Her lips parted, a little dumbfounded by the things he said. She could guess vaguely at their implications, and it all amounted to a peculiar sensation in her chest. Her heart skipped a beat, out of apprehension or something altogether foreign, and she felt her tongue had gone sluggish in her mouth. Without a proper response, she had to laugh at herself. Venus had told her that she'd be nervous, if the marriage was a good one. Aphrodite had agreed. The worst sort of union was one to which both parties were frigid. Kore touched her chest with one hand. Would the twins approve, if they saw her now? She bit her lip, stained apple red for the occasion, and gave him that easily summoned blush when he brought her knuckles to his lips. Ah, there, that funny warmth again. It wasn't unpleasant in the slightest. She wondered if a kiss from either of his sons would have had the same effect. She wondered, when her life had simply passed ownership from one kingdom to another, why this arrangement seemed so very different.<br/><br/>Still, for all her naivety, Kore was not blind to herself. She knew well enough that she had stumbled onto the throne through less-than-auspicious means, and she understood that this marriage was to be a success by her own will, regardless of whatever disarming sensations Hades was conjuring in her limbs now. It might well be the ambiance of the night, or the soft hum of pomegranate liquor in her veins. There was nothing to say she should grasp onto these small and fluttering feelings. So, she was careful when she walked beside him. She would belong to the Fae of Tenebris as much as she belonged to their king, now.  She couldn't let decorum fail her when her experience was rapidly showing itself lacking.<br/><br/>Kore was polite and poised for the festive cake cutting, and even found she was a bit proud of herself for maintaining such neat composure when Hades stood so close behind her. She gave her king the first slice, and stayed for a while to help the court servants pass around the sweet, honeyed dessert to the large group in attendance. A kind sort of gesture, which seemed to sit well with most of the Fae she passed plates to. There were a few she noticed, however, who gave her peculiar expressions in return. To these, she smiled brightly. She did not expect them to trust her. They had lost two princes to her arrival and she had heard at least one rumor that the king was bewitched.<br/><br/>She was pulled from her efforts when the orchestra picked up, a haunting sort of waltz played on spider-silk strings drifting through the cool evening air like the first breath of winter. It was beautiful, and unlike any music she'd heard in Lumous. She thought there was something deeply longing in the chords, and it made her chest ache. Had she known, it was a song older than most the Fae could remember. Written as a call to a distant lover, the sweet and tenuous strains had become synonymous with the joining of brides and grooms in this twilight kingdom. "It's beautiful," she breathed, when Hades had drawn her out onto the dance floor. "Everything here is so different and beautiful." But dances were not so different between the two courts, and Kore's royal upbringing had prepared her well to match her new king's steps.