She forced herself to stop caressing the Imperial gowns and walked on to the Reima Two fashions, she didn’t know much about this kind of clothing at all. She would have to study it to make sure she wasn’t combining the wrong things, and since she was confident that the gossip drones would be out again, she decided this was nothing that she wanted to try tonight.
Finally, she dove into the human section which was at the very back. There were pajamas, dresses, jeans, t-shirts, everything she could have asked for from Earth. There was minimal jewelry but that was as to be expected, most people didn’t think much of human-made jewelry. She thought about Valentin and that evening and decided to wear a dress. She chose a light pink silk and viscose summer dress. The top of the dress was fitted with thick silk straps that covered her breasts, but not their sides, giving the dress a very human feel to it. The dress was a white and pink embroidered design of coral from Earth’s oceans. It was everything she loved about human made into clothing, it was artistic and a without a doubt a one of a kind. The dress fit her almost perfectly. The wardrobe computer only had to tailor the straps and the hem. It was done in minutes.
“May I suggest the coral necklace?” the wardrobe computer asked her as it finished altering her dress.
“Yes,” she replied and out of a small drawer mechanical hands put a beautiful coral necklace with three strands of light pink coral. All three strands held an art nouveau gold cameo of a woman in a flowing dress dancing with a windcatcher of some sorts.
“Mirror,” Ellie commanded and soon the wardrobe produced a mirror for her. She looked at her reflection. Her short blonde hair was nicely combed, and she thought, I look like me for the first time in a long time. The dress fit her so well, it seemed like she was someone else, after seeing herself in so many Alliance dresses, she hardly recognized herself in the revealing and colorful clothing. Then she touched the necklace, it topped off the entire ensemble as distinctly human, “Capture image and send to Tamsin, Alliance Planet Two, House Rega.”
“You are in the Marriage Pause as recognized by Reima Two, The Alliance Empire and House Rega. The message will be sent when the Marriage Pause is completed.”
“Send it then,” Ellie resigned herself and thought, Better late than never.
She looked at her IC then and wondered if she should even take it with her. If she wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone then what was the point? But then she thought, I’ll need to keep track of the gossip columns though. There was a small pocket on the dress that was invisible to everyone but the wearer’s eyes, purposely for ICs and she slipped her IC in.
However, the wardrobe computer spoke to her again, “You may use your ring IC if you would like something smaller.”
“What’s a ring IC?”
“It is an IC in a ring. It uses a projection,” the computer explained.
“Is that legal?”
“Yes, the ring IC was patented on Reima Two in Imperial Year 18856.”
Ellie picked up the silver and blue ring offered by the wardrobe computer. She put it on her right pointer finger, “Does it matter which finger I wear it on?”
“No. It works on all digits.”
Ellie could not help but wonder if it would work on penises too, but she didn’t ask, thinking, No penis is that small, right? She took her larger IC out of her pocket and left it next to her bed and then left her room to find Valentin on wherever the Left Terrace was.
As Ellie walked downstairs, through the massive and ornate halls and staircases, she felt strange not having to pass a shrine to pray to the gods and for the first time in her life, she felt like she ought to pray to the Imperial gods. She didn’t know why, she didn’t have to, but she wanted to. Then she let herself reflect, Maybe I just want to see my mom. However, no sooner than she thought it, did she banish that thought from her mind. She wouldn’t think like that. She needed to keep moving forward and not get caught up in the past. Her mother was gone. They had both made some bad decisions, but she couldn’t change that. She needed to focus on Valentin now and her future.
Ellie ran into a servant while she was convincing herself not to pray and asked abruptly, “Could you help me find the Left Terrace please?”
The servant who was of Alliance descent but dressed in silver and black galactic clothing gave her a small smile, “Yes, I’ll take you there. By the way, if you don’t mind me saying so, you smell nice. I have never smelled this kind of floral scent before.”
Ellie was a bit embarrassed wondering if she had overdone it with the scents, “It’s from Earth.”
“It’s pleasant.” Then leading her out onto a stone veranda where Valentin was already waiting for her with a drink and a fabulous view of the garden and the evening sky, the servant said, “Here we are. Enjoy.”
Ellie thanked her and took a seat across from Valentin, “What are you drinking?”
Valentin had been looking at his IC when she came out on to the Left Terrace, “Tris from the Rye district. Would you like some?” he asked and then looked up shocked by her changed appearance. “My darling, Elloisa.”
“Do you like it?”
“What does it matter what I like?” he thought she looked so magnificent the last thing he wanted to do was leave his favorite part of his house. He wanted to be selfish, to stay with her alone, all night there, just the two of them.
“You know what I mean,” she chided.
“I do and I think you look more like Elloisa now than ever before. I think you are attractive no matter how you wear your hair, but I find this style much more attractive than long maximum class styles. But it’s not up to me.”
Ellie gave him a shy smile, “I feel free, like the necklace you gave me, with this haircut.” She ran her hand through the back of her short hair. “And I’ll try what you are having for a drink. I want to try everything new. I want to be present here. I feel like the last years, on Earth and in the Empire, I’ve just been living with mostly pain, but now, it’s like a light has been turned on in my heart. I’m really here with the living.”
Valentin took her hand and kissed it across the table, “I’m glad you feel this way.” He wondered how long she would have these mood swings and until she settled. Again, he thought, I have no one to blame but myself, I had my doctor lift those influence blocks so there would be nothing manipulating her in the decision to marry me. Then he motioned for his servant and spoke to him in Alliance.
Ellie heard her smooth hum of her translator switch on as he spoke. Then he turned to her and began speaking in English and it turned off.
“You have a peculiar look on your face,” he commented.
“I haven’t met anyone before who speaks both English and Alliance. I don’t even remember what Alliance sounds like.”
“It’s different,” Valentin smiled. “It’s tonal and as you can imagine, it’s grammatically complex with strict attention to rank.”
“How does it translate the English correctly? We have very little attention to rank,” Ellie asked considering the alien language’s structure for the first time.
“I don’t know. I’m no linguist,” Valentin admitted. “But translators are clever pieces of equipment that know more than just the words that come out of our mouths, but our age, our DNA, our gender, all of it, so my guess is that they take all of this into consideration and must use sensors as well to recognize who we are speaking to.”