The silence after his words was heavier than the battle had been.
Evriana stood there, mouth still hanging open, the echo of her own strangled "EHHHHH" fading into the blood-soaked air. Her brain was trying to assemble a response — any response — from the scattered pieces of everything she had witnessed in the last hour. The hovering. The healing. The thousand invisible swords. The massacre. The bowing. And now this.
'Useless Ktorians.'
He had said it. Out loud. In front of soldiers who had just pledged their lives to the Ktorian name. In front of commanders who carried the Ktorian sash. In front of her — a Ktorian princess.
And he looked bored.
