The Ball - Part 3

"Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

It was time.

Both Sylvia and Octavia were at one of the entrances to the ballroom, psyching themselves up. Octavia had practised all she could for this thing, and now it was time to put things into action.

Strolling or slithering up to the door in Octavia's case, the guards by the entrance moved across and opened the large wooden double doors with a ridiculously long creek.

…

"Wow."

This was the first word out of Octavia's mouth and it was very apt to what she was seeing. Even though she had seen it during its construction, with everything in place and all the people present, it was just breath-taking.

All the banners, tapestries and paintings still lined the walls, giving a variety of colours to it all. But now the sconces along the wall were lit, adding a lovely atmosphere to the room.

On the ceiling, gargantuan chandeliers hung, with all three thousand candles, numbers of which Octavia exaggerated, were lit. They also added more colourful tapestries to hang across the ceiling, forming drooping curves of cloth, adding more depth to it.

The big change though was what now sat on the stage at the end of the hall. Where before it was just empty space, now there was what could only be described as an orchestra. Many people all holding different instruments sat on the chairs playing music. She had no idea what the instruments were called, but a few looked similar to the cello and violin. The music was serene and peaceful, just the type of music you would have in the background as you relaxed. If you were into classical music that is.

And that is what it was being used for, as the massive amount of people in the room dotting the area all stood in groups chatting and mingling with each other. No one was dancing, but this was fine as Sylvia had said they would play the dancing music several times throughout the ball for everyone to actually dance to.

One thing for certain though was that with all these people and knowing they were nobility, it was just very overwhelming. This caused Octavia to sweat a little.

"Introducing Lady Sylvia and Lady Octavia!" was spoken, or more or less shouted by a man to her side, startling the life out of her, making her jump and almost bump into Sylvia.

"…"

"Sorry, I should have mentioned someone would do that."

Accepting Sylvia's apology, they ventured into the room and moved amongst the rich and powerful. Octavia made sure to stick next to Sylvia as best as she could. As they moved, Octavia received what she had expected. The stares of practically everyone.

It was bound to happen, but these people being who they were, just made it all the more frightening. No one had said anything to her yet, and as soon as they sated their curiosity as they viewed her, they turned back to talk to each other. Probably to discuss her.

Octavia was able to see that while the majority of these people were human, she did find several elves, dwarves and beast-kin among them. Whether they were of the same station as the rest, or something else, she didn't know, but they seemed to be talking freely, so they were probably some form of nobles in their own right.

As she continued to look around, she also saw a few faces that she recognised. Towards the back was Lord Desmon and his family, all talking to people, likely to greet everyone that turned up, them being the hosts and all. On the other side, she also caught a glimpse of some of the soldiers and knights she had seen around the castle and in their training sessions. Most notably she saw Knight Commander Jeremiah and Guard Captain Edwards wandering around, giving orders and checking things were fine with their subordinates.

There were so many people around her and she just had no idea what to do. Thankfully, Sylvia jumped in with the save.

"Come, let me introduce you to some people."

…

Octavia could only go limp as Sylvia practically dragged her around the room introducing her to people that she knew. First, it was the meet and greet with Lord Desmon. Meeting the host was the first thing you had to do for this type of ball, no matter who they were.

"Wow, you two just look stunning." were the first words out of Lord Desmon's mouth, which the rest of the family wholeheartedly agreed with. Elliot, however only made the comment for Sylvia, not being able to take his eyes off her.

After exchanging a few words with each other, they left to go mingle, as Lord Desmon still had a lot more people he had to greet. The next stop was one of Sylvia's friends, a couple of the beast-kin that Octavia had seen as they had wandered around.

"Octavia, let me introduce you to Lord and Lady Pemrose. These are two of my good friends that have helped me a lot over the years."

"Oh please, you flatter us too much." Lady Pemrose brought up. "But before we talk about us, who is this." she then said while gesturing to Octavia.

"Yes, we saw you on the way in, but I don't believe I have ever seen a beast-kin like you before." Was what Lord Pemrose's chimed in with.

"Hello, its-it's a pleasure to meet you. I-I am what you would call a Lamia."

Both of them looked at each other and had a cheeky chuckle as they heard Octavia's response.

"It's funny when people try so hard to be polite." Lady Pemrose said to her brother, before turning back to Octavia. "Really, Octavia, you don't have to stand on formality with us."

"Yeah, we are nothing like these other stuffy nobles."

"Ah, okay."

"But a Lamia, that's a new one. I've never heard of that before. Have you sister?"

"No, it doesn't ring a bell. Where are you from?"

"Err, well…" Octavia was about to say before being cut off by Sylvia.

"Well, I think that's all we have time for. We had best go talk to some more people. It was lovely to see you again. We will talk again later." Sylvia quickly said before taking Octavia's arm and dragging her away.

"Ah, yes it was nice to meet you." Was Octavia's final words before being dragged away again.

…

At the other end of the room, Sylvia finally let her go.

"Wha-What was that about?"

"Ok, I just don't think you should tell a lot of people how you woke up from an egg several days ago," Sylvia said in a very hushed tone. "There are so many people around, someone else is bound to hear if you told my friend that. I don't know if it will cause a problem, but not everyone is as nice as them and may use that information against you. It also confirms that you're... unique. And we all know the problems that has caused. I mean even saying you're a Lamia would cause problems, but you can't say you have no idea.

What she was saying made sense. Thoughts of the attack in their room came to mind, knowing that the Hidden Collectors were after her because of how unique she was. And she was right, she couldn't say she didn't know what she was, she had told a great deal of people who she was already, so that ship had sailed. The story of being birthed from an egg in a remote cabin had only been told to Lord Desmon and Sylvia. It would be best to keep it that way.

"Ok, that makes sense. I'll just tell them what I am and if they ask anything else. I can just blame it on memory loss."

"Right. Now we still have some time before the next song which should be the Galadro's Reconcile. There are a few more people you should meet."

What proceeded next was Sylvia once again dragging Octavia around the room introducing her to various people. None of them were friend friends like Lord and Lady Pemrose, but more on the lines of…acquaintances. People she had met at other functions, or people that had trade agreements or some such with her family. They hardly had anything to say aside from hello and asking what she was. A few did try to talk to her about business, but Sylvia managed to evade that noose of boredom by saying her father was the one handling it all, not her.

The people she had spoken to so far were generally nice. There was the usual look of shock or surprise when she was introduced, them never having seen a Lamia before. This was then followed by intrigue, wanting to know more about this exotic specimen, whether out of personal curiosity, or whether there was something to gain from having a relationship with her. The more they spoke to these people, the more they came to realise that none of them thought for a second that she was the only Lamia in the entire world. If the history of what happened to them was still around, then they would likely know she was on her own. But it being erased their thoughts were along the lines that the rest of her…tribe had been in seclusion all this time and that they had sent her to gain alliances, trade and learn information.

It was likely because of those thoughts that they were all smiles and laughs. Even when on a few occasions she told them she wasn't a lady, by title that is. Some played it off as if she had made a joke. A few others thought it odd, but when they spoke of her saving Lady Sylvia, they changed their tune, being quite amazed at what she had done.

So, all in all. the night was going well and hopefully, it would continue to do so.

"My love, I have arrived!"

"…"

And then that hope was shattered as one man shouted from across the room.