"She's a little different than the rest," the Empress commented casually, her gaze fixed on Alyssa as she splashed and thrashed against the tea, desperately trying to regain her footing.
But the truly remarkable thing — the thing that had Aaron leaning forward almost without realizing it — was the tea itself. He could see it clinging to her skin, not soaking into her clothes the way water would, but visibly absorbing into her body in real time with every frantic splash she made.
The more tea she absorbed, the more her size grew.
The increase was gradual, creeping upward by slow, nearly imperceptible degrees, and Alyssa herself hadn't noticed a thing.
She was far too occupied with trying to haul herself out of the bucket to pay attention to something as inconvenient as growing.
But for Aaron and the Empress, it was impossible to miss.
The Empress, for her part, was nothing short of delighted by the spectacle.
