The funeral procession for the late Empress Sera was held the very next day. It seemed like the Palace, despite the Empress being dead for six hours before the arrival of the Emperor, did not announce it to the public till the Emperor was back from war. They waited until he heard it from his own people, rather than whispers from outsiders while being on the battlefield.
Apparently, according to Madeline who had been by her side till the moment she died, Sera had been in peace. The previous few days had been awfully hard on her, with constant headaches, vomiting, nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite at all times, and at long last, hardly being conscious. The evidence was all there, clear as day in everyone's eyes that the time for the Empress to go had come, yet they did not breath a word about it. It was like a foreboding feeling, a nightmare no one wanted to believe was the reality, so they stayed quiet, going on about their day beside the Empress as if nothing was amiss.
