The room seemed to fall into a hush as the Queen approached. The rush of servants moving around was basically shouting that something was happening.

The announcer soon cleared any doubt.

"Feresi Elara, Queen monarch of Elara." the announcer, that the queen had brought with her, said. Althea stood up as the Queen walked in, the picture of indifferent grace as people bowed to her. The music turned mellow, probably to the Steward's instructions.

"I welcome Queen Elara to the Solerian Empire." Althea said, not mentioning that the Queen wasn't supposed to be here. But she knew why she was here. The manual. The shadow one, probably. But the Steward had mentioned people would be greedy towards the Diery one…

"I accept the Countess' welcome to this humble coronation ceremony." the Queen said, her eyes twinkling in the candlelight. The sun had set long ago, before she had opened the doors early.

"I would dance, dear, but I fear I do not know any suitable dances." the Queen shrugged, as if she was truly helpless. Althea wanted to agree with her, but she did not think playing into the Queen's hands was a good idea.

"I learned a bit of the Elaran rain dance in my childhood." she said, keeping her voice. "Does the Queen know it?"

The old Althea had learned a lot of dances, hundreds of them because a noble lady was supposed to be able to match foreign dignitaries in their dances. Tell her steps and Althea could dance it.

The Queen actually smiled at that. "Can your singers keep up, Countess? The dance is usually on a song faster than they seem used to."

The Queen inclined her head as if listening to the very slow tune.

"I think they can handle it." Althea said, walking down with as much grace as she could muster. The old Althea's style was different from the Queen's. The Queen walked into a room like she owned it, like everyone else was inferior.

Althea was more silent, a lonely sort of grace that separated her from the masses. And usually went ignored. But she had a feeling it was not ignored now.

The song changed to something a lot faster. So fast that it was almost as fast as pop. Althea had a feeling that the singers had taken the Queen's words as a challenge. And fell into her game.

The rain song was extremely complicated, and required a lot of twirls and steps. A hundred and twelve steps to be exact. Althea just happened to have learned it very well. The dance had been what the teacher had used to teach her how to dance quickly.

The two of them began to dance, twirling and spinning at each other. The Queen quickly took the lead with speed, but Althea kept at it. The Queen was going to win, she must have over a century of practice at this point. At one hundred and twenty-three, she had been leading the dance every monsoon for over eighty years as Queen. And even longer as the Princess.

The dance continued for a few more minutes before the Queen began talking. Althea lost the words as she twirled, but the wind picked it up and sent them to her. The Queen was cheating with magic.

"Do you know why I am here?" the Queen asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"Isn't it to dance with me at my coronation ball?" Althea asked, calling on mana as she did the 'deadly twirl'. Twirl twenty time like a ballerina. The wind carried their words as they danced, and she had a feeling it was happy to.

The Queen laughed, continuing the dance as she did so. "Oh dear, not even you are so naive."

Althea did not reply.

"The Diery vault, even I have heard of it." the Queen stated. "A spell cast by one of the nineteen founders of the Solerian Empire. And then reinforced by so many."

The Queen twirled close to her as Althea finally matched her step. The Queen must have slowed down sometime in between.

"I will make you a deal, Countess." the Queen said as they separated. "Throw the manual inside the vault and leave it be, and I will start buying food directly from the Diery county. Leave the Empire's restrictions to me."

"The manual is the royal family's." Althea said. "I think you are in the wrong place, Queen Elara."

"Do you not hold it now?" the Queen asked, a faint smile on her face as they passed by each other.

"I think you can persuade your Emperor to let you keep it." she said.

Althea thought about it. Why was the Queen sure that the Emperor would let her keep it? And then it struck her. The Queen wanted her to lock the manual away, not give it to her.

"The manual isn't yours." she stated.

"On the contrary, it has been in my family for generations." the Queen replied.

"Yes, but someone else wants it. And you don't want them to have it. The Emperor will not want to be in the middle of your civil war and let me have it" Althea's brain was working overtime to try to make sense of what was happening.

"Perhaps. Do you accept my proposal?"

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"Well that depends. I have little to gain by this. I don't lack gold." she replied.

"Yes, I have heard of the Diery family's wealth." the Queen replied. "A wealth nearly entirely made up of gems. A little gold could greatly increase your ability to trade."

"Perhaps." The Queen was right, less than one percent of her wealth was in gold. But that was still more than enough.

"Do we have a deal, Countess?"

"No.” Althea replied, spinning through a particularly complex series of steps before replying. Tell me, does your kingdom have great singers?"

The Queen nearly stopped out of surprise. But then some realization seemed to strike her.

"I hear that the palace used to house a great academy. Are you trying to bring it back up?"

"Perhaps." Althea replied, finally close to finishing the dance.

"I will have one of mine send over some master singers and dancers in a week. Tell me your answer then, and we can trade." the Queen said, still finishing the dance before her. Althea was just a step behind, bowing as she ended it.

"A pleasurable dance, Queen Elara." she said loudly.

"The same, Countess." the Queen said, and then a slight smile appeared on her lips. "But I think your dances are not quite done yet."

"Marshal Solerian of the Solerian Empire." the announcer said. Of course. The Empire would have to send someone of equal rank. Or at least comparable. The Marshal also happened to be a peak Adept that was famous for dueling against Queen Elara a decade ago. And the Emperor's older brother.

"Marshal Solerian. I remember when you were still an Admiral challenging me in my waters." the Queen said. "How nice of the Empire to demote you for that."

Althea groaned inside. The Queen knew well enough that a Marshall outranked an Admiral in the Empire, but it was not the same in the Elara kingdom.

"How unpleasant. I must share a room with you again." the Marshal said.

"How rude." the Queen said, heading towards where the servants had prepared a seat beside Althea.

The Marshall offered his hand to her. "Countess."

Althea took it, dancing. The dance was thankfully short, and without talking. A bit awkward, perhaps. But it was over quick enough. Now for the real show. Althea retired to her chair, watching as the Queen and the Marshal entered the waltz.

Althea would not want to be a fly on that wall. Oh wait, she was just the Countess trapped in between.

The surrounding people had retreated to the shadows, the jovial atmosphere from before not around anymore. But people did not dare leave. The people present terrified them. The Diery county only had her family as nobles, they had not seen a Baron, let alone a Queen and a Marshal.

"Althea." Pulsie whispered. "Look at the food station."

Althea looked, suddenly remembering that she did not have dinner. But she wasn't hungry. The appetizers probably had something to do with that.

Two people, one woman dressed in rags, and a man, similarly looking out of place with rags and half of his face covered in a mask, were eating there.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The man has the poison element. And meets the requirements for one of the manuals." Pulsie said. "And the woman, she-she…"

Pulsie was a bit too excited to say things.

"A space mage, Althea. The woman has the space element."

Althea reacted fast, calling Mira to her.

"Tell those two eating the food to wait too. And don't let them go. Tell them they can stay in the castle for a week." she whispered. Mira ran off, hurrying towards the couple. The movement went largely ignored.

The crowd was just too focused on the Queen and the Marshal. The dance ended soon enough, the two royals leaving without paying her any more attention. Althea was very happy about that.

The ball closed up soon after that, the seven hours were over anyway. Althea headed towards her room, eager to get the night over with. Why had she thought asking people to stay was a good idea? Asking them to come back would probably have been better. Now she couldn't sleep.

Althea opened the door to the room, finding unfamiliar guards placed outside. Perhaps they were the backup Steward Ven called. To her surprise, there was a person waiting for her in her room, flipping through the cultivation manual that was supposed to be with Steward Ven.

"I greet her majesty, the Empress of Soleria, '' she said. The Solerian Empire was the full name of the Empire, Soleria was the shorter one. In formal events, either worked.

The Empress raised her head, smiling. "Oh, hello, Althea."

"I hope you aren't too upset I made myself comfortable." she continued.

"Not at all, your majesty. But how…" Althea asked, not quite sure how to frame her sentence.

"Queen Elara isn't the only one with a space mage." The Empress said, still smiling. "Did you know that Marshal Solerian is one of only two Adept level space mages in the Empire?"

"I was taught there was only one. So I suppose the answer is no." Althea replied, smiling.

"Yes, quite a thing isn't it. I fear books can, at times, lie." the Empress said. "I heard your little conversation with the Queen today. Well done with that, by the way. And I agree with her, the vault is probably the safest place for the book I can think of."

"But it puts me at risk." Althea said. "The Shadow Count will target me to get to the manual."

"And fall right into the Queen's plans if he does so. No, the Count and the Queen have been playing this game for longer than either of us have been alive. The matter will not involve you after this." the Empress said.

"And Althea, take that as a warning. What happened wasn't your fault, but the Queen could have easily killed you without me even knowing it happened. The people involved in this are too powerful for even Steward Ven to handle."

"I will keep that in mind, your majesty." Althea would love not dealing with super strong people that could kill her within a second too. Now if only that were an option.

"Now back to lighter matters. I hear you successfully practiced the old manual. Mia would be proud." the Empress smiled," I know I am."

Mia was the late Countess, her mother. And the Empress' cousin.

"I hear you're going to remove some more manuals today." the Empress' eyes twinkled with delight as Althea froze.

The Empress laughed, looking at Althea's expression. "Don't worry, I already know about the Diery family's little collection. I was the heir for a few months after your uncles died. Mia didn't even know she was pregnant then. I have seen that place your family likes to call a Manual hall. "

Althea did not know that the Empress' brothers had died. The Empress was the youngest child, if her brothers were dead, then that meant…

"Oh yes, Leo is the heir right now. I am sure Father will get around to troubling you about that soon." the Empress laughed some more. Althea was just tired.

"Now come on, we are expecting unwelcome guests, and you have to remove some manuals." the Empress said. "The Treasury has a bracelet that you can use to store the manuals you don't want people to know about."

Althea just followed behind her, wondering if she could go back in time and let the thieves go. But even this world didn't have time magic.