The State Dining Room was a cavern of echoing silence, illuminated by the cold, flickering light of two dozen silver candelabras. The table, a massive stretch of polished obsidian-oak, felt less like furniture and more like a battlefield. At one end sat King Valex, his shoulders rigid, his jaw set in a line of iron. Beside him, Odesse, the new Queen, sat with her spine perfectly straight, her hands resting folded in her lap like white marble.
At the far end of the table sat the Queen Mother. She had not touched her pheasant. Instead, she had spent the last twenty minutes dissecting Odesse with a gaze that felt like a surgeon's blade.
"The silence is quite telling, Valex," the Queen Mother said, her voice smooth as silk and just as cold. "One would think a wedding celebration would have left you with more to say. Or perhaps you've already run out of things to discuss with your… surprise bride."
