"...Could I have a serious discussion with you, Sunny?" Armon asked her the next day, after Daemon had left for a morning appointment. They had an hour before she was due in Court, so Sunny gestured for Armon to join her at her desk.
"Sure. I was actually going to ask to have a discussion with you, too," she returned.
"Really? What about?" the affable man asked, settling himself in the other chair and crossing his legs neatly.
"I need a gown suitable for attending the Marriage Mart Ball." She might have had to be careful what to call it during the Council meeting, but Sunny knew Armon preferred the more honest title for the affair.
He sucked in a breath, grimacing. "—Well, that's going to be a little bit difficult. You see, Sunny, the Consort's not
allowed
to attend. None of the concubines are, simply by ancient tradition, but the Consort is specifically forbidden to attend by law. That's because the Consort is the beloved of the Sovereign, and the objective of the Formal Familial Ball is to introduce His Majesty to eligible bride-candidates. It's considered an impediment to an arranged marriage if the king is too busy thinking of his beloved to pay any attention to anyone else. Besides, all of the attendants are either royal or noble, by tradition. You're a Free Citizen, which isn't quite the same thing in the eyes of Astorran tradition."
"...What if the Consort is herself royal or noble? Wouldn't she have the right to attend under that guise?" Sunny asked.
"Well...technically, she couldn't be barred from attending, if she attended as a noble or a royal. But it's never really come up, because it's considered bad form to make someone of royal or noble birth a mere concubine." Armon paused, then gave her a wry look, clasping his hands around his knee. "But that does bring me to my own question. Sunny, sweetie...your beautiful but highly unusual freckles seem to be echoed by certain marks I've just noticed on His Majesty's own skin....reversed but complimentary markings that form 'white freckles' on his gorgeous, tanned hide.
"Now, you should know this, too, as an Imperium historian, because it's somewhat known among the better-educated circules," Armon started to babble, "if not often widely discussed, that, erm...I can't believe I'm suggesting this," he muttered self-deprecatingly, shaking his head slowly. "I mean, how could it possibly have happened? I—"
Sunny put him out of his misery. "Let me guess: you were wondering if our paired marks might have anything to do with the way the Empress and Emperor usually have some sort of complimentary, paired marking on their own bodies after they've been selected by the Matrix...right?"
"...Right," he sighed, visibly both relieved and uncomfortable at having the notion aired. "I mean it's a silly suggestion, isn't it? The last Emperor and Empress lived over forty years ago! No one's seen hide nor hair of the fabled Matrix since then. It's a very silly idea..." He looked away, sighing. "I'm an old fool. It was a stupid observation."
"Actually, I'd say it was a rather astute one."
Armon blinked and did a double-take, looking at her sharply. "An...astute...one?"
"Yep. And you'd
only
be a fool if you discussed this with anyone else, at this point in time," Sunny confirmed with a slight grimace of her own. He blinked, and she drove the point home, no-holds-barred. "Yes, Armon, your suppositions are correct. I am the White Dragon, the Empress-Elect. Daemon is the Black Dragon, Emperor-Elect. Of course, he hasn't exactly
realized
this, yet...and we're still working out a compromise in how we should consider and treat each other," Sunny added calmly as the Chief Eunuch gaped at her, grateful her private quarters were guaranteed surveillance-free, usually through daily sweeps of hand-picked counter-espionage teams. She'd come to trust Armon and his staff, over the few weeks. She'd certainly come to like the andro-oriented man, and thought of him now as a friend. "I also
won't
tell him unless and until we're equals in each other's eyes. If Daemon figures it out on his own...well, we're almost there, anyway, so it won't matter as much as it would have a few weeks ago, when I myself first figured out what was happening."
"How...how is this possible?" Armon demanded, eyeing her askance. "How did you...?"
Her sense of discretion kept a lid on the details of that secret, but she did give him the general timeline.
"I acquired the, uh, seed of the Matrix within me shortly before I was kidnapped by the pirates who stole me and sold me on the slave-markets. But I didn't know it, at first. The Matrix then selected Daemon for my partner shortly after we were left alone together—pretty much from the moment we first touched—and it has been growing within us ever since. At its current rate, it will probably be ready for completion by the Marriage Mart at the latest...which would be an excellent moment for me to step forward and assert my place as his intended wife."
"Why don't you just tell him right now?" he asked her, curiosity lacing his tone, mixed wth confusion and puzzlement.
She'd given that some thought. "For one, he needs to come to realize it for himself. I've tried to access the powers of the Matrix, and I can only do minor things at the moment; we are not yet complete. I
think