Ellie let his words sink in, “You’re right.”
Valentin smiled and then left her bedroom closing the door behind him.
Ellie went to the wardrobe and looked through the clothing. She decided to wear an Imperial style dress, she thought it was symbolic as she still saw herself as an Alliance woman and would consider to do so until Admiral Jei himself told her otherwise. A thought crossed her mind then, Why hasn’t he contacted me? She knew him to be an attentive man. Of course, he would be angry with her for leaving but ignoring her wasn’t like him. No doubt his religious ceremony is over. She checked her IC. She had some official messages from the High Council that she would look at later and one from Tamsin wishing her luck and assuring her that she would keep an eye on Magnolia, Prue, and Piper, but nothing else.
“Elloisa?” she heard Valentin call from the other room.
“Just a minute,” she said and turned her attention to her clothing, she put on a purplish-blue type Imperial maximum class dress and took a soft velvet matching cloak to go with it. She put up the hood that was decorated with jewels that looked like diamonds in a fashionable design on and around the rim of the hood and cuffs. “Mirror,” she commanded the room and a mirror appeared. She looked at herself. She ran her fingers under her makeup that had traveled from her eyes to other areas of her face and pushed her messy hair back, so it was hidden by the hood. When she finished, she said to herself, “I look like a traveling fairy.” Then pulled out her ID necklace and the bird necklace, just like an Imperial woman would, and made sure they were seen over the cloak. When she finished, she walked out to meet Valentin who was waiting.
“Much better. Be prepared for gossip drones, the longer we stay docked, the more interest we draw.”
“You mean more vultures,” she commented. Ellie pulled her hood a bit lower to cover her face.
Valentin laughed as he indicated they should leave the room with his hand, “Just make sure they can see our Marriage Pause bracelets, cover the rest of yourself if you want.”
Ellie unnecessarily pulled up her sleeve on the cloak to make sure the bracelet on her left wrist was visible, “Why is it pink now? Why does it keep changing colors?”
“It changes with our moods. You’re tired but content as I am.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m content. I’m nervous.”
“Not as nervous as you were on Lake Lavia. Science doesn’t lie,” Valentin replied casually as they walked past his crew who all saluted him, and guards picked up in front and behind them.
Once they exited the Song into the Reima Two arrival space port, gossip drones were everywhere, and crowds of people stopped to stare as they walked by. Ellie felt extremely uncomfortable with the attention as she realized the laws regarding drones must be different on Reima Two because these drones were too many and too close. She pulled her hood even lower.
Valentin took her hand, “It’s a short walk to the transport and then we’ll be home.”
It seemed to Ellie that eyes and drones followed their every step and every breath until they reached the transport, just as before, his guards took other transports that flanked theirs, but left them privacy. Ellie couldn’t help but marvel at the transport. From the outside the transport looked like a sleek silver metallic ball, but from the inside it gave the illusion of being in a completely transparent craft, “Where’s the engine in this thing and why didn’t anyone say anything to us as we passed? They just all stopped and stared, it was creepy.”
“They can’t. No one can speak to us during the Marriage Pause. And it’s only an illusion that you can’t see the engine and the rest of the transport. It’s made this way so that you can see Reima Two in all its splendor.”
“We are just going to stay at your house and do nothing for two weeks?” Ellie couldn’t decide if that would be fabulous or terrible.
“No. You need to acquaint yourself with Reima Two as this would be your main residence. I’ve taken the liberty of scheduling our time together. I’ve studied your likes and dislikes and planned accordingly, down to every detail.”
“Oh,” said Ellie somewhat surprised, and if she were being honest a bit concerned, at his extreme attention to detail. But then she reminded herself that she could not judge him by the standards on Earth because he came from a different culture. Although she wasn’t going to say anything to him, this behavior reminded her a lot of an Imperial man. From what she had seen from Admiral Jei, Alliance men were incredibly detailed in getting to know the women in their lives and took great pride in knowing their wants, likes, and dislikes. Ellie did not thank him for organizing their time together, as she assumed that, just as in the Empire, any sign of gratitude for this would be an insult to him, so instead she said, “I look forward to what you have planned. From what I read on the Song, Reima Two looks like a beautiful and interesting place. A little bit like Earth all the way here on the other side of the galaxy.”
“It is like Earth,” he agreed, “but not as light, despite what the images make it look like. Now you need to tell the transport where we are going.” When he saw her concerned face, he reassured her, “We are on Reima Two now, so you don’t need to fly it yourself to be in accordance with the husband stealing law. Just instruct the autopilot.”
“Good,” Ellie was relieved. Then addressing the transport said, “Valentin’s home.”
Valentin shook his head at her.
Ellie tried again, “Elloisa’s home for the next two weeks.”
The transport’s engines started and soon they were flying through the sky. Once they cleared the space port, Ellie had to close her eyes against the bright sunlight and dark blue skies. She hadn’t been prepared.
“I never thought I’d see a brighter sun than the Alliance Two twinkle ever again,” she commented as she looked at the royal blue sky. It wasn’t as bright as Earth’s sun, as he had said, but it wasn’t as dark as the Imperial one either.
Valentin didn’t reply because he didn’t know what to say to do this experience justice for her. He disagreed with the tradition of Imperial women being tied to their planets and what was more mind-boggling was that they themselves chose it.
Ellie was charmed by the brightly colored buildings below and their artistic extravagance. “I always knew Alliance people had it in them to be creative. All the brutalist architecture in the Empire is so depressing compared to this.”
“The Empire you see now wasn’t always that way. There was a period, thousands of years ago, at the same time that Reima Two first gained GC recognition, when the Empire embraced art and frivolous architecture for beauty and pleasure. However, the Empire later embraced brutalism, as you say, on the heels of a fundamentalist religious movement that never occurred on Reima Two.”
Ellie looked down at the blue water and brightly colored buildings, trying to image what the Empire would have been like if they would have continued on this same path, “You would think they would have rediscovered these beauties in life when they became less fundamentalist.”
Valentin looked at her seriously, “You think they are less fundamentalist now?”
She returned his gaze, “No, I guess not. It’s just been so long. On Earth, these religious movements go in waves, so I just assumed… “she trailed off feeling ignorant again. Of course, none of her cultural teachers described the current Empire as a religious fundamentalist state. She wondered if Valentin might be lying to make her like Reima Two more, but then she decided that that wasn’t the kind of lie that would make or break her decision about marrying him. Then she remembered her bracelet and realized he couldn’t lie or they would both get a shock.