The seventeenth day of the second month, Ming year 468, the Spring Equinox. Auspicious for sacrifices, prayers for blessings, ritual offerings, travel, and pledging alliances.
The beginning of the hour of the tiger.
The Divine Land still lay beneath a deep shroud of night, but at that moment, at the bottom of the Yellow Sea, the Dragon Palace blazed with light.
Within the inner palace, Purple Dawn Hall.
The Dragon Lord and Dragon Consort stood with their arms outstretched as a dozen attendants dressed them. The attendants worked quietly and delicately, their movements swift and orderly.
The Dragon Lord wore his Robe and Crown. Upon his head sat a crown with twelve tassels, strings of white jade beads hanging at the front and back. He wore a black upper garment and a crimson lower garment, embroidered with the Twelve Emblems: the sun, moon, stars, mountains, dragons, pheasants, ancestral vessels, waterweed, fire, grains of rice, axe heads, and paired bow-shaped patterns. A broad gold-and-jade belt encircled his waist, paired white jade pendants hung at his sides, and red ceremonial shoes shod his feet.
The Dragon Consort wore a deep blue Ceremonial Robe embroidered with twelve pairs of pheasants, and a Nine-Dragon Four-Phoenix Crown adorned with pearls, kingfisher feathers, and golden phoenixes. Paired white jade pendants were fastened at her waist, and she held a Gold Bracelet.
Once they were properly dressed, the Dragon Lord took the Dragon Consort's hand and walked out of the hall.
Outside, their carrying palanquin had long been waiting. The dragon palanquin was lacquered vermilion and ornamented with gold, with a blue gauze canopy. Strong servants, eunuchs, female officials, and palace guards surrounded it, and at the very front of the procession stood Ni Wenyu.
The palace commander had shed his usual scholarly air for full armor.