The palace gardens had been transformed overnight.
Long tables draped in white linen stretched across the lawn, set with porcelain dishes edged in gold and cups of hammered silver.
Banners in the imperial colors hung between the garden posts, catching the late morning breeze.
Entertainers moved through the crowd — musicians, performers, a pair of acrobats near the fountain — and the noise of it all rose and fell like weather.
Guests from every corner of the Empire had come: nobles in Xenon silks, Zephyrian officers in full dress uniform, Isadoran scholars who looked mildly overwhelmed by the spectacle.
The air smelled of roasted meat and sweet wine and flowers that had no business blooming this time of year.
