Jue was trying to memorize a list of all the Beri Empire's territories when the invitation arrived.

From hir study, ze heard Ngionah at the door say "Oh, Lady Paona!" and then speak too quietly for hir to make out. Feeling hir geography tutor's sharp eyes on hir, ze kept hir gaze on the page.

Ngionah knocked on the door that joined the study to Jue's sitting room. "Lady Paona Qeifiot Ragonia here to see you, Your Majesty."

Paona outranked Jue's tutor, and Raiqiongshē had probably impressed upon ei-san the importance of the betrothal candidates, so ei-sa let hir go for the afternoon.

Paona stood to greet hir. "Your Majesty."

"Lady Paona," ze replied uneasily. This visit had not been planned.

"My cousin Lania is hosting a party," said Paona. She held out a colourfully-inked envelope. "Ai-lo has asked me to deliver you the invitation."

"Oh." Jue took it unenthusiastically. "I see."

Lady Lania Qeifiot's parties were well-known for getting… out of hand. Intense. Improper. Jue did not want to go to one.

"I delivered it myself because I thought you might need some encouragement," said Paona. "Lania would be very honoured to have you. All of the betrothal candidates will be there, except for Shio. I would like to observe how they all interact. Also, I know how you feel about… marital duties, and some exposure to immodest displays might do you good and help you get over that aversion."

Jue pursed hir lips. Maybe Paona was right. Maybe it would help. And o-lo was right about seeing how they interacted with each other in a more casual setting.

"Is Princess Seitlēn going to be there?" ze asked. Maybe ze could handle it better with a friendly face there too.

Paona winced delicately. "I do not believe o-mē has been invited. A party of this sort…"

Jue understood what o-lo was not saying. Deep in hir memory, ze heard Paona's childhood voice calling hir slow when o-lo thought ze was not near, doing an imitation for their other friends' amusement, and felt a hot flash of anger on Sei's behalf. "O-mē would greatly enjoy it. To be perfectly honest, o-mē would enjoy it much more than I would. I will go if Seitlēn is also welcome."

Jue had passed on Paona's instructions to Attenant Seina. Wear something fun. More casual. Pizzazz.

"Eyes closed," ū-rei instructed.

Jue closed hir eyes obediently, chewing on the inside of hir cheek. Hir unruly eyebrows had been plucked back into definition again this morning, and the space right above the bridge of hir nose was still tender. Ze hoped Attendant Seina would remember to be gentle there.

Attendant Seina lightly dusted blue and gold over hir eyelids. "I am surprised that you are going to an event like this."

"Lady Paona insisted," Jue said, trying to move hir face as little as possible.

"It reminds me that you are growing up," ū-rei said. "No longer really a child, are you? All dressed up to go to one of Lady Lania's parties, soon to be married, the same leg length for the tailors every time this year."

Jue felt unexpected emotion well up inside of hir, and not about ū-reis mention of marriage. "I… I suppose so."

Attendant Seina had been there for seven years now, looking after Jue bodily ever since Beo!raad's dismissal as hir nurse. Ū-rei had watched hir grow from a child into- well, like ū-rei had said, almost an adult. When ze died, ū-rei would probably be the one to wash and dress hir body for the last time.

Ze knew better, of course ze knew better, but in that moment, Attendant Seina's hands gently and competently working hir hair felt almost parental.

Jue blinked rapidly. Ze did not want to cry and ruin the makeup ū-rei had just applied.

Ze looked at hir face- hir mask- in the mirror. It glittered unusually colourfully in the bright vanity lights. "You did my face well. Lady Paona will like it."

"Thank you," said Attendant Seina. "Will o-lo be accompanying you from here?"

Jue almost nodded and stopped hirself just in time to avoid accidental hair yanking. "Yes."

"Forgive the sensitive question, but… do you favour o-lon for your marriage?"

Under the heavy makeup, Jue knew hir skin must be red with discomfort. "Not- like that," ze said awkwardly. "But o-lo is most familiar to me out of everyone. Everyone else is new to me. Lady Paona and I were friends as children."

Ze wished ze could forget why that friendship had ended. The lesson to never trust anyone, even friends, especially friends, was burned deep into hir core.

Paona arrived to pick hir up at exactly the agreed upon time. "You look wonderful, Your Majesty."

"Thank you," said Jue, self-consciously tugging at hir sleeves. "You as well, Lady Paona."

As they approached Lania's quarters, Jue brought up something that had been lingering awkwardly in hir mind. "Um… Lady Paona, as to the, uh, nature of your cousin's parties… I was under the impression that Lady Lania was married?"

"Oh, yes," said Paona. "Ai-lo is married. Ai-los wife is often away at the front and I expect has lovers of ai-los own there, and- Thank you-" An attendant let them into Lania's music-filled sitting room. "Lady Lania's husband doesn't exactly mind."

O-lo gestured across the room with o-los chin.

Jue recognized Lania's husband, a lord in ai-los mid-twenties, hanging off the arm of another lord in a way that even ze recognized as flirtatious.

Ze looked away, but did not find anywhere more comfortable to fix hir gaze. Ze ended up staring down at the top of Paona's head in embarrassment.

Lania floated over to greet them. Ai-lo was wearing layers of sheer fabric. Left very visible by the gown was some sort of heavily-sequined garment with much less skin coverage than typical Rāmiq underclothes.

Jue felt very much like ze was not meant to be here. This was a party for real adults. For people who did not get uncomfortable just seeing half-bare bodies and flirtatious touches. For people who enjoyed the company of others at all.

It was, technically speaking, eavesdropping, which was rude.

Jue had a spell. Ze was supposed to use it to help focus hir hearing on hir conversation partners when there was a lot of background noise. Ze was using it to focus in on other people's conversations instead, because that was the only way ze was going to get information, for hir own safety and for Talí.

Everyone thought Mkera was very exotic and interesting, which sat uncomfortably with Jue in a way ze could not quite explain.

Jiremau kept trying to join groups and being subtly snubbed. Jue hoped o-mē did not notice that it was being done on purpose. Ze wished ze had not made such a big deal of the incident at the ball.

Waleiyi had managed to gather a small crowd around ai-lon. Unlike Jue, they seemed very interested in ai-los war stories.

"Oh, Lady General, will you protect us if the rebels attack again like they did at the exposition?" One of the other nobles batted ai-los eyelashes at Waleiyi. "Will you scoop me up and carry me to safety? Or lead the charge against them and pummel their forces into submission?"

Waleiyi's face remained blank, as it usually was. "My first priority would of course be the safety of the royal family, but yes, I would protect you as well."

"Speaking of the exposition," said another of the young nobles. "I noticed there were fewer Initiates from the Temple of Corysecli than usual. Isn't your brother an Initiate of Corysecli, Lady General?"

"Yes."

"Not fit for much else, was o-nai," someone said snidely.

Waleiyi all but flinched. "It is a longstanding tradition in my family for the second-born child to join the Temple of Corysecli."

"Līsandyr wasn't exactly the second child, though, was he?"

"Right, there was Lord General Sūl's bastard daughter, wasn't there?"

Waleiyi twitched. "My father's impropriety has no bearing on my brother's status as my mother's second child, and Līsandyr is a powerful mage. O-nai is a credit to the Temple."

"Did you inherit any of that magic, Lady General?" asked the first noble, the one who had been asking Waleiyi to protect ai-lon. "The royal family could certainly do with some of your power in their bloodline, well, if you know what I'm saying." Ai-lo gave a pointed glance in Jue's distinctly magicless direction, and Jue decided ze was done listening to this conversation for now. Ze did not need more reminders of hir inadequacy.

Ze let the sound-focus spell rest and just absorbed whatever snippets of conversation ze happened to pick up from hir place in a corner armchair. Paona must have been doing the same, watching and listening, since o-lo never tried to engage hir in conversation.

Drifting by, a pair discussed Onarys's pregnancy.

"…second trimester?"

"I believe so. The announcement was only a cycle ago. Ē-hā is not so round yet to be in the third."

"I assume they've had it tested for…"

They left Jue's range of hearing. Ze did not follow them with hir spell. Onarys had been good about keeping Jue up to date with how the pregnancy was going. They seemed to expect that it would be wonderful for Jue to have a little cousin, and Jue did not have the heart to tell them that ze was not that excited about it.

"Did you see those sigils in the sky?"

"My gods, they were so cool. Not to give any credit to those Norvics or the rebels, but-"

"They really were impressive. They should have Ausse give us a magic show next time o-pā is arrested." A laugh. "One last chance to see power like that before o-pā is executed."

"They sooo should…"

Jue brought hirself back to real focus when Ynesalinau approached, trailed by Sei.

Ynesalinau and ze greeted each other appropriately.

Paona greeted Ynesalinau, then said something in Beri. Of course Paona spoke Beri. They quickly became immersed in conversation Jue could not understand.

"Sei, are you having fun?" ze asked.

Sei's slender fingers tapped on her speech device. "Yes! Having lots fun with Yna and looking at everyone outfits."

Jue was not sure how to feel about the fact that Sei apparently had a nickname for Ynesalinau already.

"Do you have a favourite of the outfits you have seen?" ze asked.

"Lady Lania dress very interesting," said Sei. "Fabric and style not common. Dancers' costumes very fun, very good dancing costumes. You outfit, very appropriate for this party. Good jewellery with bodice. Bit conservative with skin but very good sparkles, good embroidery patterns, colours."

"Oh," said Jue. "Thanks. Attendant Seina helped me figure it out."

Sei wandered over to be closest to Ynesalinau again, leaving Jue wishing ze had continued the conversation more clearly. Ze knew better than to leave any open conversational space with Sei. She lost attention and left.

From their tones, Paona and Ynesalinau seemed to be sparring verbally, but there was none of the tension Jue had felt between Waleiyi and the Lieutenant Initiate at the ball.

Speaking of the ball…

Jue turned hir head back towards Jiremau, who was now sitting on a couch in the corner of the room. Suinak had joined o-mēn.

Two betrothal candidates talking together- that could be important. Ze turned hir spell on them.

"I've always wanted this," Suinak was saying. "Getting this opportunity- to marry into the family, to come here at all- it felt like a dream come true, like the adventure I always wished for. But now that I'm here- I'm such an outsider, and I'm so afraid that I'm going to screw it all up…"

"You can't do worse than I have," Jiremau muttered.

"You're a princess already, though," said Suinak. "Not like me. I have no bloodline behind me like the rest of you do."

"Yeah, it's only…" Jiremau sighed. "Yna's always been better than me, and everyone knows that, but… oh, I just can't go home. I've been a token of bad luck all my life because of the way I look and I just wanted a fresh start but now no one except you will talk to me here either."

Suinak reached for Jiremau's hand, and they were quiet for a moment.

"It's really lonely, being the only Fūtiq person here," Suinak confessed. "Well- there's the territory's representative, but- we are not remotely close in age. Other than ei-pān, it's just me now."

"Were you and Inoj… close?" Jiremau asked delicately.

"No." Suinak shook o-pās head. "No, we didn't like each other much, but I still… I don't want anyone to think I'm like that, you know? But I still feel like I miss o-pān, I miss just… having someone else from the same place around."

The party went very late. Jue was nearly falling asleep in hir chair by midnight, and it showed no signs of slowing.

Even Paona had become less focused in o-los watching.

"Princess Seitlēn and Princess Ynesalinau seem to be getting on well," Paona said, nodding towards where Sei had climbed into Ynesalinau's lap and was playing with o-mēs fancy braids.

"Get a room!" someone shouted in their direction, to a chorus of laughter.

They did not seem to mind, but Jue felt a churning in hir stomach at what they were implying. "You could say that," ze replied to Paona.

"I think it's genuinely mutual," said Paona. "Princess Seitlēn's attachment does not worry me much, because I think Princess Ynesalinau likes o-mēn just as well."

"That's good," Jue said, vigilance over hir words slipping a bit. "I want Sei to be happy."

Mkera drifted over to them. The novelty of o-mēn seemed to have worn off for the partygoers, who had by now clustered back into their established friend groups.

"May I sit?" o-mē asked.

Jue thought about what Suinak had said about being lonely, and how Mkera must be very lonely here too. There were no other Siolei here at all, not even servants, and o-mēn had only been learning Rāmiloq at all for a short time.

Ze nodded and gestured to the empty spot. "You are welcome to join us."

"Thank you."

O-mē did not speak much, though Paona did try to start a conversation a few times. Jue was not surprised, and did not blame o-mēn at all.

The hired dancers in their bright costumes became a blur as ze fought to keep hir eyes open.

When Lania pulled one of them giggling into ai-los lap and tucked a roll of bills into ai-fos cleavage, Jue decided it was time for hir to finally leave.

Masterpost Previous Next

Taglist (ask to be added/removed):

@cepheusgalaxy @seastarblue @asher-writes

@aro-villain @transmasc-wizard

@stabbydragon @softandwigglybones @albatris