“That’s enough,” Siegfried barks, a rare use of his full voice. Immediately the two guards extinguish their laughter. The game has ended. They know now Siegfried will force the girl to abandon her rage for fear.

Siegfried seizes Petra tightly by the jaw. He speaks to her in a low voice, saying, “Remember that everything you utter I can understand. I know you. I know why you thrash about, why you see yourself as a little martyr when in truth you are less than nothing to anyone. Know you have heard naught but slander and lies about me, petty myths you people tell each other in order to bear the brunt of living under the yoke. It amuses me more than anything, how you fight for your life as though certain I will take it. And if not take it, then do instead that terrible, naughty thing strong men do to weak women as soon as they are alone with them, when no one can come to their rescue.”

Petra shudders, fights her restraints again, but Siegfried is unrelenting.
“You are lucky I am a bastard, that I can see in you what little there is that is like myself. Now heed my words. You have nowhere to go. Even if you run bound all the way back home, your family will not take you back for fear of my wrath. Neither of us know what will become of you. My own master will be upset that I did not kill your brother to teach your lot a lesson and even more so that you, Petra, are neither silver nor peas. Go forth and hate me all the more. I am not interested in proving the truth in your fear. Though if I were you,” and here Siegfried forces, with the sheer strength of his grip, Petra’s mouth open, leans in ever closer, so close she can see the tiny flecks of brown in the green field of his eyes – “A little respect would help your situation greatly.”