Rejected by His Heir, Chosen by His Crown

I had never stood in front of all of them at once, and I want to tell you what it is like, because nobody ever told me and I think somebody should.

It is like standing at the top of a shaft with the water coming. Two hundred faces, and every one of them turned up at me, and every one of them glad, and the gladness was the worst part, worse than if they'd been angry, because you can push against angry and there is nothing to push against in a room full of people who love you and have gathered to give you a gift. The pale cloth was on the chair behind me. The water-lamps were lit. My mother was three rows back with Alaric, and she looked like she hadn't slept, and I hadn't spoken to her in six weeks, and I was about to say the thing I had to say to her in front of the whole city because I was too much of a coward to knock on her door and too much my grandfather's to stay quiet.