The effect rippled outward like a stone dropped into still water.
Half the military officers at the surrounding tables rose with him, their movements carrying the crisp precision of men accustomed to following orders and recognizing authority when they saw it.
These were not Vetra's appointees, not men who owed their positions to the Regent Empress's favor. They were soldiers who'd fought beside Soren in border campaigns, who'd seen him lead from the front rather than from behind protective walls, who understood that an Emperor willing to choose strength over political convenience might be exactly what Nevareth needed.
Younger nobles followed, perhaps a dozen of them scattered throughout the hall. Men and women who'd chafed under the careful, controlled governance of recent decades, who saw in this foreign bride not threat but possibility. Innovation. Change. The kind of disruption that created opportunities for those clever enough to seize them.
