Azura's POV
The noise woke me before anything else.
Voices outside. The scrape of things being moved. A sharp clang of metal somewhere below, followed by someone shouting directions at someone who clearly was not following them fast enough. I lay still for a moment with my eyes open, stared at the ceiling, and tried to remember what day it was.
Then it landed.
Tomorrow.
I got up and went to the window.
The grounds below were completely transformed. Servants moving in every direction with their arms full of things, banners, flowers, and bolts of fabric in deep reds and golds. Warriors are standing in clusters, getting their armor checked and rechecked by people walking around them with critical eyes. Someone was arguing about the placement of a decorative arch near the main entrance and losing badly.
Everywhere I looked something was being carried or hung or polished or arranged with the focused urgency of people who knew they had one chance to get everything right.
