"The way she speaks to the elders, the way she walks... it is completely different," Kira continued, her soft voice carrying a quiet, reflective weight that echoed in the sunlit room.
She turned her head slightly on his chest, resting her chin against his broad ribs so her clear, ocean-blue eyes could lock directly into his crimson gaze.
"She still holds that terrifying, untouchable presence of a sovereign," Kira murmured, her fingers idly tracing the long, muscle line across his chest. "When she sits on the bone throne or glides past the lower yards, the people still tremble so hard their knees hit the gravel.
But the suffocating, agonizing pressure that used to weigh her down... the silent despair that used to burn behind her eyes every single winter... it is completely gone. And I know for a certainty it isn't just because she had ascended into the Fifth Layer."
