In the area with the important guests, I could see several people of interest.
Elora was sitting at the lead table, this time wearing a dress that looked like it had been wrought entirely from silver. I knew better — it was just another type of dyed metallic weave, and likely offered similar protection to her previous dress. Still, it looked impressive.
She was laughing with a gentleman who looked to be about her age that I didn’t recognize. He had a strong resemblance to Derek, aside from his hair, which was short and white. A sibling, maybe?
Ugh, Derek and Elora’s relationship was the worst kind of complicated.
I didn’t see Sheridan, although I knew they were supposed to be at the party somewhere. Presumably, they had gone to the other ballroom, either to avoid Elora or simply to talk to other people they knew.
Councilor Lanoy was sitting a few seats down from Elora, next to an older woman that I presumed was his mother, the host of the party. They were both chatting with Chancellor Wallace, who was standing on the other side of the table.
I recognized a few other people, including a couple teachers and some other wealthy nobles my parents had introduced me to years and years ago. I assumed many of my professors would be in attendance, but fortunately, I didn’t see any of them right away.
I finally made it through the general crowd and into the food line.
What am I even doing here? This is absurd. There’s no reason for me to be at a party like this.
I saw Jin just a few moments after that, leaning up against one of the walls with a cocktail in hand.
Oh.
That’s why.
He winked at me.
I very deliberately looked away.
I continued waiting in line, observing everywhere Jin wasn’t as a way to fill my time.
As expected, there were hundreds of students already here, and more pouring in all the time. Occasionally, I’d hear some commotion as some high profile guest entered the room. Occasionally, mild applause, usually for someone on the Council of Lords or someone in a fancy military uniform.
The most interesting thing for me turned out to be the runes on the walls. Like Elora and Derek’s household, this place was heavily enchanted. It made sense to have a degree of security for any locale that was going to house this many people, but they’d been thorough.
I saw dozens of copies of runes I recognized — shielding, anti-teleportation, anti-scrying, that sort of thing. The specific shapes were similar to what I recognized, but not identical; given the architecture of the room, I suspected that was because they were old fashioned rune designs.
Long lines of the protective glyphs trailed from floor to ceiling, spaced out roughly every twenty feet. I assumed that indicated that the runes had a limited area of effect — either that, or they were just reinforcing them with redundancy. It was impressive either way.
I wasn’t the only one inspecting them, either. I saw a few others near the walls, admiring the intricacy of the runic patterns.
One person in particular caught my eyes — a young woman with purple hair that trailed all the way down to her hips. There were plenty of people with dyed hair with unusual colors at the party, so that wouldn’t have necessarily caught my attention on its own.
I noticed a couple things that made her more eye-catching.
The first thing I noticed was that she was walking right up to the runes and tracing figures in the air next to them. A mnemonic device for remembering the shapes, maybe?
Nobody was stopping her, and the runes weren’t going out, so I didn’t see any cause for alarm. Still, it was unusual enough that I registered the need to keep an eye on her.
The second thing I realized was that I’d seen her somewhere before. But where? Somewhere at the academy, maybe? I couldn’t quite remember.
Before looking away, I tried turning on my attunement to see how powerful she was, but the blur of hundreds of auras made it almost impossible to see anything at a distance. I thought her aura was probably just clear, though.
Notably, she wasn’t the only person with a clear aura, or no aura at all. In fact, most of the people in the guest section, as well as most of the serving staff, didn’t have auras.
I hadn’t seen so many non-attuned civilians in one place in ages. I’d started to think of being attuned as the default, when in reality, most people never earned one.
After a few more minutes of awkwardness, I made it to the food. I heaped far more than I was likely to actually eat on my plate. Realizing that the drinks were in bottles, I tucked a few under a shoulder to be considerate to my friends. Then I awkwardly waddled through the crowd, spending most of the time desperately trying to keep the bottles from slipping and breaking on the floor.
I made it back to our table just in time for Sera’s grand entrance to the ball.
There was a hush near the entrance as she walked into the room.
No, not because of her. In spite of being far more politically savvy than I was, Sera wasn’t well-known. Not yet, at least.
It was her date that drew stares and murmurs.
He was hard not to notice, given his wingspan was nearly twice his height.
I sighed, putting down the plate and bottles so I could hold my face in my hands.
Of course Sera had brought Vanniv to the ball.
He was tall, charming, and looked like a fashion model. His abs looked like they were literally chiseled.
I wasn’t sure how she’d managed to find him a suit in House Cadence’s colors with slits for his wings. Maybe that was why she’d insisted on coming separately?
The crowd had to part around them, simply because Vanniv’s wings were so wide that he couldn’t enter the room otherwise.
They made their way over to our table.
“Corin! Dear Brother.” Sera opened her arms.
I rolled my eyes at her as theatrically as possible, then obliged in giving her a hug. “Hello, dear Sister.”
Nearby Vanniv grinned and opened his arms as well. Not toward anyone in particular.
Patrick, always a good sport, rose from his chair and gave Vanniv a hug. Vanniv seemed briefly startled, then grinned and pulled Patrick in closer, like they’d been long-lost brothers.
I felt a pang of envy as that thought ran through my mind and I remembered what the spire had taken away from me.
“Patrick! Ah, I see you have the lovely Marissa with you as well.” Vanniv turned his head downward and offered Marissa an exaggerated wink.
Marissa folded her arms. “So, you’re Sera’s mystery date?”
Sera finally let me go and stepped back. “He most certainly is! I considered all sorts of students, but I thought I’d go with a real man.”
“And there is no realer man than I,” Vanniv replied with a nod. “Excepting for the fact that I am a magically created copy of the original Vanniv, of course, and thus completely fake.”
Sera patted him on the arm. “There, there. You’re real enough for me, dear.”
“I know. Ah!” Vanniv snatched one of my bottles off the table. “Drinks! This is what I’m here for.”
Sera sat down and leaned back in her chair. “You’re here to be my date.”
“Yes, yes. And drinking. Drinking many things.” Vanniv smiled. He didn’t seem to know how to get the stopper out of the bottle — which was understandable, I didn’t either — so he simply snapped the stem at the top and began to drink.
The luxuries of having stone skin, I supposed. Never have to worry about mild lacerations.