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"Get some rest."

Calix had ravished Kel until the early hours of the morning there in that tiny dressing room.

When the sky outside grew gray with dawn's incoming sun rays, he wrapped her in his own cape and carried her to his bedroom.

"The maids will be here this afternoon to dress you," he continued, setting a tray filled with fruit and bread next to the bed. "Sleep until then."

What about you?

Kel almost asked, but her tongue was turned to lead with exhaustion.

"At the very least, you'll have to attend the banquet tonight. Since you are now officially my consort."

The final words Kel heard as she drifted off to sleep were hazy.

Official consort?

That couldn't be right. The engagement ceremony had never been completed.

Instead, the Emperor had carried her away like a sack of potatoes, probably leaving quite an uproar in his wake.

Huh. What happened in the ballroom after that, anyway? Did everyone leave? Or.. carry.. on..

Perhaps it was because she was thinking of the unfortunate engagement ceremony or the night of torture she'd just endured, but her dreams were filled with the glinting eyes and wolfish grins of shadowed dancing figures.

When she awoke to the red light of the late afternoon sun, her mouth was dry.

So dry that her breath seemed to stick in her throat, refusing to descend all the way to her lungs.

Panic rising in her chest, her hand shot out to the table next to the bed, fingers thrashing around in search of a drink.

A tray of untouched food and bronze candle holder both clattered loudly to the floor before her fingertips recognized the touch of a tall, round cup.

Eagerly, she gulped down the lukewarm water in the cup, ignoring the twinges of pain in her back, thighs and shoulders.

"Haaa!" Kel let out a breath, her throat finally loosened by the smooth liquid.

She replaced the cup on the table, spilling a few droplets, and rested her forehead against her hands.

A sip of wine was the only thing that'd passed her lips the night before, so why did she feel as if she'd drunk three whole bottles.

The pounding in her head drowned out the beating in her chest, which had become smothered by a heavy, unnameable darkness filling her bosom.

Was this truly the day after her engagement ceremony?

Did the bed she was lying in really belong to the Dragon Emperor?

If someone told her that every single memory was a lie--that she was somewhere and someone entirely different--she would have believed them. It would make more sense than-no, perhaps, it would just ease her aching heart to be someone else, somewhere else away from Emperors and Empires and engagements.

But with each breath, those thoughts drifted further from her mind.

By the time a gentle knock at the door responded to the commotion she'd made earlier, her mind had become clear.

"Are you feeling better, Your Highness?"

A girl Kel had never seen before peeked through the door.

"Uh.. yeah. I guess?"

What a strange question.

Kel rubbed her forehead again. Maybe her mind hadn't cleared up much after all.

"We were all worried about you," the girl went on, stepping into the room. "To think the Empress Consort would fall so violently ill on the day of her engagement."

Violently ill?

Her?

"I fell.. ill?" Kel shook her head.

Of course, the Emperor hauling the Consort away in the middle of the ceremony would be a disaster for the Empire's public image. It sounded very Ira-like to cover the situation with such a story, but there was no way he could have both heard about and resolved the situation overnight from where he was stationed in the Serin capital.

Unless he truly was a secretarial wizard.

Which, with him running the Empire by himself on top of everything else, Kel was beginning to think he might be.

Soon after the young girl's arrival into the room, several more maids poured in, offering their sympathies for the 'illness-stricken Queen who still pushed herself to complete the ceremony in such a dire state'.

Yeah, maybe Ira wasn't behind the cover story after all. She couldn't imagine him painting her in such a heroic light.

Nonetheless, whoever was in charge of covering for Calix's unpredictableness had done their job well. Even the stuffy nobles in attendance of the ceremony were forced to shut their mouths and accept the completed engagement.

Additionally, the celebrations had continued as planned during the day, with attendees expressing their well-wishes for the sick Consort. The Dragon Emperor had sat next to Kel's empty seat for the entire time, receiving all the condolences.

"He's the one who's sick!!" Kel screeched, clutching at the tiny bruises covering her chest and sending a wave of bubbly water over the tub's edge.

"Your Majesty! Is everything ok?" came a concerned voice from outside the door.

She had sent all the maids out of the washroom after hearing two of them snicker at each other as they undressed her.

"Next time I'll send those girls to that crazy guy and let him do this to them instead!" Kel huffed, sinking deeper into the water.

"... not that.. I would want that," she added with a mumble.

"Your Majesty! It's time to dress you!" called the same voice from earlier.

Kel let out one last sigh.

"Alright. I'm coming."

The Empress Consort, like many others, had thought that what happened at the engagement ceremony would be the most eventful part of the multi-day celebration. As she strode into the banquet hall that evening, glittering in a fresh dress and jewels, she had no thoughts of preparing for unexpected events, but rather, recovering from those that had already happened.

However, the Emperor dragging off his fiance in the middle of their engagement, it turned out, ended up being quite unremarkable by the end of the celebration.

The crude exit and ensuing rumors of the Consort's illness paled in comparison to the third night's closing festivities, and the unexpected guests who showed up there.