The words of the messenger hung in the dead air of the throne room, heavy and suffocating.
The Marus Kingdom has mobilized.
Standing beside the throne, Larus went completely rigid. It was a microscopic reaction—a slight tightening of his jaw, a barely perceptible tremor in his hands where they rested at his sides. But Heena noticed it immediately.
Damn it, Heena cursed violently inside her own head.
She had just wrapped up a flawless extortion. She had just terrified these treacherous nobles into bankrupting themselves to fill her treasury. She had systematically dismantled their little rebellion, proved that Larus was untouchable, and established herself as the undisputed apex predator of the Eternal Phoenix Empire. And now? Now her husband's former kingdom decided to throw a military tantrum.
Timing, as they say, is everything. And the universe clearly had a terrible sense of humor.
