Reynard stepped out of a hired carriage and offered his arm to help Marien get out.
They stepped onto the wide street and could imdiately see the mayor’s mansion.
For the party, an already expensive and majestic three-floor building was decorated even more. Large banners with Darland’s coat of arms—three wheat stalks and a snowflake on a blue, green, and white background—were hanging on the building’s outside walls.
The guests matched, with their dresses and wheat-shaped ornants on their clothing. They mingled in the gardens or arrived in carriages, waiting for the servants to lead them in.
It looked like every noble and rich rchant in the city was gathering tonight. But when Reynard closed his eyes for a mont and focused on the magic in the place, he couldn’t sense any magi.
This place had a lot of magical items—jewelry that glowed, magical lanterns, probably freezing boxes for food, and other things a city’s mayor could afford. But if there were any magi, they were hiding their aura and doing it well.
Just like Reynard and Marien were doing.
"How strange. I thought the heads of the orders would send soone here, at least to speak into the mayor’s ear," Marien comnted as she looked around as well. "Maybe they will appear later? We have arrived exactly on ti, but we are relatively low-ranked guests. Let’s go inside, my love, and at least see what kind of entertainnt the host prepared. I have missed parties like these!"
’I hope Alia didn’t pull a prank on us, and we are really on the quest list,’ Reynard thought, following Marien in. ’At least she didn’t lie about the fashion.’
Reynard and Marien followed the advice she shared earlier. Marien got very excited about the idea of matching dresses, so she was wearing a robe-like blue dress with white and green ornants. To match her, Reynard bought a white robe with green and blue ornants.
Darland’s fashion wasn’t as impractical as that of Victorian dresses, but neither n nor won had any pockets on their clothing. Reynard asked a tailor to specifically sew so pockets on the inner side of the robe for him, and now they were heavy with his weapons.
He wasn’t going to leave sothing so precious just lying around. Neither was Marien, because her clothing had hidden pockets, too.
"Have you been to fancy parties often? I didn’t think Blue Bismuth School started any..." Reynard asked as they stood in a queue.
"Grandpa didn’t start them, of course. But he was often invited to parties by the city nobles. Sotis he ca alone or took with him, and later I sotis ca with his assistant, Georg."
The turn quickly ca to Reynard and Marien. To Reynard’s hidden relief, the man checking invitations in his list just asked for their nas, marked sothing in his list, and sent the pair in.
Inside the building, all the decorations were done in the sa blue, green, and white colors, and many bouquets in vases had wheat stalks in them.
Reynard felt like he was in so TV show when a porter opened the door in front of him and Marien and announced their nas as they ca into the main hall.
He feared that all the attention would imdiately fall on them... But instead, their nas fell into the massive hall full of dozens of people like a droplet of water into a pond.
So ripples went, and so heads turned toward them, but mostly, everybody continued to mingle among themselves. And more people were arriving constantly—the hall had the capacity to host hundreds.
"Wow... What a place. And how are we supposed to find Alia here?" Reynard wondered as he and Marien walked off the way.
Marien giggled.
"Find Alia? My ’prince’, sotis I forget that you aren’t even close to anything resembling royalty! And that you were taught manners by the school teachers, who can be absolute dolts themselves! First, we must go and greet the host. Then we can wander around. There will probably be dances, but I don’t know the local ones. I’m going to watch out for familiar faces—there aren’t magi, but maybe the orders sent soone who isn’t a magus to represent them?"
Grinning, Reynard rolled his eyes and offered Marien his elbow to hold.
"Royalty-shmoyalty... All these etiquette things are much easier to rember than tables of basic alchemical interactions. Lead the way for your prince-consort, my princess."
With Reynard following Marien’s lead, they crossed the hall, greeted the mayor—who was too busy to spare them more than a couple of words—and moved away.
Plenty of people have recognized them as foreign magi, but for most, it seed to be a deterrent. Only a few dared to even stand close to Reynard and Marien, or worse, ca to greet them and try to involve them in small talk.
Reynard used this opportunity to introduce himself as an alchemist and smith and to try to offer his (very expensive) commission services. Marien just collected gossip.
Eventually, they drifted to the edge of the hall.
"I think I might get a few orders! It was a good idea to try to sell to nobles blue hair dye as a ’patriotic’ color," Reynard said excitedly. "I never thought that this recipe from the Blue Bismuth School would be of use to ."
"The dye? There are so many more interesting things happening! The mayor had purposefully excluded both orders from the party today, in protest of their fighting. How bold of him! Surely he understands that they will beco offended and will retaliate sohow? He might even get himself killed!" Marien said, shaking her head. "I wish people would tell more. It all seems like so massive secret intrigue... And I hate when things are being hidden from !"
In this mont, the ringing of a bell announced the approaching start of the ballroom dances. A small orchestra of musicians gathered in a corner of the room.
Reynard blinked and almost missed the mont when Alia flowed from behind the backs and dresses of guests and approached him and Marien.
Reviews
All reviews (0)