"How encouraging."
"I have always been honest with you."
'''
About forty minutes into the reception, Heena became aware of a specific quality of silence forming near the eastern end of the room.
She didn't look immediately. She filed it away, continued her conversation with a minister about agricultural reform in the northern provinces, and waited.
The silence spread slightly.
She excused herself from the minister.
The five consorts had arranged themselves in a loose configuration near one of the windows—not exactly a group, not exactly apart, but occupying the same space in a way that was clearly deliberate. Several nobles nearby had quietly migrated away, leaving them a small clear pocket in the otherwise crowded room.
They weren't doing anything overtly problematic.
They were just 'there', and they were doing it loudly enough that people had noticed.
