Elvira leaned in, a slow, predatory smirk carving across her face.
"What is this, Your Majesty?" she purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Have you grown cowardly all of a sudden? Can you not even manage a task as simple as this?"
She stepped behind Alisha, her hand clamping down on her shoulder like a shackle. She leaned closer, her breath cold against Alisha's ear. "Just imagine the glory waiting for you on the other side of this. The crown, the power... the respect."
She let go, beginning to pace the room with the practiced ease of a wolf in a cage. Her yellow eyes swept over the cold, stone walls of the Western Palace.
"Or perhaps you prefer this?" Elvira gestured vaguely at the gloom. "To remain rotting in this bleak tomb? Is this what our exalted Empress has become? Just another... lady?"
