"WHAT?!"
Alyssa's shriek tore through the air with enough force to make both the Empress and Aaron flinch. The two of them turned to look at her simultaneously, and the weight of that shared glance alone was enough to send her shrinking back into herself.
She was lucky, as it turned out, because the Empress had far more pressing concerns than a tiny mushfolk's inability to keep her volume in check.
Her mind was still refusing to process the full weight of the words the young man across from her had just spoken.
He — a mere mortal — had been tasked with courting her? Her?
The temperature inside the room dropped without warning, sudden and absolute. A suffocating pressure descended over everything, pressing down on both Aaron and Alyssa like a physical thing, dense and inescapable.
Aaron gripped the armrests of his chair and held himself still, projecting the most composed, unreadable expression he could manage.
Alyssa had no such reserves to draw from.
