The air inside Aldan's modest dwelling felt thick with quite tension. What had once been a simple village home—with its rough-hewn wooden beams, stone hearth blackened by countless fires, and floors worn smooth by years of humble living—now hosted the most powerful woman in the kingdom. Queen Emma of Briaran sat with an elegance that seemed to transform the very space around her, her presence lending an unexpected grandeur to the humble surroundings.
Beside her, Princess Judith appeared smaller somehow, though no less regal in her own right.
For a village that had never seen nobility beyond the occasional traveling merchant's tale, this was beyond comprehension. Even Aldan, despite his former status as a Baron, seemed momentarily overwhelmed by the magnitude of royalty gracing his threshold. The wooden chair—his best, though hardly fit for a queen—creaked softly as Queen Emma shifted, yet she bore herself with such dignity that it might as well have been a throne.
