I didn't want to be a witness to whatever was about to happen next. I looked around me, there was no place to hide in that dim passage. It was too late to make a run for the library as well. I thanked my stars as it suddenly dawned on to me to duck under the table, that was holding the wine glasses and dishes of dessert.
I waited with bated breath. But nothing happened, the footsteps had retreated back. I sat crouched for a while longer and then got out impatiently. It could have been just a domestic help who might have dropped something. I slapped the back of my head; the Winter Realm had made my brain crave drama a little too much.
But I realized that there wasn't complete silence in the passage. I moved a little closer to the staircase feeling bold, and then a faint raspy voice fell on my ears.
"That fool, he thinks he can make a huge display of his connections and get the entire Four Realms to be present to this ridiculous party."
There was no response from the other person. I moved swiftly to one side of the thickly-built railing of the staircase and ducked again. I knew I should just have gone away from the scene and none would be the wiser. But clearly, I had no intention of doing that. Someone was clearly speaking about Prince Nova.
"For now, stay on your guard," the man with the rough voice continued, "And keep updating me. You know where to find me."
My heart jumped loudly in my chest as I heard him walking down the steps.
I put a fist over my mouth and tried to stay as still as I possibly could. I cursed myself inwardly for being such an idiot. What was I even thinking? And who was this man who was conspiring against Prince Nova so blatantly?
The man got off the last step and took a turn to where the ballroom was. If he had moved his head even a little, he would have spotted me in all my bright puffy outfit. But he had his eyes on the table of dishes and walked right past me, he picked up a huge piece of pie and simply walked off.
I sat there motionless, not believing my luck. My heart's hammering, ringing in my ears. The dim light of the passage had made it impossible for me to see his face. Well, I thanked those lights regardless, since they had done a great job of hiding me from the man as well.
The only thing that I had managed to note despite my fear and the wondrous absence of light, was the silhouette of a crown atop his head.
***
"I leave you alone for one moment, Eleni, and you just explore everything on your own," Serena was fuming. Well, I deserved that.
"I just thought it was Jorah... and well,"
"Eleni, this is what I told you. Be careful. Don't go galloping like this and give yourself away," she sighed.
I rolled my eyes, out of habit, "Serena you can relax, you are not my babysitter."
Too late, I realized it too late. Extremely wrong choice of words.
"Oh, well," she closed her eyes, "I think I kind of am. That's exactly what I am, actually, now that you mention it," and pushed her half-finished plate of meatballs signaling she was done.
"I am sorry," I pleaded. The word losing its meaning somehow.
Serena wiped her hands clean on a serviette and looked at me with intense eyes before speaking, "Seems like you don't need me to baby you for now, so I'll be on the dance floor."
She flipped her hair and walked away haughtily. I knew I deserved it. Turning around in the chair I spotted her moving closer to a handsome man. He didn't seem like a royal but a noble nevertheless. I watched her pick up a wine glass and accidentally bumping into the man. She must have batted her eyelashes at him, for he bowed slightly and extended his hand. Of course, Serena could easily nab a dance partner with zero efforts, I mentally applauded her skills.
Her pristine silver ballgown, sparkled on the circular dance floor as she stood in line with the ladies, all facing their partners. Serena kept tucking the curls of her hair behind her ear, that were falling over the sides of her cheeks. Her partner seemed amiable but he couldn't take his eyes off her. I found it borderline creepy. The music changed and the dance set commenced.
Watching all the dancers gliding and swirling around each other, changing positions in sync to the chords, I felt a longing for the dance too. Amelia and I had practiced the different sets of waltzes at home, until a few years ago. Well, then she practiced with her friends at school and I waltzed my body to work every day.
My eyes fell on Prince Nova and Lady Orella who were dancing elegantly a little left to Serena. They seemed to share an easy camaraderie. Nothing more than that would be possible, of course. They knew the laws well, being royals.
Putting a fork in the sausage that was getting cold in my plate, I looked around the room leisurely. The feeling that the ballroom treated every person equally, not as royals or commoners, made me feel at ease.
Taking a swig from my glass of water, I turned around again to look at the dance floor. I wanted her dance to be done quickly so that I could fill in her with my latest discovery. I might have to apologize harder.
I saw Serena, mid-step in her dance, looking tensed. Her eyebrows squeezing close together. And as she twirled around to come face-to-face with her partner, I saw the reason for her distress. His right hand was draped over her waist.
This particular dance form as I recalled, required only the slight touch of hands. Anger crawling over, I got up from my seat, hastily pulling the serviette off my lap. Such a creep. I took merely two steps forward when I saw someone cutting through the line.
The strong burly female Defensor, Lady Una was staring daggers at the man, and swatted his hands off Serena. I hurriedly walked over, just in time to get a close-up of Serena punching the man. Right on the nose. He fell down to the floor, swearing loudly in pain. But one look at the Defensor, he got up without a fuss and backed off.
Lady Una patted Serena's shoulder in admiration and I stood frozen. The dance had seemed to stop and everyone looked at the spectacle. The Lady of Autumn Realm waved her hand over her head and the quartet continued the song quickly. People kept glancing at the departing ladies. Serena came over to where I stood and clutched my hand. Una following her, eyes flitting with rage.
I blinked. She was scary, even when she clearly didn't intend to. Even the tiniest humane actions that she did, made me retrace a few steps backs. I nudged Serena reminding her of the fact that she was a royal, and we both bowed low, "Milady, thank you."
She looked from me to Serena, her irises seemed like pits of darkness, black to the core, terrifying yet beautiful. Her dark black shoulder-length hair, let loose. She had grown up on the island Puerkan and her skin was honey brown, like the sand.
The island had majority of women residents, since most of their men had to leave the island to stay in Central Terraskee where the training of young boys and girls had to be looked after. The Autumn Realm had the best warriors, especially House of Virgo, and one such warrior now stood in front of me.
I had been wondering for a past few days, how my life would have been if I were raised as a true Earth Elemental. I would have been a warrior too! I'd want that, definitely.
"That was a great punch back there," Lady Una said with an expressionless face.
"I just did what you told me to do," Serena smiled politely at her. Finally, I got to see her nervous side.
"No problem at all, girls. Just don't hesitate to call out misconducts in the future," she advised with a firm nod and turned to walk away.
I looked at Serena as the Defensor moved farther, "Are you okay?"
"Yes. It was my fault anyways that I just chose to dance with the first person that my eyes landed on," she sighed and started walking towards our table, "thank god for the giant lady."
"It is not your fault that the man was a jerk, Serena."
"Maybe."
We were silent for a while, as Serena wolfed down her pudding. But the silence was killing me. "I am sorry, Serena," I said, this time earnestly.
She placed her spoon down gently and looked at me with all seriousness, "Eleni, at least take me with you the next time."
I stared at her deadpanned.
"No seriously, just let me know when you have these impulses. At least I won't worry so much," she spoke picking up her half-finished turkey leg again. signaling for dinner. I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Well, I mean. We both couldn't have hidden under the table." I mumbled and picked at my own plate.
"What table? Why did you hide? Wh-" Serena's voice had raised and I put a small juicy meatball in her open mouth. That shut her well, plus she looked comical with wide eyes and a meatball attached.
"You do the listening for now," and I narrated the entire business of the strange man on the staircase and a bits and pieces of the encounter with Doran.
Serena swallowed her food and spoke at last, "So you think whoever the man was, has spies? In Prince Nova's court?"
I bobbed my head deep in thought.
"Pity, you didn't get to see his face. It's sort of a big deal. What if the spies were getting intel about Prince Nova's whereabouts and would use the information to sabotage his further duels?
I hadn't thought of that. It was a big deal.
"What do we do now?" I reclined in my chair; my appetite suddenly lost.
"I say, we eat," Serena said and I pouted, she continued despite that, "And then we find Prince Nova."
I sat up straight. "Really?"
"Yes. We need to, don't we? Sooner or later." Serena had made her mind about it.
"Well, okay. Now I am tensed and suddenly hungry again," I dug into my meat.
"Oh, and also tell me more about your rendezvous with the driver prince," she wiggled her eyebrows and I stuffed another meatball into her mouth.
***
The dances were winding up for the hour and almost everyone had found seats to relax. The quartet was now playing a slow tune and the atmosphere had turned quite serene. Some people looked deep in conversations; faint murmurs audible from all sides. The crowd looked a little scant, so it was conclusive that some must be in the library or the adjoining card-rooms, wandering around the quaint little palace of Gemini House. My eyes swept over the radiating ballroom, looking for a certain blue tunic-clad Fire Prince, but he was not to be seen anywhere.
I cleared my face of the strange disappointment as Serena came back to her seat beside me. She had brought over hot mugs of cocoa and I quickly encircled my fingers around the warm mug and put my face over the heavenly liquid and inhaled its aromatic warm steam.
"Okay, so you are very cold. Do you want another scarf or something?" She asked.
I shook my head and took a sip of the cocoa and let out a moan.
"You need to get a room with that cup," a familiar voice called out from behind me.
"My Lady," Serena and I said quickly and were about to get up when Lady Una sat down in the chair next to mine and waved her hand off signaling us to remain seated.
Serena and I sunk down on our respective chairs back. I wanted to thank her again for stepping up for my friend. She seemed less intimidating, now that her anger had receded.
"So, you Air people?" she asked.
"Yes. House of Libra. Well, we are Corresponders," Serena answered.
"Oh, I see."
Awkward silence ensued.
"Lady Una, I must say, that last fight was..." Serena started enthusiastically but was cut off.
"Oh please, I already have been condemned by my House for that defeat, I don't want some strangers telling me how awful it was," she said with a sigh and waved off a hand. Serena and I looked at each other quizzically.
I spoke up encouraged by her frankness, "We didn't mean to condemn you, on the contrary, it was the best duel of all. We are from Spring Realm, but we kind of started rooting for you in the middle of the match."
She looked taken aback. How come no one had told her that?
She played with the red-ruby wand tucked to her side pocket, "Well, in that case," she sighed and her eyes suddenly twinkled as she looked at us and continued, "that was the most epic battle of my entire life!" She grinned and we grinned back at her.
"But I just wish it weren't Nova. He is sort of a friend, or rather was. I so wanted to fight like this with any of the Fire Defensors." She cracked her knuckles as her face twisted but stopped abruptly, maybe realizing that we were strangers.
We weren't surprised at her odious words, since it was common knowledge, the Fire and Earth Realms were forever at a cold war.
"We too wished it weren't Prince Nova," I said and saw Serena raise an eyebrow at me. I shrugged.
Lady Una spoke after a long silence, "Do you guys know about the hill that has the best meteor showers in Piscean?"
"No." Serena and I chorused.
"Well, how about we have a small tour? I am bored, here. And you two seem cool."
I looked at Serena and saw her face was about to burst with the widest grin.
"Isn't it a bit too cold?" I asked nervously, not wanting to reject such a great offer but couldn't help being afraid of freezing to death.
"Oh, I could thicken up your dresses and make you warm," she shrugged.
"Let's do it, Lady Una." Serena finally had broken down unable to control her mirth.
"Yeah, we could go but you need to stop calling me Lady and all that nonsense."
Serena said without missing a beat, "Okay, Una, let's go."
I looked at the royal lady for any sign of offense, but to my surprise found her smiling, shaking her head a little as well.
"Let's go." Una said. And I gulped down the warm cocoa in a swallow, my bones feeling alive.
Though, it felt strange. Why was this Defensor so friendly with two ordinary girls?
***
Author's note:
Do check the image at the top. @EternalSu made it. She is extremely talented artist and equally amazing writer.
It has come to my notice that my book is being reposted on a sketchy website without my permission. There's no way to report or anything. So lemme just say this as politely as I can - Don't. Just Don't. Don't steal it. Whoever it is.
And if anyone has faced this kinda thing before, do lemme know what action you took. That'd be helpful.
~Happy Reading❤✨~