Moving on to the dinner service.
Her Lunar Majesty did approve the traditional eight-
course feast following the ceremony since last we
spoke. For that, I suggest we begin with a quartet of
sashimi, followed by a light soup. Perhaps imitation
shark's fin soup, which I think would strike a nice
balance between old traditions and modern
sensibilities."
"The wedding planner paused.
When neither Kai, who was laid out on his office's sofa
with one arm draped across his eyes, nor his chief
adviser, Konn Torin, offered any objections, she
cleared her throat and continued, "For our third
course, I thought a nice braised pork belly with
green mango relish.
That would then lead into our vegetarian en
tree, for which I recommended potol with poppy seeds
on a bed of banana leaves. For the fifth course I was
going to talk to the caterers about some sort of shellfish
curry, maybe with a vibrant coconut-lime sauce.
Does Your Majesty have any preference on lobster,
prawns, or scallops?"
Kai peeled his arm off his face, just enough to peer at
the wedding coordinator through his fingers.
Tashmi Priya must have been well into her forties and
yet she had the sort of skin that hadn't aged a day past
twenty-nine. Her hair, on the other hand, was making a
slow transition into gray, and he thought it might have
accelerated over the past week, as she was the one
person in charge of communicating the bride's
wish to the rest of the wedding coordinators.
He didn't for a moment underestimate the stress
she was under to be working with Queen Levana.
Luckily, it seemed to him that she was very, very
good at her job.
She'd accepted the role of planning the royal wed-
ding without a moment's hesitation, and hadn't
balked once at Levana's demands.
Her professional perfectionism was evident in every
decision she made, even in how she presented herself,
with deceptively subtle makeup and not a hair astray.
This simplicity was set again a wardrobe of traditional
Indian saris, lush silk shot through with jewel tones
and complicated embroidery.
The combination gave Priya a regal air that Kai knew,
YOU ARE READING
Cress
Teen FictionTheir best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being force to work for Queen Levana, and she...
