[ Sylvarie’s voice is soft when she speaks—perhaps too soft, and it would be understandable if the empress had not heard nor noticed her. The girl’s gaze is directed toward the hands folded delicately over her stomach as the others speak, but one detail in particularly begs her to ask as she looked to her fellow coworkers.

Gi, Dante, Owen, Lean... They were the only ones here. ]

Your Majesty, forgive me if I am being ignorant or rude, but... We could have come along with the rest of the Center staff later. Please, why were we invited to this dinner instead? Was it the request of the Director?

[ Closing her eyes, she continued. ] We were born here, in this world, raised... Maybe these outworlders will be the new Heroes of Light, but is? What would separate us from the others and also pulled into the group?

[ This was all moving too quickly, drastically... it was frightening. ]