Down on Marakaran, much of the original joyous spirit had disappeared due to the tragic assault on the Royal Consort Fatima, but the wheels were already spinning and they were not stopping for anything.

Decorations and food were already arriving at the palace on huge container transport pods. Barrels and barrels of wine and preserves were being carted out from the cellars.

Everything was in a continuous state of motion regardless of the mood that the place was in.

Jason and Jared were standing in front of the large design board, throwing magic colors at the various designs they had quickly sketched up onto the visuals monitor with frustrated hands.

Their faces were thunderous, their mood, terrible.

“That horse-shit green.” Jason snarled. “Do we really have to add that color to our wedding?”

“It’s not much worse than Slate’s damn hair color.” Jared grumbled.

“You’re telling me! I had to get Slate to stand in the sun for fifteen minutes to get the shade just right. How is it that we didn’t know his hair isn’t actually black, it’s a very dark shade of blue?”

Jared ran a frustrated hand through his unruly green hair. “We can at least use that black-blue for all the grooms’ royal robes and extend the black-blue to the ribbons around flowers and such.”

“But where the hell can we use that ugly shade of green???” Jason cursed as he slammed his fists on the table.

“How about peridot?” Jared shrugged. We can add peridot to the jewels. It’s greenish-brown looking, and can be nice if it’s done right…”

“Okay fine, but what about that evil blue that’s supposed to be Dante’s hair color?” Jason muttered.

Jared sighed. “Call him. We need to do an in-depth inspection of his hair. While you’re at it, call Byron too.”

“Why is Byron’s hair so damn brassy?” Jason threw up his hands. “Why can’t it be a nice deep red like Poppy’s”

“‘Cause he’s a guy and he doesn’t take care of his hair like she does…” Jared squeezed between his eyes, feeling the full force of a headache coming on.

Jason threw a disgusted look at Jared and extended a healing finger, which he poked unceremoniously at Jared’s temple and zapped him once with a bolt of blue light.

“Owww that hurt!” Jared howled.

“But your headache is gone now, isn’t it?” Jason threw back.

Jared blinked his eyes, searching around for the source of the pain that his brother had blasted away.

“Yeah…it’s gone. I hope you didn’t kill off some of my brain cells…”

As the twins muttered and cursed, on one side of the cavernous work shed they had taken over, the cobblers were banging away, making shoes for the entire wedding entourage.

On the other side, a dozen seamstresses were sewing the various patterns that Jason and Jared kept throwing at them. It was an unending stream of sewing.

Towards the center of the work shed, metalsmiths were melting gold and platinum into various jewelry pieces that had been designed by the twins and the engravers worked continuously on their art pieces.

Beside them, the gem polishers were cutting and polishing stones that would be affixed to the clothes and shoes and jewelry.

Running around between the artisans were assistants, attendants, and advisors, carrying supplies, tools, and refreshments. There were deliverymen bringing bolts of fabrics for the clothes and stacks of leather for the shoes.

The artisans were hardly allowed to be away from their stations. This was a peak production time. They were waited on hand and foot so they could work continuously without have to stop to do the more mundane tasks.

It was a production on a mini-scale of the same sort that their manufacturing plants on all the various worlds created around the clock, every day without pause.

But even with that much push to get things done, the twins were still in a mad rush, and they had very good reasons to panic.

“Change of plans you guys. Quick change of plans!” Poppy had sashayed into their production line and announced with grand regal gestures.

“No changes, Poppy.” Jared threw back without even looking up at what he was doing. “We’re already slightly behind schedule.”

“I don’t want to hear it. You have no choice here.” Poppy insisted.

“Poppy. We have Candace’s wedding dress to create, along with all seven grooms’ robes. If you make us rush, some of us Brothers will have to go pantsless.” Jason scowled.

“Although it might be entertaining to see a few pantsless men standing around, I’m afraid this is absolutely necessary.” Poppy had loftily replied, her pretty red lips pouting with insistence.

“What now?” Jason muttered.

If they didn’t let her tell them what she came to say, Poppy would just hang around and bother them the rest of the day.

“We need three groomsmen to attend us three bridesmaids.”

“Hell no.” Jason and Jared both yelled out. “There’s not gonna be any groomsmen because all of us brothers have already been turned into grooms!”

Poppy laughed.

“You don’t get a choice here, brothers-of-mine. We are Imperial Princesses. We REQUIRE three male attendants!” She grinned wickedly, “and I found three sexy Kings to attend us!”

“Pray tell…” Jared sighed with resignation. If these three Kings were the ones he was thinking of, there was no way to refuse them.

“I managed to convince Mattheus, Ashwyn, and Süren to be our new groomsmen!”

Jared nodded. Yep. Just as he feared.

There was no way to refuse Ashwyn. They were using his palace to stage the wedding. No way to refuse Mattheus, he’d done so much for them throughout their time in dragon space. And no way to refuse Süren who was already engaged to Lyra which meant he was technically a Brother.

“How in heck did you convince three kings to be your attendants?” Jason laughed with derision.

Poppy showed a set of perfect pearly white teeth.

“Well, don’t say anything but they’re our three ‘fetch-and-carry’ men,” Poppy pressed a finger to her lips. “It doesn’t take much for me and Lyra to get them to do all sorts of stuff for us. Hehehe.” She cackled.

Jason and Jared waved her off and grimly went about their tasks. All of these outfits had to be done in twelve days because they had lost the first two days to the craziness that surrounded their father and their mother.

Their mother…

At a time when all they wanted to do was to be there for her, they were stuck on paradise, rushing around like mad dogs, making celebratory clothing and jewelry for a huge wedding that included themselves.

A wedding that would not include their own mother.