Instantly, a practiced smile fixed itself onto Ronan's face. It was the same one he had used countless times before – polite, warm, and diplomatic. The smile of a reasonable noble heir, not someone calculating how to survive the people in front of him. But this time, the expression felt foreign. It took work to arrange his features this way, a conscious strain that pulled at muscles he had once used with thoughtless ease. Before the battle, before Mesmer, before Yeon Li's bargain, it had been second nature. This was weird. It was not as if in his previous life these expressions came unnaturally. In fact they were very natural. However, now it felt different.
Now it felt like wearing another man's skin.
He performed it anyway.
He gave Seraphina a slight, reassuring nod, then turned his full attention to the man seated at the center of the room. Before sitting, he bowed his head, a smooth and respectful gesture befitting his station.
"Your Majesty."
