The next day dawned bright and warm, but if asked, Daneel would never have admitted to anyone that he had used the Godnet to make it so.
The centre of the continent had been about to be rainy and wet, but because it was such an important day, he had taken the decision to slightly mess around.
It was only after being assured repeatedly by the system that it would not be a problem to do so had he even ventured forward to try it, and the results had really made him look at the emperor in a new light.
Whether manipulation was actually one of the original abilities of the Godnet, as it was also supposed to help the entire continent prosper. Ideally, if they weren't on the brink of annihilation, the Godnet would be used daily to distribute things such as rain all over the continent whenever needed so that farming would be one of the easiest things that one could do.
The Godnet promised a true paradise that Daneel hoped they would all live to see, but knowing that today was not the day to have such thoughts, he looked up from the balcony of the Palace of Lanthanor and breathed in the fresh morning air.
The Godnet could only shift around the changes in weather, so he had had to choose someplace that would be drenched today. After a little deliberation, the final choice had been the Kingdom of Arafell.
On finding out that he had ruined a morning breakfast planned out by the Queen, he had chuckled to himself, remembering all the times she had almost brought him to ruin until that moment when he had finally defeated her.
Turning around, he saw that the two lovely ladies had just started to wake up due to the sunlight falling on their faces.
The image of their perfect bodies outlined by the golden rays of light was so enchanting that Daneel almost jumped back in bed, but thinking of the earful he would receive from his mother if he was late, he squashed the temptation and turned around again.
Even from here, he could see the grand wedding altar that had been erected in just a few hours.
It was present high up in the sky, above the central part of the continent where the throne had been thrown into a storeroom as it was not needed right now. The altar was around 100 m above the place where he had used to sit, but all around it, an opaque barrier had been erected so that no one could look inside.
Daneel had always known that his mother had a flair for the dramatic, just like him, from the way that she had used to gift people in the streets of Lanthanor with things that they could only dream of in full view of large crowds. She would always choose the perfect moment to reveal the gifts after making sure that those receiving them deserved it, and in all the time she had spent doing the task given by him, she had never judged wrong.
In fact, she had even reminded him of a famous host back on earth, and for a while, he had contemplated the idea of producing a similar for the Network with her as the star.
Of course, all of that would have to come later, so after dressing himself casually, Daneel reported to his mother's room as he had been ordered.
All of the things that had been in his room on the day before were now here. The choices that he and Eloise and Xuan had discarded were lying on the ground, forgotten, except for the empty plates whose contents had been enjoyed by all four of them even though they had ended up choosing only 2 dishes of the 15.
The room was a mess, but if one looked at it with the mind of a Hero, there was a certain pattern visible. Daneel was always amazed seeing what some people were capable of without training their minds, and not for the first time, he marvelled at the capabilities of each and every consciousness of all those present on Angaria.
"There you are! I was just going to come to your room!"
Imagining himself lying in bed with the two women as his mother walked through the door, Daneel blushed and said, "Calm down, mom! You're too worked up about all this… Trust me, it'll all go well!"
For a split second, his mother looked at him with an expression that he couldn't read.
He had heard on Earth, before, that it was never wise to say those two words to any woman, so Daneel thought that she might come forward to knuckle his head like she had used to sometimes back in that little tin can they had called their home.
Frankly, he would have welcomed it as it would have been nice to go back to that time when the biggest worries that he had on his mind were much, much lighter than what were present now, but after a second passed, tears burst out of Mary's eyes and she almost fell on her knees.
Startled, Daneel rushed forward and caught her just in time. In all his life, even in all the time when it had seemed that their family was done for, he had never, ever seen his mother break down like this. As she hugged him around his neck and sobbed on his shoulder, he was tempted to call his father as he would definitely know what to do, but making the right decision on emotional matters for once, Daneel just sat there with her and kept trying to whisper words of comfort in her ears.
At first, he couldn't even think of a reason that might make the great Mother Mary break down like this, but then, he felt like hitting himself on his head when he realised that he had forgotten one very important thing.
Wouldn't a mother be the one most concerned about the fate of her sons and daughters in a situation like this?
Both due to his urging and her own limitless heart, she had actually taken on the entire continent as her children. Now that they were all in grave danger…wasn't it obvious that the pressure she felt was many times greater than anything he had experienced until now?
As soon as the thought struck him, a lot of the weight seemed to instantly vanish, giving his mind the same sort of freedom that had been granted after that magical night. How could he not have seen that he should just leave the worrying to those like his mother, and just have them in their thoughts while doing the best he could?
The responsibility was still on his shoulders, but this moment helped remind him, viscerally, of just who and what he was fighting for. The same feeling had come to him before, during the meeting of the sovereigns where it could be said that they had officially become a family, but now, it was much stronger, filling him up with all the valour that seemed to have fled him recently.
He had been bogged down due to all the nitty-gritty details that he had taken his sight off what was truly important.
They had to come out of this unscathed, if possible, and if not, there had to be as fewer casualties as possible.
He did not want another single teardrop to fall because of this threat. Establishing this thought once again firmly in his mind, he saw that Mary had stopped crying and was just starting to stand up.
When she did, he did so, too, and as he looked into her eyes, he saw all the love that had helped him more than he could think of to get till here. Stepping forward, he hugged her tightly.
This time, it was her turn to comfort him as she seemed to have sensed the state of his mind.
When they parted again, the mother and son only had to share a look and nod, as no words were required to express their thoughts of solidarity.
The nod was followed by Mary instantly going back to the bustling Godmother who had so much to do.
So, knowing that this would definitely be the last chance for everyone to let down their heads and relax, he let himself be swept away by the preparations and even started to look forward to what promised to be the grandest event in all of Angaria, yet.