Eve met her gaze steadily. "I'm neither naive nor scheming. I'm....learning. Rapidly. With excellent teachers...." She glanced at Raphael. "...and genuine motivation to succeed. Not because I'm hungry for power, but because the throne is mine by right and by heritage, and the Court has suffered for twenty-three years without legitimate central leadership."
"That's a good answer," Seraphine said. "Diplomatic, well-reasoned, hitting the points I'd want to hear. But it's also an answer you could have prepared with coaching." She leaned forward slightly. "Tell me something true. Something you believe that might make me uncomfortable. Something that isn't diplomatic."
Eve felt the weight of the challenge. Seraphine wanted honesty, not performance. Wanted to see how Eve thought rather than how well she'd been trained to respond.
