CHAPTER 4

Partners and Dances

That night, Elaigh did not dream of Peorin. She did not dream of anything, in fact. Her sleep was quiet, and she slept through the whole night without waking up in a cold sweat. Jasper had left shortly after she had run out of the room, and her father had not gone to her door to scold her. But this did not mean that she was willing to venture downstairs and greet her father that morning.

Instead, when she woke up, Elaigh pulled a satin robe over herself and open all of her windows. The morning light spilled into her room and she took a seat on her chase lounge with a sketch pad. Her drawings were simple things to take her mind off of other matters.

For quite some time she sat, sketching things from trees to shoes until Enia knocked softly on her door.

“Elaigh, it is time for breakfast,” the maid said through the door, knowing very well that Elaigh was awake. “Your mother would like to see you. She is worried about you, after yesterday.” Without waiting for a response, Enia left back to the kitchen.

Sighing, Elaigh stood and tightened her robe around her body, slipping on some shoes. She went down the flights of stairs slowly, listening to the silver wear clinking in the nook beside the kitchen. Elaigh shivered slightly, unhappy with the change in weather, and sat across from her mother at the small, round table.

“Elaigh!” her mother said brightly, setting down her tea.

“Good morning, mother,” she replied, watching as Enia poured hot water into her bowl, preparing her tea.

“You seemed quite distraught yesterday, sweetie.” Elaigh smiled up at her mother, as if to tell her whatever had happened yesterday had no matter in today.

Mina Lambre was a kind woman, with long, wispy blonde hair. She was slight and always smiling, her blue eyes constantly sparkling. This morning she was already dressed in one of her best dresses, ready to deliver the last of the gowns for the ball that night. Her hair was high in a bun, with little knick-knacks decorating it, catching the morning light.

“I’ve recovered,” she finally replied, taking the tea that Enia had finished preparing.

“Are you su—“ Her mother was cut off by Lilia’s entrance.

“Good morning!” she sang, sweeping into the kitchen. Since the front door was kept unlocked during the day – and usually wide open so that the family dog could romp around inside and outside – it made it very easy for Lilia to slip into the house. “I’m sorry I came so early,” she began, holding her dress over her arm, “but I was so anxious.” She flashed a brilliant smile at Mina. “How are you, Mina?”

“I’m wonderful,” she replied, returning Lilia’s bright smile. “Why don’t you give your dress over to Enia? She’ll take care of it and you can sit here beside me.” Without waiting for Lilia to respond, Enia appeared and took the dress.

The rest of the morning was spent listening to Lilia blather on about her escort, and how excited she was. Elaigh sat and listened patiently, glad that the spotlight had been lifted off of her, and that her mother’s attention had switched easily to Lilia’s perfect match.

After Enia had cleared the table and Elaigh had run out of things to play with other than the hem of her sleeve, Mina finally ended the conversation.

“I need to make send a dress to Mistress Ayler; there were a few last minute adjustments. She’s grown quite a bit since last year.” Elaigh’s mother began to stand from the table. “I’ll see you girls this afternoon, then? I’m quite excited to see you girls all dressed up!” Giving kisses to each of the girls, she finally left the room, all but skipping with excitement.

It was at this point that Lilia turned her attention to Elaigh.

“Shall we get dressed? The festival starts soon, and I do want to get there early!” Without waiting for a reply, she pulled Elaigh up from her seat and pulled her all the way to her room.

Just as Mina had promised, Enia had left the dress prepared in Elaigh’s room. Next to the bright yellow dress was Elaigh’s delicate white masterpiece. Even she cracked a grin at the sight of it. Already she was imagining the ball with all of dresses swirling into a melody of colors as everyone spun, dancing about. Both quite impatient, they began to undress. They pulled on their layers quickly, helping each other with their shifts and petticoats. When all of their undergarments were tied up and ready – Lilia was wearing a small corset under her petticoat to make her waist even smaller and give her breasts a boost of sorts, however, Elaigh would never wear such a thing – they looked up at their dresses with wide eyes.

“I’m shaking,” Lilia giggled.

Pulling the dresses down, they slipped them on. With a last few final touches – hair, jewelry, and the like – they were prepared to attend the Festival of Light.

After begging her father, Berjhio finally agreed to leave for Iliar early. Everyone piled into the carriage and tried to sit still during the ride, anxiously waiting for the exciting night. The ride would take at least an hour, riding over the bridge to the other side of the Tombald River to finally reach Iliar. It gave Elaigh’s mother plenty of time to talk.

“Sweetie, you never told me. Have you an escort?” Mina asked, looking like a small doll next to her large husband. Elaigh shut her eyes tightly as the memory of an afternoon not long ago surfaced.

“No,” she replied, hoping the short reply will warn her mother.

“What a shame!” she cried clearly not understanding her daughter’s warning. “I should think, though, that you will have a stampede of men running towards you once we arrive. You look quite stunning this evening. Did Lilia do your hair?”

Elaigh smiled slightly at her mother.

“Yes, I did! Isn’t it adorable? I do wish that she played with her hair a bit more. If I had hair as red and curly as hers, I’d never be bored.” Lilia pouted and looked at Elaigh.

This evening she looked just as stunning as Lilia – or perhaps more so? The dress seemed to fit better this night than it had before. The empire waist caused the fabric to hang loosely around her body, showing off her collarbones and arms. And Lilia had done a great job with the accessories. Her hair was pulled into a low bun, and the shorter hairs in the front were down, curling around her face. Small flowers had been clipped into her hair to add to her elf costume. Like Lilia her mask was a simple piece of ribbon pulled over her eyes with slits to see through. Elaigh’s was in green, and Lilia’s was gold. Just below her breasts a green satin ribbon had been tied around, clasping shut at the back.

Elaigh couldn’t have felt prettier.

When they finally arrived, Lilia and Elaigh burst out of the carriage and joined the crowd. Someone was speaking on a makeshift stage, giving the customary Festival of Light speech.

“Twelve years ago darkness fell on Earth,” a man belted for all to hear. “Loved ones perished in this mist. We had no food, no water. For weeks we thought the end of the world had come, that we would all die very soon. But we were saved, and the mist dissipated. Light fell on the Earth once more, and now we celebrate this day. We celebrate those we lost and loved, and we celebrate life.”

The man went on, speaking about how we should treasure these fleeting moments of happiness. After a while, Elaigh stopped listening and watched the crowd instead. Everyone was wearing masks, dressed in bright gowns and trousers.

“Elaigh!” a voice hissed beside her. Glancing over her shoulder, Elaigh saw her friend’s beaming face. What caught Elaigh’s attention, however, was not her friend. It was, instead, the tall dark man beside her. Just as Lilia had said, he was the moon. He was wearing all white, head to toe. Even his short straight hair was white. Elaigh laughed silently to herself – the moon was most certainly usurping the sun. “This is Niro!”

Niro gave a slight bow, his hair slipping over his mask.

“Isn’t he just darling?” Lilia smiled.

“He most certainly is,” Elaigh agreed, finding the height difference between the pair laughable.

“And where might your escort be?” Niro inquired, finding her eyes through her mask. Beside him Lilia giggled.

“Elaigh? An escort? Oh dear, she never has one. Quite too shy, I think. Perhaps one of your friends will approach her?” Lilia asked. Niro smiled, his eyes still on Elaigh’s.

“I do think I have a friend that is quite interested,” he said, holding his gaze with Elaigh’s for a moment longer. “Shall we enter?” He took his eyes off of Elaigh and took Lilia’s hand in his.

“Of course! I cannot wait to see what it looks like!”

Following the two, Elaigh made her way with the crowd into the hall where the Festival of Light would truly begin.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sorry this took soooo long. School started two weeks ago and I got sidetracked by all my classes. This is going to be quite the year. And due to the fact that I have the best English teacher in the school this year (a.k.a. HOMEWORK) I can't update as often as I'd like to. Or edit the previous chapters right now. So much Beowulf! Too much Frankenstein! So, sorry. I will try to update though... as often as I can. And because I have Creative Writing this year it might make that easier for me.

As for the story:

I changed the girls' dresses. I decided to do some reading up on the empire waist dress from the early eighteen hundreds and decided that I want their clothes to resemble that time period a bit.

Excitement should take place in the next chapter. I get to introduce my favorite character! Yes! I'm excited. I hope you are. And I promise, Elaigh will go through character development. She's an obnoxious spoiled brat right now -- certain things will happen to her that change her! Alright.

Thanks for reading,
Alex