Helios

 

As I bowed in Princess Iara’s direction, she looked at me with her lips quirked into something akin to amusement. She pulled her arm free of her father’s and stepped forwards, almost seeming to glide as she did. She appraised me from head to toe then sniffed, squinted and drew another few feet closer.

Her movements were graceful, each stride beginning as a small swish and flick of her tail. My thoughts became muddled as I watched her, entranced, her exotic mannerisms confounding my poor mind. She had me wondering how her dress had been altered to accommodate her tail, allowing it the freedom of movement was so clearly needed.

She came to a halt a short distance away, her chin lifted ever-so-slightly so that she could peer down her pert nose at me, The amusement that had been present before was still alive in her eyes, alight with some personal joke that I wasn’t party to.

“Princess Iara, I am here to–“ I began, but she had already turned away, pacing her way slowly towards the ballroom door, “-escort you.”

She gave me a quizzical backward glance over her shoulder, an eyebrow lifted in a silent question.

I blinked in surprise, then lowered my gaze to my still-outstretched hand. My addled brain took a moment or two to get back into its rhythm as I righted myself and scrambled to fall in alongside her. The chuckles and giggles of various noblemen and women that had been paying attention to us echoed around the hallway, but the spotlight had been well and truly captured by the foreign King.

Once I had finally caught up with the unruly Princess, we both approached the Master of Ceremonies where he announced our names loudly and clearly for all within to hear. Near instantly I felt all the eyes within the hall turn in our direction and the clamour of conversation fell to near silence.

I was only able to maintain my normal shade of pale pink as I’d been through so many functions like this before and I was thankful that no one could see the familiar rush of heat in my chest. I kept my attention on my guest to help ignore the pressure of expectation that bored into my soul.

Iara was staring around the room with poorly concealed interest, her tail flicking gently back and forth. I’d seen our mousing cats around the palace do the same thing when agitated or excited. I had to hide my smile – she definitely wouldn’t appreciate seeing that.

Without a word, she entered into the growing mass of people. There was a glint in her eye as she looked back at me – a dare to follow her.

The ballroom was fairly sizeable as dimensions go, having little trouble accommodating several hundred people without feeling overcrowded. A consequence of this was that was much harder to keep fully illuminated. Both candles and facetlights had been placed at intervals on both pillars and around the outer wall, but the room possessed a surreal ambience.

The central floor could be reached from either end of the hall by descending a couple of steps and was where the dances would be happening later in the evening. Since it was lower than the rest of the room, it was enclosed by wooden railings to prevent unfortunate accidents on the part of inebriated guests. A handful of ornately decorated bronze chandeliers, each of which contained three facetlights, were arrayed above – it was generally considered unhealthy for aforementioned guests to be unable to see what they were doing.

While feasts and other courtly functions tended to have more formal seating arrangements, this wasn’t the case for balls. The outer edges of the room were arrayed with elegantly-decorated tables and plushly upholstered chairs. The lack of a seating plan meant that the various guests were free to mingle and socialise throughout the evening. Other realms hadn’t taken this approach, but it was an Aeidian custom that my grandfather quite enjoyed.

Dispersed amongst the tables were platters of spiced meats, finely-prepared local dishes and harder-to-identify exotic foods that the party-goers could pick at as the evening wore on.

All eyes turned to me as I stepped forwards to follow after the princess. Noblemen and women paused their conversations to bow and curtsy to me while uttering pleasantries in my direction. Even though Iara was able to continue on with only a few exclaimed greetings, I was forced to slow to a stop for each so as not to appear rude or impolite.

“You look splendid this evening, your highness.”

“Thank you, my lady. May I say that you are looking quite beautiful yourself.”

“You have grown into a fine young man, my Prince.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

I did my best to keep the frustration and annoyance from my face – mother always insisted that I keep my emotions under control when representing the family. Even if furious, a member of the House of Aeidel should remain calm. It was a struggle, though. This ball was already becoming a bore for me and I really didn’t want to be here.

My grandfather wanted me to be the centre of attention – that was a given. If he could have his way, I’d be stood in the centre of the room, wearing my suit of mithril armour while manifesting my facets for all to see.

Thankfully, he saw that this wasn’t such a brilliant idea in practice. Still, whenever I attended any formal event my first duty was to be seen and to appear as impressive as possible. It was his opinion that every other noble family in the country needed to be aware of who I was and what I was capable of. So, it wasn’t all that surprising that the noble families were all seeking to heap their praises onto me. The only problem was that I hated it.

 

~*~*~

 

It was a tradition for the music and dancing to begin in the latter part of the evening although there was a lone stringed instrument being played in the far corner, the volume low so as not to disturb the gossiping guests. I once read that the custom of leaving the group dances until much later in the evening had originally begun to ensure that the guests had sufficient opportunity to imbibe as much drink as they needed to feel like they could take part. Aeidian nobility could be quite stuffy and it was well known that alcohol was required to get them to drop their guards.

Iara was giggling as she watched me, her smile growing ever-wider in delight every time I was forced to stop to receive a pleasantry or was engaged in passing small-talk. By this point, she had found a seat at an empty table and several servants were already scrambling to bring us food and wine. She was royalty and our honoured guest, so it was only fitting that she not be made to tend to her own needs like the lesser nobility.

I was accosted a few more times but finally, I was able to catch up with her and slipped into the seat opposite. The tired weariness must have been written all over my face as Iara watched me through heavily-lidded eyes.

“Are you not enjoying being adored, Prince?” she asked me in a voice edged with her Surisian accent. I hadn’t had the opportunity to hear her speak much, but I had to admit that the way she rolled her Rs was rather appealing to listen to.

“I hate the way that everyone looks at me,” I replied to her, having to nearly shout to be heard over the rumble of conversation around us. “No one sees me as who I am, only either as a weapon – or a Prince to be married off.”

“Then how do you wish to be seen?” she asked, lifting her eyebrows and tilting her head curiously. She watched me with an intensity that forced me to avert my eyes so that I could think and consider how much I should say.

The answer to her question was far more complicated than she knew. If I were to use my illusions then I could, of course, make them see whatever I wished. But if it were to ever become public knowledge how I made myself look in my sister’s room? There was a reason why I kept it a secret.

As I opened my mouth to reply, there was a loud, obnoxious giggle in my ear and a flash of brightly coloured fabric at the edge of my vision. Without thinking, I turned towards the newcomer at our table: a young lady with elaborately coiled blonde hair held in place with a sky blue ribbon. Alongside her was my brother, Gaius, gazing down at us with an expression of such joy that I knew that he was up to something.

“Good evening, your Highness,” he said, bowing stiffly to Iara. She just stared at him until he cleared his throat from the awkwardness.

“Are you enjoying your evening?” I asked him now, glancing to the lady by his side. The bright colours that had drawn my attention had been her extravagant dress, made from bright rose red and a honey yellow silk. My first impression of her was that the dress was far too small, even for her petite size, and hugged every curve. While it undoubtedly accentuated her figure, I couldn’t help but wince at the thought of how uncomfortable she must be. There was little doubt in my mind that she was also wearing an unbelievably tight corset beneath, which was bravely battling to contain her ‘assets’.

“Quite,” he responded, his eyes sliding sidelong to the young woman by his side. “My lady here requested to make your acquaintance, and I have dutifully obliged.”

Iara broke into a quiet quiet giggle as she saw my expression and it took all of my resolve to keep my expression calm and passive.

“My Prince, you are looking quite dashing tonight,” the young lady purred in greeting, leaning forward ever-so-slightly as she curtsied. The corset had its work cut out for it and I had to avert my eyes to preserve her modesty – she certainly didn’t seem to care that her dress was straining at the seams.

I forced a polite smile as I readied myself to answer, “Thank you, my lady. I hope that you are enjoying the festivities.”

Suppressed giggles in the form of snorts came from Iara’s direction and it took all of my self-control not to glare at her. She did her best to hide her amusement behind a goblet of wine, but even the as-yet-unnamed young lady seemed to notice. Her crestfallen expression made my heart sink.

“Please do forgive the Princess. She has had too much to drink,” I added, feeling the need to do what I could to rescue her evening.

Without another word, the young lady curtsied towards me and dashed off, wiping at her eyes and leaving me feeling like the evilest person in the world.

“Ah, well, I suppose I should be off too,” Gaius added, his eyes wide in surprise as he watched after the rapidly departing young lady. He tipped his head to Iara once more and dashed off in pursuit.

“That wasn’t polite, you know,” I called over to Iara, my gaze turning to her with frustration and annoyance bubbling over.

Her giggling had since subsided and the foreign Princess held my glare without flinching. “Her intentions were obvious,” she finally said, lowering her cup down to the table, ”She wished only to attempt to seduce you. Surely you could see?”

I blinked a couple of times before I answered back, “Of course. But that still does not mean that we should be impolite.”

She had the decency to at least look ashamed as the servants returned with several trays of food for our table and she eagerly redirected her attention to picking at morsels from each. I could feel that I had hurt her with my reprimand, so I gently nudged one of the trays in her direction.

 

~*~*~

 

The young lady’s visit to our table was only the first of many. My brother didn’t personally introduce any more overly-eager young ladies to me, but most of them were at least accompanied by family members.

Over the course of the next hour or so at least a dozen more young women decided that they would come to pay me compliments, bat their eyelids and take every opportunity that they could to display themselves to me. None of it was overly distasteful and I could see that even Princess Iara was finding it difficult to keep her eyes away from some of the more delicate examples of feminine beauty to grace our table.

Instead of giggling at each lady, as she had with the first, she had instead taken to asking for me to wander the hall with her as she quietly considered each one and allocated them a grade.

“I thought that her dress was too modest and had far too many frills about the arms,” she said at one point, gesturing to herself as she spoke. “She looked like a dessert. Also, she tried far too hard. Her fake laughter hurt my ears.”

The aforementioned ears twitched as if to emphasise their point. I rolled my eyes as I listened to her rattle off yet more aspects of the young lady that Iara disliked. Personally, I had found her to be endearing in her own way, although she had tried far too hard to catch my eye. Which was something else that I was noticing.

It was normal for me to receive the attention of a handful of young ladies during a formal evening such as this, but there had been at least twice that many already.

“Although you seem to be completely uninterested in any of them,” Iara had carried on quietly as I returned my attention back to her. “I have seen some males be particular with their mates, yet you do not even return their flirting.”

She wasn’t wrong, but it still felt like a punch in the gut from someone who barely knew me to notice so easily. Others must surely be taking notes, too. She sighed when I didn’t reply, caught up in my own thoughts, so she looked me over with another of her appraising glances.

I chose to ignore her as we continued our meander around the room, passing by yet more groups of nobles as they offered both of us compliments and greetings.

As we were about to return to our table, I felt a hand gently touch my elbow. It was rare for anyone to touch me and it caught me off guard. As I looked aside to Iara and where she had nudged me, she was gesturing subtly towards a table nearby. I followed her gaze cautiously and found myself staring directly into the disapproving eyes of my mother. Father was sitting alongside her, engaged in animated conversation with the Duke Greyden of Eastshore, a duchy that stretched from the east side of the Lake all the way to Emslet Harbour on the eastern coast.

I couldn’t hear what they were discussing, nor had I ever been made privy to any of their more important discussions. Gaius, as the second in line to the throne after Mother, had only just started to be involved in the day-to-day politics of the nation and the whole family preferred that I stick to being a good little Mage. Still, they both seemed to be in high spirits with small splashes of liquid escaping from their goblets of wine as they exchanged slaps on the back.

When I saw my father’s eyes turn to me as well, I couldn’t help but stare down at the floor. I felt like I was disappointing them both this evening, but I just couldn’t bring myself to lead any of the young women on and pretend that I was interested in them. I’m sure that they were wonderful people but I was the problem.

I lengthened my strides and hurried away, increasing our pace until Iara was quietly grumbling and complaining – she was forced to break into a skip to stay alongside me. Heeding her complaints, I reluctantly slowed until we’d completed a full circle of the hall and returned back to our table.

Several more young noblewomen approached as the evening drew closer to its second half and I could feel myself becoming increasingly tense. Iara gave up on ranking the young ladies and instead paid closer attention to my reactions to their advances. I was finding that she could be quite obnoxious at times, but she returned my glares with a frustratingly smug smile.

As we were seating ourselves back at our table, a loud chime sounded and the gathered mass of nobility began to draw away from the centre of the room: they were clearing a space for the ball to begin. Musicians flooded in and set themselves into position in an alcove to one side, hidden from sight but arranged so as to provide for excellent acoustics in all corners of the room.

I drew in a deep breath, watching as the lords began to assemble on one side of the hall while the ladies, in all their colourful gowns and dresses, gathered on the other. I exhaled slowly, noticing Iara watching me out of the corner of my eyes. Her gaze was intense I felt compelled to turn to look towards her.

“Are you sure you know on which side you belong?” she asked, before bouncing to her feet and skipping her way to the grouped ladies. She glanced towards me and lifted an eyebrow from across the room when she noticed that I still hadn’t moved.