For Juliette Greycastle, the day the Aserit delegation was set to arrive began like any other from the past month. She was up extremely early for a light breakfast, and outside the castle with Nira shortly before dawn. Dressed in her Ghost outfit and fully armed, the princess began the day’s training—stretching, archery practice, practicing her form with the sword and buckler, push-ups, sit-ups, sprints, and then a vigorous four mile run. Juli decided to skip her usual knife fighting lesson with Nira—even dull wooden daggers could leave bruises, and she needed to look her best.<br/><br/>By the time many other denizens of the castle were finally getting out of bed, Juliette was back inside and luxuriating in a warm bath. After that, it was time to do something she had not been looking forward to—getting into a complicated, extremely expensive dress that required two servant girls to help her into it. The dress had been made by Juli’s mother, and even the normally austere princess had to admit that she felt like a girl in a fairy tale wearing it. The dress was mostly light blue, with a plunging neckline and leaving much of her back exposed. There was an expensive necklace and earrings to go with it—the fact that Juli had first gotten her ears pierced only a month ago spoke to how foreign all this luxury was to her.<br/><br/>Juli’s long, silky black hair was worn up in an elaborate and flattering style. Next came make-up—Juli preferred to keep this subtle, though she had to admit the servants had done a fine job of enhancing her natural looks. When it was all said and done well over an hour later, Juli emerged from her quarters where Nira was waiting. Other than a hidden dagger strapped to her leg Juli was unarmed, and feeling vulnerable due to how her mobility was restricted.<br/><br/>“So, how do I look?”<br/><br/>“Very, um, very striking, Major,” Nira said, visibly stunned. The princess had worn dresses before, but they had been far simpler affairs, relatively expensive but only barely worthy of her new station. Juli was secretly pleased that going all out like this had undermined the other woman’s strict composure. However, Nira recovered quickly. “What now?”<br/><br/>“Let’s go for a walk around the castle—I need to get used to moving in this absurd getup. I’d feel a lot more comfortable around the Aserit people dressed for combat and armed to the teeth, but it might send the message that I’m not serious about the peace process. Also, this dress feeds into the fiction that the kingdom’s finances are not as poor as they truly are.”<br/><br/>“You’ve put some thought into this,” Nira noted.<br/><br/>“Make no mistake, Nira—I’ll be using words instead of a sword, but political dealings are still a form of battle.” She looked around briefly. “Although I’d like for you to keep my sword with you at all times today—there’s always the chance that negotiations will break down catastrophically.”<br/><br/>“Understood, Ma’am.” The two women began wandering around the castle, with Juli gradually learning how to move more gracefully in her new outfit.