Yena yawned over her coffee as she waited in the cleared-out executive lounge of Cira International Airport with her aides, security guards and her old friend, Sirea, who was glancing casually through the opinion pages of the day's copy of Anturin Vrassad, though she glanced up at the sound.

"Have you been burning the candle at both ends again?" she asked with a smile.

"Just last night."

"You don't have to be personally responsible for all the preparations yourself, you know?  My department have been on it for weeks, along with the Court of Culture and countless others."

"I know it's just.. after that trip to Grovne, I really want to make as good an impression as Vimmru managed.  I had to be sure everything was perfect.  This is the first time that Erinor has invited international leaders to attend the opening ceremony of the Feast since the fall of the monarchy!"

"You'll do fine.  The Feast itself will do more than half the work for you, anyway."

Yena nodded and glanced at her watch.  The Peony and King Gianluca IV would be arriving shortly.  Already, she knew, the carpet coloured purple and teal in an old Varsan pattern (purple and teal being the traditional Erinoran colours of royalty) was being rolled out to where the planes would come to a halt and parasols were being set up to protect their visitors from the baking sun, although Gianluca would, most likely, be more than used to it.  There would be chilled glasses of watered down Qassora cafulilea, served with lemon and lime, as was traditional for welcoming guests during the feast, and, for the Peony, a shawl of traditional Erinoran lace, woven in the stark geometric style which was developed in the Kheri sacrei to mimic Varsan art, and which had remained the same in folk culture for centuries.  Everything was exactly as it should be, and yet still Yena worried.

"You should have had tea," her friend chastised, glancing over once more.

"Perhaps," Yena sighed, reflexively glancing at her watch again and then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a plane coming in to land.

"That'll be the first of them," Sirea said, putting the newspaper down on the seat next to her and taking to her feet, mimicked by any number of security personnel.

Yena simply nodded, set her half-drunk coffee cup down on the table and then rose to join her.

"Let's go make that first impression, then," she said.