Author's Note: Unnecessary, overly descriptive details of clothing, makeup, fingernail polish, jewelry, and hairstyles will be in this chapter. Seriously ... most of it won't even be related to the plot. I just love this thing that's often called "costume porn." It doesn't involve literal porn. It's just silly fashion stuff.
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Naeva's feet were aflutter, tapping all around the desk that Rellenora sat at with a wilted posture. Her voice was shooting out all sorts of things. Rellenora only understood some of them.
"I can't believe it! I can't! Oh, just imagine your brother's faces when they learn of this! Nobody expected it! In truth, it must be a miracle!"
It was a calamity.
Rellenora wanted to weep. Her eyes and nose were dense with the need to release her aching wretchedness. The sunny weather didn't cheer her up. The luxury of the Eggplant Palace didn't cheer her up. The congratulations from all the Royal Staff in this palace didn't cheer her up. Even Naeva's pleasant attitude didn't cheer her up.
Rellenora was in despair.
She'd never see her home again.
Never see the gray stones of the royal keep, protected by three massive walls.
Never see the native squirrels and little birds.
Never sleep in her comfy little bed.
Never eat her favorite foods.
Never secretly watch the deer, bears, and wolves from afar.
Never again, she'd never ever see her home ever again.
The only way out of this situation she could think of was a divorce, but Rellenora knew she would offend the Emperor if she initiated a divorce. She couldn't even invent a reason to divorce him ... or rather, she couldn't invent one that anyone would accept.
Damn it ... these thoughts couldn't be expressed! Scrolls could always be secretly read!
Rellenora's shoulders rose a bit as parts of a thought blended together.
She could write in a special, secret code that nobody else would understand!
Each character would have certain strokes removed to hide their identities. Then, every other character in each word would be upside down. And then, each sentence would be written backwards, beginning with the last word and ending with the first. And finally, she would start her writing at the opposite end of the scroll, in a direction that was different from where a reader would begin.
If anyone thought it was odd, it wouldn't matter. Rellenora knew she was an idiot anyway. So, while Naeva continued to happily pace around, Rellenora chewed on nothing and wrote her feelings down.
"I don't belong here. I want to go home. Why did he choose the idiot? I hate it here. He's going to be so upset when he realizes he's made a mistake, and he'll have to think of a reason to divorce me. Maybe he'll invent a lie? Perhaps that would be fine. I know he can't tell his court, 'This woman is an idiot' because it was obvious from the beginning."
"What am I meant to do now? How can I live in this place? The members of the court here will hate me. At least in my home, the court there was accustomed to me. They knew not to expect anything good from me. Damn, I want to go home."
Naeva grabbed her shoulder and shook it. Rellenora looked up and saw several, several, several young women, each wearing a single robe and a few flowery hair ornaments.
Along with the women, there were many carts, coffers and wardrobes of varying sizes. There was also a long blackboard supported by a frame that had wheels. All those women bowed to Rellenora, and then one of them stepped to the blackboard with a fresh stick of chalk in her fingers.
The woman wrote on the board, "Greetings, Your Highness, Emperor's Betrothed. We have been sent here to present you with many gifts and to have you properly dressed as a Zenthian elite. Your companion will also be dressed. The Emperor and The Empress Dowager have personally chosen these beautiful things from the Imperial Treasury to give to you. Please accept them."
Rellenora rose from her seat, dropping her brush. Beside her, Naeva bounced in place and laughed as a young maiden might do.
It turned out that, at least during hotter days, the layers of clothing were mostly false. Instead of several robes, strips of fabric were attached to a main robe's edges to give the illusion of wearing from as low as two to as high as forty layers, depending on the wearer's status and the occasion.
Naeva was dressed first because as a woman with no official ranking she would only have one robe with no layers. The women gave her a small wardrobe full of colorful yet tasteful clothing along with all the necessary accessories, including makeup and nail paints.
The first piece of clothing was a thin, white under-dress, a sort of chemise. It had fitted sleeves and a square neckline. Then, a single robe of a dark sprout green was wrapped around her form. The sleeves were mildly loose. The collar was was much higher than the under-dress' neckline. Excess fabric was folded up at her waist, where a cord was attached to keep it in place. Then, a cool gray ornamental sash was put around the cord, hiding it, with a rectangular knot pinned and folded in the back. Small, tight white socks were put on her feet. Then those feet were put into gray slippers.