"I think so too." Sigh. "It is - probably going to be rather important that I be charming and non-scary in public for the wedding, that is half of the point of doing it, and it is true that I could badly use your advice for that part. It is not that I lack leadership experience, obviously I have plenty, just - not the same kind." 

"I don't think people in Cheliax are expecting you to not be scary. Of course, maybe that's the problem. I can be there." Hug. 

"Yes, I think that is part of the problem." Hug. "Thank you. I love you." 

And then back to wedding logistics. A proposal is negotiated with the illusion-performers' school. Gorgeous precious stones are obtained from a very proud and delighted Vanyel and delivered to Sothis. Leareth negotiates with food vendors in Egorian, that part is going to be a lot more obnoxious to get in Absalom and Gate over, and also Aroden thinks it'll be actively helpful to public opinion if they can work with as many merchants as possible locally. He meets with nobles who Taver informed him seem less terrible and more inclined to be helpful to the new administration. Invite lists are drafted. Leareth visits Aktun and tries to figure out if selling the rare books from his caches will cover a few days' stay in Axis, the exchange rate really is ridiculous and he wants his operations building very badly but he can't spare any time to think about it right now. 

A couple of days later, when he and Carissa are once again split up on separate errands, he remembers to ask Parmida if she can spare any dresses, and Carissa will come back to his rooms to find him taking in the waist on it, using a temporary dress-dummy shaped from mage-energies and pretty much exactly matching her shape, Leareth has a good eye for that. Leareth is, in fact, very fast at sewing using magic; he designed the technique at some point in the past when he was spending a lot of time alone on missions and needed to be able to repair his clothes. 

Carissa's very busy - she copied a thousand invitations with magic while approving or disapproving of decorations and schedules and invitation lists, all of which contain people she never heard of anyway, and got a Gate down to Corentyn to talk to her family who are suspicious and scared and confused but will be attending, and got another one up to Vigil to invite representatives of the church there, and then she retained her own solicitor for the contracts just because you're supposed to do that if you're not stupid, and made sure that they stipulated that she gets to keep her spellbook if divorced, which was approximately her only priority there...

She stops at the door to his rooms and takes a second to figure it out and then beams at him. "That's very sweet of you. I like it."

"I am glad. I do not know that much about your fashion preferences yet. I just need a few more minutes and I will be done." He gestures at the sofa. "I made you better shifts too. Cannibalized a bedsheet for it. A non-scratchy one. They are not as complicated as actual dresses." 

She picks them up. Beams at him. "You know I don't - expect you to do things for me, right -"

He gives her a slightly baffled look. "Of course I am going to do things for you, if I notice they need doing? We are getting married, married people do things for each other, right?" 

"You have lots of things to do!" She holds the shifts against her chest, happily. "I don't expect you to do things that are for me instead of things that are more important but for people you are not marrying."

"I do have other important things left to do today, but if I had to spend one more minute talking to nobles I was going to snap at someone. Perhaps giving you non-scratchy clothes to wear is not that important, but it is restful and pleasing and - you are important to me, right..." Also it's more than worth it to see her smile like that. 

Hug. "I think probably I am your wedding present from Iomedae and you should not expect another one."

"Should I have expected one otherwise? I have no idea what the traditions are here for wedding presents, are we going to receive them from other people...?" 

"Yes! In my social circles they'd mostly be a nice vacation, some expensive household thing. I don't know what sort of gifts there are for royalty but I bet there will be more of them."

"I am going to think about that later," Leareth decides. "We have enough to deal with right now."

And the week continues. 

Leareth is, as time passes, starting to be more relaxed and uninhibited with Carissa in private. He almost can't help it, when he's spending nearly all his waking hours doing his best to be in control of dozens of other interactions - and when he's seeing her being competent and reliable organized and on top of things. He still can't summon any interest in sex, but that's as much because he struggles to clear everything else from his head as because the intrinsic desire isn't there. He does enjoy kissing her, when he has any energy for it at bedtime, and giving and receiving massages, and having her fall asleep in his arms. Once the first week is past and Carissa's Ring of Sustenance is in effect, they can fall asleep together. 

Osirion communicates arrangements to send a delegation to the wedding, including the pharaoh and one of his wives. (The pharaoh's wives are not allowed to speak to men they're unrelated to, even in public, which would add complications but there's a language barrier anyway.) 

He consults Urtho for present ideas.

"Well, something very magic would make either of them happy, I think. Leareth likes books," Urtho is finally used to calling him by his present name instead of Ma'ar, "but I doubt they have any shortage now. He would appreciate something practical, that would save them time or effort, or help keep her safe maybe, but I am sure he has made all sorts of arrangements for that already. Hmm - she is a wizard, if you have rare spells that she would not have heard of, you could let her copy them maybe..." 

"I would be pretty surprised if I have anything Aroden doesn't except maybe magic items that require divine spells. I am sure Leareth will be throwing everything he can think of at keeping them safe, but you'd thought of some things he was never able to recreate, I think - is there any way for him to shield her remotely, he was annoyed that the Golarion ring of Shield Other doesn't actually allow him to use his mage abilities through it -"

"Oh! Yes, I do have ideas for how one might do that, it would need paired artifacts and an energy-conduit routed through the Void so that the 'distance' between them is always zero according to the artifacts, and then some specialized scaffolding so he can cast through it - I think it could allow more than one kind of shield, but it would be specific to shielding and not offensive magic or weather-barriers or what have you..." 

And Urtho is immediately lost in thought, and starts scrambling for paper. 

He knows and loves many people of the type. 

He gets a book of known magic items that use divine spells, reads through it. A greater strand of prayer beads would be a great present though he isn't sure there are any for sale anywhere in the world - he could probably cast Gate and Wind Walk for it, with someone else doing the rest of the artifact creation work...it'd take too long even if he has all the beads made in parallel, though he hears there is time dilation on offer specifically for wedding arrangements that require it...he sends an inquiry about access to that for himself and a magic item creator and Urtho, to Parmida who he trusts more than Aroden to know that presents are supposed to be a surprise.

"Are we letting people use your rod of security to make wedding presents that'll take more than two weeks to finish, dear?"

"Hmm? Yes, that is fine, as long as they are vetted to be reasonable people who will not start fights or something, they are all going to be in there at once." 

So she writes back to this effect and with instructions about where to show up when to get the time dilation. 

Carissa goes in to get her dress fitted and altered. It's lovely. Probably if they'd gone through conventional channels she'd be getting a much fancier one but this is nice and elegant and definitely Chelish. 

Leareth isn't sure he would even prefer a fancier dress, to the extent he has opinions about what she wears, which is a limited one. 

Two nights before the wedding day, he gets back to their rooms (well, his, but it feels like theirs at this point) and flops onto the sofa.

"...Carissa, I am sorry, but I think I very badly need a break, and - an evening to go see Khemet. I do not wish to make you feel more jealous, I promise you will have my undivided attention when we go to Aktun after the wedding." 

"You don't need to apologize." Hug.

He hugs her back. "I will be back late, or perhaps in the morning." 

Rather than bother with asking someone to do a Sending, Leareth Gates to outside the Dome and heads in. If the pharaoh is busy until later he can always go to the library or something.