I.
An array of color littered the banquet hall, and King Alistair watched it all seated on his throne. The Seelie Folk were often very joyous, and even with the occasional jealousy here and there, they were nonetheless capable of respect when around other fairies. The King delighted himself in watching the Folk in various hues dance the night away, seeing as he was too old to participate in the dances himself.
Councilwoman Gratiana [grah-shee-YAH-nah], who also went by the name Grace, escorted her granddaughter down the enchanted staircase as the girl fumbled a bit on her feet. Amelia occasionally had trouble walking since she was used to flying so much, and the rule opposing flying within the Court didn't help her one bit.
Her heart thumped like a rabbit's foot as she further descended the staircase with her grandmother, her eyes opening to the large revenue of Fey gathered. Sure, she was okay with cheering during performances and whatnot, but when the occasion involved actually mingling with the folk, it never failed to activate her problematic stuttering.
"Um, G-Grace?" Amy said nervously. "I-I-I think I'm not quite r-ready for this y-yet…"
The Councilwoman just laughed it off. "My dear little agoraphobic, your stutters are coming back again. It's okay to be a little nervous during a gathering, but it seems as if you still have that same fear even if you've been to the victory balls countless times already!"
Amy blushed. "I-I-It's just that there's s-s-so many f-folk…"
Grace hugged her stuttering granddaughter. "No worries, sweetheart. I'll be here if you'll be needing someone to turn to. Now, don't you look just lovely this evening?"
Amy perked up a bit. Grace never failed to make her feel better when she suffered from a bout of the nerves. Smiling, she hugged her grandmother back and held her arm tight, taking a few more shaky steps down the stairs as they continued to descend.
She caught a few glimpses of the other folk's ensembles, with winter being the most dominant motif out of all the others. She herself wore a nice gown made of the colors of autumn, her favorite time of the year. She liked it so because she found autumn duty the most fun, what with all the falling leaves and large leaf piles that made a wonderful whirlwind of color if you casted a strong enough wind spell on it. In the meantime, Daniel had been waiting down the staircase impatiently for the entire time, his face contorted into a bored scowl. This sour expression contrasted entirely with his sunny summer get-up, which he wore since he had always been a summer boy.
"You take longer than a snail, you know that?" Dan spoke, to which Amy retorted with an icy look.
"Well, we all can't be expert walkers like someone," she said, poking her tongue out at him. He then made an ugly face at her in response, right before Gratiana halted the argument to prevent it from advancing any further.
"Now children, this is a time of celebration and joy—we wouldn't want to spoil it with words of hatred," Gratiana spoke gently with a warm hand to their shoulders. The children then yielded upon her request, but not without giving their final retaliation. Grace sighed, then led Amy near the nectar flower, where most of the Fey poured themselves goblets of nectar.
"Perhaps you should try dancing a bit," Grace suggested, with that wise sage face that often emitted a soothing aura. "You might feel a little bit better afterwards. After all, dancing does do wonders to those of the Fey."
Amelia blushed a bit. Grace was right, of course—dancing had always been some sort of remedy for the Folk, that's why they often did so—yet there was that churning emotion in her stomach that hindered her to do it. "I… I don't think—"
Grace smiled kindly. "Nonsense! Come on, I'll take you to the floor. You'll be sure to enjoy yourself."
With a resigned sight, Amy held Grace's hand tightly as Grace led her further into the crowd. A multitude of smiling faces greeted her way, with some girls blushing as they chatted unsteadily with their partners. Amy gulped at all this, her stomach churning once more at the prospect of looking for a partner. Her head suddenly turned light.
"U-Uh, Grace…" she moaned. "I… I think I'll get myself a glass of nectar. I'm starting to get dizzy."
Grace looked mildly surprised at this, then nodded in understanding. "Very well, then. If you'll need my guidance, I'll be up chatting with the King if you ever need me."
"Thanks, Grace," Amy spoke, smiling as she headed back to the nectar flower. She immediately poured herself some nectar at a dizzying pace, finishing it off in one gulp in haste. The light-headedness seemed to subside for a while, and within a few moments, she felt much better. Maybe I should just watch them for a while, she thought to herself.
II.
Watching the crowd was peaceful, to say the least—it was way better than being in the crowd itself. But unfortunately, her period of peaceful watching was put to an end with the atrocious sound of someone pigging out at the buffet table just a few inches away from her. With a groan, she turned to face the culprit with a stony face.
"Hamilton!"
Antonio—or Hamilton, as he was usually called—looked up casually from the dish he was gorging on as if the presence of the girl was unnecessary. "What?"
Amy groaned in frustration, which seemed to drive away all residual feelings of nervousness. Although she was supposed to be used to this, as Antonio was her childhood friend—she just couldn't. His behavior reminded her of another Dan… BIG version. "You're hogging all the food like some large fly."
"So?"
She sighed in exasperation. As said, he was another Dan. "So? These balls usually have thousands of guests. And you're eating up the food that's meant for, shall I say, at least a hundred?"
Hamilton snorted without a care. "You're going all ballistic again. Learn to relax."
Amy's face flushed in irritation. As much as she was close friends with him, that didn't mean that those sloppy habits of his didn't get on her nerves. "How in Titania's name can I relax when what you're doing could practically leave others hungry?!"
Hamilton then looked at her sternly as he finally stood erect, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Amy," he said. "You're getting all uptight, and when you're uptight, you tend to wig out on the littlest things. Maybe you should get some more air on the dance floor."
"I am not uptight!" Amy protested, yet her protests were brutally ignored as Hamilton pushed her towards a crowd of dancing Fey. Her cheeks were tinted with a reddish hue. "H-H-Hamilton! What do you think you're doing?!"
"Sayonara, Amy!" He spoke, shoving her to the middle of the floor. After the deed, he dusted his palms before he made his return to the buffet table.
Amy was in shock. Although she was pushed in abruptly with the crowd, none of the Folk seemed to take notice and continued to dance in circles around her. Her heart throbbed like a hummingbird's, and she began to lose air as the dancers continued to twirl around in their pretty garments. It was like she was a rock at the shallow part of the sea with schools of fish going about her without notice.
Fortunately, her panic attack was halted as she saw a hand in front of her, like an offering of some sort. "Would you like to dance?" came a velvety voice, something that was enough to make her blush.
Looking up, the blush deepened as she saw the face of her savior. Handsome eyes tinted with flecks of gold, a charming smile with a row of pearly whites, a captivating face radiating with warmth—Amy cursed herself for finding him handsome, since she'd prided herself for feeling no attraction to any of the Seelie men whatsoever. But him—oh, how her heart melted at the sound of his voice!
But since Amy knew better, she just looked down as she reluctantly reached her hand up to his. "Um… t-thank you, sir. Tha-That was very kind of you."
The boy chuckled in good fun. "Charming. You're quite a polite young fey, aren't you?"
Amy avoided speaking, since she knew that it would just go out in all stutters. She batted her wings softly to help get herself up, then gathering an ounce of courage, brought herself to look at the boy. Her face was tense and reluctant.
"Now, why would you look at me with such a face?" he spoke gently, with a voice like honey. "Then again, it was inconsiderable of me to conclude that you're willing of a dance. Very well. We don't have to dance if you don't want to…"
"I never said that!" Amy blurted out, immediately regretting her words. In an instant, she withdrew her hand from his and covered her mouth as a gesture of humiliation. "I-I mean… I n-never said that I d-didn't want to d-dance. I—I apologize."
He smiled amusedly. "How cute. You stutter when you're nervous."
Is he intentionally trying to embarrass me?, Amy thought, turning her gaze away from his face. She felt herself tense a bit, probably from feeling a wallop of self-pity going over her like the soft ripples of a lake. But the mood changed as the Royal Orchestra began to play a gentle tune, a melody passed on by the musical human friend of the Seelies, Johann Strauss. This time, they were playing A Night in Venice, a favorite for all couples.
Amy gulped silently. Couples.
"Come on, then," the mysterious boy spoke, sliding his arms around her petite waist. Amy's face reddened even more at this, since the gesture was both ticklish and intimate. Of course, she was expected to put her arms around his shoulders, but a hint of fear had its grip on her as strong as an eagle's claw. At this, he merely smiled and invited her wordlessly to do so with a loving gaze, and her heartbeat grew quicker and quicker—but not out of nervousness, like a few moments ago when she was left in the middle of the crowd. This time, the feeling was more pleasant—like the first time she learned how to use her wings when she was little.
Putting her arms around his strong shoulders, the two waltzed around as with the other young couples who were doing so at the moment. Yet unlike those couples, the two seemed to be dancing even more lively than the rest, with the vitality like a butterfly being released from its spindery prison. A spring of joy seemed to bubble within the girl, something that she had never felt before. This moment, this dance, everything was… magical, to say the least. And that was a lot to say coming from someone who was so used to using magic.
At the far end of the dance floor, Dan was frantically hiding from those Fairy girls who seemed to be deeply infatuated with him. He shuddered as he remembered their frenzied faces at the sight of him, right before they resumed to hoarding him for a dance. Crawling under a table, he was temporarily comforted by the darkness until his head bonked another's.
"Ow!" he interjected, rubbing his head before looking at the person he hit shortly. It wasn't just one other person who was in hiding, to say the least—but two. He'd be an idiot to forget those blond ponytails.
"Madison and Reagan? What the heck are you guys doin' here?"
Madison, the older twin, rubbed her head furiously as she was the one who got the worst of the hit. She was garbed in a spring outfit, just like her sister, who was also rubbing her head at the moment. "I'd like to ask the same question to you, runt."
"Running away from some cooties who think I'd be crazy enough to dance with them," he spoke, rolling his eyes. Although the twins were technically girls themselves, they were boyish enough to hang out with. "You?"
"Mom wants us to dance with some guys again," Marian—or Reagan, as she was called—the younger twin, spoke in disgust. "She thinks we should start preparing for marriage. Yuck." She then grinned at her twin mischievously, as if she knew a big secret. "Though I'm pretty sure Madison wouldn't mind much, though…"
Madison punched Reagan on the shoulder. "Shut up, twerp!"
"Madison and Fabiooo, sittin' in a tree…"
Dan would've loved to see what would've happened with the twins' banter, but a shuffling of steps called his attention. Looking at the tiny bit of space that the tablecloth left, he saw two green stilettos clack noisily towards the end of the hallway. Peering closer, he saw a girl with flawless black hair walk towards the Spell Chamber, which held the source of the spell protecting the Seelie Kingdom from those of the Unseelie variety. Dan was puzzled.
"Hey guys, look at this," he spoke, gesturing the twins to peek along with him. The two then resumed their positions on either side of him, watching the scene unfold before them.
"What's that chick doing there? I thought that place was forbidden," Madison inferred, watching the girl with stilettos march towards the door. Marian gasped, calling their attention to the younger twin.
"Nothing good, I reckon." she concluded, pointing to the lifeless corpse of one of the guard fairies. With this, Dan had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
III.
"You sure ask a lot of questions," Amy spoke in intoxicated amour, giggling softly after she had said so. The boy just smiled, shrugging playfully at her accusation.
"Is it my fault for wanting to know more about a lovely fairy such as yourself?" he teased, and the girl just blushed in response. She was growing to immensely enjoy his company, and possibly—she could introduce him to her grandmother next. With his good manners and sweet words, without a doubt Grace would definitely approve of him.
"Hey, I've just realized," Amy spoke with a laugh. "You've been asking a lot of questions and I haven't even asked one. That's unfair!"
The boy smiled with sparkling eyes. "Oh dear, I've been holding you back, haven't I? Fine, then. Ask your question, and I'll answer it with great zeal." Saying so, he tucked a few stray hairs away from her face, gazing at the jewel of her loveliness.
"What's your name?"
Closing his eyes slowly, he seemed to ponder a bit on that one simple question. Amy found that unnecessary pondering cute, finding it as one of his awkward flaws. But when the boy opened his eyes again, the warmth that once emanated from them was replaced with cold cruelty—with that once gentle smile turning into a horrible smirk.
"My name," the boy spoke, his winter outfit of royal blues and dark violets morphing into dead blacks and dying browns. Even the glint of silver on his wings turned into a dark glamour, with evil lurking through every corner of his appearance.
"… is Ian."
And with that, the enchanted lights of the hall vanished—with the reign of darkness just beginning.
Author's Note: Whew! Now THAT took long to update! Anyway... sorry for taking so long to update, for all those who've been liking this. Got a lot of things to do at school, but at least my poetry-writing contest is done! Now all I need to do is worry about the results and finish some other thinga-mahooeys for school... but look at the bright side! I'll be able to upload this more. :) [And when I'm through with this, I'll update TGCR, no doubt. After the seventh book, I'm all pumped now. :D] Oh, and if you're wondering why I gave some of them such butt-awful names [Corinia, Gratiana, Antonio], I just tried to make sure that they seemed like fairies, at least. XD [I guess I failed. :P] And if you're wondering how the heck did "Hamilton" turned into "Antonio"... um, well, you have all rights to degrade me. I only thought it was good enough 'cause both names have "ton" in it. -gets keeled-
