so being able to handle that stress would be an attribute that all ladies would need to have. You should continue with your method of examination because it saves a lot of time in the future of trying to find out how they can do in stressful situations."

Dominic smiled. She had answered correctly again, answering the questions presented to her and even giving the reasoning behind why he added the pressure and why he should continue it. This was turning out to be quite an interesting talk with someone who had a reasonable mindset and didn't have to rely on trying to please everyone with her answers.

"Out of the two types of people that you mentioned, where would you put yourself?" Dominic asked. 

Annabeth thought about it for a moment and then proceeded to answer. "I would be in the latter group. Those able to handle the pressure. But… that's only based on this situation,"

Dominic coked his head to the right, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that although this is a very useful way to find out who is bad under pressure, it doesn't hit all the target points. It's only one kind of pressure, verbal interrogation. I am good at that as presented in my reply to the questions you have been asking, but there are other points of pressure that I am sure that I may not be the best at," Annabeth nodded, "I can say I handle pressure well, but that would only be able to be accounted to this one moment in which I talked to you not any other moments."

Dominic grinned, "So you're saying that my process of elimination is good to a certain point as it doesn't completely help narrow out the right people. That there may be some moments that require action rather than just talking and thinking?"

"Exactly," Annabeth nodded.

Dominic slinked back into his chair, hiding his face as he pouted. He liked how straightforward she was but didn't like how she pointed out the flaws in his actions. It wasn't like he could do something that would trigger actual physical pressure, this was the best that he could do from his position high above the crowd of people. 

He suppressed his frown and sat back up. 

"What I'm curious about is what you mentioned earlier," Dominic muttered, "something about how those instruments aren't ours?"

Annabeth flinched a bit and then nodded her head. 'Was he going to throw us in prison for lying in front of the king and his offsprings? I know we lied about our instruments but wouldn't that be overreacting?' she taught to herself, 'No… it wouldn't be. It's treason to lie before the king.'

"These instruments were switched like mentioned before and I am currently using my sister, Maria's instrument," Annabeth nodded her head. 

"So… this performance, in which you created an entire piece on the spot and played it as you did, was done on an instrument that wasn't even yours?" Dominic pressed. 

"Yes…" Annabeth replied. 

"How long did it take you to learn that instrument?" Dominic asked. 

Annabeth looked down at the instrument that leaned against her shoulder. Her hand running against the soft slopes at its sides. "It took me a few days," Annabeth replied. "Since it was one of the instruments in the string family like my zither, I was able to understand it quite easily."

Dominic stared at her for a moment in awe. "Then does that mean you can learn any other instrument in that same span of time?"

Annabeth cocked her head to the side in thought. "I'm not really sure. It was way easier because of the string classification of the instruments I had to learn so I'm not sure if I'd have the same speed in learning other instruments but it should take around a week for non-strings."

Dominic was once again left in complete surprise. "Is this the same as with all of your sisters?"

Annabeth looked up at him and nodded confidently. "Yes, your highness. In fact, I'm sure they are faster at learning than I am. I might learn non-strings faster due to previous exposure to them but against strings, they will be much faster learners. I'm one that would just stay at home and read while their adventurous spirits venture the world around them."

Dominic chuckled and smiled. It sounded a lot like what Regina did while he and Theodore would be out in the fields on horses and fishing trips. 

"I suppose you're a scholar?" Dominic asked. 

"Ah…" Annabeth muttered, nodding her head shyly. 

The king smiled, "I guess this is where I come in then," he chuckled turning to Annabeth. He looked up at his subjects and cleared his voice, "This young lady here is one that I met at an earlier time when she and her sister were just little kids and her brother was a mere baby,"

The crowd let out a delighted chuckle and Annabeth blushed. 

"She had waltzed into the palace with her father and mother and upon mistake, added herself into a literature discussion with some of the upper members of the council, me and her father. She had shown impeccable interest in literature and had an expansive knowledge on many things children her age wouldn't even bother to think about," The king chuckled, "It's one of the reasons why she was brought here today in fact, to show off some of her prowess in literature but instead, she brought to the table and entirely new field-"

The king looked down at Annabeth. "-music."

There were little cheers in the room as the king looked down at Annabeth. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you again as a young lady, Annabeth."

Annabeth immediately stood up from her seat and placed her harp correctly before looking up to the king and giving a deep bow towards the king. "The pleasure is all mine, your graciousness."

"You may sit," The king replied as he smiled at her courtesy. "I'm sure my son has kept you long in interrogation."

Annabeth shook her head as she got back to her seat behind the harp. "It's a pleasure to have been able to talk to his highness for as long as I did. It was a very memorable discussion."

The king chuckled. "I'm sure it was."

Dominic leaned back in his chair, his eyes pinned on Annabeth. She was unique. Quite different from the ones he had watched. From the very moment she spoke to now she never once let his interest stray away from her presence. It was a nice feeling, knowing that there was someone in the room that knew how to speak, act and even how to control the crowd.

'It's a shame our conversation had to end…" Dominic thought to himself as he watched her talk to the king for a bit. His eyes followed her as she walked out of the room.

'I look forward to our next talk,' he smiled.