"...And your vassals are requesting your presence on the first of Morning Star, for the festivities of the New Life Festival. Please do not forget about Archduke Vilren's appointment on the fifteenth,"

Valeria was sitting down at her desk in her Beacon Academy office, barely keeping herself awake. Her fingers hovered unsteadily over the holographic keyboard of her dataslate, typing in replies to the various messages that she was receiving from her numerous governors. Most were asking for her presence on some day or another to deal with some trivial nuisance that she was absolutely certain didn't need her presence; others were begging for additional resources to be sent from the Imperial storehouses, as apparently their own resources were too little to be useful. Others yet were asking for the deployment of more Inquisitors, pleading that Citadel Council spies were still infiltrating their domains despite their best efforts to uphold security.

She yawned and looked outside at the snow that was gently drifting down in the moonlit sky. She had been at work since before the sun had even risen above the horizon; and now it was well past dusk, seeing as the shattered moon was looming over the horizon. Looking at the mountain of dataslates still on the left side of her desk, she was instantly reminded of just how much work she still had to do. All of her six assistants on the Wrath of Talos had taken their leave to visit their families back on Nirn for the Winter Solstice festivals, leaving her with the administrative work required to maintain the Empire.

"Twenty-four hours in a day is far too short," she grumbled, picking up the next dataslate and activating it, barely listening to the recorded message inside, "Why can I not have twenty-five, Father Akatosh? Or perhaps thirty?"

A number of empty potion bottles were scattered on the floor beside her desk, as she continued to drink stamina potions to keep herself awake. Another one joined its empty brethren soon after she had finished listening to the message and typed out another reply. But when she reached out for another, she found her supply depleted.

"Oh, for the love of Talos..." she hissed exhaustedly, dropping her head onto the desk. There were still at least another thirty messages to listen to by the end of the day, and she just had to run out of stamina potions.

Maybe she could craft some more? No, the plants were all withered and dormant for winter. She looked outside, thinking that perhaps she could get some more from her dreadnought. Then she remembered that it had been ordered to remain in geosynchronous orbit, in an agreement with Professor Ozpin to avoid making people nervous. After all, a five-kilometre, heavily-armed warship parked near a city did not exactly send a message of peace.

Perhaps she could call one of her students and see if they had some to spare. As she recalled, Blake was a rather avid potioncrafter that liked to make potions out of literally everything she could get her hands on. "Hmm. Perhaps Miss Belladonna has a few that she may be able to spare..." she murmured tiredly to herself, pulling out her scroll and dialling in Blake's number.

The device buzzed once. Twice. Three times. It was almost hypnotic, the way that the rhythmic buzzing sounded. Rather relaxing, rather like purring. "Maybe I shall call later. A five-minute nap has never hurt anyone..." Valeria yawned, crossing her arms on an empty space on her desk and putting her head down on top.

"Blakey, who called?" asked Yang curiously, wondering who had made the call at such a late hour. The students were having a Winter Solstice party in the common room, which was already in full swing; Team RWBY and Team JNPR were all in the room, gathered around a warm, crackling log fire in a fireplace, all while singing songs at the top of their voices. J'Bari had managed to sneak in a crate of alcoholic beverages under the guise of 'alchemical reagents', and more than a few of them held bottles of spiced mead and honeyed brandy in their hands. Nevertheless, a few of them had to remain somewhat sober, in the event that either the Madgod decided to crash the party, or one of them needed help finding the nearest bathroom.

Blake, fortunately, was one of those who opted to remain sober, along with J'Bari. The khajiit peeked over the cat faunus' shoulder at her scroll, and immediately recognised the number. "This one recognises that as Her Majesty's number. But this one is confused. Surely Her Majesty would not be working on a festival night?"

"No. You have to be joking, right?" Yang gasped, aghast, "Working. During the holidays? That has to be a crime,"

"This one would not be surprised. Her Majesty has few reasons to rest...but even fewer reasons to call. Still, this one must admit that she is somewhat curious, and somewhat worried. Would Blake be willing to accompany J'Bari to check on Her Majesty?"

Blake took one look at the rest of the party and nodded quickly. Ruby was pressing a white chocolate chip cookie up against her nose with quite a bit of effort; whatever the red scythe-wielder was attempting to do, she didn't want to clean up after her. "Yeah, sure. Lead on,"

"Oh come on, Blakey, I'll get cold all by myself," whined Yang as Blake got up from the blonde's lap. J'Bari grinned and waved a bottle of rum in front of her. "Okay, kittycat. Okay. You drive a hard deal, but I'll take it,"

"Great. Looks like I've been replaced by a bottle of alcohol," Blake said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

When they arrived at Valeria's office, the two of them noticed nothing wrong. The door was sealed, and when J'Bari cast a quick diagnostic spell, all of the security wards were still in place.

"This one is confused," J'Bari said, scratching her head, "All the protective wards are still intact. There is no tampering here, and Her Majesty would have disabled them if she wished one of us to come. Still, perhaps it is best if her safety is made certain. Stand back,"

The khajiit muttered words of power under her breath, sending small sparks of magicka into the faintly glowing door. One by one, the layers of shields and explosive runes disarmed themselves, until only the physical door remained. Testing the door, she found that it was not even locked.

"Your Majesty? This one wonders if you have called," J'Bari called out, pushing open the door. The lights were still on. Two huge stacks of dataslates were on the lone study desk on the other side of the room, along with numerous empty bottles on the ground beside the desk. And behind the desk was Valeria, snoring softly face-down into her arms on top of the desk.

Blake walked in carefully, picking up a potion bottle and taking a gentle sniff. "J'Bari, this smells like...honey. And giant aloe vera," After picking up another one and sniffing that one too, she added, "This one, as well. They're stamina restoratives,"

"And this one counts at least two dozen empty bottles," the khajiit spoke, shaking her head, "This one cannot believe that Her Majesty would be so careless as to rely on stamina restoratives to continue working. Overuse of potions is harmful to one's physical health,"

A particularly loud snore broke both of their trains of thought. The Empress was clearly exhausted; and a desk was not a particularly comfortable place to sleep. Even with arms as a cushion. "Well, this one thinks that we cannot simply leave her here. We must make sure that she takes a rest,"

"Do we...uh...where's Serana tonight, anyway?"

"This one believes that Archmage Volkihar is onboard the Wrath of Talos, in the place of Her Majesty. She cannot come at this time,"

"But we can't leave her here, right? That doesn't look very comfortable,"

"Indeed. This one did not suggest such a thing," J'Bari spoke, thinking. Then, an idea came to her mind, and she grinned, "This one has an idea..."

"HASKILL! I'M BORED!"

"Yes, Your Glorious Highness?"

"It's SOLSTICE, and that means that people are enjoying themselves! Enjoying themselves! And I'm here, in my little throne, bored. A bored Madgod!" Ra'shamarra exclaimed, stamping her feet irritably, causing a jester's hat to fall from her head. "Bah, they just don't make these hats like they used to. But why would jesters use hats anyway? Rats are also good at telling jokes. As do cats. Or were they bats? Ah, who cares! I'm STILL bored,"

"Evidently, Your Glorious Highness," Haskill drawled in response, rolling his eyes.

"Well, since YOU'RE apparently more bored than I am, how about you do something for me. What's my daughter doing in this festive season? Being boring and working through it all?"

The seneschal of madness sighed and pulled out a scrying orb from his pocket. A soft glow came from within it, into which he stared. "No. She is not currently working,"

"Not currently working? Why, what is this madness?! Surely she is working! She always has been working on this day, for every day for the last thousand years!"

"I suppose you might want to see the evidence for yourself then, Your Glorious Highness,"

When Valeria's foggy mind next registered reality, she found herself resting on something rather soft and warm. The loud music and laughter grated on her ears, and she promptly flattened them against her head. But when even that failed to work, she snuggled deeper into whatever it was that she was resting on.

"Come on. This one thinks that it is time to wake up,"

"Five more minutes, mother," she mumbled indistinctly, nuzzling further into the warmth. It wasn't every day that she felt this comfortable and warm – and with a pillow that smelled much like muted catnip and lavender.

Catnip and lavender?

"Wow, are you sure that you're not cheating on me, Blake? The Archcat looks real comfortable," Yang giggled, causing Valeria to sit up bolt upright with an undignified yowl, her cheeks burning. She was glad for once that khajiit fur obstructed all view of her skin; she was certain that she must be about as red as the cloaks on the Imperial Guards by now. Blake had an amused smirk on her face as she gave a small wave in the direction of Valeria.

"Miss Belladonna? My...sincerest apologies. I must have fallen asleep in my work..." Valeria murmured in embarrassment, taking in the sight of a very festive students' common room. Decorations in green, red and white dangled from every corner, and a rather tiny pine tree had been set up in the corner, "This...does not appear to be my office. I do not understand,"

"Oh, come off it, Archcat! The office? Really?" Yang groaned, jumping on the seat between Valeria and Blake and throwing one arm around her shoulders, "It's Winter Solstice! Nobody works on this day!"

"I still had at least another three hours of work to complete. If you will excuse me, Miss Xiao Long," Valeria spoke. She gently brushed away Yang's hand and tried to stand up, only to fall back into the seat when the whole world started to spin and her legs felt like jelly. "Hm. That has not happened before,"

A familiar face loomed over her. "Your Majesty, J'Bari must insist that you remain here for the rest of the night, where this one can monitor you until a trained healer can arrive in the morning," J'Bari said, shaking her head, "This one is amazed that you have forgotten about at-Amal's First Law on the safety of alchemical products. No more than four potions of any strength in fifteen minutes, no more than ten in an hour, and no more than sixteen in a single day, unless one wished to find themselves in a healer's office very quickly. And yet this one has found at least twenty-four empty bottles of stamina potion in your office,"

"The Empire does not function on its own, J'Bari. Without my assistants, there is nobody else to coordinate efforts to maximal efficiency," she said weakly.

"And without you, there is no Empire. You are the Empire, Your Majesty. If help is what you required, then you should have asked myself for assistance,"

"Yeah, Archcat. If you're buried under that much work and it can't wait, you might as well ask for my help too. At least with more people you might actually be able to enjoy a party afterwards,"

"Me too, Miss!"

"I would have to agree with the dolt here, yes. It seems foolish to work yourself to exhaustion,"

Soon the choruses of agreement echoed around the room. Heat flooded Valeria's face once again, though for a different reason; and she felt herself shed a single tear that she didn't realise she had been holding.

"Why?" she uttered, "This burden is not yours to bear,"

"Unless you're an Ursa, I don't think it's anyone's burden to bear. Get it, guys?" Yang said, earning her a chorus of boos and groans from both teams present, "Oh geez, get a sense of humour!"

"I think that your sense of humour is childish, that's what it is," Weiss grumbled, shaking her head. Her gaze softened on Valeria, however, and she said, "But Yang is right. You're working yourself too hard. Friends look after friends. If you needed help, you could've just asked one of us and we would've been happy to help,"

"Friends?" Valeria said slowly, the word almost foreign to her. Acquaintances, contacts, allies, vassals, subjects and courtiers were familiar to her. But never 'friend'. The concept was...odd, in a way.

"Wow. Just wow. Are you telling me you've never had a friend?" Yang gasped, scandalised. "You know, someone that's close to you, that you have fun and hang out with?"

When Valeria's face remained blank, Yang literally facepalmed. Grabbing Ruby and Weiss' hands, she dragged them both onto the sofa that Blake and Valeria were sitting on, forcing them both to hug the elder khajiit, over both Blake and herself. "This is what friends do. We look after each other, we do stupid things just for the sake of doing it, and we have fun in the process. After all that you've done for everyone, it's criminal to think that you've never had a friend,"

That was too much for Valeria. Without thinking, she turned to face Blake and started to rub her forehead against the cat faunus' own, purring loudly in the process.

Only to hear the telltale whump of a portal opening nearby, and the click-snap of a camera.

"Ooooh, I bet Serana is going to love this! Ha!" cackled Ra'shamarra, who had emerged from a portal seconds ago, a large camera in her hands and a shit-eating grin on her face.

"MOTHER!"

A/N:

This particular episode is not part of the main series in any way, and should not be treated as such.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying yourselves - like you ought to!

ivanruzic, meleesmasher: Also, I did write on the first chapter that this fic's setting is directly taken from Imperium Aeternit, though for most part I'm isolating the Mass Effect part and leaving this as mostly ES.

mangahero: I'm still evaluating whether or not I can actually pull off a sequence of chronological one-shots describing bits of Valeria's history. It's a very different task to writing a traditional structured story.