Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 134: The Rescue Mission

That made sense.

The boys got out of the carriage first and grouped around it; Ella and Amelia trailed close at their heels. Her white gown billowed weightlessly in the breeze.

People were already turning to stare, and a few plump women dressed in those brightly-colored dresses with the large and buoyant rears started chatting distastefully about her apparel behind their elegant fans.

Ella paid them no mind. 

She felt beautiful, and in comparison to them, caked up like clowns, she knew that she was.

Without a word, they began to follow the crowds of people up to the castle.

"I guess we're ready to rumble," Xaphile growled. "Hang on, Adariel... I'm coming."

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Amelia soothed, patting Ella's shoulder one last time before following him and Vordt. "You have a good time. See if you can find some answers through the gossip!"

"Of course," Ella called, then turned to look at Vrael and Sinmir. "All right... let's go."

Sinmir grunted in response, looking at her without expression, and then he turned on his heel and stalked toward the castle entrance. She and Vrael followed him. The air buzzed with talk, although she wouldn't say that the path leading to the ball was overcrowded. 

No, not by a long shot. 

It was just that the wealthy, she'd found, tended to speak in voices loud enough to wake the dead.

Maybe they thought it made them sound more important, like birds that puffed their feathers up to scare away predators. Ella didn't know, but they certainly seemed to be showing off with all their gem-spattered clothing and jewel-wrought hair. 

Many of the gowns were downright ugly in style, and while many of the noblemen's clothing were dapper, the men wearing them were too pompous to admire. What she did know was that tons of people noticed her, stared at her; as she walked past, the men who cast simple airy glances her way had to stop and turn back to stare in shock.

Many of the women gave her glances, too, some of them admiring, others begrudging.

Her footsteps were even, the light fabric of the pure white gown billowing behind her with every step, and the sleeves made her every movement seem more graceful than she was. And her face... the magic that Xaphile had worked onto her for so long.

This was the result.

She tossed her hair, letting it catch the wind, and looked up at the castle lights, drinking in the attention with a sinful amount of delight.

She liked the way this made her feel. She knew it was wrong, but she did. Being beautiful, seeing the shock, the attention, it was a change from the wary glances and sometimes downright repugnant stares that people had once given her. She smiled faintly, knowing that her full lips must have looked so glossy in the light shining down on her.

Then, they were in the castle, heading towards what she figured was the main ballroom with a living river of people.

She'd lost sight of Amelia, Vordt, and Xaphile in the throng, but she had faith that they could handle themselves.

The castle was just as magnificent on the inside as it was on the outside: spacious arches climbed up so high that she had trouble seeing the ceiling, and tapestries of the McCarthy family crest hung above them, displaying their royal blue glory with their golden lions locked in roars.  

A long crimson carpet had been laid out in the middle of the pristine grey marble floors, which were so clean that they reflected everything like faint mirrors. Carvings were everywhere, and her eyes danced across the architectural beauty of times long past.