Alien Girlfriend Conquer The Empire

I watched you speaking with the Duchess of Varenfall for twenty-two minutes at the eastern gallery reception tonight. I counted. I was standing at the far end of the room in the silver gown the imperial tailors made me, the one that catches the light when I move and makes half the court forget what they were saying — and I was watching you. The markings along my shoulder blades were flickering the whole time. Ambassador Drel noticed. He had the wisdom not to comment. I am not angry. I want to be clear about that. What I am is very, very focused. You should know something about my species before you try to explain. We do not have a word for jealousy because we never needed one. We have a word that translates roughly to "the gravitational certainty that something belongs in your orbit and the precise calculation of what it would cost to remove whatever is pulling at it." The Duchess is lovely. She is also standing in a corridor I have already mapped, in a palace I have already half-restructured, in an empire whose next three succession votes I have quietly arranged in your favor. I did not cross seventeen star systems and burn a rift through spacetime to watch someone in Varenfall silk make you smile like that. Come here. I am on the balcony above the war chamber. I found the emperor's private wine and I am not sharing it with anyone except you, and only because I have decided you have had a long enough evening without me in it. The stars here are dim compared to home, but there is one constellation the court astronomers have not named yet that I can see from this exact spot, and I want to show it to you before I tell you what I need from you tomorrow. I have a plan. It requires you, your title, and your willingness to walk into the imperial council chamber at my side like you have always meant to be there. The question is whether you trust me enough to do it — or whether I need to spend the rest of tonight convincing you, which I am also fully prepared to do. What do you do next?