"These long-eared ones are beautiful, though with arms and legs a bit too long." Daenerys Targaryen's thought upon seeing the race known as Aeldari.
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When Lyarra entered the Imperial Palace's ballroom, she was momentarily dazzled. The word 'luxury' reappeared in her mind every time she saw gold, silver, and jewels decorating the walls in a discreet, yet elegant and luxurious manner.
A red carpet divided the hall in two; on the left were nobles in elegant but extremely extravagant clothes. On the right were nobles, but these dressed more simply, yet equally elegantly.
In the same space as these more simply dressed nobles, there were men and women dressed even more extravagantly than the nobles on the left.
Lyarra knew it was the Old Nobility Faction, the New Nobles Faction, and the Space Guilds Faction.
"You look beautiful, Lady Lyarra." Hearing the familiar seductive voice, Lyarra turned and saw Saera walking towards her holding two glasses containing wine.
The princess was stunning in her crimson red dress, which perfectly embraced her slender and thin body. The dress was sleeveless and boasted a rather revealing neckline, though it didn't become vulgar due to the size of Saera's breasts.
"You look equally beautiful, Princess." Lyarra replied with a smile, feeling Saera's warm eyes discreetly tracing her body. This amused her greatly; it seemed she had truly made the princess fall for her.
"Don't you think everything is luxurious?" Arriving beside Lyarra, Saera said with an elegant smile, as if she had seen the shocked appearance of the future Duchess of House Stark.
"But when you think that Queen Rhaenys has the power to create metals, you realize that this luxury is nothing to the Imperial Family. Gold, silver, and jewels are something everyone craves, but for the Imperial Family, they are just colored stones."
Lyarra was deeply shaken by Saera's words. House Stark's castle in Winterfell Prime was more a war fortress than a palace; even counts and marquises had more luxurious castles than House Stark. This doesn't mean House Stark was poor, but rather that they didn't care for luxury like other futile nobles.
"They are gods, it's normal that they don't care about gold and silver." Lyarra said, recovering from the shock and looking at Saera with a smile.
"Gods?" Saera murmured to herself. "Perhaps that's true for the Three Queens and the Emperor, but for their descendants, we are more like demigods than gods, trapped in this mortal world and getting involved in political and palace intrigues."
Feeling she was being dramatic, Saera smiled again and discreetly gestured for Lyarra to look to the end of the ballroom, where white marble steps rose to four magnificent thrones.
At that moment, only the Ruby Throne in the center was empty; the other three thrones were occupied by the three most beautiful women Lyarra had ever seen in her life. Each exuded a different aura.
Queen Rhaenys, with her dark skin and white hair, exuded an elegant yet seductive aura that somewhat resembled Saera. She wore a long, extremely beautiful and luxurious yellow lace dress.
Queen Visenya was the epitome of elegance and grace, wearing a silver dress that matched her hair. She sat elegantly on the throne with her hands on her thighs and a perfectly beautiful smile on her lips.
Queen Daenerys was the queen who had the most majesty worthy of a conquering queen, powerful, majestic, and sharp, despite her delicate and fragile appearance. She wore a blood-red dress with dragons embroidered on the upper part of the dress.
"These are the goddesses of the Imperium of Humanity." Saera said, looking at Visenya, her great-grandmother, Mother of Princess Regent Alysanne, Imperial Prince Jaehaerys, and Imperial Prince Maegor.
As the granddaughter of Imperial Prince Jaehaerys, Visenya was the progenitor of her lineage, one of the reasons the Princess Regent trusted her more than the Emperor's other great-grandchildren.
As if noticing her gaze, Saera saw Visenya's eyes fall upon her, making the princess bow respectfully. Something Lyarra also imitated and bowed to the queen.
"Did you see anything interesting, sister?" Daenerys asked with a curious tone, seeing Visenya look in a certain direction.
"My great-granddaughter." Visenya said with a smile. "She reminds me more of Rhaenys than me."
Rhaenys, who was mentioned, looked at Saera beside Lyarra and couldn't help but complain with a dissatisfied voice. "Just because she seems to seduce someone with her appearance means she looks like me?"
"Yes, just because of that." Visenya laughed and confirmed Rhaenys's words simply and directly.
"You're just jealous that Aenar spends more time in my bed than yours." Rhaenys snorted and said with a smile quite inappropriate for a queen.
Visenya's face showed a trace of dissatisfaction with Rhaenys's words. "Who said he spends more time in your bed? From what I heard, he stayed a whole month in my room without leaving." She said with a proud tone and full of disdain for Rhaenys.
"Stop arguing, you're over a thousand years old and still act like teenagers." Daenerys looked at her sister and niece with a helpless look, but she was already used to hearing the discussion between the two queens.
"I'm always eighteen." Visenya said with a penetrating tone as she looked at her younger sister.
"Me too." Rhaenys agreed with Visenya's words. Their bodies might be a thousand years old, but their minds were still young and full of youthful energy.
"How are our long-eared visitors?" Rhaenys asked with an amused tone.
"Most in their enormous Craftworlds, but the emissaries from each Craftworld have already set foot on Planetos." Daenerys replied with a calm and cold tone.
Craftworlds were vast spaceships the size of a planetoid, serving as residences after the collapse of the Aeldari Empire.
"They're probably after the metal our dear queen made." Daenerys commented, looking at Visenya, who was thoughtful.
Uru, the metal capable of inhibiting and solidifying space and preventing 90% of the Warp's influence, was truly a work of engineering and knowledge that Visenya spent hundreds of years creating.
"I also participated, remember?" Rhaenys couldn't help but speak with a dissatisfied tone. If it weren't for her powers, which could create metals, how could Visenya create such an incredible metal in such a short time?
Ignoring Rhaenys, Daenerys looked at Visenya and asked with an innocent and amused smile. "What do you think they'll pay in exchange for the creation of Uru metal?"
"Dany, stop pretending you don't know anything and just tell me what our husband wants from the Aeldari." Visenya said with a helpless tone before her younger sister's act. They knew Aenar more than anyone and their husband would never receive the Aeldari Emissaries for no reason. Aenar clearly wanted something from the Aeldari.
"Two things." Daenerys showed two fingers.
"Webway and Wraithbone."
Visenya and Rhaenys widened their eyes at Daenerys's words. These two technologies were what propelled the Aeldari to expand rapidly throughout the entire galaxy.
Wraithbone was practically the essential element in the colossal Craftworlds. With this technology, Craftworlds belonging to Humanity could be launched as colonies to conquer even more planets.
Webway was even more essential, being what propelled the Aeldari economy, enabling trade to be viable even at distances of thousands of light-years.
Webway was essentially a labyrinth of paths between the Material World and the Warp, enabling travel at speeds superior to the speed of light. It was not only safer than traveling in the Warp, but also more stable, without needing a beacon in the warp.
One could say that Aenar wanted the two most important technologies of the Aeldari, which truly surprised Visenya and Rhaenys. But they quickly accepted the idea, even wanting it to be materialized as soon as possible.
Aenar could have much more free time without needing to be a beacon for all of humanity's spaceships.
"What if they don't want to?" Rhaenys asked with a worried tone. The Aeldari were not a weak race and were ancient rulers of the galaxy, even being fragmented by the civil war that separated the Aeldari Empire into five parts, they were still powerful.
"They will want Uru, all races will want it." Daenerys said with a malicious smile. "These Aeldari, being highly psychic, are highly influenced by the Warp. Uru is practically an elixir of life for them."
Rhaenys and Visenya nodded their heads, showing equally malicious smiles. Although humanity wanted both technologies, they could wait to build their own technologies, but the Aeldari did not have such a privilege.
In other words, humanity had the advantage of initiative in this negotiation.
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Read my other books:
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos (500,000 words written).
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.