The chandeliers dim slowly across the ballroom until it matches the faint magic ebb and flow of the wards. The only truly bright area is now the upper entrance that spills down into the room with plush white carpet over marble stairs.

No one is currently standing there but the chatter hushes and everyone turns to look, waiting for the debutantes. The band takes up their seats again, ready for their cue to start playing.

Someone casts a spell that quietly floods the room to snuff out the light of the runes and spells for cleanliness, soundproofing and wicking away spilled water. Julius gets the urge to jump over the shockwave but, like a professional, stands still and takes the brief tingle over his feet.

The upper entrance double doors open with a purposefully loud clank and a girl steps out in a flurry of red skirts, her chaperone several steps behind and almost invisible, ready to take the side stairs out of view. The girl steps lightly up to the top of the stairs and presents herself as a calm, collected young woman like she just waltzed in perfectly-timed instead of fretting backstage for the last half an hour.

She descends the stairs gracefully and halfway down, a new one steps out, to better hide how awkwardly the first girl tries to blend into the crowd. There are quite a few but they move swiftly like this is really very casual, just a regular weekday, of course they’re always perfectly put together and walk like they’re gliding.

It’s in order of importance so Diedrik will be last as a powerful duke child, and Julius is just waiting for the procession to run through. Has there always been so many? Unimportant spare children first, then in order of how new to how old the noble title is, then direct heirs get to pause for a bit longer at the top. Families of barons, viscounts, earls, marquesses…

Finally comes the duke families, which is two other random people and then the very last person to appear is a clearly unimpressed Diedrik with a Govain knight chaperone in the shadows.

Unlike the burst of noise when the earl entered with Kalois the mistress, or the mild murmur as the others entered, the crowd this time goes dead silent. Half the gossip was about the boy anyway.

Diedrik is dressed in black clothes so dark they seem to absorb the light. It’s tailored tight with rigid lines and no large decorations but icy blue detailing in thread and gems makes it look like a storm is crackling over his left side. There are emphasised shoulders on his double-breasted coat, buttons shining brighter than the chandelier he stands under.

Someone also wrangled him into a half-cape, attached to the right side of his jacket by draping chains and it flows like water. Only when he turns and the material spreads to reveal the full style does Julius realise it’s a half-robe instead.

Not that Diedrik has ever dressed badly, but this is the most glamorous Julius has ever seen him and it’s ostentatious. Not the most disco-ball outfit Julius has seen today but it’s still a little bit funny.

Julius puts a sleeve over his mouth, eyes squinting from his smile. He’s lost in the dimmed lights and the mass of the crowd but Diedrik turns to look directly at him and raises an eyebrow. Julius lowers his sleeve to show a perfected customer service smile.

When Diedrik descends the stairs, only then does the band start back up. He doesn’t fall into the crowd though, he walks straight through as they part for him and reaches the dais the royals are on. The king, Diedrik’s distant cousin twice removed or something like that, comes down to put on a show about greeting such a rising star of a duke family. The princess swans out of the crowd for a closer look too.

The crowd starts to shuffle around and get louder again so Julius looks back to where he left Ramelle…and can’t find the man. He sighs.

It would be a bad first impression to just cold introduce himself to the finance minister’s new aide instead of finding someone the aide already knows to do the introduction. Ramelle isn’t the only one who can do it though, so Julius moves back through the edges of the crowd to find another merchant contact.

Claudia is still circling the whole Earl Silvan debacle because she likes the way her prey feels hunted before she goes in for the kill. Zhang is somewhere in the crowd but he’s in the more political section and won’t move unless he’s good and ready.

Walter is the only staff member of Julius’ that’s a noble and he’s working the usual crowd too, but Julius wants to meet the aide so he can introduce Walter to take care of the relationship. Walter is talking to Principal Lapic actually and a few of Julius’ old schoolmates can be seen in the bustle.

Julius waits for a while in case he can spot Ramelle again, fiddling with the magic in his robes. His clothing has begun to rain quite heavily and as he tweaks it, the silver flowers grow into a flush garden.

When he gives in, Julius manages to catch an old baron client to then meet a viscount, to then introduce him to the aide and they talk general business for a while. It’s always good to be friendly. Julius then gestures lightly and in sweeps a ready and waiting Walter to launch into a more detailed conversation.

Julius says his goodbyes to the group and takes off again, stopping briefly every so often to greet clients and the day sweeps away into full night, nothing but dark beyond the windows and Julius’ robes have dimmed throughout the evening to match. By the time he gets to a small balcony with a glass in hand, he’s feeling ready to leave.

His back to the dark ocean of gardens, Julius leans against the thick stone railing and watches the ballroom through the frame of the open door.

Diedrik has stayed under the glittering bright lights of the chandeliers all night, dancing with lovely ladies and gentlemen, all of noble status and appearing sunken or swallowed beneath their glamorous attire. The boy is the only one wearing black, a spot of darkness in a pinwheel of colour.

Now that he’s out in the night, the room is too dazzling and he’s forced to turn away. He’s the fourth in a row of five balconies jutting out of the ballroom’s side, at second storey height above the gardens. The others are empty but the tall doors bleed light.

The eaves over the balconies are more for show, as Julius is kept dry by the spells warding any open face of the building. He can see water running down the ward like on a window. Like other manors in the eastern kingdom, it’s the gardens perfectly arranged in a spell circle that keep the buildings safe – and in this case dry. Such a bother though; Julius attempted it with his house but a single centimetre of growth and it breaks. Gardeners must patrol like knights around here.

“Enjoying yourself?” Diedrik asks.

Surely dead plants would work. The plants all need to be magical of course to power the spells but a lot of magical plants are still powerful when preserved correctly -as proved by Julius’ entire warehouse of alchemy ingredients- so he should be able to-

A hand lands on his lower back and Julius jerks around in shock, almost ramming a shoulder into Diedrik. “That scared me! Don’t just grab at people.”

“I’ve been here a while,” Diedrik says.

Julius looks over to see the balcony doors now closed and an icy blue privacy ward up. It looks like he has been here a while. “Oh, well. You can take your hand off now.”

When Julius turned, Diedrik’s hand slid around to his hip and now slides lower to grab at the layered robes. “Is this…?” Diedrik rubs the dark material that looks to be drenched, the garden a shadow and water pooling at the bottom of the robe and running around the circumference like a river.

Julius smirks, puffing himself up a little because Diedrik is the only one who’s commented. Most people see it’s magical, very few realise it’s live weather. “Do you like it?” He pulls at more of the material and holds it up so Diedrik can see better. “It’s the weather over my house.”

Diedrik takes the handful of material. “Scrying, or is this linked?”

“Linked.”

Diedrik tips his head a bit and watches it rain down the robes.

“Thinking pretty hard…” Julius says leadingly. “Did you come out here for a break?”

“The central kingdom is stabilising faster than I thought.”

“You saw the earl’s new mistress too?”

“The-“ Diedrik looks up in confusion. “Sorry, the who?”

Julius waves him off. “Nothing, never mind. I’ve been led astray.”

Diedrik looks like he’s tempted to ask but then just shakes it off. He drops the robe. “I was told something before I arrived and while I was working the room, several people have verified it. The empress is bringing in prisoners from the war to sell.”

“I’ve heard,” Julius confirms.

“And like the infestation of church followers, these prisoners have traps inside them,” Diedrik sighs. “Wildflower is clumsy with his plotting but very opportunistic, and now has an entire army of unknowing rats bringing the plague.”

Julius blinks a few times and there’s so much to ask that he just skips right over how Diedrik is talking about a god like an old enemy. “Wait, the empress is working with The Wildflower?”

“No, she just sent a horde of war prisoners through unchecked and unguarded lands, and Wildflower’s followers saw their chance. I’m going to need a lot of fresh angel’s trumpet – unless you know something to better purge demon seeds with.”

Julius opens his mouth, closes it and tries again. “The demon-? Wait, no, go back to the church part.”

“I have that part handled,” Diedrik says dismissively. “Just find me enough angle’s trumpet to bankrupt me, and then double it. I’ll need other ingredients but they’re common items.”

“Angel’s trumpet is not a simple product,” Julius warns. “That will take time, especially if you want it to be of any high purity. I have to go into the Thick Forest for that, maybe barter to get into the Deep Forest.”

“That’s fine, I still need to set a few things up in the meantime.” Diedrik sighs, leaning against the railing and watching the darkness. “I thought I had more time but it seems this go around, Wildflower is a lot more aggressive.” He huffs out a laugh. “Actually, it’d be insulting if he didn’t learn.”

“You don’t sound concerned though,” Julius points out. “You only just finished dealing with the local church a few months ago and now they’ve come back, where’s the frustration?”

Because Julius is definitely getting frustrated. He didn’t think they were all gone but he didn’t think they’d bounce back so quickly either. The numbers have taken a brutal dive from Diedrik and Duke Malmierca but they might still target Julius’ shop.

“Wildflower is crippled but even at full strength -millennias ago now- his power was never something to be granted to followers. They’re nothing but regular extremists - they aren’t the real problem, it’ll just take a while to find the last few of them. I’m more concerned about the demon seeds sprouting before I can stop it.”

“What are demon seeds?”

“When the time is closer, I’ll have you shadowed again. I don’t want you getting hurt, especially with you getting me supplies to stop this.”

“What. Are. Demon. Seeds?” Julius stresses because Diedrik has proven to not care about Julius’ staff and so now Julius needs to plan for more of this bullshit. “Like real demonic magic flora, or just ominously named?”

Diedrik smirks at him. “It’s new and coming in from across the sea. All I know is what the cultist I captured has told me and I’ve only just verified the symptoms in the prisoners tonight.”

“But when you said plague…”

“Less plague, more demonic beasts.”

“Oh,” Julius says.

Diedrik said it so casually but it sounded a lot like; everyone is going to die painfully in terror as the beasts rip them apart, unless the 5^th class and upper miraculously descend in droves.

Panic doesn’t fix any situation but a little right now seems necessary, except Diedrik is clearly not taking this seriously.

“Good. Fantastic.” Julius turns around and takes a step towards the ballroom. “Me and my entire staff will be on holiday in a different kingdom.”

Diedrik grabs a large sleeve and pulls Julius back with it. “Again, that part will be handled, I just need some angel’s trumpet.”

“Will be handled with battlemages?” Julius demands, jerking his sleeves away. “Because you’re going to need them. I don’t-“ He takes a deep breath. “I understand that you’re…a little special, but this is new for you as well and now you’re just being cocky.”

Diedrik is no longer smiling, eyes narrowed and he straightens to his full height. “You have your place, Julius, and it isn’t to question me.”

Julius sputters out a shocked laugh. “You are a client, not my boss. And when you’re done playing here, boy, you’ll go back to your mother in the Govain lands. Meanwhile, I’ll still be here, dealing with the fallout of you running through these streets with cultists. You think I’m having fun like you are? I live here, Diedrik. You are on holiday and can leave again as soon as it gets bad.”

Diedrik says nothing for a long moment, watching Julius, but he pulls back and settles again. “I’ve only just got here, I’m not leaving again until I’ve finished them this time.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t care!” Julius says loudly. “You said demonic beasts, right? The ones that you have to decapitate then salt and burn? And sometimes that doesn’t even work to kill them. You might not have gotten to this part in your history class but one -one beast- got loose in the northern kingdom and three 6^th class took it down but two of them died. You are not taking this seriously enough.”

“I have a plan,” Diedrik snaps.

“Singular? Oh, bravo.”

“One of the cultists has a demon seed that’s sprouting inside him,” Diedrik grits out. “I have it contained with magics you wouldn’t even know how to pronounce. If it gets free, I’ll kill it.”

“You and what army?”

“Me and my 9^th–“ Diedrik stops abruptly, jaw clenched.

Julius says nothing, only grandly gestures to the boy with open arms and a whip of his sleeves.

Dedrik closes his eyes. “I will hire battlemages in case something goes wrong.”

“Some say prevention is the cure, but I’m sure you know better.”

Diedrik’s eyes snap open into a glare. “And I already have Chloe tracking every incoming follower of the Wildflower, and my Govain guards are spread throughout the city. The churches are torn down and I’m getting their plans and tactics from the ones I’ve captured. I know the targets and the problem, I just need you to get me the ingredients.”

“This information is from one singular cultist?” Julius pushes. “And you haven’t tried it before?”

“If you get it for me then I can try it,” Diedrik mocks, leaning back against the railing with his hands on the stone. “Fine, I will take more precautions. Thank you for reminding me, now drop the attitude as if you know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t know,” Julius admits candidly, crossing his arms. “But my problem isn’t your plan or ability, it’s the lack of care and that things will slip past. You seem very confused, Diedrik. And that was cute when you were a smaller child, but this isn’t a simple market venture.”

“I did a lot in my previous lives, excuse me if some things get a little bit confusing,” Diedrik says with a shrug as if reincarnation has actually been proven. “I’ll be more cautious now, I promise.”

Julius sighs. “Can’t we just sell potions again? I liked that part.”

Diedrik smiles. “Call me if you need help getting angel’s trumpet.”