by Viola Grace
“What is wrong?”
“I... we... why did I think that it was a good idea?”
Antoth snorted. “I suspected that you would have some regret. At least you can’t run.”
She looked at him. “You are absolutely right. I can’t run. Can I?”
He suddenly looked wary. Without another word, he helped her dress and then escorted her to her quarters. She got on her com unit and started making calls. Dreon had given her an idea.
Chapter Nine
Watching the transfer of power was a proud moment. She had only known Emera for three years, but she had come so far. An empress was theoretically possible in the Possitt system; there just hadn’t been one until now. Emera, the first, was one of a kind, and she still had a lot of studying to do.
Amber stood to one side as Antoth resigned his position of imperial regent and took on the position of imperial advisor. Emera was smiling, and she took her coronet and her sceptre and assumed the throne. It was the first time that there had been a ruler on the throne in twenty years. Emera had just turned thirty. Possitts did most of their final maturation in the final five years before adulthood.
Emera looked glorious and dignified in her embroidered gown. Antoth looked rather sinister wearing some strangely familiar armour, but he seemed relieved to be rid of the duty. Dreon was wearing something similar, but he was standing aside with the council of advisors.
The formalities continued, and Amber’s thoughts wandered. She had gotten three responses to her queries. She had contacted Alyla, and she had made some calls, and there were three houses in the Nyal Imperium willing to take her on as a governess for their superpowered children. Amber was a desirable commodity, and folk actually wanted her with them. It was a strange sensation.
Emera smiled as the prime minister completed his intonation, and then, she said, “And in an effort to continue to foster well being between our world and others, I am appointing Amber Huffner to my advisor council.”
There was a silent pause and then a raucous cheer. The person behind Amber shoved her forward, and she stumbled toward the dais.
She walked toward the throne and curtsied deeply. She had her mask on again, and it did feel better.
“Thank you for the honour, Your Imperial Highness.” She remained in the curtsy until she heard the magic words.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Amber. Stand up.”
The roll of laughter through the crowd gave her a bit of understanding. An empress who dressed like a lady but swore like a sailor was not as scary as one who depended on their husband to pick their shoes and tell them they were pretty. She already knew her worth, and no one was going to tell her otherwise.
Amber gracefully got to her feet, and she winked at the new empress. “Congratulations on surviving to your appointment as empress.”
“Thank you for getting me here, governess. It was an exciting time.”
“Indeed, it was, Your Imperial Highness.” She smiled.
“Go join my other advisors. This evening will be soon enough to cover all of those questions in your eyes.”
Amber curtsied deeply once again and then grinned and joined the six others who were standing to the right side of the empress.
There were a few more moments of speeches, and then Emera led them on a long walk through the streets of the capitol and back to the palace. The population turned out to watch and cheer.
Antoth was suddenly next to Amber, and he offered her his arm. She looked at him and rationalized that whatever it looked like, if she found another assignment, he would be free to find another lover without the worry of gossip weighing him down.
“I am not worried about gossip, Amber. You are staying here.” He murmured it quietly.
“I need something to do. A focus. Without it, I just crumble. That is why I didn’t join the Volunteers thirty years ago. I was offered a job, and hellish or not, I did it until I was finished.”
“No family?”
“None that want to know or visit me. It made the decision to take the offer from the Volunteer Project much easier.”
“So, on your world, how many years would you have had left?”
“If I was lucky, forty. The last ten would have been rough, so usable years, twenty. At seventy-five, things become difficult.” She got suspicious. “Why?”
He was chuckling. “I am seventy-four.”
“It doesn’t translate. You are a different species. You have two hundred and fifty years as an average age range. Your species has one or two children per lifetime.”
“How many does your species have?” He asked it idly.
“It depends on the couple. In ideal circumstances with good physical condition for bearing children, they can have a dozen or two. Most have two or three.”
“So, aside from that appalling number, not too different.” He smiled. “Not that I wouldn’t mind trying.”
She blushed as she caught his meaning. “I am done. At the moment that I went into the tank, there was no way for me to have a child. Sorry.”
“I think you need to have a conversation with your avatar. That might have been the situation then, but it is definitely not the situation now.”
She stumbled, and he caught her. She grimaced. “Can one strangle an avatar?”
“I would not recommend it. Why do you seem angry?”
“Because it is a lot of fuss and bother, and I am going to spend a quarter of the next twenty years or so dealing with it.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Right. Of course not. Well...” She spent the rest of the ten-minute walk to the palace explaining human female oestrus and menstruation to him. It was a weird topic of conversation, but occasionally, Dreon would add some information. His mother was Terran, and she had made sure that he knew all about how miserable things could be for her. It was a cautionary tale in case he chose a woman from a fast-cycling species.
Antoth nodded. “I can see why you would not welcome it.”
“I already went through forty years of it. I am not keen to do it again.”
He nodded. “Understood. Are you willing to discuss options with the physicians?”
“Why? If you just want a child, there are easier ways to get one.”
He smiled. “Adoption?”
“Um, I was just thinking to find a nice woman of your own species who wants children.”
Antoth lifted her hand to his lips. “I don’t want a nice woman; I want you.”
Dreon coughed and then spluttered to cover his laugh.
When they got back to the palace, she excused herself to send an all-caps message to the Avatar of Terra demanding an explanation as to Amber’s current reproduction status.
Naia got her into her evening gown and then went to work on her hair. The formal tightness of the coronation look was exchanged for long strands of braids that were looped and pinned into formal arrangements that would take an hour to take down.
Naia was halfway through when there was a knock on the door. She called out, “Miss, are you accepting gifts?”
“Um. I suppose so.”
Naia squealed happily, and a line of servants came through, each carrying a long box and several carrying small boxes. The servants carrying the boxes all bowed or curtsied to her, and then, they stacked the boxes around the sitting room.
The final gift was an envelope. The imperial seal was on the envelope, and Amber cracked it open. At first, it seemed to be a gift from the new empress, but as she read, she found that it was not the case.
Governess Huffner,
I hope that this finds you well in preparation for the festivities. As my last act as regent, I have accepted a bid for your hand. You are to go from being the imperial governess to the betrothed of the King of Possitt II. I have gained the agreement of your world’s avatar and the new empress.
I know you are probably thinking several epithets right now, but I offer you a good li
fe, and I would be delighted to assist you in finding a new purpose. Please, accept the gifts as nothing more than well wishes for your phase in life after helping to stabilize an empress.
Your honoured servant,
HRM Antoth Hredan
She looked at the page and called Antoth any number of things that were not complementary to his parentage. When that was done, she worked on keeping her mind blank.
Naia was hopping up and down. “May I open them, miss?”
“Please. Enjoy yourself.”
Naia went immediately for the long boxes and pulled out gowns that were encrusted with enough gems to take any child on Earth from birth to retirement.
On the fourth box, she gasped. “Will you wear this one, miss?”
Amber stifled her admiration at the gold gown studded with ruby and onyx. She answered her com unit before she answered Naia. She was defeated. “Yes. That one will be lovely.”
Naia ignored her expression and dove into the smaller boxes. She crowed when she found the box of matching jewels because, of course, there would be matching jewels.
Amber sat while her hair was finished and studded with a literal king’s ransom. Apparently, Possitt II had a thriving gemstone industry.
The sun was down by the time she was dressed, and her makeup was complete. Naia was good at makeup. She had made Amber’s eyes appear huge and doe-like, her lips were red, and her hair was a fantastical creation of tiny braids anchored by gems. The necklace that went with the hair gems was a wide collar that covered most of her neck, half her collarbone, and delved into her cleavage. Earrings hung from her ears and brushed against the top of her jewelled collar.
The dress had a heavy crust of gems along the cleavage and the edge of the shoulders that barely kept the dress on. The sleeves were more aspirational than anything. The fabric on her shoulder was two inches, and then more gemstones lined the split of the sleeve that left her arms bare and simply hung down.
The skirt of the gown was made with full panels that had slits, and each slit was fully lined with stones.
She pressed a hand to the heavy stomacher. “I think this can stand up on its own.”
Naia had her hands together. “Miss, you look spectacular.”
“Good. I would hate to just look okay after all that.”
Naia looked outside. “There is no escort for you, miss.”
Amber smiled. “There is no reason for there to be. I am an advisor to the empress. I am no longer under guard. I will see you when I get back. Limber up your fingers. These braids are going to be hellish.”
Amber left her quarters and walked the halls, occasionally seeing a guard who nodded politely with a smile on their features.
The grand ballroom was full of sound; laughter and joy were spilling out, and Amber paused next to the doorway, peeping in as she had that first day.
Hynin’s voice was next to her. “I promise, you are allowed in. I am not playing any more games.”
She looked at him, and he stepped back. She frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“Um, no. Have you been associating with Antoth?”
She pretended that the previous evening hadn’t happened. “In what way?”
Hynin muttered, “He is threatening to rip me in half, so I am going to step aside and let you find your own way into the ballroom.”
Amber frowned and turned to look into the ballroom. The space had gone surprisingly silent. “What the fuck?”
She stalked in and right up to Antoth, where he was standing and talking to Dreon. “What is going on?”
He looked her up and down, smiling slightly.
Emera smiled. “It’s your wedding.”
Amber’s shriek rattled the chandeliers. “What?”
A woman looked around Dreon and chuckled. “You certainly have a grasp of volume.”
Amber paused. “You are Dreon’s mother. Why are you here?” Her blunt query came out without thought.
“Because my husband used to work with your fiancé.” Hydrangea Graham smiled. “Hello, Amber, my name is Hydrangea.”
Amber curtsied and then smacked Antoth as he stared into her cleavage.
Hydrangea smiled. “I see that you don’t have any issue with Antoth’s strength.”
“Oh, you mean what he used to do during his time with the Nyal Imperium’s guardian program? No, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t use mine on him—” She glared at Antoth as he coughed. “—More than once. He doesn’t use his on me either.”
Antoth smiled. “My retirement was rather thorough, but having you here meant that Emera was protected at all times. It was fortuitous.”
Hydrangea chuckled. “He paid through the nose, but then, he could afford it.”
Amber looked at the woman who had to be nearly sixty but looked like she was in her early thirties. Amber turned to Antoth and stared at him. “Paid for me?”
“Please excuse us, Madame Renix. I need to speak to my bride.”
Amber blinked as he picked her up, and she squeaked when he walked to the balcony and jumped, propelling them into the night. She squeaked and clutched at him until they landed near the bridge where she had helped the hostages.
He carried her onto the bridge, and he stopped in front of a plaque and memorial. She saw the picture of herself rendered in metal, and she blinked. “What is this, and why are you still carrying me?”
“This was put up by the locals because you saved eight of their young men before going to rescue the imperial heir. When she reported that she supported your actions and that the barge that nearly crushed them would be given repairs, they realized that she was not the same kind of noble that her father was. You have a room full of get-well letters waiting for you in the palace. You are a hero.”
“Uh-huh. Why did you purchase me?” She poked him in the chest.
“I did not purchase you. I purchased the Possitt portion of your alterations. They were primarily left dormant, but the strength that you woke during your reset was in you the moment that you were out of the tank. Krazz thought it was hilarious.”
She frowned. “Why did you need to have the Possitt genes installed? You have women lining up around the block.”
“I wanted a woman who wasn’t after me for social or financial reasons. She had to be strong enough to stand up to me, but I hadn’t realized that it would occur as a physical as well as psychological transformation. I read your files and understood how you would stay with a project no matter how difficult things become.”
She leaned back in his arms. “You aren’t obnoxious paperwork or the seventh manager promoted above me that I trained.”
He smiled. “I have my own challenges. If you are willing to take them on, I can promise a much better risk-reward system.”
“What are the benefits?”
He chuckled with relief as he recognized that they were in negotiations. “Three houses on Possitt Prime, two palaces on Possitt II. One home on each of the other five habitable worlds in the sector. You can engage in public policy and sit councils on any of the worlds in the empire.”
She nodded. “It sounds good, but where is my purpose? I told you that I needed one.”
He nodded. “You did. How about you learn the details of how to be a wife and a queen, and then, you can determine what kind of outreach you would enjoy from there? I know that Emera wishes for you to sit on councils involving women’s education.”
She snickered. “I bet you didn’t know there were going to be any skill-testing questions.”
“Speaking of questions, you knew that I had been in the guardians?”
Amber wrinkled her nose. “That was a recent realization. I looked Dreon up, saw an image of his parents, cross-searched, and I found an image of him on a guardian team right before he retired. You were on his left. I would know your eyes anywhere.” She cupped his jaw and leaned up to kiss his cheek.
He turned his head and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around
his neck, and he pulled his lips away for a moment. “Is that an agreement?”
She huffed. “I can’t really imagine life around here without you, so I will say yes.”
He murmured, “Hang on. We don’t want to be late.”
He bent and jumped, landing them back on the palace grounds. The guards looked at them and then resumed watching for actual incursions.
He set her on her feet, and she held onto his arm. “Why does my dress have a quarter of my body weight in gems on it?”
Antoth walked back into the ballroom with her. “It was my backup plan in case you tried to run away. I thought it might slow you down.”
“How did you know I would wear this one?”
He laughed. “They all weigh the same. I was not taking any chances. There are also trackers in your necklace and the gems in your hair.”
She fought her laughter.
Emera ran up to her with hopeful eyes. “Well?”
Amber put a stern expression on her face. “I have agreed, but I am going to make him pay. The price has been agreed upon.”
Her young friend looked shocked.
Antoth grinned. “We have decided on an ongoing negotiation. We will keep you posted on our progress.”
Amber snickered. Emera looked at her, and relief flowed through her. “You were just being a jerk.”
Amber inclined her head. “Correct. That is my default setting, as you know. So, how did you meet Dreon?”
Emera leaned in. “When you were incapacitated, the Nyal Imperium offered him as guardian, and we... get along.”
“Oh. Oh!” Amber held out her fist, and Emera bumped it with her own.
Antoth looked at her. “What was that?”
Hydrangea was laughing and wheezing in full view, and her son looked a little concerned.
Amber walked over, and she helped the woman stand straight. “Shh. They have no idea.”
Dreon was over speaking with Emera, and Antoth’s expression suddenly darkened.
Amber glared at him. Antoth, you pull yourself back in, or I will figure out how you did that jumping thing, and you are going to spend your wedding night hopping through the mountains. Emera is an adult, and she can make adult decisions.
