Watching the Prince caused Doc’s comparative memory to bifurcate into two very disparate images; the obsequious prisoner and the rabid killer; the sight of the latter had quite literally made the hair on the back of Doc’s (and later, he learned, the store clerk’s) neck stand up.
Doc’s non-scientific, but unerringly accurate instinct told him also that Prince Cir was a sociopath, and what was more, a sociopath in an uncontestable position of authority.
Suddenly, much that was wrong with the Elf Kingdom, and with monarchies in general, became all-too-clear to Doc Wallace.
Not that he could articulate such things in so many words, Ralph knew instantly what they were in for the moment he laid eyes on the Prince: he had encountered his type twice before, in the person of Deborah’s brother, and her father. His kind were only tough when they’d caught a weaker person alone, or when they were surrounded by “friends”, the weak-willed and weak-minded types with little self-esteem and even less self-control, the type often found in gangs, who would either not interfere in, or would help with their bullying. When on the receiving end of the treatment meted out at the hands of such characters, Ralph well knew the best course of action was to do nothing; to say nothing; anything else would prompt such a character to act. Ralph’s grandfather, were he still alive, would have said “an excuse to act”, but Ralph instinctively knew better; that “excuse” implied intent.