Consul Glace knew from the minute she got off the plane that this was indeed her new home. Fine wines, horses and carriages, and polite, handsome Princes who had come to greet her at the airport. She had returned the bow of Prince Steven with an exceptionally self concious curtsey, and had allowed the other Ambassadors and her hosts to do most of the talking on her ride back. Frankly, she was more interested in her surroundings.
Elizabetta was, in many way, similar to Killikstan. She saw it as how Killikstan would have resulted had they not had such an early technological revolution. It was both beautiful, yet somewhat archaic.
The palace itself reminded her of the Viceroy's Palace in Tariq, where she had at one time, as a child, been a virtual slave. Unlike that place, which gave her shudders to even think about, the Ambassdorial Palace filled her with an intense sense of security. Emperor Thulu had made the potential dangers of her new position very clear to her, but looking around, she wished she'd asked her guards to leave their firearms in the Concord. There would be no need for them here, and, despite her diplomatic status, she was still uncomfortable breaking a tradition here.
"I'm sorry gentlemen, but I've forgotten your names," she said to her security detachment, "Please feel free to take the evening off. I shan't need you here, and so long as one of you is good enough to ecsort me to the ball, I believe I can take care of myself from there."
The guards looked at eachother with a confused look. As Imperial Marines, they were typically always on duty, at least untill they got hurt badly enough. Glace, well aware many of them had been raised from childhood to be nothing more than killing machines, figured that a little time off would maybe do her guards some good, even if they had no real concept of "relaxing". After insisting she was ok, the guards ambled off, talking about the effectiveness of one bullet over the other, or whatever it was they talked about.
Tera Glace and her remaining guard entered the ballroom. Despite a distinct feeling of being outranked and outdressed by the majority of the "old nobility" ambassadors present, she never the less began to mingle.
) escort him to the Ambassadorial Palace.
