One month later.
The palace was chaos.
Not the loud, violent kind of chaos that came from battle horns or magical explosions—Elysia had seen plenty of that.
No, this was the glittery, fabric-covered, emotionally-charged whirlwind known only to those who had ever tried to plan a formal banquet for a two-month-old royal baby.
Kaelith's Banquet of Announcement, as the official title now read in all the gilded invitations, was only a few days away.
Elysia had never been so excited.
And Malvoria had never been more unhinged.
To be fair, Elysia hadn't expected her wife to be this invested. Or rather, she had—just not in the actual planning of the event.
Instead, Malvoria had spent the past three weeks secretly (or so she thought) stalking her own mother.
Yes, stalking.
From the palace rooftop. From behind suspiciously trimmed hedges. From underneath a refreshment table once.
Elysia had seen it all. And she was still not entirely sure how Malvoria had not been caught.
