Chapter 37: The Party
And so the party took place the next night, most of the adventurers felt out of place in the whole event, it had been long since they had been involved in something so important and they had yet to figure out why they were invited to the party in the first place.
On a Palace Balcony
Ferine and Zelliria had went on their own, they were chatting together on a balcony trying to avoid most of the people inside the ballroom. They had obeyed Amelie’s orders and were both wearing the same black dresses that she had sent them the same morning.
“You still have the marks on you I see” Said Zelliria as she pointed the rope marks on Ferine.
“They wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t made the ropes so tight” Ferine replied as she tried to hide the marks. The dress Amelie had given to them left all of their arms exposed which made the marks easy to see, to cover those marks Ferine had put on a coat despite the night not being really cold.
“Should’ve thought about that before making that bet” Replied Zelliria.
Turns out that after loosing the bet she had made to Zelliria Ferine had to agree to be tied up by her whether she liked it or not. She’ll have to it for the whole week and it had started that evening. As soon as Zelliria and Ferine had some time alone Zelliria was quick to remind Ferine of what she should do and Ferine was reluctant but quick to agree.
“Next time I may go a bit easier on you, but not too much” Zelliria teased.
“Sure whatever” Replied Ferine, telling herself that this was going to be over soon.
“Good to see that you have obeyed my orders” Amelie broke into the scene much to the displeasure of Ferine and Zelliria.
Zelliria and Ferine looked at Amelie for a second but ignored her, she may be forcing them to be there but now that they already had done what she asked for they didn’t wanted to allow her to force them to have a bad time.
“Do you like the dresses I picked for you?” Asked Amelie a bit annoyed by being ignored.
“We would like them better if we knew what they do” Replied Ferine.
“Oh so you want to find out?” Asked Amelie.
Ferine sighed and Zelliria shared the sentiment, the determination to be pain for them that Amelie seemed to have was getting far beyond annoying.
“We already did what you wanted, can’t you just leave us alone for once?” Complained Zelliria holding back as much as she could.
“That’s why I gave you those dresses, I don’t trust you two to be left alone during an important... are you listening to me?” Amelie interrupted herself as she noticed how Zelliria and Ferine were facing away from her and were just talking to each other.
“Honestly no, so feel free to leave” Zelliria replied without even looking at Amelie.
That made Amelie very angry like it was expected. She could stand not being on the spotlight but being ignored by someone who she considered to be below her was the ultimate disrespect she could be faced with.
Amelie lowly uttered some words in the celestial language that she used to cast her spells, she was not going to allow such disrespect.
“Huh?” Ferine looked back as she thought that it was someone else speaking but she quickly returned to chatting with Zelliria as she saw that nobody but the inquisitor was there with them.
Suddenly Ferine and Zelliria felt something strange with their dresses, it felt like the strings that they were made of were moving on their own and not how they were supposed to do so.
It didn’t took long for them to realize what the strings were doing and it took them even less to figure out who was behind it. The strings on the lower part of the dress were forcing their legs together and on the upper part the dresses seemed to be tearing themselves apart to get strings to pin their arms to their sides.
The strings that tied their bodies were tight which was made worse by the fact that they were extremely thin to the point that it felt like they were cutting their skin on their exposed arms .The strings that forced their legs together got so tight that eventually both girls had to lean against the balcony’s railing to avoid falling on the floor.
“So this is what these dresses do huh?” Asked Ferine.
“Do you like it?” Asked Amelie as she grabbed the two girls by their hair.
“Not the most comfortable way I have been tied” Said Zelliria “Maybe you could do better if...”
Amelie interrupted Zelliria’s mocking reply by spanking her on the butt, she was angry at both of them but she had a special hate for Zelliria, even more that Ferine or any of her friends.
“So, you sure that the dresses were meant for us?” Asked Ferine “I think you’re doing a much worse job at not behaving than us”
Amelie would have spanked Ferine right then and there like she had done with Zelliria but in some way she didn’t liked what Ferine was saying made sense to Amelie.
“Imagine that someone walks into the balcony right now and sees this, what would he think?” Inquired Ferine.
“Inquisitor Amelie grabs girls by the butt in a party organized by the kings of Thoecia!” Zelliria jested.
Amelie gave a step and again spoke some words in the celestial language, almost immediately the dresses on Zelliria and Ferine went back to normal.
“You win this one” Said Amelie before getting back into the ballroom, without even giving a chance to the girls to look at her blushed face, she was ashamed of herself.
Zelliria and Amelie looked at each other and laughed, for them, messing with Amelie was the best thing that party had given them.
Inside the Ballroom, Near a Dessert Table
Inside the palace Ann and Liel were a bit out of the way of all the people, Liel was too shy, awkward and unaccustomed to being around so many people and Ann wasn’t going to leave her alone knowing that.
Liel’s shyness wasn’t helped by the fact that she and Ann attracted many glances, Ann was used to it, she knew she was pretty but for Liel it was the first time being looked at like that.
“Why are they looking at us like that?” Asked Liel.
“They think we’re pretty” Ann deadpanned.
“I guess that’s good then” Liel replied nervously.
Ann smiled at Liel, her awkwardness and shyness could be annoying sometimes but most of the time it just made her cute in her own way.
“Look who decided to disobey me” Amelie said as she walked up to Ann and Liel “Do you think you can get away with that?”
It wasn’t hard for Amelie to see that the dress Ann was wearing was not the one she had given her, the dress Ann was wearing was of a much deeper tone of blue and had a different shape overall.
“Maybe if it wasn’t enchanted I’d have considered it” Ann replied “What are you going to do about it? Scold me in front of all this people?” She challenged, being sure that Amelie was incapable of doing it.
“I want to be angry at you so much Ann” Said Amelie “But I can’t”
Amelie stepped closer to Ann to the point that the two of them were uncomfortably close. Ann kept staring at Amelie with a straight face, she didn’t knew what she meant by that but she had no interest in playing along.
“Maybe that defiance is what I love of you” Amelie said almost like if she was talking to herself “Yes, maybe that defiance is what I needed in someone” Amelie tried to touch Ann’s face but Ann calmly moved the inquisitor’s hand away, she didn’t needed any affection from someone like her. Amelie wanted to be angry at that gesture but it somehow she couldn’t, something in Ann made it impossible for Amelie to lash out against her.
“We’ll see each other later” Said Amelie as she walked away from Ann and towards Liel “I have some things to talk about with her too” She continued as she grabbed Liel by the arm.
“Do not dare to hurt her” Ann said to Amelie as she saw her walk away with Liel.
“Don’t worry about it” Amelie chuckled “But even if I wanted to, how would you stop me?”
Ann wanted to reply aggressively but within herself she knew that Amelie had a point, and if she wanted to keep her away from Liel she just had to bring up certain information she had about her.
“Don’t give that look, you know I’m right” Amelie said as she saw the angry look i Ann’s blue eyes “For now you should focus on having a good time, I know someone here has missed you a lot”
“What?” Ann quizzed, she had no idea what Amelie was talking about.
But she had no response from Amelie who just walked away almost dragging Amelie by her side.
Ann looked around to see if she could find out who Amelie was talking about and she quickly found out. Not so far away from her was Fulk, he was difficult to spot among so many people but it wasn’t hard for Ann to recognize him once she had seen him.
Ann greeted Fulk and he confirmed that indeed Amelie must have been talking about him, he told Ann that he had not come alone with Amelie but he doubted that any other of the people he came with would have missed her.
Fulk explained why he was there, something Ann was interested in. Turns out that the inquisitor had him in high regard after so much time working for her, and Fulk suspected that she knew more about him and Ann but that he kept most of that secret from the knight, if somehow Amelie knew how he felt about Ann he didn’t wanted Ann to know about it too, not yet.
“How does she know that anyway?” Asked Ann, she didn’t remember telling Amelie anything about her relationship with Fulk.
“I wonder that too” Fulk shrugged off Ann’s question.
Ann looked at her friend incredulous, she found it hard to believe that Amelie would have just guessed out that and found it far more likely that Fulk had revealed something that she shouldn’t.
“I’m telling the truth! I really have no idea of how she knows that!” Fulk excused himself.
“She got it out from you with some of her...” Ann tried to find a word to describe what Amelie had done with her and so many other “methods...”
Fulk nodded very shyly, he didn’t wanted Ann to know that, he thought that knowing that he had been tortured by Amelie would make Ann think that he was weak, or worse, that he was pathetic.
“Don’t worry, I understand” Said Ann as she stroked Fulk’s hair “Sorry about bringing it up”
Just the gentle touch of Ann was enough to make Fulk forget about what he had just said, he was glad to find out that the reaction he expected from Ann was far from reality.
The subject immediately moved away from Amelie and both Ann and Fulk were happy about it.
Fulk had no intention of getting in trouble with Ann by saying more than he should about Amelie., especially this night in which she looked so beautiful. It wasn’t hard for Fulk to find Ann beautiful, even he who had seen her during the most difficult moments of her training couldn’t remember a single moment in which she didn’t looked good, but needless to say, his bias was big.
Fulk could notice that Ann had taken care in appearing as good as she could that night, she smelled good and her clothes really favoured her. Her hair was longer than the last time he had seen her and was now tied on single braid that fell over her shoulder.
“You look very pretty tonight” Fulk said after he gathered the courage to do so.
“Aw you too!” Ann gave back the compliment, without thinking much of it.
In the Middle of the Crowd
Unlike Liel who had Ann to accompany her Rhys’ shy self was alone in the middle of all the people, trying to get as far away as she could from all the people while she looked for a familiar face. At firs she had the company of Eyiel but the amazon was quick to leave Rhys on her own once she found a table with enough food and drink, and if she wanted to avoid embarrassing herself it would be better for her to stay away from a drunk Eyiel than to be near her.
Rhys’ keen hearing was betraying her, in the middle of the loud party her hearing was easily overwhelmed, she quickly became nervous and unaware of her surroundings and that had an awful culmination for her.
Trying to escape the crowd Rhys accidentally hit a woman, she fell to the floor, felt something wet her dress, heard the sound of glass shattering and then he deafening noise of countless conversations turning into low, concerned and unfriendly remarks about Rhys that she could hear too well. And hearing what all of the people who were saying was the last thing she needed.
“Watch your step!” Barked the woman whom Rhys had crashed with, she was about to leave when she noticed all the spilled wine on the floor “Do you realize what you have done!?”
“I... I’m sorry I...” Rhys spoke with difficulty, the remarks she heard being made about her didn’t let her speak.
“That was wine from a reserve of Izburg!” The woman screamed even more loudly than before “It was older than you and I, and you just spilled it!”
Someone in the crown joked about the fact that Rhys may be older than the wine, she was an elf after all, and plenty of people laughed. Now Rhys had to hear people laughing at her, the whole situation was getting worse by the minute.
“I expect you to pay for this elf” Said the woman as she bowed forward to get a better look of Rhys face, but there wasn’t much she could see with Rhys looking down and hiding her face with her hands out of shame.
“What’s the matter here?” Eyiel broke in the circle that had gathered around Rhys “What’s the matter with her?”
The rage that filled the woman’s face was visible but it didn’t intimidate Eyiel one bit, Eyiel had trouble taking seriously people that she was confident that she could beat up, and this woman was one of those cases.
“Is she your friend?” The woman asked pretending to be calm.
“Yes, and I don’t take kindly to have people yelling at my friends” Eyiel replied.
“Well your friend just made me spill the worth more gold than you can imagine” The woman said as she pointed to the spilled wine on the floor.
“I don’t care” Yawned Eyiel, not seeing the severity in the situation “Come on Rhys, we have no time for this old hag”
Eyiel’s response was so unexpected that the woman couldn’t come up with a reply on the spot, she just stared angry and in disbelief at Eyiel as she lifted Rhys from the floor and walked away with her.
"Stupid butch" Muttered the noblewoman as Eyiel and Rhys walked away.
"Did you said something?" Eyiel asked intimidatingly as she stopped on her tracks
"Nothing" The noblewoman said as she looked away with a disgusted expression.
“Thank you...” Rhys said shyly as she walked away with Eyiel.
“You could have handled that yourself” Eyiel said trying to cheer Rhys up.
Rhys looked up to Eyiel, she asked herself if she really thought that she could have handled that situation herself.
“Come on, don’t look at me like that!” Eyiel said as she noticed Rhys looking at her “I’ve seen you burn trolls to a crisp and shot lightning out of thin air, do you really think you couldn’t have handled that?”
“I couldn’t have done those things...” Rhys explained, she knew that Eyiel was trying to cheer her up but she thought that her expectations of her were a bit exaggerated.
“Surely you could have done something, you always have something to do” Eyiel replied “But that doesn’t matter, all that matters is that you’re okay”
“Do you think that woman will forget about it?” Rhys asked.
“Remember why we came here?” Eyiel asked rhetorically “I’m sure that if she doesn’t decide to forget about it now she’ll do once she found out we came here thanks to the inquisitor”
That made sense to Rhys, she hadn’t thought about that despite it being so obvios. She tended to overlook simple solutions like that in favour of complex solutions that only she would think of, a flaw that Eyiel didn’t had.
“Ann.. do you want to...” Fulk was gathering the courage to speak even when he already was speaking.
“Yes?” Ann asked tying to help Fulk voice his thoughts, it was easy to notice that he was having trouble speaking.
Fulk wanted to ask Ann to dance with him, this was a chance he was never going to get again but that didn’t made it easier to say. Just talking to Ann made him nervous, asking her to dance was unimaginably worse.
“Ann” Amelie interrupted as she moved between the two, bringing Liel with her.
“What is it?” Ann asked tiredly as she turned to look at Amelie.
“Dance with me” Amelie said as she extended her hand to Ann.
Ann was confused and didn’t knew how to react. Fulk was suddenly filled with Anguish, even though he hoped that Ann wouldn’t do it she knew that she had no choice, he knew that he was about to see her being taken from him.
“Or else...” Amelie threatened subtly.
“Ugh, fine” Ann grunted as she took Amelie’s hand “Sorry guys” She said as she was taken away by the inquisitor.
Amelie looked over her shoulder as she walked away with Ann and smiled at Fulk, a malicious, sadistic smile that made it clear to Fulk that she knew exactly what she was doing.
Fulk had trouble keeping all of the anguish to himself, if he didn’t had the self control that only someone with his training would have he would have either get into a fit of rage or cry, but he did neither.
“I don’t like her too” Liel brought Fulk back to reality “Amelie of course”
“Yeah its hard to like her” Said Fulk “I bet nobody at the headquarters does”
Talking to Liel was a good way to take Fulk’s attention away from Amelie dancing with Ann, something that was at plain sight for him. Liel, having worked in the same place as him for roughly the same amount of time had a lot in common with Fulk and the two made a good pair for a good enjoyable conversation. That was until Liel decided to ask Fulk something...
“How do you know Ann?” Liel asked.
That question made Fulk come back to reality, and in the reality he lived in Ann had just been taken away from him.
“We’re childhood friends...” Fulk replied.
“Just that?” Asked Liel “I thought you were a couple... you’d make a cute one!”
Liel’s compliments were good but in that situation they felt like daggers against Fulk’s heart, but he contained himself.
“Do you like her?” Liel asked with naively, she had no idea about how Fulk felt about Ann and how he was feeling.
“I...” Fulk didn’t knew what he should reply, should he lie and have Liel tell that lie to Ann or should he tell the truth and have Liel tell that to Ann?
Fulk was saved from responding by the loud noise of various carnyx being played by fancily dressed guards. The crowd split into two to make room for someone very important who was coming through the hall.
“Ladies and gentlemen, now we kneel before queen Dania Brogimara, daughter of Tauri XIV and queen of Thoeceia” A guard proudly announced just before following his own orders and bowing.
Everyone present obeyed the orders too and bowed before the queen as she walked up to the throne, everyone but a certain someone, Eyiel wasn’t seeing the reason why everyone was kneeling and just stood where she was with her arms crossed.
“We’re supposed to do what he says!” Rhys said as she pulled from Eyiel’s pants to get her attention.
“Huh? Why?” Asked Eyiel as she looked down to Rhys.
“I’ll explain you later now just do it” Rhys said getting more nervous with every second that passed.
“Nah I don’t think I will” Eyiel said calmly, almost teasing the nervous Rhys.
“Please!” Rhys pleaded.
“Fine but only because you ask it” Said Eyiel before finally kneeling before the queen.
“Jeez you made me really nervous” Rhys said as Eyiel got to the floor beside her.
Eyiel laughed it off, she never expected an angry Rhys to be so cute.
The queen sat on her throne and looked around, she thought that she had seen someone standing but whoever it was she couldn’t find him.
“You may stand now” Said the queen.
Everyone stood, the queen looked around once again but failed to find the person she was looking for. Seeing that she took a deep breath and prepared for the lengthy speech she had to give.
“Tonight we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the northern union, the union that makes us, the kingdom of Athor and the Kingdom of Turus an unbreakable alliance govern by a single archking, king Victrion III of Turus” The queen made a pause for everyone to clap, what she was speaking of was indeed something to be celebrated.
“What is she talking about?” Eyiel asked as she clapped more because of compromise than for celebration, she had no idea why they were clapping in the first place.
“Basically a single family governs the whole three kingdoms, its complicated” Rhys explained.
“Yeah better not bother explaining, I don’t care that much” Eyiel replied.
“But as you may know, this union is at risk” The queen resumed her speech “The rebellious Remicus, my cousin and pretender to the throne of Athor, has made clear attempts to break this union apart.
The queen’s words seemed to generate bewilderment among the crowd, those were bad and worrying news.
“He doubts the ligitamy of archking Victrion and has stated that he will break this union apart if the legitimacy of Victrion isn’t proved. We would like to take measures with our own hands but sadly his words have reached too many people, enough to make an execution too risky” The queen made a pause to let the attendants process the information “But there is a solution!”
“Time to step in” Said Amelie as she started to make her way through the crowd, leaving Ann behind her.
“There is a way to prove to my rebellious cousin that the legitimacy of the archking isn’t to be questioned” The queen made a pause and looked at the guests, she wondered if they were ready to hear what she was about to tell them “Our old family relic, the Chalice of Krysin, is our way to prove the legitimacy of Archking Victrion”
The crowd broke their silence and an audible murmur filled the room, like the queen expected, she had spoken controversial words.
“What the hell is that?” Eyiel asked to Rhys.
“Supposedly it was something given to the first king of the north by the ancient gods of the forest” Rhys explained “But it thought it was a myth”
“If it is a myth why should we even care?” Said Eyiel.
“I really don’t know”
The guards hit the floor with their spears, a clear signal for all of the people to shut up, the queen needed silence.
“I know what you’re thinking, I thought the same not so long ago” The queen resumed her speech “But we really have no choice, it is this or a civil war, and that is what our enemies want”
Amelie cleared her throat, it was her turn to do the explaining. She introduced herself in great detail, moving all of the crowd’s attention to her.
“But now to the matter at hand, the Chalice of Krysin” The inquisitor finally got to the point “I’ve confirmed the existance of the chalice by methods only the queen knows and needs to know, I have also gathered a group of people to bring the chalice to us”
The murmur of the crowd now signaled a lot of discontent with what Amelie was saying.
“So that’s what she wants with us” Said Ferine.
“I hope there’s a payment involved in all of this” Said Zelliria “This doesn’t sound like an easy job”
“For security reasons, the details of the mission will remain secret” Amelie’s explanation was met with audible disapproval by the crowd “And if you don’t like it you can complain to the queen herself”
Amelie walked behind the throne and left the room through a door hidden behind it. Her absence brought bewilderment among the crowd, the murmur among them was audible but unitelligable, nobody dared to speak up.
“If someone has a disagreement with our plans, he can stand before me and say it to me” The queen said.
The queen’s statement calmed down the crowd, but even if all of the people in the party were appeased the party just couldn’t keep going, the ambient was too tense for anyone to have a good time.
The ballroom emptied rapidly and soon enough the only ones left in there were the queen, the guards and the adventurers who didn’t knew if they should left the room or not.
“You can return to your rooms ladies” Said the queen “I left something for you there”
Ann was the only one to make a reverence to the queen before leaving the room, thankfully the queen didn’t seemed to care much about Ann’s friends not doing one.
“Are you sure that they can handle it?” The queen asked as she laid back on her throne, being a queen was tiring.
“Absolutely” Said Amelie as she emerged from behind the throne “I have them under my absolute control.