The silence of the past days, a suffocating blanket woven from anxiety and isolation, had become unbearable. Viana had watched the pale light shift across her study, seen the imperceptible creep of spring, and felt the tightening noose of time.
She could not carry this alone any longer. The potential cost of her silence, measured in the starving faces of her people and the chaos of a kingdom under siege, far outweighed the discomfort of revealing an impossible truth.
She would speak.
With a measured breath, she dispatched a servant with a formal request for an audience with her parents, the King and Queen. The summons was unusual in its urgency, drawing swift attention.
Within the hour, she was escorted to a smaller, private council chamber, a room typically used for sensitive, high-level discussions. The heavy oak doors swung shut behind her with a soft thud, sealing her in with her destiny.
