Arik opened his eyes.
"Yes."
Kamal did not answer.
Before the silence could settle fully, the internal panel beside the dining room door chimed.
Arik's expression changed at once.
Whatever had been sitting in his face, old and unfinished, folded itself away beneath the polished calm of the Crown Prince of Agaron. All that grief he could not yet feel, all that anger he understood too cleanly, that hollow place where Hugo and Seraphina should have lived inside him, all of it vanished behind gold eyes and imperial discipline.
"Enter."
One of his secretaries stepped inside with a tablet held against her chest and the expression of a woman who had been sent to deliver a message no sane employee would volunteer to carry.
"Your Highness."
Arik looked at her. "Sella sent you?"
"Yes, Your Highness. Secretary Sella is with Lord Mezos in the secure room."
"Then speak."
The secretary swallowed once.
"The audience with Their Imperial Majesties has been moved forward."
