"Prince."
"Prince!"
The voices of the advisors rang out sharply, slicing through the thick silence like blades. Chairs scraped hastily against marble floors as the council leapt to their feet in unison. Their sleepless eyes, dulled by waiting and uncertainty, sharpened in an instant as they saw the crown prince stepping out of the conference suite.
Their initial weariness was replaced by a fresh wave of confusion—and beneath that, a strange sense of unease. The tension they had harbored toward the cold, suited guards who had stood like statues at either side of the hallway doors melted away completely as their eyes fixed on the scene before them.
Prince Mohammed emerged, regal but… calm.
Too calm.
They expected anger. Fury. Perhaps even an explosion of insults or commands.
