They take different ships to Frost Ball, and even go so far as to leave at different times. That way, the three ships can approach the ball from completely different locations in the galaxy, each unknown to the other. Poe heads out at daybreak. Finn and Rose take off at midday. Rey and Ben watch the ships leave from the docks, their own departure not scheduled until the early afternoon. Rey doesn't like all the secrecy. She feels under-equipped to do her job and protect her friends.
"Except your job isn't to protect us," Finn reminds as he climbs into the cockpit. "This time it's our job to protect you."
He looks past her then to share a look with Ben. It is a brief and silent exchange, but Rey feels something pass between them. She is about to ask what when the Seamster sidles up to install his nano radios into Finn and Rose's ears. The neurally activated devices are implanted deep inside the ear canal and will be the only thing connecting the four of them once they get to the ball.
Poe had made an awful face when his was put in. Rose winces. Finn visibly fights a flinch.
"Remember you need to concentrate for three full seconds to use it," the Seamster reminds them. "And they only work in a quarter mile radius of each other. Anything stronger could be detected by the other side."
Finn and Rose both nod and, once the Seamster has retreated to a safe distance, their ship takes off. Finn doesn't even look back at Rey before he goes.
There won't be anyone to see us off, Rey thinks as she watches the ship shrink into the galaxy.
But she's wrong. When she and Ben prepare for takeoff a few hours later, Leia and Virya come out onto the docks.
"Be careful," Leia says. "May the Force be with you. Both of you."
The Seamster installs Ben's nano radio inside his helmet, another black mask tinted to hide his face from the First Order. Then he skitters over to the passenger side and installs Rey's. It feels like an insect biting into her brain. Once Rey blinks through the watering in her eyes, she sees Virya standing next to the ship. Rey expects her to lean across Rey's lap and say something suitably fawning to Ben. Instead, those dark eyes lock onto Rey's own.
"Remember what I wrote in the book. If there's an answer to your questions, it's somewhere in there."
Before Rey can ask Virya what she means, she steps back to stand alongside Leia.
"We have to go now," Ben says, firing up the thrusters, and then they're off.
#
The Frost Ball is held on a small planet, perpetually in the shadows of a distant sun. It's sky has only ever known the bright winter night, illuminated by two full moons that never wane. It's clouds, when they do crowd the horizon, are fat and silvery with snow.
Rey and Ben plunge through such clouds when they arrive, a shadow cutting through the lazy storm. All around them, other ships plummet like dark comets, all descending toward a single destination. It takes Rey several moments to take in the sight before her. Ben flies over a wide canyon, a glacial crevasse seamed with some mineral that glows gold beneath the ice. It casts an ethereal glow, making the falling snow all the more beautiful, both frozen feathery soft and warm with golden light. Rey has never seen anything like it.
At the top of the canyon is a palace. Except it is unlike any palace Rey has ever read about or seen in pictures. Three domes of glass and stone have been carved out of the cliff itself, massive as any mountain. The same glowing crystal illuminating the crevasse also veins the palace walls, polished to shine even through the blizzard. At the palace's base, three wide arches frame separate waterfalls. The water catches golden on the way down, creating the illusion of bright, liquid light pouring down the rock face. The ships are flying into those arches, like birds flocking back into their caves.
"You're staring."
Rey blinks. "Of course I'm staring. Have you seen this palace?"
"Many times," Ben guides them into the central arch. The golden water roars beneath them, casting a soft glow in the ship's hull. "And so has Virya."
Oh. Right. Rey contains herself, schooling her expression into haughty disinterest. Virya attends the Frost Ball every year. She wouldn't arrive wide eyed and wondrous.
Ben parks in an indoor hangar with vaulted ceiling. A series of stone bridges lead over the indoor rivers, which have been channeled to cut through the floor itself. On the far wall, a bank of glass and steel elevators bring guests up to the main event.
A valet is striding toward them, reaching for Rey's door, but Ben is already out and walking around, backing the valet down with his larger frame.
"Park it somewhere easy to find," he says, the device in his mask distorting his voice.
The valet takes the key and scurries over to the driver's side.
Ben opens Rey's door himself.
She steps out, taking Ben's arm. Ostensibly for decorum, but also because he already knows his way and it's easier not to be distracted by her surroundings when he is guiding her through them.
They cross the nearest bridge, then wind their way through a lush garden with white roses and moon flowers. The other guests openly stare at them. Whether it's be because she is Virya Vorian, or Ben's identity is still unknown, or the Seamster's dress is simply just that beautiful, there's no way to know. Perhaps, as Bindu had suggested, they all suspect that she is behind the murders.
They step into a private elevator. The floor rushes out from under them. They rocket up into the blizzarding sky itself, the crystal dome ceiling barely noticeable. The elevator capsule rotates, spinning the view to a ballroom floor. A ring of marble, the same crystal ceiling, its arches lined with twinkling lights and garlands of balsam fir. The room is filled with beautiful people in beautiful clothes, drifting about like the snowflakes drift on the wind outside. Elegant music emanates from a band playing instruments of gold. And when the elevator door slides open, Rey smells a crisp, woody scent that she's never known before.
They step out onto the top of the stairs. A man in a crisp suit scurries to announce them. His voice echoes to the guests below.
"The Lady Virya Vorian and her betrothed, Sir…" he pauses, glancing expectantly to Ben. Ben only stares back like a silent menace. The announcer clears his throat. "And… her, ah, betrothed. Welcome to the Frost Ball."
#
Rey doesn't even know where to begin. Luckily, she doesn't have to. They aren't there five minutes before someone approaches them. A tall man with scarlet hair pulled into a bun, the sides buzzed close. His suit looks more like something to be worn into battle than into a ball. Between him and Ben, it's hard to say whose more prepared for a fight.
"Well, well, well, well, well," the man says loudly, making his way over from one of the many bars.
"Lynus Lannlas," Ben mutters, disdain clear on his voice. "Always drunk. Never worth your time. Don't engage. He'll get bored and move on."
That's about all he has time to say before the barrel chested man is standing right in front of them, smelling thickly of mead, cheeks as red as his hair, and his small eyes raking all over Rey's figure. "If it isn't Lady Death herself."
Rey does her best imitation of thinly veiled disgust. It isn't much of a reach.
"Didn't know if you'd show," Lynus says, loud enough for everyone within a ten foot radius to hear. "But it looks like there might be something to look forward to in this shitty, borefest after all. Tell me, which one of us do you plan on blowing up first, eh? If it's not me, can I help?" He grins in a way that's more like a leer.
"Trust me, Lynus," Rey says, "if I had any plans for excitement, you'd be the last person on my list to include."
"Rude bitch, as always," Lynus says, almost affectionately. "Suppose I should've said I sorry and all. I heard your family cacked. Or maybe I should be congratulating you? What do you prefer? It's always best to keep that sort of mess in the family anyway. Coming around to the Lannlas way of doing things, eh?"
The Vorians aren't Rey's real family. By all accounts, she wouldn't have liked them much if she'd had the chance to meet them. Still, it's all she can do to keep her fists from clenching. A million responses crowd her tongue, none of them cool or composed enough to pass as something Virya might say.
Lynus seems to notice Ben for the first time and starts questioning him about his armor. Ben remains silent, refusing to answer any questions.
Rey is just thinking that she might need to find a way to get rid of this boorish brute, regardless of Ben's advice, when she accidentally locks eyes with a young man across the room. He sees her and immediately starts heading over, politely shedding a halo of gorgeous women in the process. He has jet black hair, a lean but muscular build and fluid grace, perfect skin and almond eyes that are a strikingly deep gold. When he smiles at her, it is both boyish and manly at once.
"Virya," he says, so warmly that as he takes her hand and kisses it, Rey doesn't even blink. "Is this man bothering you?"
Ben's attention snaps instantly from Lynus to this newcomer, who smells like a grove of orange blossoms in a deep forest.
Rey smiles thinly, deciding to embrace the company of this relatively polite devil over the first. "Is it so obvious?" she asks, letting her sarcasm drip through.
"This man?" Lynus echoes, going even redder. "Listen here you little turd, I was smashing skulls before you father was smashing his pathetic scrotum into your bitch mother. If you think you can-"
"Uncle," a soft voice cuts through Lynus' tirade. The red haired man goes rigid, turning to look behind him. A boy no more than twelve, dressed in sharply tailored suit, leans on a column like an adult might. Aside from his fire red hair, buzzed on the sides, there is hardly any resemblance between him and the man he called "uncle".
"I thought we discussed you making a fool of yourself in front of pretty women."
Lynus goes impossibly redder. "Mikael," he growls. "You know how I dislike being interrupted."
The boy shrugs. "I'm only looking out for you, Uncle. I thought you'd want to know that Aunt Sabitha is threatening to slit Aunt Alyssa's throat again. In case you're interested in watching."
"That hair-brained wench!" Lynus brightens. "I told her not to leave me out of the fun this time." The burly man lumbers off in the direction his nephew had indicated, seemingly forgetting about Virya Vorian and the Tannias man altogether.
The child straightens off the pillar and, after shoving his hands down his pockets and throwing an over-the-shoulder look that says you're welcome at Rey, follows his distracted relative.
"That boy is going to be a problem one day," the golden eyed man says, watching them leave. "I can't remember the last time a Lannlas was born with the ability to reason."
"As long as he uses it to control his relatives," Rey says. "He's a problem I'll happy to deal with at a later time."
The golden eyed man nods before turning his attention to her. "Now," he says, "how are you?"
"I'm well enough," Rey relies, re-calibrating to deal with this new stranger, who Ben is still staring at with fixed intensity. "All things considered."
"My grandmother doubted you'd be here. I told her not to count you out so soon."
Mentioning his grandmother in the first breath, Rey thinks. She'd bet her light saber this was Jae. In a way that was a relief. Of all Virya's peers, Jae was the only one who seemed more a political puppet than a leader in his own right. If she was going to start the night by 'practicing' with anyone, he would have been her first pick.
"I'm sure you're tired of false condolences. But unlike others, mine are sincere." Jae looks at her with his serious, golden eyes. "You and I always were the only ones who understood the true weight of family loyalty."
At Rey's side, Ben radiates silent promises of violence. Jae seems to notice just in time to avoid having his neck broken.
"My apologies, you must be Virya's betrothed. Jae Tannias. Forgive me if we've met. The mask makes it a bit difficult to tell."
"We haven't," Ben says.
There is a brief, uncomfortable pause. But rather than responding with the arrogant offense that Rosshel might have, Jae Tannias simply angles his head thoughtfully. "I see."
"Oh, don't mind him," Rey waves dismissively. "He isn't much for socializing. I drag him to these events."
"I highly doubt you'd have to drag any man anywhere, Virya."
Rey blinks. Had he just… very politely hit on her?
Just then the music comes to a halt. The announcer declares from the top of the staircase that the dancing is about to begin. Jae turns to Ben, his manners perfectly intact despite the other man's abruptness. "If the lady does not object, might I have the first dance? It's something of a tradition between us."
Before Ben can say a flat out no, Rey puts a quieting hand on his shoulder. She'll have to start working this ball at some point. She'd rather start sooner than later.
"The lady does not object," she says, and descends onto the dance floor with Jae before Ben can stop her.