The coronation concluded without incident. It was all the pomp and circumstance Treyan warned her it would be: the Councillor performed the ceremony, begging upon her the oaths of predestined office just as she was advised, where she in turn made her promises to uphold the Prophecy, protecting it at all costs, and serving the Empire in its best interest to the utmost of her abilities. She had been instructed that the words were passed along through the centuries, each new Queen Empress making the same promise within the same ceremony ever since the Annals had been written and the Prophecy itself was put in place.
The pinnacle of the ceremony was the crowning of the Empress. Alex hadn't seen the actual crown until that moment. Treyan had insisted that it was merely an old relic that would
