A Court of Legends and Myths

Chapter 5 - The royal party poopers

Aelin's POV

"Introducing their Majesties Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen and Faerie Queen of the West, and King-consort Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius." A servant presented them as trumpets sounded and the double doors to the ballroom opened up. She and Rowan walked though out onto the mezzanine overlooking the ballroom.

They stopped for a moment taking everything in as the guest bowed, or for those who were queens, kings, empress, or khagan, gave whichever gesture of acknowledgement and respect their position and customs required. The ballroom was large, very large, it had many alcoves, each one was fitted with either a white sofa, black armchair or both, the bigger ones also had coffee tables. The main floor was made of marble, whilst the floor of the mezzanine was made of hardwood. There were two grand double quarter turn staircases, allowing you to pass from the mezzanine to the main floor. The pillars holding the mezzanine were all made of the same pale marble as the floor. The far wall of the ballroom had giant floor to ceiling windows overlooking the plain of Theralis.

Along the front right corner of the room was where the orchestra was situated. The corner across from it along the same front wall was where the buffet table was. It had all kinds of food; meats, vegetables, fruits, deserts, but most importantly chocolate cake. The room itself was full of people, humans, fae, witches, alike.

She spotted Manon instantly from her crown and the thirteen watching closely for any kind of threat. She spotted Chaol and Yrene next, he was just as rigid as ever during these kinds of events, ever the captain of the guard.

The more she thinks about though, the more she realizes just how bad at his job he was, like he brought the crown prince of Adarlan to a party at 03:00 in the morning, a party containing three assassins, and he let the crown prince flirt with one of those assassins, causing another to go all overprotective territorial fae bastard, minus the fae of course.

She didn't fail to notice the guards positioned expertly in the shadows overlooking everything. Though the need for guards at all is questionable seeing as this room is filled with the best and most highly trained warriors in Erilea.

Rowan led her down the stairs to begin the rounds of 'hello', 'a pleasure to see you again', 'how's your family', and 'thank you for coming', of course she never minded speaking with her people, wholly the contrary actually, she loves speaking with her people and knowing how they're doing.

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An hour into the ball, and Ansel rescued her from a conversation with a lord from Eyllwe. "I hate to intrude, but I'd like a word with her majesty if you'd please" Ansel said to the lord, who looked uninclined to, but none the less bowed muttered a quick "of course, Majesties" before leaving. Once he left Ansel flayed her arms like a toddler not getting what they want and complained, "it's not fair, how come you always get the best entrances." "Please, I'm me, and there's no one in the entirety of Erilea who can top my entrances." Ansel just rolled her eyes and said "we'll see about that"

After a series of calm steady music numbers the orchestra started playing a folk song of Terrasen. It started with a familiar note of the piano, and started to pick up, the song was called The Log Driver's Waltz. Elide came over to them and grabbed Aelin's hand, pulling her towards the dance floor. They joined the circle of people who knew the dance that went along with the song, and stood next to Aedion who was already a part of the circle. Each person held hands with those next to them and swayed from left to right, allowing anyone else who wishes to join the circle the time to, then the words begin. And with them so does the dance.

It was a fun and exhilarating folk dance, despite the fact that folk dances were generally left to be danced at festival, or celebrations, they still incorporated it into the ball. It was made a tradition of sorts, that the games would somehow reflect the culture and values of the lands it was being held in. It was decided by the Curraidh Ludos planning committee (Aelin, Elide, Lyssandra, Ren, and a few others) that they would play some folk music and along dance a folk dance at the opening ball.

The dance ended and all went their separate ways, the jolly folk music was instead replaced by a calm music, one meant to let the musicians and dancers alike rest a little while. However this music was interrupted by a loud boom and a blast of power. Everybody in the room went tense and on guard as a strange portal opened in front of the grand doors on the mezzanine.

The Ironteeth witches gathered snapped their iron teeth and nails out, the Thirteen also had a multitude of weapons drawn and pointed at the portal. The on duty guards had their weapons drawn and prepared to defend those gathered. The fae and humans who possessed magic all prepared theirs. Some including Lyssandra, Connal and,  Fenrys shifted into some animal form. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a peryton where a fae warrior from Dorrannelle once stood. She could also see a tiger, bear, lynx, fox, griffin, and many more. She also didn't fail to notice the few white tailed hawks, and eagles who were no doubt Whitethorns.

A group of fae came out of the portal just before it closed. From left to right was a tall brown haired male who wore the colours of autumn, behind him were two others who looked similar and wore similar things but noticeably less elegant, they must not be as important. Beside them was a male with brown skin, hair, and eyes, his eyes were also slightly upswept, he seemed to glow eternally like dawn. Behind him was a male with a similar appearance. To their right was a male with blonde hair, nothing like the blonde of the Ashryvers more of a yellow blonde, he has eyes the colour of freshly cut grass. To his right were two fae one was female the other was male, they both had pale skin, white hair, and ice blue eyes. Beside them was a male with dark skin, black hair, amber eyes, he seemed to shine like the sun on a bright summer day. If he was human you'd think he came from Eyllwe. To his right a was male with mahogany skin, white hair, and crystal-blue eyes. He was flanked by a male and female who had a similar appearance.

At the front of the group were a smaller group of six. A short female, with short straight black hair, and silver up tilted eyes. To her left was a female with golden blonde hair, soft brown eyes, and striking red lips, she wore a gorgeous red gown.

On either side of the two females were two males, they each had black hair and wore some type of flying leather, or at least that's what she thought as they looked similar to what the witches wore. One of them had short hair and hazel eyes. He had seven blue jewels which seemed to glow with some sort of power on his leathers.

The other male had shoulder length black hair, half of which had been pulled back into a male bun, he also had hazel eyes, and seven jewels on him, but his were red. However the most intriguing thing about them were their large bat-like wings. Actually there were a few others with wings, though they were different types.

In front of them stood a couple who seemed familiar. The male had short night black hair and violet eyes, he seemed to radiate night. The female had long light brown hair, and grey-blue eyes.

It was this couple she was now walking towards. She felt the eyes of everyone on her as she walked up towards the group and said in the queenly voice she usually used when scolding lords or foreign dignitaries. "Who dares interrupt my glorious night?"