The Masquerade began at dusk. Fancy cars and carriages (some of which were pulled by live horses to honor the days long past, colorful cloth draped over their backs and long faces for the occasion) littered the long, looping driveway of the mansion. The mansion lay on the hill just outside of the stone walls separating the royal castle from the city, technically an extension of the castle, though not nearly as glamorous, despite the marble columns leading up the huge stairs into the gigantic gold-laced foyer.

I ascended these stairs with my family, my shoulders hunched, bored already. I wondered why the Masquerade was taking place here, and not in the castle itself. Guise City was the nation's capital, home of the royal family. You would figure the royals would bother to open up their home for a single night every five years, once the Masquerade had been passed through the other city-states. And yet, here was everyone, crammed in a house that was dwarfed by the castle.

My family and I passed through enormous cherry-wood doors flanked by mean-looking Night Guards. The mansion swallowed us easily, the glitz and glamour opening up around us like an expectant host. I could see the seven sparkling chandeliers glowing above, the ornate designs and paintings lining the walls, the white marble statues in different states of undress surrounding the wide floor. My family chattered away excitedly like the commoners they were as we descended the grand central staircase. I saw two announcers waiting on the landing, one with a scroll containing names and the other with a trumpet. How old-fashioned. They didn't announce our arrival, letting us pass without a second glance; if they announced every commoner's arrival, they would lose their voices before nine. No, they waited for the rich folk, the court officials and the royal family.

I traced the banister with two fingers as we went, detached from my family's conversation, the party, all of the excitement. Well, if I were to be honest with myself, I was excited, but not for the same reason as everyone else. I grimaced beneath my special hand-me-down mask, feeling pathetic. GG said he would come... to find his father. I couldn't help a derisive bark of laughter as we finally came level with the vast expanse of whirling hoop-skirts, bizarre animalistic masks and the heated words of commoners attempting to sound important. GG will probably take one look at this and high-tail it back home... if he comes at all.

"Someone sounds glad to be here," commented a familiar voice. I looked up, a bit relieved. Cheka stepped up to me, the set of her shoulders indicating she felt the same indifference I did. Birds of a feather, as they say.

"Most definitely," I replied monotonously, "You seem to have dressed for the occasion with vigor." I wasn't being sarcastic this time. Cheka really was dressed up. Her dress wasn't hoop-skirted or poofy, like most other girls, including my mother and sister, but instead hung close to her body on top, the skirt swirling loosely around her legs. The sleeves cut off at the shoulder, the rest of her arms covered by black gloves. A large diamond of her chest stood out pale against the black and red checker pattern of the ensemble, including her mask, "Checkers. Any reason in particular for those, Cheka?" I jabbed playfully.

Cheka tutted at me, saying instead, "Any reason in particular for your getup?" She sweeped a gloved hand in my direction.

I looked down to inspect myself. My suit was entirely black and white, meaning one side was white and the other black. The lapel on the black side was white and vice versa, my tie split down the middle. Even my mask, which once belonged to my uncle (the same who made my trusty leather boots, which I didn't wear at the moment), was separated this way. I looked up again, and said, "Cryptic symbolism?"

Cheka made another tutting sound.

"And who is this lovely young lady?" said my mother, who had finally noticed her aloof son making conversation with someone his age, "Could it be Cheka Knight?" she asked after a moment's consideration, probably remembering the scattered occasions I had brought her home to do school projects. She curtsied, as was common at social parties such as this. After Cheka reciprocated the motion, I heard her clear her throat, and groaned, knowing she was going to be difficult, "Cluedo, dear, this is Bingo's school friend, you remember?"

My father slid an arm over my mother's shoulders, pretending to think about it, "Why, yes, Ditty. How could I forget such a nice, young girl?" I tilted my head in Cheka's direction, and caught her stopping herself from laughing. The corner of my mouth twitched up in response, "Bingo, my boy, I'm ashamed of you! How can't you have asked her to dance yet?"

"Yeah, isn't she your girlfriend, after all?" Limerick asked mockingly. Her dress was patterned after a ladybug, but a black widow would have been much more appropriate, if you ask me.

Clearing my throat in order to cover up my sudden irritation, and put on The Act, bowing deeply to Cheka, "May I?" Barely hesitating, she grasped my hand and dragged me away from my intrusive family into the glittering crowd. She sighed heavily once we were far enough away and stood to face me, our hands separating.

"It's eerie, really, how much our families are alike," she commented, sounding exasperated.

"At least your sister isn't an annoying little prig," I replied, cursing Rickie silently for constantly annoying me.

"That's because she's my older sister. I'm the detestable younger sibling," she retorted, making us both crack up. After we had calmed down, she turned serious again and asked, "So. Are we dancing or what?"

"You want to?" I asked, surprised.

"Hardly."

"Ah. Well, then."

"Aren't you two just the most adorable couple ever?" said a third, accented voice from my left. We turned as one to see... GG, dressed rather flamboyantly. His curly, golden hair was accentuated by the ridiculously shiny golden shirt he wore, complete with poofy sleeves and a revealing neckline. Black tights were tucked into golden pointy-toed shoes and his mask covered the top-half of his face, gold with black ringlets like a wild cat. His eyelids were smudged with black beneath the eye-holes, making his apple-green eyes glow in contrast. (I had never seen eyes that color before, I was sure, but they seemed oddly familiar to me). He'd taken time to continue the pattern with paint on his cheeks and chin, even coloring his upper lip black.

"You know, you could have just worn a full-faced mask," I commented, putting a hand my hip.

"Ah, but where would the fun be in that?" GG asked, "Do you like it?"

I laughed briefly, "It's very... you."

Cheka cleared her throat, reminding us of her presence, "Do you... know each other?"

I cringed inwardly, realizing I had spoken too casually with GG just now. I had just met the foreign student yesterday, after all, "Uh... well."

"I'm sorry, was I being too familiar?" GG asked in a carefully apologetic voice, layering on the phony accent, "I still have so much to learn about Masque, I keep forgetting..."

"Uh, no. That's all right, forget it," Cheka dismissed it with a small wave of her hand. She glanced at me suspiciously, and looked like she wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by a cacophony of trumpets and announcers' bellowing voices.

We and everyone else in the huge room stopped and turned to look up at the top landing of the grand central staircase, a palpable thrill running through the crowd as they figured out who had finally arrived.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer I had seen with the scroll on my way in cried, "It is my utmost pleasure to inform you that our sovereign, his wise and powerful Highness, King Jocose Deforsage and his son, the equally wise Prince Chalcedony Deforsage have arrived at last."

A cheer filled the air, the King's loyal subjects shouting their greetings and clapping. The King waved a regal arm, his familiar, slightly dopey stance at once reassuring, "Please, please, this noise is hardly necessary. You all knew I was coming," he boomed in his old, faintly crackling voice. The crowd laughed in response. The King was known for his uncommon good-naturedness. He was dressed in a many-layered outfit of atrociously purple robes and mask, his customary color as King. His distended belly stopped quivering abruptly as his humor faded, "Ah, but I have some not-so-good news to report, I am afraid," he paused for dramatic effect, and the crowd held its breath in response, "I deeply regret to inform you that my dearest wife Elowin, your Queen, cannot be here with us tonight due to a chill she caught yesterday night." A woman standing near to me gasped, as if the Queen weren't sick every other week.

The King's son, Chalcedony, spoke up now, "If you all could give a small prayer to my mother, wishing her a swift recovery, it would be most appreciated." His voice was smooth as silk, calm a persuasive, the exact opposite of his father's erratic tones. Many people immediately ducked their heads and quietly muttered a prayer as the Prince asked. I noticed a group girls that went to my school, and saw them giggling to each other about the Prince's good looks as they pretended to pray. Cheka huffed next to me, undoubtedly rolling her eyes as she observed them as well.

The royal ones finished up their general greeting and began to descend the stairs at a slow pace, continually making small talk with excited commoners and interviewers. King Jocose walked in his usual limping, stumbling way, his son trailing gracefully behind him. Prince Chalcedony had certainly dressed for the occasion, resplendent in his dark blue and green velvet coat lined with peacock feathers, his strong jaw-line revealed beneath a long-beaked bird mask of rich cerulean, a wide, floppy hat also bearing a peacock feather atop his head, his long, golden hair bouncing around his shoulders.

Golden... curly hair... I suddenly recalled the unusual pale green color of the Prince's eyes from broadcasts of past Masquerades. I whipped my head around to look at GG, but he was gone, "Where'd he...?" I started to ask, but Cheka's gasp brought my attention to her. Her brown eyes were wide, horror-struck behind her mask. I turned to see what she was looking at, and my eyes fell on the Prince again. Confused, I stared with my eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out what the problem was.

Then I saw him.

GG was steadily making his way through the crowd, heading right for the Prince.

"He doesn't know how to greet properly," Cheka said, and now I understood her distress, "My God, the idiot'll make a fool of himself."

"I got this," I mumbled, shooting after GG. I swore silently, knowing full well what might happen if the royalty was greeted incorrectly. Images of the King's vicious Paper Doll creatures flashed in my mind, their sharp teeth and red eyes glistening maliciously as they bit into an enemy.

Or worse. Scarletto could get him.

Another thought nagged me as I went. GG had come here to find his long-lost father... He and Prince Chalcedony were both blonde and green-eyed...

Pah! I shook my head. Cheka and I both had brown hair and eyes, but that didn't mean we were related, now did it? And lots of foreigners were blonde. This was just a coincidence. GG? Royalty? Honestly, the absurdity of it all!

"Yes, lad, what is it?" the King was asking me.

I stumbled back a step in surprise. Lost in my thoughts as I was, I had unwittingly stepped right into the royal family's path. See if I ever did anything for GG's sake again! "I- my lord, forgive me, I wasn't-," I fumbled, unused to confrontation that might end in my being maimed. I caught sight of GG lurking behind the Prince. What was that dolt thinking? He was within spitting distance of Scarletto, the royal bodyguard! So was I, come to think of it...

My gaze fell upon said guard in that instant and I froze, as any mentally sound being would do. Scarletto went unannounced at every gathering, passed over by officials and commoner alike. It wasn't that he was unremarkable, for he had to be in order to even be considered to guard the royal family alone. No, he was a very remarkable man indeed.

It was his mask that turned most people away. Out of all of the thousands of citizens that lived in Masque Kingdom, Scarletto was the only one that didn't wear a standard issue mask that changed color according to rank (Masquerade times exempt, of course). Stand issue masks were plain, smooth featured, and expressionless. Scarletto's mask was true to his name, a bright, attention-grabbing red, contorted into a devil's face, heavy of brow with glaring almond-shaped eyes painted with cocentric rings of alternating yellow, blue, and black. The mouth below the dizzying eyes was grinning around two bright white rows of interlocked saber teeth. Yes, one look at that mask had most people turning away to look at the far more pleasing form of the Prince, whom Scarletto was usually lurking behind.

Rumors about the royal bodyguard had reached my ears more than once. He breathes fire, some say. He's a demon called up from Hell by the King himself to do his bidding as punishment for his sinful ways, others said. A few more say it's not a mask at all that he wears, but his actual face. This last I consider to be absolutely ridiculous.

"Excuse me, sirs?" GG's fakely accented voice called me back to the present. The four of us, the royals, Scarletto, and I, jumped at the sound of his voice. Scarletto whipped around, a hiss issuing from under the grotesque mask as he bore down on GG, who was now shrinking back. The Prince turned to observe this confrontation at nearly the same moment. The King was the last to react, turning slowly.

"I- I meant no harm-," GG was saying. Scarletto took a threatening step forward, growling now.

"You dare greet us so informally, youngling?" the King asked.

"Erm-," GG tried to reply over the guard's angry noises.

"Please-!" I found myself suddenly standing between GG and the snarling devil, "This is- er, G- Ge-"

"Geoff Geralde," GG supplied quietly.

"Geoff Geralde, a foreigner. He doesn't yet fully understand our ways yet, my liege," I explained, bowing slightly with each words, "He means no harm." There was a tense pause in which I mentally berated myself for acting. Hadn't I just told myself that I wouldn't help GG anymore?!

"Geralde?" The surname rolled off the Prince's tongue, perfectly pronounced despite its strangeness. At the sound of his master's voice, Scarletto retreated a step, snarls coming to an abrupt stop as he straightened his stance. The Prince reached out absently for Scarletto's ruffled white collar, straightening it out over his red coat as he continued to speak, "Yes, that is the name of the Bigalian family we permitted just a few weeks ago. You remember, father?"

"I do," the King looked especially cheery, "And I do remember the name of the son being Geoff!" His Royal Highness stepped forward, spreading his arms good-naturedly, "My dear boy, I am sorry if we startled you! You caught us unawares, is all! You will learn our ways soon enough...correct?" he directed the last at me, to which I emphatically nodded, "Good, good! Well, we must be on our way! We have a Masquerade to attend to! We've caused quite a stir already, it seems!" he laughed, full-bellied, as he turned to shamble away.

The Prince hesitated before following. He looked at Scarletto and cupped the guard's chin with the same hand he had been vaguely petting him with, "Temper, temper, dear guardian of my life. The boy had only been greeting us. Don't be so rash next time." Scarletto grunted, nodding his understanding. Evidently satisfied, the Prince's lips smiled beneath his bird's beak mask, his fingers tracing the other's chin briefly before falling away. He turned to look at the two of us still standing there, "I truly am sorry for this brute's behavior. Please forgive him."

GG shrugged, apparently back to his normal, infuriating self, "In my mother's name, Alberta, I forgive." I gave him a quick quizzical look. He shrugged again, "It is Bigalian to accept apology that way."

"So it is...," the Prince's voice trailed off. He turned to follow his father at last, but paused to glance back at us once more after taking a step, "Alberta... you said your mother's name is?"

"Was, my liege, Prince... Chalcedony."

The Prince's smile faltered, "Ah. I am sorry for your loss..." At last, he turned away for good, disappearing among the gawking crowd.

"You idiot!" I hissed almost instantly, "You absolute fool! No brains at all!" I grabbed GG's wrist in the death-grip, catching him by surprise, and began to drag him up the stairs and out into the gardens.

"What are you doing?" he asked, dropping the cheesy accent.

"Away from civilization, where you'll do no harm!" I answered around a continuing string of curses aimed at him. I chose not to say that I was also avoiding my parents, who were likely to ground me for the rest of my life. Nevermind the fact that I was defending a "friend", and making peace, I would still get punished. My parents, my mother especially, had a terrible inferiority complex regarding royalty. They believed that any contact with the royal family by the likes of dirt-poor commoners such as ourselves was automatically an insult, no matter how innocuous the circumstance. We were meant to observe from afar, and nothing more, according to their creed. I didn't, and don't, agree one bit, but I'm not putting a roof over my head and food on the table, now am I?

I had stopped by the line of fir trees to the west of the mansion. GG once again brought be out of my musings by speaking. Or laughing, as it were. "I knew it. You're profoundly daft," I scoffed, throwing the other boy's wrist away.

"But Bingo, don't you see? This night is wonderful!" he exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Oh, wonderful, yes!" I agreed sarcastically, "If almost being burned alive by a demon from Hell can be considered wonderful!"

"That monster of a man doesn't breath fire," GG countered before reconsidering, "Does he?"

I shrugged, "It's a rumor."

GG waved a hand to dismiss the subject, "Anyway! That's not why it's wonderful. What's wonderful is the fact that I believe I have found my father!"

I stared blankly at him, "What?"

GG stared back, as if I were stupid, "My father? Obviously the Prince."

It felt like my eyes were going to pop out of their sockets, "You're mad! That's completely illogical." I shook my head, denying it, but at the same time, it occured to me that I had entertained a similar idea not even a half an hour ago. But I had simply been observing the fact that GG and the Prince shared certain qualities. What GG was suggesting was absurd.

"How is it illogical? It all fits!" GG ticked off with his hands, "My mother didn't tell me directly, but hinted that my father was someone of high rank in Masque. What's a higher rank than Prince? Besides King, of course. And the way that guard reacted to me! As obvious a sign as any."

I snorted, "Scarletto reacts that way with everyone he thinks is threatening to the royals."

"No, no, no!" GG whipped his head back and forth impatiently, "I mean- Didn't you see? Scarletto, was it? He didn't see me!"

"What are you talking about? He was glaring right at you!"

"No! I meant before- I was standing right behind them, but Scarletto didn't see me until I said something."

I considered this, shrugging. Some bodyguard, I thought to myself.

GG moaned in frustration, "You're not following me, Bingo!"

"I'd be able to follow you if you'd start making sense!" I retorted, miffed.

The other boy huffed, crossing his arms, "Okay. What I'm saying is, I was standing where Scarletto should have easily seen me in his peripheral vision. I even took into account the fact that his mask might be in the way, so I stood even closer. But he didn't take notice of me, until Prince Chalcedony did."

I blinked, still not getting it.

To my considerable surprise, GG hit himself, "Of course you wouldn't understand! You didn't let me show you my paper-"

"No I didn't, because it's illegal-"

"And I wonder why that would be?" GG looked truly mystified. Amazed, I reminded him of the reason I had given him just yesterday. He nodded, "Yes, I know. That's the pretense anyway."

I sighed, giving up.

"Wait, wait, I'm not done. Did you see the way he reacted to my mother's name?"

I rolled my eyes, "He was saddened by your mother's death like any normal human being would be. What's so unusual about that?"

"He asked after her, remember? I simply mentioned her name, and he asked her name again to make sure of what it was. What reason could he have to do that? Since he's my father, he has ample reason to ask!" GG finished with a flourish of his hands.

"You know...," I started slowly, deciding to mess with him a little, "King Jocose could just as easily be your father, going by your logic. Perhaps you and the Prince share a mother, and the Prince was saddened by that."

"But that makes no sense! Chalcedony already has a mother, Queen Elowin."

"Exactly!" I shouted, throwing up my arms in frustration, "None of what you're spouting makes sense!"

"Let me show you my paper, and it will!" GG sounded just as frustrated.

"Fine!" This last exclamation came back to me a split second later as an echo, forcing me to realize how loud we were being, "Fine," I repeated quietly.

"Good!" GG went from being angry to jovial faster than the echo had traveled. He hopped up to me, standing less than a foot away, and dug around inside his ridiculous golden shirt. A thin slice of pristine white paper fluttered slightly in the breeze between two fingers. I couldn't help but flinch away a little, but I didn't protest. "Now, what do you want me to make?"

"Make?" I asked, confused.

"Yes. Name something. Like, ah, a tree, or- a rock," he suggested, getting his inspiration from the dark scenery around us.

"A flower," I replied in a monotone.

"All right! Watch." He held out the piece of paper in front of him. He tapped a fingertip against it, saying, "Don't move." I thought he meant me at first, but then I noticed something strange. The paper had stopped fluttering in the wind. In fact, it now stood quite still in GG's grip. He touched the very top of it. "Cut," he said now. He slowly and deliberately traced a straight line down the middle of the paper, stopping about halfway. And involuntary gasp escaped my lips as the paper split along the line. The two new flaps dangled in the wind now, much like they had before when they were one.

"You- you have something sharp on your finger," I suggested, but it sounded hollow in my ears.

GG only smirked and demanded the paper be still again. He then split the two flaps into four, then said, "Twist. Make a flower." The four paper strings did twist as commanded, forming elaborate petals on top of a thick stem that had been rolled into shape simultaneously by the uncut lower half of the strip.

"Ta-da!" GG exclaimed, holding the pure white flower out the me. I stared back, shocked.

"How did you do that?" I asked, regaining some composure.

"Magic," he answered, shrugging.

"Magic died a long time ago," I rebutted, stepping back as he tried to put the flower in my lapel.

"Take it," he insisted, forcing it into my hands. I nearly dropped it when I felt it was warm. At first I thought it was GG's body heat that caused it, but then a felt the faint pulse emanating from the heart of the flower. Gingerly, I grasped it by the tip of the stem with two fingertips and offered it back to GG upsidedown.

"I don't want it. What is it?"

GG didn't take it back. "Magic didn't die, Bingo. Magicians did."

"So you're not a- a..."

"No. Magicians could control all sorts of things at once. I can only control paper. So I guess I'm sort of like an Elemental? I guess. I'm not even sure myself, but I know what I do is magic. You can feel it, I can tell."

I shook my head, refusing this, despite the evidence in my hand.

"Bingo-," his voice cut off in a gasp. We both looked at the same time toward the open field to my right. My heart stopped cold in my chest.

Eight Paper Dolls stood not four yards away, sixteen eyes glowing menacingly, black skin barely discernible in the night. The eyes bobbed slightly as a ripple shuddered through their connected bodies. The motion was like the paper strip in the wind.

"Wh- what do-" I managed to choke out, not realizing the I was crushing the paper flower in my grip.

"Maaagicsss." One of them, all of them whispered this in a faint voice. One by one the mouths opened, perfectly round and lined with glistening razor-sharp teeth. "You usssed the maaagicsss."

"Those are Paper Dolls?" GG asked, starling me with his incongruously calm voice. He stared intently at the creatures created by King Jocose, as if they were a science experiment. "And you say magic is dead."

"The K-King didn't make them with- with-"

"Eeeat him. Let'sss eeeat him. Make another bluuue."

"Take him home," GG was saying, eyes directed at the half-ruined flower in my hand. A strangled scream escaped me as tendrils of white burst from my fist and coiled around my arm, shoulder and torso. More white strands of paper spilled out into the air, twisting together into two... wings? They lurched forward and down, flapping, and I was suddenly in the air, my stomach feeling knotted and weightless at the same time.

"You'll maaake a pretty bluuue..."

The sibilant voice of the Paper Dolls faded as the wings took me higher. I strained to see GG, trying to tell him to get me down. Fear hardened into a knot in my throat as I saw the Paper Dolls gliding together like a snake toward the Bigalian boy, who stood placidly as if nothing wrong was happening. They circled him, the two Paper Dolls at either end of their line joining hands, making and inescapable barrier. All of their paper-thin arms seemed to grow into each other, pushing together, until there were no arms, and it was their torsos touching, forming an even tighter circle around GG.

The paper wings gave another strong flap and I was propelled far away, my last glimpse of the scene below being of the boy I wasn't sure I liked or not being engulfed in black.