City

Stefan was sitting in a park bench. He had a date with the girl he met at the masquerade. Minutes were passing slowly for him. Finally she arrived. The man instantly stood up to greet her.

"Heyy! My deepest apologies, the carriage was so slow and I had to walk till here! Thank you for waiting though!"

"The pleasure it's all mine" he said, taking her hand gently and kissing it.

"Oh, aren't you quite the gentleman" she giggled and winked.

Stefan felt his face turn slight red. "Shall we start our walk then?"

"Sure! I'd love to!"

*******

"Father!" Ashlyn couldn't stop walking around the house. It was already a week since the ball happened, and yet her mind couldn't catch a break. "What the hell is going on?? Every other event was so boring and now I'm obsessing over this nonsense!"

An image of the masked man in black and gold popped without warning in her mind. She frowned, shaking her head. "Whatever. I just need to get out of here. I need fresh air."

"Yes, daughter?"

"May I go for a walk to these beautiful fields? Sunny day today, can't stay at home for long!"

"Okay, but make sure to be back before it gets d-!"

The girl didn't even finish listening to him. She ran outside, getting the family's horse with a both angry and confused "hey!" from her father and galloping towards the city.

Around half an hour later, she finally arrived, going straight to her best friend's manor.

"Heyyy!"

"Hello Ashlyn! What brings you here?"

"Oh well, just decided to pay another visit to you and the city."

"Sounds good for me! Shall we go then?"

"Sure!"

Some time later, they were already walking around the city centre. There were lots of crowds in the market, and people seemed to be having a good time. Ashlyn looked at the sun hitting her face and smiled. Even if her family chores kept her occupied from her sometimes annoying thoughts, this was way better than staying all day at the cottage. A small jewellery shop suddenly seemed to catch her attention.

"I'll go to check this store okay? See you at the inn for the usual dance"

"Sure thing"

The girl stared at the beautiful crystal pendants from outside. Jewellery was nothing she was very interested in, but if crystals were included, that was another thing. Her eyes raised to see a man behind her. She quickly turned around.

"Oh uhm, hello! Do you need help?"

"No, thank you, mademoiselle. I was just enjoying the beautiful views of the city. Seems they are having many interesting shops here as well".

Ashlyn was barely paying attention to him as he spoke. Something seemed to be VERY familiar with this man. Her eyes scanned him up and down. He was wearing a long black cape, partially covering his navy blue shirt and dark brown pants. His black boots revealed he might have walked or even run thousands of miles. Who knows for what reason. It was obvious he wasn't from the metropolis, even if he tried hard to hide it. "Maybe he actually did a pretty good job in trying after all", she thought. The people around weren't paying any attention to him. His dark blonde hair was perfectly combed, and his eyes... Those beautiful greyish blue eyes. She saw them somewhere else already...

"... My lady?"

Ashlyn blinked. Oh, and his voice. What the hell?

"H-huh?"

"Mademoiselle, are you alright?"

"E-excuse me, could you repeat what you said?"

"I was asking if you knew some good entertainment places around here."

"No, actually-"

"Ashlyn!"

She turned her head to see her friend Stefan approaching her.

"Ashlyn hey! Are you still there? Gosh what gotten you so long? I met some people here, they are so nice! I told them we can meet later".

"Oh yeah, sure! I was just- A man here-" She turned around, but there was no one to be seen.

As if he just faded away.

"B-but he was here I swear! Oh my god"

Was she hallucinating? She didn't even know at this point. But the conversation seemed to be pretty real.

"Ash? You alright?"

"Ah, y-yeah!" She giggled nervously. "It's okay I was just got so obsessed with these crystal necklaces, you know!"

"Okay, I'm going back home, the horse will be ready whenever you want to go back to your parents. You can still go to the inn, you know they are always open for you".

"Okay, thank you".

They hugged and parted ways. Ashlyn walked with the people, lost in thoughts. She raised her head to look through a shop window, seeing that mysterious man's same face behind her. She turned around. Nothing. Her wandered through another shop's window. There he was. Did she just saw him smirk? She turned around. Obviously nothing.

She kicked a stone and kept on walking, now at a faster pace. Now, she saw that long black cape in front of her. "He's not getting away from me now!" she thought walking faster towards him.

Ashlyn saw him turning a corner and she ran as fast as she could, getting to a dead end street. Just as she was about to leave, she heard the same voice behind her.

"Isn't a bit too early to leave, beautiful lady?"

"You!"

Ashlyn thought she just saw his eyes slightly glowing in darkness, but she chose to ignore it.

"Me, what?"

As timid as she might feel sometimes, Ashlyn was now feeling as confident (and right) as ever. "Don't you dare to pretend you don't know, because I do know. I know who you are, Armand."

"Oh, my lady seems to be definitely more clever than I imagined." He smirked again.

"I am most certainly not your lady".

"Mhm".

"So what in the hell are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just told you before. Wandering around. Seeing the people. Bit of fresh air and all..."

"Okay".

"Shall we take a walk, miss Volkova?" he asked, offering her a hand.

Ashlyn sighed rolling her eyes, and smiled. "Alright then", she replied, reaching for his hand.