Wicked Steps

There was poetic irony in the fact that the abundance of Court bound wedding guests had obligated yet another compromise to Xutia's customs. Normally Emberlee would be presenting herself to the King for the first time as Marchioness, and yet the reality was that her delivering the wedding gifts was considered adequate compliance.

And Uncle Albert had been so ready to act as her adult chaperone since Father couldn't attend. It wasn't often a man of his flirtatious reputation was entrusted with such an honourable title. Though Emberlee had long ago realized that his cover as a playboy worked well to disguise his information brokering.

He got to once again pretend to be the mature one of their pair as he escorted her to the Royal Wedding a few days later. She'd met Uncle at his Capital House to spare him, and to make use of the location being closer to the temple in the center of the Capital. Xutia had Seven Godly Forms, none supreme and none reviled. And at the temple there were seven overlapping altar circles for each; Gods of Wisdom, Gods of War, Gods of Life, Gods of Protection, Gods of Healing, Gods of Magic, and Gods of Beauty. Within each Godly Form, there were multiple Gods, as the Beloved was one of the Gods of Beauty, but Emberlee hadn't realized the temple at the Capital also included a circle for the Vapours. Each marble ring for the Gods was interwoven with a white bleached wooden ring for the Vapour each form deflected. At least, that's what the mosaics filling the temple would have her believe. But having just been inundated with Adaba's Superstitions, Emberlee couldn't help but wonder if the Vapour was the reflection of the Godly form given the connections between them.

Emberlee would have loved to study the details of the temple further, but the actual ceremony at hand called for attention as well as filled the space with eager witnesses. The dress and robe combination she'd chosen to mesh the two cultural styles seemed to have been the safe choice. Those guests filling the temple from the Xutian Noble families had taken similar stylistic choices; albeit with some fashionable variations, but the guests from Stussica were all in strict formal Stussican style. Emberlee had only heard of a dress made from a thousand layers, but the actual attire was like nothing she'd imagined.

Certainly, there was hyperbole, as although the formal Stussican attire did call for extensive layers, there were not a thousand of them. The guests looked like a whirlwind of flower petals had been set loose, though they respectfully abstained from including purple in their attire, and Emberlee was astonished to see the Bride arrive in a diaphanous white robe that revealed her gold-painted body underneath. While others had carefully stitched or painted their robes to be the artwork, the new Xutian Empress-to-be was the artwork being presented.

"Thank you, Gods of Protection, for giving me a sturdy heart at such a sight," her Uncle prayed audibly as the Bride was escorted to the center of the temple's altar circles.

Normally the married couple would present themselves at the altar together, but to work Stussica's customs in the Bride was presented first. Emberlee had never attended a wedding, let alone a Royal wedding where two cultures were being represented, but it was astonishingly boring and awkward to play witness to. King Andrion entered in a heavy purple robe that was far too warm for the season, his head almost entombed in a crown of flowers to match the one worn by his new Bride. Crown Prince Damien came in with who must be the new Xutian Princess at his side, and Emberlee couldn't recall a thing about the man for the Princess' attire.

Princess Vivian looked to be wearing all the concealing clothes her Mother had discarded. She was swaddled in so many layers, several of which dragged heavily behind her, that the Princess looked at the risk of toppling over with each step. The Crown Prince seemed to be her steadier instead of her escort. They stood at the Bride and Groom's back while King Andrion and Imperial Princess Clara vowed before the Gods, and the Courts, to be a united pair. Imperial Princess Clara even vowed to take Xutia as her home, promising to love its people as she did her daughter.

"Should I be concerned that she's promising to love us as much as she does the daughter dressed like a mummified corpse?" Uncle Albert's irreverence was almost a relief from the discomfort Emberlee felt over being in such a large crush of bodies.

Between the warmth of the season and the accumulated body heat of the gathered Nobles, Emberlee was unsurprised to find sweet creeping an uncomfortable path down her spine. Worse yet was the odd disassociation between her age and her rank. As Marchioness, she ranked only below the various Ducal families and the Royal family, but even amongst the Nobles from the Marches Emberlee didn't stand as an equal to anyone. Her age peers from amongst the Marches were all still Heirs or training to assume various roles but hadn't taken on the mantle of those duties yet. She simply outranked them, but although she was the same rank as the adult Marquis' and Marchioness her age kept her an outsider to them. The Marquis of Mihal was a relative through her Father, but as he had relinquished inheritance rights to the Mihal March to marry Mother, it was a cold bond. They were cordial, but Emberlee didn't know her paternal Grandfather well.

Thankfully Uncle Albert was with her, although he was only ranked on Earl he was allowed the position as her adult chaperone. She didn't answer her Uncle's rhetorical query, turning her focus to the Stussican Nobles present. The Xutians had attempted to blend the two styles of the cultures represented; the Stussicans had not. It was a subtle snub, but as Stussica was already an Empire, while Xutia was still only a Kingdom for now meant they felt superior.

"I sincerely hope that King Andrion gifts some of those precious Mirrors to the Stussicans," anyone listening would only hear a kindhearted wish but Emberlee had explained a Mirror's function to Uncle earlier.

Uncle Albert's grin held a vicious edge, "it would be suitable to share such precious things with those so deserving of them."

Although Emberlee's Fairy Godmother could only appear in Mirrors around Emberlee for now, the promise was there for her powers to grow. It did make Emberlee wonder how many other Children her Fairy Godmother had. Was her Adaban counterpart, Oberon, one of the Fairy's Children? She focused back on the finalized union, newlyweds kissing fairly passionately.

King Andrion held his new wife's hand and turned to address the Nobles from both nations. "Thank you all for gathering here today," it was carefully scripted so Emberlee knew this was their King declaring his promotion, "what you have witnessed is not just the birth of a new couple but the start of a new world for Xutia."

A quick scan of the audience let Emberlee guess which had known what was coming and who had been left in the dark. And it didn't escape her notice that the newlyweds were both adoring all the attention. After living in the public regard, it made some sense that they'd crave it now.

"Our nation has grown in more ways than just our Northern border's expansion, and with my new wife joining us from our allies, the Stussican Empire, it would be discourteous of me to deny my people and my Bride the right to call home an Empire. From this day forwards, Xutia shall be known not as a Kingdom, but as a true Empire. We shall show the continent the glory of our home!"

The audience responded with the expected tumultuous outburst. It sounded mostly positive, and Emperor Andrion wasted no time in expanding upon his declaration. If Emberlee thought they'd reacted explosively to the news of Imperial status, they disintegrated at the lure of expanding their properties and elevating their families. Geographically the Roblee family looked to be set up for glory but they were a March indebted to several families after the drought that'd destroyed Traimore. If the Emperor did allow them to take the Northern border to maintain their status as a March, he would likely move their land entirely North and leave their established properties to be claimed by those debts.

But considering the announcement of a family being considered for Grand Duke the cacophony made sense. Emberlee wasn't the only one politically aware enough to realize that this promotion was less about elevating a specific family than it was about taking power away from the Erding Archduchy. They were the late Queen's Family and had a massive political power that would be directly in opposition to the new Queen being declared Xutia's first Empress. Harder to rally the social and political forces together when every family would now be acting in their own best interests. If the new Emperor was at all astute, the new Grand Duchy was going to be the DeKorte Dukedom, stripping their support from Erding entirely. Several other families would also be promoted, and as she'd predicted Emperor Andrion only indicated that it was a process to entice the families. But if he were to follow through on building the new Grand Duchy by stripping power from Erding, that made it easier to guess. The only two Viscounty in Erding were Kolaki and Bica, and geopolitically Kolaki would be smarter to move. Making the Kolakis into a County would keep them on the coast where their business ventures were, but also endear the Emperor to them. Bica, however, was an older family historically and could petition their case. Gifting them some of the new space vacated in Erding would solve that easily though.

And the rest of it would shuffle like a deck of cards. As Ortaga's Marchioness, she had no intention of depleting their already diminished resources on the off chance they'd be selected. If Father's contributions hadn't earned them ample reward then nothing would. Instead, Emberlee elected to depart the Capital as soon as she could. Thankfully, as the new Emperor's official Ambassador to Adaba, she had the legitimate excuse of carrying the declaration of Imperiality to deliver it to her counterpart Oberon. But before Emberlee could escape the social cesspool that was the Capital, she was obligated to attend a salon party that would act as Princess Vivian's Xutian introduction.

The new Xutian Princess was only a few months older than Emberlee was, a child in the eyes of the social and legal worlds. She wouldn't have a debut as an adult until she turned seventeen, and it was considered socially inappropriate to engage in parties of the wrong age group. Only young Nobles that hadn't debuted would be able to attend, and hosting it at a salon effectively kept all the too-young children away as only those over twelve could enter. It was a chance if the not-yet- adults to play at a social event usually more aimed at adults. There would be no adult chaperones either so Emberlee expected it to become ridiculous as everyone vied to impress Princess Vivian.

A garden party would have started before noon, a tea party occurred well after lunch, and a salon could begin anytime between lunch and sunrise. The length of a good salon party varied as much as the guest list did and often depended on the type of rumours in society available to gossip about. Given the events before this party, it was easy to anticipate the dominating topics of the night.

And if Emberlee had bet money on it, she'd have lost.

She'd had her darling spiders assist in altering one of Mother's silvery dresses into a fashion-appropriate facsimile; clusters of sapphire, tourmaline, spinel, and blue diamonds to cover her Ortega family colours as current fashion required. She had no desire to appear underdressed to such an event, but it would be just as disastrous to be overdressed. Given their staunch adherence to Stussica's fashion trends for the wedding, Emberlee wasn't surprised to find Princess Vivian wearing her homeland's customary garb. This version of the attire at least seemed to be more suitable to Princess Vivian, not the binding layers of her wedding gown nor the unexpectedly revealing layers of her Mother's. She wore a tighter skirt in blush, a darker rose colour in a split skirt that draped around the base layer. Her bodice was the same dark hue as the split start, but there was a long-sleeved, high-cropped jacket heavily embroiled and buttoned over top. And the hem of her base skirt had mythical creatures painted around it in fantastical imagery. The jacket itself was dark purple, a colour only the Royal family could wear.

It was all such an intricate, careful display that Emberlee had expected the Imperial Princess to utilize the Nobles' eagerness to be promoted to manipulate them. This would be a very good opportunity for Princess Vivian to start cultivating her social support base, the Ducal Princesses could be especially suitable allies. And yet as Emberlee sat amongst her age peers, none of the expected political maneuverings occurred. Princess Vivian didn't carefully feel the waters of her peerage's opinions, instead, she sat in wide-eyed astonishment as all the Xutian Noble children caught her up on all the gossip. Instead of behaving like an Imperial Princess brought as part of a political marriage, Princess Vivian behaved more like a distant country Noble needing to be caught up. It was almost endearing because it also became clear that Princes Vivian had no inkling of who the people being gossiped about were, she was just listening for the entertainment value.

If she wasn't an Imperial Princess she'd make an amazing salon Hostess or information broker. Something about her non-judgmental, enraptured expressions and reactions provoked those chatting with her to overindulge the secret sharing. Emberlee was able to collect quite some interesting details about her rank peers, as once again she was the only titled Noble present, even if she was still legally a child.

There was an inordinate amount of bragging from the firstborn Nobles about what they'd do with all the new properties their families were sure to get from Emperor Andrion. Even debt-ridden Roblee's Heir had to act like they had a chance to govern vast traces of former Traimore. And the Noble children not set to inherit were all busily discussing how it'd affect their future marriage prospects, though now there was likely to be a few more foreign prospects as Stussica and Xutia were bound by the same. The Emperors would want to secure further peaceful political marriages as potential future hostages if the occasion ever required. If Aubin had lived, he may have found herself with a Stussican spouse, and there was still a slim possibility that now Emperor Andrion might offer Emberlee a second or third-born Stussican Noble for her own espousal needs.

Unlike her colourfully dressed Xutian age peers, Emberlee did not need a dramatically passionate or romantic love affair. One day she would require a spouse or at least an Heir, but how and who would be up to her. She didn't fancy women and had met no man that'd captured her heart, so Emberlee pragmatically accepted that her future marriage wouldn't resemble the truest love her parents had shared. It was disappointing to consider until she also calculated how much pain Mother's death had caused Father. Better to never be wounded so deeply even if it meant a marriage of respect but not love.

There was little surprise when the gossip over potential marriage suitors shifted to who the Crown Prince might one day call his Consort. He'd debuted as an adult, but even Uncle Albert had no lead on who the Prince was as a person. He came across as charming, but also a bit calculating, at least according to the swooning some were sharing. Emberlee had come expecting a political ballet or battlefield, what she beheld was twitterpated giggling from the young Imperial Princess over her new stepbrother the Crown Prince.

If nothing else, it helped Emberlee empathize with the struggles her Uncle faced in gathering intel. Maybe that's why he drank so much.