A Dance For Ribbons

Confirmation And Rules

When Dranzel awoke, he was in shadows and darkness. Yet he knew that it was day, for he could hear voices of people outside.

But outside of where? He had no idea where he was, be it a jail cell or a castle, he wouldn't have been capable of telling the difference.

It turned out, however, as he opened the curtains and looked outside the window of where he stood, that it was the latter, and what a castle it was.

Judging by the dark blue walls and the towers he could see, it was Nailos Keep, and it made sense that he should awake there, now that memory came back to him. Asteros had asked Aelix and him to stay for the night at his home.

As he drew the curtains, light entered the room and Dranzel could see more clearly. He saw his clothes, the ones he had on the day before, hanging on hooks from the wall, and he saw clothes, not his, laid out on the bed next to where he was sleeping. Next to the clothes was a piece of paper.

Dranzel searched for his glasses, found them on the table next to the bed, and read the letter. It was from Asteros, telling him to take a shower, get dressed, and to meet him and Aelix at the dinner table for breakfast. He put the letter down, picked up the clothes, and was to leave the room to go search for the bathroom, when he realized he was not wearing a shirt. So he quickly put his shirt from yesterday on, and left the room.

Outside of the room he met Dastoan, one of Lord Asento's butlers.

Dastoan was an old polite man with black eyes and grey hair, and told Dranzel that the bathroom was two doors away when he asked him where it was. Dranzel thanked him, and went inside the bathroom. He locked the door, and put the clothes he was carrying on a table. He then unlaced his pants and took them off, along with his shirt, undergarments and socks.

Then he slid under the shower, when after taking his glasses off, he turned the handle and let a stream of hot water fall on his pale body.

He loosened the string tying his hair and let his hair free.

Then he searched around for soap, and found a basket full of lotions and soaps and creams and oils.

Confused, he just took a bar of soap and cleaned his whole body.

Then he turned the water off, grabbed a towel, and dried himself.

He looked at himself as he got dressed.

He didn't think his body was bad, but not too good either. He was slender, but not famished, and his skin was too pale.

He put undergarments on, then light-blue pants. His feet he dressed with white woolen socks reaching up to his shins, and then he put a white shirt on that had an open collar that you could tie closed, which he did. Then he put his glasses on, but left his hair loose.

He walked back to his room, and put his grey boots on.

Then, clean and ready, he walked downstairs, where he would meet the other two.

He found one of them, Lord Asteros, seated at the table and drinking from a goblet of wine.

"Good morning." Dranzel greeted him.

Lord Asteros looked up, and smiled.

"Dranzel, my good friend." Asteros began, "How did you sleep?"

"I would tell you, would I remember anything of it."

Asteros smiled. He was clad in a green shirt much like the one Dranzel had on, safe for the colour, and brown pants.

"I don't recall much either. Last thing I truly remember is... Well, we'll wait for Aelix first. What do you wish to drink?"