"Now, the princess has to take the first three dips of her wedding bath." Mary, the Seventh Prince's wife, said, after running her eye over the calligraphy lying on the paper parchment of instructions in her hands.
The turquoise water-level had been resting a few inches below the tub's edge, but, just as Eliana broke the surface and ducked beneath, some water flowed over the brim. And, with that most of the rose petals had fallen off too.
"The Eunuch said that this turmeric powder touched by Emperor Hades needs to be poured over the bride." Charlotte said, before awaiting the Queen's approval.
"Go ahead." Queen Irene said, with a flicker of her wrist.
Charlotte stood atop the uppermost step of the wooden staircase installed beside the bathtub, then bent the gold platter over Eliana's head and shoulders, letting the turmeric powder roll down her drenched body.
Eyes closed, Eliana could see the tiny sparks of wind mana densely flowing all around her with her divine eye. Strangely, albeit everyone else there had been drawing air as well, these transpicuous tiny atoms of mana weren't going anywhere near them. Instead, they stuck around her, as though they served the purpose to be only inbreathed by her.
All she had to do was inhale once, and they rushed inside her nostrils, flowing through her mana pathways, they fell onto her silos of wind mana.
A sudden, brief headache spun and blackened her vision for a split second; she clutched her forehead with three fingers.
Eliana focused on her inside; her spiritual form went below her navel, and peeked at the mana silos of wind. The gust of mana she just inbreathed in a single inhale raised the level of her wind silos by two stages! It came as a bolt out of the blue!
Even a minute ago, she was at the early stage of third grade in her wind mana augmentation. And now, she skipped both the middle and late stage and reached the peak! With a little push, she would be able to breakthrough to the fourth grade!
Not knowing whether it was from the pure thrill, or the fast process of power escalating, Eliana felt a little giddy. But, she didn't mind! Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, she opened her twinkling eyes; and, the smile on her mouth was the sweetest.
"Look at her smile! Just as Emperor Hades's touched turmeric flowed down her body, she can't keep the happiness to herself anymore!" Matilda goofed on, "It's spilling over her eyes and lips!"
Everyone caught on the thread, Matilda just laid for them, and joined the teasing. But, the limelight of all the frolicking had been swept off her feet, and brought to her own universe to attend some of her nagging thoughts.
As a matter of fact, she usually needed to refine mana, while accumulating them from nature. Because, this world energy would be, in the general run of things, clothed in impurities, which would not only weigh down one's core, but also slow down their spell-casting process.
Nevertheless, the mana she just received had been filtered beforehand, which meant they weren't directly from nature, but...from Hades! Why, though?
"Rub the turmeric all over your body, then take another three dips." Mary read out the second instruction.
Turmeric turned the water turbid; Eliana bent her knees, dipping beneath the surface. Amidst cudgeling her brains over the roiling thoughts, she completed the second three dips, and it left a subtle yellowish luster all over her pale skin.
Queen Irene, and Winifred, employing their magic sceptres, held a big brass urn over her head, letting a stream of milk course down her head.
Milk of black pantheress, it was—highly rich in water mana. This creature was an extremely territorial and solitary non-shifting beast that resided in the third concentric ring of the Moonshine Forest. Albeit, they sustained themselves mainly on other animals that were lower in the food chain--firefox, red deer and pink wildcat were known as this tertiary consumers' favorite. Purportedly, this nocturnal beast consumed a third of its weight every night.
But, the diet of the black pantheress wasn't the sum of foods it ate, but the provision of mana in that food. Moonshine Forest geographically incorporated in its boundless expanse all four elemental mana in superabundance, giving the resources to every creature dwelling inside it to breathe it.
Nevertheless, the non-shifters lacked the wherewithal to accumulate or preserve this mana inside their bodies, due to not possessing any mana cores. Therefore, it worked in biochemical and physiological processes, the way food does to organisms, implying this mana would eventually come out through their milk, eggs or meat.
The massive influx of mana made Eliana eyes leaden with inebriation. Her spiritual desire for mana dulled her sense of presence, it kind of began swimming in drunken stupor. She drew mana in ardently, drinking in the overwhelming warmth, rippling around her body.
As the pantheress's milk continued racing over Eliana's body downwards, the remnants of her senses seemed to have skidded on a blockage and plunged down to the pit of her belly. She was biologically programmed to garner mana, and that was what she did. This time around, however, she had to refine them.
By the end of the process, Eliana's water mana increased by a whole stage!
"We have to change the water, and finish the last step." Before Mary's words could fall onto the ground, Winifred made all the turbid water evanesce without a trace with a swing of her wand. Then, her wand hosed down on the empty tub, replenishing it.
"Take the last three dips, then wade out of the water." Mary said, rolling the parchment.
….
Eliana, magnificently accoutred in her wedding dress, sat upright on a high-stool at the foot of her bed.
Wedding dresses encompassed a wide variety of styles per kingdoms in both realms. The one from Firebreath, of course, had to represent the pinnacle of luxury, outclassing all!
Their royal fashion designer went all the way out in the extravagant white gown featuring an intricate design of platinum pearl beads, exclusively produced from the Flames Glacier. This particular bead, individually, could be guestimated to cost around thousands of gold coins per piece.
To top it off, the extra long trail of the gown made a splash with all the amethyst, sapphire, aquamarine, ruby, citrine, topaz, emerald, diamond, and tanzanite handsewn on it.
"Your Highness might want to downsize the skirt an inch or two later on, should it hinder your walking on the aisle." Laila said, sliding the pair of wedding nagra on Eliana's feet.
One of the most significant advantages of this wedding dress was that it could be shrunk and expanded according to the wearer's needs.
Unlike the wedding dress, the shoes didn't fall into any unique category, rather it was from an ongoing trend of royals. Nonetheless, types of skins and gemstones carried these nagras in a variety of sizes and styles to fit multiple ranges of budget; and obviously, being dragons, they had to strike the most expensive one.
Isabella parted Eliana's hair in the middle, and ran a decorated comb through them to achieve a sleek look. Then, she tightly secured the hair at the back of her head, before meticulously rolling the length upward into a low croissant bun.