West Blue, Chang'an City, the imperial palace.
Night had deepened, and the imperial palace in Tianqi City lay beneath tranquil starlight. The slight ripples stirred by the court's daytime discussion of Alabasta's incorporation through marriage had now settled into silent undercurrents and busy preparations within the palace walls. As the heart of the Empire, once the emperor's will was settled, its vast machinery of state worked efficiently in response. No one dared neglect their duties.
Yet at the end of the corridor outside the imperial study, Chen Yu was neither reviewing memorials as usual nor discussing state affairs with his trusted ministers. Dismissing the attending maids and eunuchs, he walked alone through the moonlight toward the depths of the inner palace, to the empress's bedchamber-Fengyi Palace.
Inside Fengyi Palace, the candlelight was warm. Zhu Yu had not yet retired. Dressed in informal robes, she sat beneath a lamp, carefully checking a ceremonial list. It detailed the arrangements for the approaching grand wedding to welcome Alabasta's eldest princess, Vivi, and the subsequent incorporation ceremony. As empress, overseeing the six palaces and assisting with internal affairs, she had far too much to consider and balance, especially when the arrival of a consort with such an unusual background could affect the balance of both the inner palace and the imperial court.
From palace decorations, ceremonial retinue specifications, and banquet arrangements to gifts for Alabasta's royal family and decrees of favor to reassure its former ministers, every detail on the list required her review and decision. Her delicate brows drew together slightly. At times she raised her brush to mark something; at others she paused in thought. The lamplight cast a soft glow over her gentle profile, also revealing a faint, barely perceptible weariness around her eyes and the more complicated feelings beneath it.