Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura

Chapter 2

Syaoran stood bored against a pillar in the grand ballroom. He had a slight scowl on his face as he surveyed the room and its people. Silvery candlesticks shone everywhere giving a powerful light to the room, though darkening the corners ever so slightly. There were small tables to his right, covered in lavender cloths with small vases with pink and purple nadeshiko flowers as the centerpieces. Large purple and navy blue tapestries were hung on the upper walls to dampen the slightly over-marbleized stones. The roof, which had caught his attention earlier, had been spelled to look like the sky outside. It was presently just turning midnight blue as dusk slowly faded away. He was slightly amused at the steady downfall of flowers that appeared out of thin air, and disappeared as soon as they touched an object. A lot of magic had gone into this party, he mused, but there didn't seem to be any mages around. Lastly, his eyes took in the huge dark blue curtains, that boxed in the upper area of the ball room, where an orchestra would sit to play for the ball following the dinner.

Other than the grand appearance of the ball, Syaoran barely paid attention to anything or anyone else. He really hated court functions and balls, and thus secluded himself from others with a cold glare and aloof personality. It worked for the most part, except for the fact that Eriol never left him alone. Okay, he could deal with Eriol, for the most part, but he couldn't deal with Eriol's entourage of simpering females. Eriol attracted them like a moth to a flame, and to say the least loved the attention. Syaroan, however, did not and very often lost his temper with the courtesans. Presently he was glad that most of the young women were clustered in groups far away from Eriol and himself "holding up" the pillar.

"You seem beyond bored, Syaoran," commented Eriol, a small smirk slicing his features. "Perhaps a few women to talk to would ease your mind?"

Syaoran only growled his annoyance at his "friend." He was currently scowling because of his four sisters, whom had monopolized two knights of the Shounin Kingdom. The two knights appeared to be bored, maybe more so than he, and his sisters, of course, didn't even notice. He sighed and prayed that someday they would get tied down in marriage and leave the poor men of the world alone.

Eriol chuckled slightly to himself. He was in the mood to reek havoc on the poor prince, but he still hadn't found who or what he could use. His plans were interrupted suddenly, as a strong magical aura flooded the room.

Syaoran's head snapped up in that instant. Amber and blue surveyed the room, searching for its source, before landing on the only two new arrivals. Across the room were two young girls descending the stairs is graceful small steps. At this distance it was hard to see the expression on their faces, but it seemed that one of them was very reluctant in coming. A tiara was placed on one with black hair, who stepped down into the room with overwhelming confidence. "The princess," mumbled Syaoran under his breath. The girl to the left of the princess, however, intrigued him more. From what he could tell at this distance she had fairly short hair, unusual for a high ranking noble, which meant she was of a lower class status. Her hair seemed to shine, as did her multi-shaded pink gown, from the many candles. She held herself a little uncertain and was holding onto the Princess's hand for dear life. Syaoran snorted, realizing that the girl was probably a new courtesan or the hand maiden of the princess. One thing, however, didn't add up. One of those two girls had the powerful magical aura he and Eriol felt. "Which one is it?" spat Syaoran, loud enough for Eriol to hear.

"Your mother would have told us if the princess had magic, so I think it is the lady-in-waiting," Eriol replied, his eyes flickering between the princess and the girl beside her. "Either way, they are both heart stoppers. I think I want-" before he could finish that thought, he felt something hit him on the head. "What?" He complained, looking at the one who hit him, Syaoran.

"I don't want to hear what you want!" hissed Syaoran, his amber eyes ablaze with anger and annoyance.

Eriol sighed, before a wicked gleam smeared his eyes. He knew exactly what he was going to do now to annoy his "cute little descendent." Of course he'd need to make a quick getaway when Syaoran caught wind, for Eriol valued his life a little more than his pranks. He picked his target and smiled. She would be prefect, he decided.

~~ ~~

"Oniichan! Yukito-san!" exclaimed Sakura, happily when she and Tomoyo finally stepped off the stairs.

A man with dark brown hair and matching eyes, stopped before the two young girls. He wore a white uniform or the Royal Guards with several decorations of status. Normally he would be seen in more knight-like attire with chain mail and tunic, but today he only wore the golden spurs and ceremonial sword given to knights only. Touya Kinomoto, held out his hand to the princess. "Good evening, Princess," he said smoothly, before glancing at Sakura. "Hi, kaijuu."

His best friend, Yukito Tsukishiro, stood beside him in the same attire. His kind eyes were a dark brown and his hair was a gentle gray-white. Unlike his over protective friend, his nature was kind and sweet and it radiated in every fiber of his being. Well, almost. Yukito had a secret few knew about. He was shown as a cold, emotionless guardian for his mistress. Yue was always with him and always knew what was going on, but when he took over, Yukito ceased to exist. Sometimes that bothered the young man, but he was still glad that he existed sometimes. "Good evening Tomoyo-chan, Sakura-chan," he said sweetly, extending his arm to Sakura.

Sakura refrained from stepping on Touya's foot, barely, and took Yukito's arm. He was a good friend and brother-like figure for her. She had come a long way from being the blushing, renegade card captor as a child to the sweet and explosive young sorceress she was today. Then again, not much of a difference was there, except that her outer appearance was that of a beautiful young lady, not a shapeless child. "Thank you, Yukito-san," she said, and together the two couples moved into the ball room.

Yukito leaned over to whisper into Sakura's ear as they walked through the room. "Sakura-chan?" He waited until he had her attention before continuing. "Yue wishes me to tell you that you should suppress you magical aura. There are dignitaries here that can sense magic and your aura is quite domineering."

"Oh! I forgot!" Sakura said, a sheepish look sweeping across her features. "Otou-san told me that earlier. Sorry." She moved a hand to her star, whispering a few words, and her aura slowly disappeared to a normal, non-magic level.

On the other side of the room, two young men leaning against a pillar, fell over. Only a slight cursing, muffled out by the crowd drifting out of the room to the banquet hall, proclaimed that anything was out of place.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Syaoran grumbled as he sat down next to his mother at the high table. She gave him only a slight disapproving glance that he had entered without an escort, but he didn't really care. He wanted to know where the princess and her lady-in-waiting were. The aura that he felt had been strong enough to even shake Eriol's cool reserve. and he wanted to know how powerful it really was. He glanced side long to see Queen Sonomi and the black hair princess seated in the middle of the high table. There was another royal family to the right of the princess, King Tiro, Queen Salvia, and their daughter Rika. Beside them sat a man in black robes, a gold star pendant clearly showing. Syaoran blinked before taking his gaze off the man.

A mage? He didn't know there were any outside his kingdom that had high ranking positions. Maho had the largest population of magical beings in the whole known world and even had universities to teach magical gifted students. The star pendants were worn by only mages and strange enough, most regular people didn't know what they meant. It was a good thing, though, for some were not so kind to people who had weird talents such as magic. In fact, the Bakkin Kingdom far to south was known to execute and torture people with any sort of magical abilities. Apparently Queen Sonomi didn't mind having magic in her kingdom or at her table.

Syaoran shrugged, pulling his mind from those thoughts. "Now to find the other," he mumbled. His mother was too engaged in a conversation with Queen Sonomi that she didn't ask what her son met by that. His amber eyes scanned the room, locating his annoying sisters immediately. They were interspersed with the royal guards at the double sided table nearest to him. He was starting to feel slightly sorry for the two knights that escorted the princess and her lady into the banquet hall. His sisters were all over them as were several other young women. The one with the darker brown hair looked slightly annoyed at all the attention, while the lighter hair one was smiling and overall cheerful to the women.

After the royal guards and other members of the royal families, were the upper nobles, dukes and duchesses, along with high ranking knights not a part of the royal guard. Next were the Counts, then the Earls, then the Lords, and lastly the Barons and other lesser nobles. Courtesans were interspersed throughout based upon their age and rank. Seeing that the young lady wasn't seated at that long table, he turned his eyes to glance at the other one. It followed the same pattern of rank. He had almost given up trying to find the girl, when finally his eyes caught sight of her at the very end of the table. Unlike all the other lesser nobles, she had no one sitting in front of her, giving him a direct line sight to her.

She was breath taking to behold as he focused his eyes upon her. She seemed slightly distraught and slightly out of place among all the lords and ladies. He could tell right away that she wasn't used to being in these types of settings. She looked a little lost and, though he would never admit it, lonely. No one seemed to be talking to her, but then again she was an odd end to the table, leaving little room for conversation.

He took all that end even before he began to study her features. Her pink dress did wonders to the girl's complexion, pulling out the subtle pink tinge of her blush covered cheeks. She attempted to slouch slightly in her seat, but to no avail as the corset was far to tight for comfort. Her honey brown hair was sparkling with small white flowers that fell from the ceiling, making her look almost angelic. He was somewhat startled to realize that the flowers didn't disappear when they landed upon her.

When she lifted her head slightly, to brush a few flowers out of her hair, two things caught his eyes simultaneously. One was two bright emerald green eyes, that he swore looked like the very gems themselves. The second was a gold star pendant centered directly on her forehead. In shock, Syaoran accidentally knocked over one of his forks. His mother glanced over at her son, giving him a sharp glare. Syaoran blushed before leaning down to pick up his fallen utensil.

She had the symbol of a sorcerer! Not only that, but it was smack center in the middle of her forehead where you couldn't miss it. Is she absolutely insane?! There are people who know that symbol and many were not friends of magic. His face was a mixture of shock, wonder, and full out anger. Where did she come from and how did she have a gold star?

~~ ~~

Sakura glanced down at her plate, her eyes wide with concern. "What am I supposed to do with all these utensils!" she thought, her mind running at a hundred miles per second. There were five forks of different sizes and shapes to the left of her plate, three knifes and three spoons to the right and four small fork and spoon utensils above her plate. On top of that, to make things more confusing, there were three glasses to drink from as well.

She sighed feeling more than ever out of place. Why couldn't they have just had a set of chopsticks and leave it there. In fact, why couldn't she just wear normal clothes too. The corset was cutting off circulation and the number of layers she wore were over heating her. Overall, she couldn't believe how people raved on about court functions and balls. This was more work than she ever thought she'd have to deal with.

Where was the glamour that people kept talking about? There were very pretty decorations around, setting the tone of the banquet as well as the ball, and everyone was dressed in the very best clothing attire. Everything was shined to pristine order from magnificent jewels to the water goblets and silverware. To Sakura, however, it was all very boring without Tomoyo's enthusiasm around.

She glanced up from her plate, and dusted some of the flowers from the ceiling out of her hair. She would have to have a talk with Flower tomorrow about why she was the only one with flowers not disappearing when they touched her. She let her emerald orbs drift over to the princess and her best friend, Tomoyo. She was aglow with happiness and wonder. It was obvious, even from this distance, that Tomoyo was loving her birthday ball.

Her eyes drifted from her friend to survey more of the room. There were many gold colored birds scattered throughout the room upon silvery-gold perches. They would occasionally open their mouths to shoot fire out and form flaming designs. They were all illusions Fujitaka Kinomoto, Sakura's father, made for the celebration. His work was nothing but excellent quality, and it showed especially strong tonight.

Sakura was glad that her father did most of the magic, for his spells masked the subtle clow magic that remained in the Sakura Cards. On the other hand, however, Sakura's raw magical ability was far stronger than her father's and thus only small amounts were ever used. Sadly, with the lack of proper training, Sakura couldn't control most of the raw magical energy and thus relied heavily on her Sakura Cards.

She paused in her thoughts as a swift cold chill ran up and down her spine. Someone was watching her. She pulled her gaze off the enchantments and scanned the dinning room, subtly searching for the source. Her stomach lurched slightly at the first person she spotted looking in her direction, Baron Taitsu.

Baron Kaiba Taitsu was a man in his early twentys with slimy black hair. His eyes would have been considered a silvery mist of blue, but Sakura only saw them as stone silver laced with lust. He was known to be overly cruel to people of lesser rank, lustful to all whom wore a skirt, and extremely possessive of what he deemed was his. To top it all off, he was obsessed with Sakura. It was to such a point that her flesh crawled just by the mention of his name.

Thankfully, the source of the cold chill didn't come from that vile thing deemed human. Her green eyes searched again to finally lock with intense amber. "Hoe?" Sakura whispered, her mouth not working very well. Another chill tumbled down her spine, one far more electrical than cold. She broke eye contact swiftly, rubbing her hands together. She looked downwards, trying to ignore the eyes that seemed to bore into her head. "Who was that?" she whispered, her voice slightly ragged and her heart beating quickly. She tried to picture a face, but all she saw were those soul shattering eyes.

She had to know who those eyes belonged to, but right now she was too afraid to even think about looking in that direction. When she calmed down, she would take a look, was her thought as a servant came forth and placed a small appetizer on her plate, a small circular design of shrimp and clams. When liquid was pored into one of her glasses, Sakura jumped with surprise. She looked up, a sheepish expression on her face, and tilted her head in apology at the startled servant. The servant walked on, a little uneasy about the young girl he had frightened.

She glanced nervously around trying to figure out what utensil to pick up. She couldn't tell which utensil to use, however, for everyone had already started eating or were too indulged in conversation. Sakura sweat dropped looking at all the utensils, trying to figure which one to use. She started to pick up a small spoon above her plate when the chill came back, full force. She stopped what she was doing and looked up in the direction she knew it came from.

This time she was able to get a good look at the man with the amber eyes. He had semi messy chestnut brown hair that presently had a few stray magical flowers. His eyes were still directing a glare in her direction, but a small smirk was upon his lips. She looked confused for a moment, before she realized that he was playing with a fork. She glanced down at her place setting and spotted the fork, farthest to her left. When she looked back up, the boy's focus was on his plate and food, not her. Sakura smiled slightly and picked up the fork and started to eat the food.

~~ ~~

Syaoran watched through his bangs as the girl smiled and picked up the fork he had been playing with. He concluded several things at that moment. One, was that she was not a lady-in-waiting for the princess because they knew everything about etiquette. Secondly, he knew she was not a courtesan or a lesser noble for two reasons in itself. If she had been a courtesan she would have been eying every single male in the room, picking out her choices for husband or fling. If she was a lesser noble, she would have never glanced at the high table once, let alone twice. Third, he was absolutely positive that she was a sorceress and furthermore she was the cause of these blasted flowers. He rubbed his hand through his hair, knocking out the flowers that had landed.

"Xiao Lang?" came a soft voice beside him.

He turned to see his mother's gaze fixed upon him. "Yes, mother?"

"Is something wrong? You have barely touched your food."

"Everything is fine, mother," he grumbled out. He then ate a few morsels before the plate was cleared and the next meal was placed down. This was a small piece of salmon with a sweet tasting sauce dripped delicately on top. He glanced across the room as the emerald sorceress received her plate. Once again she was at a total loss. He sighed. He knew now that she was definitely not one of the upper classes. He picked up his next fork, farthest to the left, and knife, farthest from the plate to the right. He shot a glance back to the sorceress who locked her gaze with him again, a faint blush upon her cheeks, before he saw her pick up the same utensils.

He tried to rationalize why he was doing such a thing as helping her along. He decided that he was just helping her so that she would be able to eat and not pass out after the banquet from lack of food. Nonetheless, for the remainder of the thirteen courses, she mimicked him. Surprisingly, his harsh glare was softening by each course, which didn't go unnoticed by a certain blue hair friend of his.