Giggle.

"Have a lovely night," she says, and she flies to her hotel.

Sekar spends a little while designing outfits, then has them anonymously delivered. Ambela will have so many pretty things to wear. (By and large they're pretty modest by local standards, because other people are likely to care about that sort of thing even if she herself wouldn't.)

They are delightful. She wears a shimmery blue one with red detailing at her next concert.

People definitely notice that she has wings all of a sudden, but they mostly seem to assume she got them from somewhere less terrifying than the Emperor. No one actually goes so far as to ask. A few people compliment her on her pretty feathers.

And she thanks them all politely.

Concerts continue to be super lucrative.

Then eventually she will be able to buy a pretty little house, right?

Absolutely! At this rate a pretty little house shouldn't be more than a few weeks away. Longer if she wants to be selective about location; property with a good view tends to be more expensive, although near the edge of the island this effect is not as consistent as it could be, because people expect that eventually their view will be obscured by more pretty little houses.

She would like a view that will last.

Then perhaps she is interested in this lovely little house atop a small hill, which she will be able to afford in a month or two, and which overlooks some excellent architecture and several very nice parks.

Meanwhile, the Emperor is out of his house a lot this week.

She walks by anyway to lowkey spy on his government. And yes, she would like that house, if it will still be available then.

His government governs pretty respectably. They're not Elves or anything, but there is a detectable underlying consensus among government employees that the point of their jobs is to maintain a stable and functional society where important tasks get done on time, even if some of them are less concerned with that ideal and more concerned with playing political games or flirting with their coworkers.

The current owner of the house was enthralled by her last concert and is happy to take a significant chunk of the price now and wait until she has the rest.

After another few days, she walks by the palace when the Emperor is home. He looks up from the book he was reading, steps out onto his balcony, and raises his eyebrows at her across the significant distance between them.

She waves.

He laughs.

"Enjoying your week?"

"It's been nice."

"Nobody's asked me about giving you wings, so I assume you're getting away with it."

"They haven't asked me where I got them, either."

"It probably doesn't occur to most people that I might have gotten you a present just because I like you and want to make you happy."

"Do you normally only distribute presents for other reasons, or not at all?"

"Not at all, at least not openly."

"Secret Imperial presents!"

"It's a very different experience, giving someone something when they're afraid of you. And I can't get nearly as fancy when I'm pretending to be a harmless architect."

"Architects and wing-dispensers being usually non-overlapping skillsets, I imagine."

"Usually, yeah."