The king spoke first. The first word was always reserved for him, if he chose to speak at all.
His voice was even, monotone, bored. But the command of its tone was perfect.
"You are not known to us," he said. "We do not receive guests here."
"We don't receive anyone here," the queen said. A slight correction.
"I'm not a guest," Sonder said. "I'm a foe. And I advise you to give me what I want without question."
There was a pause, and then the king laughed.
It was not loud, cruel, or surprised, however genuine it might have sounded.
He laughed as though it was expected of him, and so he did.
Some of the others around him gave a chuckle, or a smile, the same way.
"A foe," he repeated, tasting the word. "You sit on my throne and call yourself my foe."
"Yes, I do."
"And if we choose not to give you what you want?"
"The consequences," Sonder said, "would be dire."
The queen's smile was thin, though she kept it nonetheless. "You are one. We are many. You are small and we prey on small things. Perhaps you are prey?"
More laughter.
Sonder let it run its course.
She had been studying them all as though there were something to learn.
She had found the one she wanted almost immediately when they came out of the shadows, a younger one near the left edge of the group, one who had laughed the loudest.
She looked at him now.
She looked into him and wrapped her presence around everything that made him what he was.
And like she had done with Lady Thiliel to demonstrate her power, she pulled on the threads that made him what he was.
Not gently, or with just one thread like she had with the lady.
He stopped laughing first.
He made a sound, it wasn't a word, but a short rasp. His hands went to his face and it came back dark.
He went to his knees and hit the floor without catching himself.
What passed for blood among them streamed from his mouth, at the corners of his eyes and thin lines of it running from his ears.
The room went very quiet.
Sonder looked back at the king.
"He's alive," she said. "I know that you are far more resilient to wounds that a human so there was no need to hold back. In any case, he's still alive because I want him to be."
She let hat settle over them.
"That's the only reason."
The laughter was gone entirely now. The king's face had closed into something unreadable, and the queen had gone very still beside him, the thin smile no longer present.
The others near the walls had shifted without appearing to move, that same animal instinct for distance she had seen in her guards on the walk over.
She stayed where she was on the throne.
"Are you ready to 'negotiate'?" she asked, placing mocking emphasis on the final word.