The Crowned Avatar rose to its full towering height upon the royal dais, its porcelain frame radiating suffocating divine heat.
Across the four paces of neutral frost, the First Prince stared down at his sister with eyes burning with fanatical pride.
"You speak of tribunals as if commoners possessed the right to measure royal blood," the Prince sneered, his voice metallic and flat.
"Everything I built in the lower laboratories was necessary to prepare this realm for the coming harvest!" he declared.
"You fled to the border like a coward, while I stayed here to shoulder the burden of imperial ascension!" he yelled across the hall.
"Our ancestors conquered this continent with blood and iron, not with the whimpering tears of peasants and bakers!" he added.
"Do you truly believe a committee of unranked merchants could govern the northern border?" he asked with bitter scorn.
