At the Ball

The carriage pulled up to Baron Estebon's magnificent estate. There was a line of carriages waiting at the front door, the doorman opening each one, one at a time. It took about ten minutes of waiting in line for Marcus's and Clair carriage to make it to the front door. The doorman opened the door and Marcus got out first, he turned around, held out his hand and helped Clair disembark as well. She took his hand with a rosy smile on her face.

Arm in arm, Marcus and Clair walked towards the front door. There was a purple carpet creating a path, with beautiful flowers of all different colors in pots on the outside of the carpet. The marble double doors were opened by two butlers, standing rigid. The doors must have weighed several thousand pounds, but effortlessly opened without a sound. Marcus marveled at the feat of engineering.

Once inside, Marcus saw several hundred well dressed people, all with drinks in their hands, socializing and milling about. There was a long table, filled to the brim with all kinds of delicious food, to the left side of the room. An orchestra was playing some kind of classical music on a stage that was set up in the back. The string instruments played a soothing melody, setting a calming mood. Candles lit the large ballroom, with incense burning, leaving the room just a little smoky.

"Are you hungry?" Marcus asked Clair, she had her arm linked with his.

"I could eat." She replied, looking around the room at all the people.

They made their way to the long table of food. All the fantastic food was finger food, no tables or chairs were set up so people couldn't sit down with a knife and fork. Small plates were set out in case you wanted to take some with you to a different part of the room, but otherwise you would just pick up what you wanted and eat it there.

Marcus had just shoved a meat filled pastry in his mouth when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see who it was and saw a very familiar face.

"I thought that was you, you stand out quite a bit!" Richard said to Marcus with a big smile on his handsome face.

"Richard. It's nice to see you again. How've you been?" Marcus said in kind of a mumble, he still had food in his mouth he was trying to chew.

"I've been well. It took me awhile to heal up after that mission, but now I'm better than ever."

"I'm glad to hear that. What have you been up to since then?"

"Well, after healing up, I took some time to reflect on everything that happened. Then after a week or so I decided to continue gaining more experience, so I became a personal guard to a wealthy merchant." Richard said, puffing his chest out a little.

"Really? How'd you manage that?"

"I am one of Master Tyrel's apprentices, that alone is enough for me to almost get any position."

By this time, Clair had made her way over to where Marcus and Richard were talking. She had a crab cake in her hand, with a glass of wine in the other.

"Mark, who is your friend here?" Clair asked, staring at Richard's very handsome face.

"This is Richard, we completed that escort mission to Clearmount. He is one of Master Tyrel's apprentices, he is very skilled in dual wielding sabers." Marcus told Clair, her stare not escaping his notice.

Richard turned and gave a low bow to Clair, sending her an even more impressive smile, making Clair turn a shade of red. She was with Marcus, and would never be with another man while with him, but she was still human, she did find other people attractive.

"It is my pleasure to meet such a stunning beauty. If I were to never see again, I would find solace in knowing that I had laid eyes on one such as yourself."

Clair turned an even deeper shade of red, her heart beating loudly in her chest. She started to giggle like a schoolgirl, not knowing how to react, it was like her brain had shut down for a moment. Marcus just stood there and cleared his throat, sending Richard a cold glare. Marcus tried not to be a jealous type, but he couldn't just stand there while another man flirted with Clair.

Richard looked at Marcus, his smile becoming stiff. After laughing awkwardly for a second, Richard apologized to Marcus.

"I'm sorry Marcus, I didn't know that you two were together. You are a very lucky man."

"It's fine. And yes, I am very lucky. But just watch yourself, I don't want to have to take you out back." Marcus said with a laugh that wasn't really a laugh.

"Haha. Well, it was nice seeing you again Marcus, Miss Clair. I had better return to my duties." Richard said with another awkward laugh, turned around and left, disappearing into the crowd.

"He seemed very nice." Clair said, looking a little embarrassed.

"He really is a good guy. A little too good looking if I have to be honest though."

"That he is, my mind went blank when he smiled at me." Clair said, her cheeks turning red once again.

"Am I not good enough for you?" Marcus said with an exaggerated look on his face.

"Oh shut up. It's not like you haven't been looking at all the other beautiful women since we stepped through the door!" Clair said, giving Marcus a glare.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Marcus said, coughing.

"Whatever." Clair said, rolling her eyes.

"C'mon, let's get you some wine."

Clair grabbed Marcus by the hand and led him over to the wine. There were several maids, all in the same outfit, pouring glasses of wine. All the maids were very beautiful, Marcus thought that it must have been a prerequisite to work as a maid. In fact, most of the women at the ball were extreme beauties. Only a few were not what Marcus would consider attractive. They weren't ugly per se, but compared to others, they were nothing to write home about.

Marcus gave a smile to one of the maids, then ordered a drink. When she handed him the drink, Marcus thanked her. This garnered an even bigger smile from the maid. He didn't know why at first, but then noticed that the other guests pretended like the servants were not even there. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way.

"Oh gods, here we go."

Hearing Clair, Marcus turned his attention to her. She was trying, but failing, to hide behind Marcus's sizable body. Marcus looked around, but didn't see what she was talking about. There was an older man walking towards them, so he figured it had to do something with him.

"My my Miss Clair, I almost didn't see you behind this….. Man." The older man said in a very arrogant tone.

"Hello Sir Allister, it has been too long since we last met." Putting on her best face smile, Clair came out from behind Marcus.

"Yes, it has. I hear that your potions have been getting very popular lately, I'm curious what has changed?" Lord Allister asked, trying to pry some information from her.

"Oh, you know, just trying out different ingredients and formulas, nothing special." Clair said, trying not to feed him anything.

She had already used up the spirit flowers that Marcus had given her, but a large supply was recently brought into the city. So she had a way to get more, though she had to pay for it. Clair knew that they were being harvested from the same place that Marcus had gotten them, but he was unable to get back into the ruins to get more for her. The ruins had been sealed off from anyone that was unauthorized.

"Right, you are the best apothecary in the city, I'm sure that you're making quite the sum." Lord Allister said, greed evident in his eyes.

Clair didn't say anything, she just took a sip from her glass of wine. She really hated Lord Allister, he was arrogant, rude, and didn't take no for an answer. If it was up to her, she would like to never have to speak to him again. Marcus was just standing next to Clair, listening in on their conversation. Lord Allister hadn't even looked in his direction, acting like he didn't exist. Marcus found that extremely rude, making him think lowly of him.

"Is this your….. Bodyguard?" Lord Allister asked, finally laying eyes on Marcus.

"No, he is my date tonight. Mister Marcus and I are seeing each other." Clair said, wrapping her arms around Marcus's. She had a smile on her face, almost as if she was rubbing that fact into Lord Allister's face.

Lord Allister's eye twitched slightly, now he knew what Clair's new boy toy looked like. It also reminded him of his servant, who was supposed to take care of the man in front of him, but took fifty gold coins and ran off to parts unknown. He was currently in the process of tracking him down so that he could kill him, but had yet to find him.

"Right… Well, I have other business to attend to. I'd like to schedule a meeting at some point, I would like to discuss business opportunities with you." Lord Allister said, dismissing Marcus's existence.

"I'm a very busy person, Lord Allister. I will have to get back to you with a suitable date." Clair said, hoping to get out of any meeting he wanted to plan.

Lord Allister's mouth curved down into a slight frown. He turned around and left without saying a word. Clair let out a sigh of relief, glad that he had left. Marcus just shook his head.

"Seems like a great guy." Marcus said, overflowing with sarcasm.

"He's one of the assholes trying to get my store." Clair said vehemently. "Let's go mingle some more. I have some friends I want you to meet." Clair said as she put Lord Allister behind her and pulled Marcus into the crowd of people.

............….

Marcus had just left the house in a carriage, Sif was sitting on the bed looking out the window that was open. She watched as he got into the carriage and the large white horse began to pull them down the street. Sif was instantly bored, she had been with Marcus since she was born, so she didn't quite know what to do with herself.

She could have gone with him, but the thought of being around so many unfamiliar people made her stomach tie into knots. For some reason she just couldn't stand being in crowds. It was bad enough walking with Marcus in the busy streets. So now she had to keep herself occupied while he was gone. The good thing was that now she could fly, so she thought that she would go into the forest for an adventure.

If Marcus knew what Sif was thinking, he would rush home to stop her. It wasn't that she was too small or weak, it was just that Marcus was very overprotective. He wouldn't want her to go by herself. Sif poked her head out of the window, looked down at the still busy streets, spread her wings and took off.

It was a warm summer night, one of the last, it was fast approaching autumn. People were going in and out of bars and brothels, using the street lanterns to move about in the darkness. Sif could see just as clearly at night as in the daytime, she had no problem seeing everything happening below her. There was a drunk man stumbling down an alleyway, he stopped to empty the contents of his stomach, then continued onwards.

She flew a little further towards the forest, she was taking her time looking around. A group of city guards were arresting what looked like a few people involved in a street fight. One man was bloodied and laying face down on the ground. Sif couldn't tell if he was alive or not, but there was a large pool of blood, so he was most likely dead. She ignored what was happening down below, she was just to the city walls, and about to fly over the forest.

It was much darker past the walls, with no man-made lights, only the moonlight. Sif still had no trouble seeing, her eyes were giving off a subtle golden glow. She scanned the forest, many small creatures were sleeping, crickets were chirping, looking for a mate. Owls were sitting in tree branches waiting for a meal to skamper by. A pack of wolves looked into the sky, not seeing, but feeling as if an apex predator was near. Sif was well hidden up in the sky, dancing in between the clouds.

She flew for several more minutes, enjoying the night air and the wildlife. Sif dipped down towards a river, the one that she and Marcus followed to get back to Jakarta. As she was going to get a drink, she caught the smell of blood in the air. It was faint, but fresh, she figured it wasn't too far from where she was. She took off into the air, she was going to go investigate.