With one day left until we arrived at Avondrea, I remained in the royal carriage in preparation for our entrance into the city. Boris's planning of the trip had been nothing short of perfection, the convoy was going to reach its destination without experiencing any supply issues, and our grand entrance into the capital city of Avondrea that he had hoped for was going to be achieved. Having received advance notice of our imminent arrival, Queen Herana had prepared a welcoming ceremony for us that was unlike anything I had ever seen or could have imagined. Upon entering the city gates our convoy was greeted by two rows of dancers lined up on either side of the street that led the way to the palace while dancing in perfect synchronicity. On the balconies of the buildings that lined the street the citizens threw down flower petals while celebrating our arrival. At the palace a welcoming party was waiting for us. I stepped out of the carriage and was welcomed by Roland Dorman, who introduced himself to me as the queen's Chief Counsel, her equivalent of what Ferland was to me. I walked with him along a line of all of the members of the queen's court, until, finally, I got to meet Queen Herana. She was middle aged, tall and had graying hair, and stood rigidly erect, her posture perfect. I felt immense intimidation meeting her, which was strange given that I had felt no sense of intimidation when I'd met King Gregorio.

"The only other queen in the realm; I am honored to welcome you to Theran, Queen Alegra," Herana said to me.

"I'm honored to be here."

Herana's palace was constructed entirely of marble. Arched, colonnaded walkways led you through the palace which was built around beautiful lush indoor gardens.

"I think your story is a remarkable one; I've been wanting to meet you ever since I heard about your journey to becoming queen."

"I just did what I had to do."

"Don't be so modest; you displayed tremendous courage, intelligence and resourcefulness, it's no wonder the Overseer picked you. I knew when I heard about all that you had accomplished that you would make a great queen, and I want to help you to become a great queen."

"Thank you, but the reason I came here was not to discuss our mutual interests but rather how we can cooperate to change the realm."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"You do have big ambitions; let's leave those discussions for tomorrow, today is just for celebrating your arrival."

Queen Herana and I spent the rest of the day getting to know each other personally while our courtiers talked amongst themselves about the various points of mutual interest between our two kingdoms. Boris, Alfred and Uther, because they had experience as members of court, were perfectly at ease in this environment. Ferland however was participating in his first ever royal summit as a member of a high level delegation and his nervousness was obvious.

We had lunch in the palace's central courtyard, spent the evening enjoying an orchestral musical performance at the Avondrea auditorium and returned to the palace for dinner in the palace dining hall. Queen Herana was eager to learn as much as she could about me and we spent the day talking about my past, the initiatives that I had launched since becoming queen, and my ambitions for the future of Aseron.

"You are easily the most idealistic ruler I've ever met. I find most of what you are doing to be admirable but you must remember that the more you give to your subjects the more they are going to expect and the harder it is to keep them quiescent."

"That sounds like something I'd expect King Gregorio to say."

"I suppose it is a bit of a cynical thing to say, but I would hate for your reign to be undermined by a failure on your part to be more pragmatic."

"I think I'm being nothing but pragmatic; what could be more pragmatic than wanting my citizens to achieve their full potential?"

"Subjects...call them your subjects, not citizens."

The more Queen Herana and I spoke the more I felt a disconnect between us and the more I worried that she was not going to be an ally for what I was planning. I wondered if I would eventually end up this way, if my obsession with my status as queen would come to take precedence over my concern for the citizens of Aseron. I was confident enough in my sense of duty to the citizens of Aseron to believe that it wouldn't happen, but I was also aware that I had undergone some changes in the short time that I had been queen and that there was no way to know in what ways I would change in the future. By the end of the night, after we had all repaired to our quarters, I was giving serious thought to whether I should speak with her about my idea for us to lead an effort to unite the realm against Dranii. My fear was that, given the insights into her character that I had obtained from our brief time together, that she was perhaps more likely to view my proposal as a threat to Theran's current stability, and that the most prudent course of action for her would be to reject my proposal and inform King Gregorio of what I was plotting. I went to sleep deciding that I had no choice in the matter; without Theran's wealth and power as the realm's largest food producer there was no hope forming any kind of coalition against Dranii.