What was needful, said Ibi, was for her physical appearance and
wardrobe to convey a sense of royal station. Instead of bearing the
appearance of a junior scribe, she needed to carry about her some sort
of outward dignity as a signal to all who observed her, of the terrible
sense of majesty which her high station demanded. She desperately
needed to personify somehow, with but her mere appearance, the fearsome
aspect of sheer awe and awfulness of her high station in Imperial
service to his highness, the Emperor Euphrates, said Ibi.
With that in mind, Ibi had exactingly prescribed and appointed her
formal court uniform, under strictest guidelines, and had put her
totally in black to signify before all and sundry that she was no mere
plaything, but a Royal Officer of the Court.
Never, said he, was she ever to appear in any other color. Else, how
could she possibly expect to be taken seriously by her peers at court,
not to mention the coarse and disrespectful public at large?
Her hair, he observed, must never be cut, neither broidered except
according to his strict guidelines. When actually in court or appearing
in public, she was to braid it in one or more long braids, which she
had permission either to wear straight down the middle of her back, or
coiled up in any one of several formal designs according to his precise
dictates.
Pages:
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290