"Please choose, Your Majesty," Rora and another maid said respectfully in unison after they had carefully placed all the available jewelry options on the long table before me. The pieces were all exquisitely crafted from pure gold, with different kinds of precious gemstones—rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds—embedded on each piece in intricate, delicate patterns that must have taken master craftsmen months to complete. I could hear Aiona let out an actual squeal of pure happiness and delight within my consciousness at the sight of such treasures.
The entire surface of the substantial table was completely filled with tray after tray of magnificent jewelry, each piece displayed carefully on luxurious red velvet cushions that made the gold and gems shine even more brilliantly. Although I was equally as delighted as Aiona to see such beautiful craftsmanship—I had never seen such wealth concentrated in one place before—I couldn't help but simultaneously feel genuinely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices before me.
I stood there wearing a stunning red saree adorned with beautiful, elaborate golden embroidery that caught the light with every slight movement. My hair had been painstakingly arranged by skilled hands into a beautiful, complex updo that had taken over an hour to perfect, with not a single strand out of place. Everything had to be absolutely perfect today.
Today was my official wedding day to Arvid. The last and most important day of the week-long celebration that had consumed the entire capital.
The wedding celebrations of the South, as numerous people had enthusiastically explained to me over the past week, were traditionally long, elaborate festivals rather than single-day events. The entire massive city of Arpa had celebrated their beloved Emperor's wedding right alongside us, joining in our joy. The common people had spent days preparing special festive foods and sharing them generously amongst themselves and their neighbors. Music had filled the streets constantly, and people had danced enthusiastically from dawn until well past dark, every single day. And the citizens had sent the very best of their best possessions and creations as wedding gifts to the castle—an overwhelming flood of presents that had required an entire storage building to contain.
I looked down at the beautiful jewelry spread before me, all of it personally gifted to me by Arvid himself. He had presented me with an absolutely staggering amount—a whole five large wagons completely full of jewelry had been delivered to my new residence, the palace called Rose Palace. Though I had protested sincerely that it was far too much, far more than any one person could possibly need or wear, he had stubbornly refused to take even a single piece back.
Instead, he had simply smiled at my protests and said with complete seriousness, "This is hardly enough to properly show the depth of my love for you." With such a declaration, I had no real choice but to gracefully accept all of it, even though the extravagance made me somewhat uncomfortable.
An entire dedicated room in the Rose Palace now served no other purpose than housing and displaying this jewelry collection. Extensive renovations had been quickly completed, with workers installing proper shelves and secure glass showcases to protect and display each piece properly. The result was something between a personal treasury and a private museum.
The Rose Palace itself was also a gift from Arvid, though of a different magnitude entirely. He had explained to me with obvious pride that this beautiful residence had always traditionally been the official dwelling of the Empress of Selon throughout the empire's long history. His own mother had lived here many years ago—even though her time in these halls had been tragically short before her murder. There was sadness in his eyes when he spoke of her, but also a clear desire to honor her memory by giving me this place.
Rose Palace was an architectural marvel spread across three distinct floors, with an impressive open hall attached—similar in design to the central throne hall where the traitors had met their end, but smaller and more intimate in scale. This hall had been specifically designed and designated as the space where the empress would traditionally hold her formal meetings with members of the imperial harem, where she would accept the respectful greetings of lesser concubines and maintain her position as first wife.
Since there was no harem system currently in place—Arvid had made it clear he had no intention of taking concubines or additional wives—the grand hall now served a different but still important purpose. It functioned as a space for relaxation and leisure, and as a formal reception area for greeting distinguished visitors who came specifically to meet with the empress.
The three floors of the palace each had their own specific purposes and functions, creating a self-contained world. The first floor contained a small but well-equipped kitchen dedicated exclusively to preparing the empress's meals, ensuring quality and, historically, reducing poison risks. There was also an elegant dining room, a formal reception room for less important visitors, and living quarters for certain categories of servants—mostly the kitchen staff, the skilled cooks, and the hardworking garden maintenance workers who kept the grounds immaculate.
The second floor was where the empress's personal maids resided—ten dedicated women who served no one else. Their comfortable rooms were supplemented by specialized storage rooms dedicated to housing the empress's extensive jewelry collection and her elaborate wardrobe of clothing for every possible occasion.
The third and highest floor was devoted entirely to the empress herself, her private sanctuary. It contained her personal bedchambers—a suite of rooms designed for comfort and security—along with an elaborate bathing hall featuring a large soaking tub and all necessary amenities. There was also a separate wardrobe hall where she could dress and prepare for the day, and another jewelry hall for the pieces she used most frequently. It was undeniably extravagant, I wasn't going to lie to myself about that. The luxury was almost excessive.
But when I had hesitantly mentioned to Arvid that perhaps it was too much, that I didn't need such opulence, he had been genuinely distressed. He had asked me almost pleadingly to keep everything as it was, to accept this gift and these traditions. "You are my empress," he had said firmly. "You deserve to live as one." So I had agreed.
And the palace was truly worthy of its name. The Rose Palace boasted a magnificent, extensive rose garden that was lovingly and regularly cared for by dedicated gardeners who treated each plant like a precious child. Every conceivable kind and color of rose bloomed abundantly in the meticulously maintained gardens below my windows—deep reds, soft pinks, pristine whites, sunny yellows, even rare purple and orange varieties. The flowers filled the air constantly with the sweet, intoxicating fragrance of roses, a perfume that permeated the entire palace. Walking through those gardens was like moving through a dream.
And now, as we approached the final day of the wedding celebrations, we were preparing to greet the common people by the outer first wall of the city. It would be my first official public appearance before the eyes of all the Arpa citizens as their new empress. I had to admit I was feeling more than a bit anxious about what they would think of me—a pale Northern woman with no Southern blood, no connection to their culture until recently, now claiming the highest position a woman could hold in their society.
"Don't worry so much about that," Aiona said to me gently from within my mind, sensing my spiraling anxiety. "What they think truly doesn't matter as much as you believe it does. You fundamentally can't control or change people's hearts no matter how hard you try. All you can do is make your best effort, be genuine, and trust me when I say this from long experience—if you spend all your energy desperately trying to please everyone, it paradoxically doesn't make them like you more. People can sense desperation and inauthenticity."
She paused, then continued with what sounded like hard-won wisdom. "Just be your authentic self with them. Yes, absolutely make an effort to get to know them and understand their culture and values—that's important and shows respect. But don't overdo it to the point where you're performing a false version of yourself. If you lose your true self in the process of trying to please others, constantly bending and changing to match what you think they want, then is any of it actually worth it? What have you really gained?"
She definitely had a valid point that resonated with me. I took a deep breath and tried to release some of the tension in my shoulders.
"To be completely honest with you," Aiona suddenly continued, and I could hear a distinctly sultry, teasing tone entering her mental voice, "you should probably be far more worried about what comes later tonight after all the public celebrations are finished. You are aware that tonight is the traditional consummation night, yes?"
Those simple words were more than enough to provoke an intense reaction. I felt a deep crimson blush spread rapidly across my cheeks and down my neck. I could actually feel my face burning with the heat of my embarrassment. Tonight I was expected to... to do that with Arvid. Intimate things I barely understood. And may the heavens above help me, because I had absolutely no practical idea how to actually do any of it.
I had a vague theoretical understanding from overheard conversations and the few books I'd managed to find, but theory and practice were vastly different things. And I was fairly certain that Arvid had no real idea either. He had been even more endearingly naive than me in such matters, even during the few times when we had kissed. His inexperience had been obvious in his careful, hesitant touches.
And how in the heavens were two completely naive people with virtually no practical experience supposed to successfully navigate and get through such an important night? The thought was simultaneously thrilling and absolutely terrifying.
"I have plenty of experience, actually," Aiona suddenly chimed in, and I could practically hear the smirk in her mental voice. "I would be more than happy to teach you everything you need to know. Consider me your personal instructor in the arts of—"
"Wait, how can you possibly have experience?" I interrupted her, genuinely confused by this claim. "If you do have such experience, that would mean you actually slept with your fated mate, correct? Since dragons fundamentally can't feel any sexual attraction to anyone else except their destined partner? You told me that yourself!"
Aiona gave a mental shrug, completely unbothered by my questioning. "Well, it was literally a full millennium ago, so the memories have faded somewhat. But yes, I was intimate with my mate. And my mate happened to be rather a rake in his younger days—he had extensive experience with plenty of different women before he ever met me. So when we finally came together, he already knew exactly what he was doing. He taught me everything he had learned over his years of... experimentation."
There was a pause, then she added almost defensively, "And before you ask—no, his past didn't bother me at all."
"That previous history with other women didn't bother you even a little bit?" I asked her mentally, genuinely curious about her perspective. "You didn't feel jealous or inadequate knowing he had been with others?"
"Not really, no," Aiona responded thoughtfully. "You have to understand my circumstances and mindset at the time. I had never actually expected to meet my fated mate at all during my long life. I hadn't spent centuries flying around the entire world actively searching for him the way many dragons do. I had simply settled in one place—the Heinnas Kingdom—and accepted that I would likely die alone without ever experiencing that bond."
She continued, "So even just meeting him at all, when I hadn't taken a single step outside of Heinnas Kingdom to search, when he just happened to wander into my territory by pure chance—that in itself felt like an impossible miracle, a feat of destiny that defied all probability. I was so grateful just to have found him at all that I didn't care about his past experiences or relationships. He was there, with me, choosing me—that was literally all that mattered to my heart."
Her tone became slightly harder. "It would have mattered greatly to me if he had slept with other women after we bonded, after he was mine—that would have been an unforgivable betrayal. But he never did that because he fell deeply in love with me."
She sighed wistfully. "We spent weeks at times just tangled together, exploring each other, learning every possible way to bring pleasure—"
"Thank you for the generous offer, Aiona," I interrupted her quickly before she could get into more explicit details that would make my blush even worse. "But I think Arvid and I will figure something out on our own. We'll... we'll learn together."
The idea of learning intimacy together with Arvid, fumbling through it as partners rather than having one person with expertise, actually felt right somehow. More authentic to who we were.
Finally, after considerable deliberation and comparing numerous beautiful options, I made my choice from among all the jewelry pieces spread before me. I selected the distinctive crown headpiece featuring an intricately crafted dragon design—the very piece we had purchased together during our memorable time in Gesri, the piece had elven magic embedded on it.
It seemed absolutely right and perfectly appropriate for this momentous occasion.