She took a deep breath, filling her small lungs, and targeted the nearest cluster of terrified, trembling citizens, a group of merchants cowering behind a fruit stall.
Seraphina raised her tiny hand, plastered the most devastatingly cute, bright, bubbly, missing-tooth smile across her face, and waved frantically.
"HELLO!" Seraphina screamed at the top of her lungs, her sweet, high-pitched, incredibly cheerful voice echoing like a silver bell over the silence of the avenue. "THANK YOU FOR HAVING US! YOUR CITY IS SO PRETTY!"
The entire Capital Avenue seemed to freeze in time.
The terrified merchants blinked. The cowering mothers stopped pulling their children back. Thousands of heads snapped toward the source of the sound.
They did not see a blood-soaked barbarian warlord.
They saw an angel in a yellow dress, hanging out the window of the terrifying black carriage, waving at them as if they were her best friends in the entire world.
