The square before Valkoron Palace was already thronged with people. Morning light reflected off the cobblestones, catching the anxious, eager faces of citizens gathered to hear their king and queen speak.
Murmurs drifted through the crowd: questions about the fall of the Raventhorns, speculation about the arrests that had shaken Virelia the previous night, and debate over who truly had been behind the month-long unrest.
"They say Cornelius Raventhorn has been imprisoned," a merchant murmured to a nearby customer. "Treason… against the crown itself."
"Did you hear?" another whispered back. "The unrest, all orchestrated by his house. All this… for a queen cursed by the gods?"
"Gods or a witch?"
"And the people were the ones that suffered for it. I curse all Raventhorns." One man curses and spits.
Children clutched their parents' hands, while merchants paused in their early trades to watch history unfold.
