Kaede Fujimori stood poised. Her cold, unreadable expression never wavered as her voice carried clearly across the hall.
"Your Majesty, on behalf of the Fujimori Clan and the Duchy of Silverwind, I wish to extend my most formal congratulations. May your reign endure for another thousand years, and may your glorious realm remain unshaken beneath your hand."
The words were impeccably measured, proper in tone and delivery, neither dripping in cloying praise nor weighed with empty pomp. It was the sort of address that fulfilled every demand of protocol, yet did so without the air of a desperate servant groveling at her liege's feet.
A stir of murmurs spread among the guests. Such a longevity was, in truth, an impossibility for any normal human. Even the longest-lived among them rarely surpassed a millennium. Yet Alexios, already a thousand years old as of today, stood as the exception.
