"An issue you could have taken up with me prior to all of this," Arthur pointed out. He found himself growing annoyed, in much the way some of the younger knights sometimes annoyed him. "Rather than choosing to tell me about it after the fact. As I've said, appropriate measures would have been taken, and I can assure you insults are hardly what I'd consider appropriate."

He'd grown more distant, pulling himself up into a clear picture of authority without conscious effort. "My actions are partly responsible for his transformation," he continued, "I wasn't about to leave him in the cold. If that's been an inconvenience, I am responsible, and I am sorry, but it gives you no right to lay a hand on him."