"My mouth is happy," he repeated, mimicking her deadpan delivery before shaking his head. "Gods, Elara. If I had known all it took to break your administrative brain was a stick of spun sugar, I would have brought a whole cart of it to the war room on my first day."
"That would have been a severe violation of military protocol," Mahir interjected, his golden eyes sweeping the gathering crowd with a dark, predatory intensity. The beast-kin commander took a deliberate step closer to Elara, his broad shoulders shielding her from the stares of the merchants. "And the Regent is correct. Your audible outburst is compromising our stealth initiative."
"Stealth initiative," Julian scoffed, waving his half-eaten stick of sugar at Mahir. "We are in the middle of the artisan district, Mahir. People laugh here. People yell. You two are the ones compromising our cover by standing there like you're waiting for an assassination attempt."
