Ellie laughed, “I assume we won’t be having an Imperial marriage ceremony then?”
“If you agree to marry me, no, we won’t. Things are different on Reima Two. We’ve evolved. We don’t need our friends watching us have sex to make the marriage legal.”
Ellie sat up and looked at him, “How’s it done here then?”
“We exchange crowns in front of friends and family at a public hall. It’s simple,” Valentin said casually. He wasn’t going to mention the dagger throwing until she had accepted him. He knew people unfamiliar with their customs found it strange.
“Well, that seems surprisingly normal,” Ellie said ironically. Changing the subject, she asked, “How much time do I have before we need to leave for dinner?”
“About two hours.”
“I’m going to have a shower; would you like to join me?”
“Although my body can take the heat, I do find it uncomfortable. How about we both shower separately and then I’ll meet you downstairs in 30 minutes for a real Reima Two cocktail before we go out?”
“Where do you want to meet downstairs? It’s a large house,” Ellie asked. “No further than 800 meters, right?”
“You’ll be fine. 800 meters. My staff will show you where I’ll be. I refer to it as the ‘Left Terrace’.”
Ellie nodded and then slowly got out of bed disentangling herself from him, “Thirty minutes,” she said without looking back.
Valentin grinned as he watched Elloisa walk to the shower, she had a fine figure. He thought she could eat a bit more though. However, with what she had been through the last year he was surprised she wasn’t even thinner or even more emotionally unbalanced. He vowed that he would feed her and try to be as emotionally available as he could be for her. She was strong and he was excited by the idea of a completely healthy Elloisa being even stronger. If he actually believed the Imperial gods were there to help not hinder life on this side of the galaxy, he would have prayed to them that her mother not be returned. Valentin wasn’t naïve enough to believe that Elloisa wouldn’t leave him and return to the Empire to be with her mother, if she had to choose between them.
Ellie walked back out of the bathroom and gave Valentin an embarrassed wave as she walked by, “I forgot the toilet was over here.” She reached the small room with the toilet, closed the door, and then pressed the reset button so the toilet could get to know her. She thought it was so humiliating to introduce oneself to a toilet, but this was the way it was on this side of the galaxy. If you refused to give the toilet your name it would not adjust, so here she was, talking to a new toilet in a new place.
After she finished peeing, she crossed the now empty bedroom and went into the shower room. Ellie looked at herself in the full-length mirror and decided that besides her messy hair she didn’t look too bad. She thought, Good sex really does make people look better. Ellie removed her ID necklace and bird necklace and set them on the bathroom counter, then she commanded the bathroom, “Turn on shower water to 42C.”
The bathroom immediately complied.
Ellie was so pleased that she didn’t need to fight with the shower to override any safety protocols like she did in the Empire if she used any shower not her own. Happy, she got in and immersed herself in the hot water. She closed her eyes and thought, Maybe this is my destiny?
The bathroom computer broke her thoughts, “Please select your cleansing scent.”
“What are my options?”
The bathroom computer began listing so many options, all of which Ellie was ignorant of, so she interrupted the bathroom, “Stop, do you have any human scents?”
The bathroom replied, “Vanilla, Lavender, Sandalwood, Aloe, Cotton Blossom…”
Before the bathroom could continue, Ellie interrupted again, “Mix Cotton Blossom and Lavender for all cleansing and moisturizing.”
“Please stay still until completion,” the bathroom answered.
Ellie stood and let the computerized bathroom work its magic. She had grown to love the talking bathrooms; they could do almost anything and knew how to make skin and hair look fabulous. Ellie had always wondered why humanity had never focused on this kind of technology, but then she had to remind herself that women ruled this area of the galaxy, so it made sense why so many aspects of life that women found important were better here. For centuries, they had prioritized women’s needs and wants, which was opposite of that of Earth. She remembered learning about human women not even being able to work after marriage in the 20th century and some women even being given mind-altering drugs during the labor of a baby because men so misunderstood women and their bodies. It wasn’t until the 24th century that all human women had the same rights as men on Earth. But here, she reminded herself, men, at least in the Empire, still didn’t have equal rights. There was the Contract that everyone talked about that granted men and women equal rights through agreements over centuries of negotiations, but as Jei had mentioned on more than one occasion, men weren’t really equal in the Empire. Ellie sighed as the watched the soap pool around her feet and breathed in the familiar human smells of the soap, “I wonder if men and women are really equal here on Reima Two?” she asked herself quietly. She assumed they were because Valentin had no woman in his life, and he was One. In the Empire, he would need a wife to hold such a lofty position, but this would be something she needed to ask him about. She reminded herself also that she needed to start questioning why he would want a human wife. He was so powerful. It didn’t seem like she would be an equal match for him. Not that she didn’t think highly of herself, but she hadn’t even begun working yet and did carry some emotional baggage. However, she did remind herself that she was the Ward to House Rega and the daughter of the goddess of humanity, so she wasn’t just any human woman.
The water stopped and then as the bathroom was tenderly drying her skin it asked, “How would you like your hair?”
“Just dry it straight,” she replied. But then she paused and said, “No cut it short. Truly short. Cut the sides just below my ears and keep some fringe. Shorter in the back.”
“You would like a short haircut reminiscent of Earth, circa 1920, North American continent women’s revolutionary style.” The bathroom computer asked while showing her a 3D image of what she would look like with the hair style.
“Yes, cut my hair exactly like that,” Ellie demanded excitedly. She wanted to do it not only because it was throwing off everything Imperial but because she felt like a new woman, once again, or maybe for the first time, she didn’t really know, but newly in charge of her own destiny. She looked at her short hair after the bathroom had finished and thought, I am Elloisa. No longer a child, and she was incredibly pleased with herself as she walked out of the bathroom clean, confident, and naked.
Ellie found the adjacent walk-in wardrobe and was impressed that Valentin had provided so much clothing for her. There were more clothes here than she had ever owned on Earth and the clothing was separated into three distinct sections all containing clothing, jewelry and shoes, Imperial, what she supposed was popular galactic wear on Reima Two and finally a human clothing section.
Ellie became distracted by the glass display box of the Alliance jewelry in her closet and wondered if Reima Two also took part in the known jewelry tradition. She couldn’t help but notice that the jewelry he chose was very streamlined and understated. The Imperial maximum class dresses were also of a high-quality but understated. All she could think was, You really do have a love and hate relationship with the Empire, and then a second later, while she touched some of the smooth and luxurious fabric of the Imperial dresses, she thought, And so do I, because she was tempted to wear one even though she didn’t have to.