The public reception was held outside in the evening's nice cold breeze, on the terrace while the gardens were full.
Not court-full, with velvet ropes, polite predators, and nobles pretending they had never smelled blood in the treasury. Full in the same way that a capital became full when people wanted to know if a story was true.
The outer garden terraces had been opened under layered ether-wards. Security drones moved like quiet silver insects above the hedges. Shadow units stood at every archway, every balcony, every line of sight Mezos had probably threatened into existence. Beyond the formal gardens, the avenue outside the palace gates was packed with civilians.
Thousands of them.
