Chapter Eleven

The Painting

I had apparently damaged Iris a little more than I was supposed to with my and Loki's previous interaction, and she had to take a pretty heavy dose of the drug bracelet before she could get back to normal. When I came to, I had realized two things; one, that Iris's nose and mouth were bleeding almost unattendedly, and two, that it had been almost an hour of talking with Loki.

For some time, I tuned out the high that seeing Loki and speaking to him gave me, and attended to Iris's bleeding. Somehow when I had managed to recover her from her mental pressure (with the bracelet) and she could sit straight and breath comfortably, I could actually relax and let myself think about him. I had skipped the rest of the day from having any other interactions with ghosts. The next day when I had been debating whether to contact Elora or Loki, I came to know very belatedly of the fact that today was supposed to be debutante ball for Iris.

According to her age, her ball was supposed to be not exactly a debutante, since she wasn't to be an adult yet, but still the Kroners decided to call it one. Willa would be there to help Iris get ready for the ball, and while Iris was going to be the main star of the event, me and Tove would still be present during the ball to offer her our blessings and respects and to represent the ruling line of siblings that Iris had in the Trylle community.

The even more amazing thing (something that was happening probably for the first time in any Trylle debutante) was that some Vittra officials had also been invited to Iris's ball. One was this marksinna of her age with whom she had got pretty close with, due to their occasional exchanges and meet-ups. The second person arriving here was the very Vittra queen herself – Sara – and most people considered it as an impressive honor that Sara was coming to Forening to attend a Trylle marksinna's debutante. Many considered this as the developing good termed relationship between the Trylle and Vittra.

The debutante was to be in the Kroner's mansion, and it wasn't until had been getting dressed to go there that I realized with belatedness that it was the first time I was ever going to the Kroner's place. Rest of the time it had always been people in Elora's mansion.

Since I didn't have a Willa to recommend me on my outfits, I just chose an off-shouldered, rose-pink gown in which I found the color pretty awesome. I reminded myself that this was Iris's night and that I didn't have to look as striking as a queen would have to on her night, and played simple and not very dressy. My queeny tiara was groaningly a compulsion to be worn this night, and while I was finding a perfect place in my hair to insert the tiara, Tove's question surprised me all of a sudden.

"You've got pretty close to my sister." He said.

"Yeah." I said, because firstly his question sounded vaguely as if he knew or was about to know exactly how I had got close to his sister, and secondly because even I hadn't realized how much closer ghost-hunting had got us both.

"I've seen it in your auras. You both are quite comfortable with each other, almost as if in empathy of something that only you both would understand."

"Well, it kind of is that way." I tried not to give much out.

Tove went to the depths of his thought, and I wondered if he was thinking whether even Iris had had some similar loss of love's life or something similar to my case, because of which we could both rely so much on each other for empathy, and get this close. I hoped he wouldn't be questioning Iris on that, since the poor child wouldn't know what to reply to that.

My internal padding underneath the clothes made my size seem a lot fleshier than I actually was, but it at least hid the pregnancy lump of belly. When we both were done with dressing up for the ball (I wasn't sure whether I would be able to dance or not), we walked up to the sleek Cadillac that awaited us outside the grand, main door.

The Kroners' place wasn't as far away from Elora's place as I had been expecting it would've been. It was probably a ten minute drive from the palace, and viewing Tove's house for the first time gave me an unrecognized feeling that I had never felt before. It was very much like any other Hamptons villa, except with a slightly more Edwardian edge to it than the ones where Kim had tried to murder me. the color of the roofs were probably a green (again to the greenish tone the Kroner skins bear since birth), while the walls were a whitewashed white. Green ivy and other vines I didn't recognize in the darkness hung from the walls, and their porch was decorated with white ribbons and balloons on posts.

Maybe it was in a way pretty childish (almost like someone's first birthday décor), but I found it innovative and cute. Inside the decoration was even better, with the main theme – white and gold ribbons – almost everywhere. In the large party hall (which was slightly smaller than my Disney-fairytale ballroom), the white and golden chairs were all set in neat circles around several rounded tables.

A long table with the food in it awaited all of us, and the rest of the space was cleared out for the dancing. Iris was to make a grand appearance in a couple of minutes, and till then we were all free to socialize and interact with other guests. Being the queen turned out as something extremely difficult in such cases since most people would just run over directly to you and start off with some extremely unimportant and unnecessary conversation, and I wasn't much into talking today.

Tove – like me – felt the same about the socializing law for rulers, and simply went ahead and started picking at the food's table, selecting a variety of vegan stuff that was laid out. I (facing an even greater disadvantage since I wasn't much into food either) just paced around awkwardly, and finally sat down in one of the chairs after I had tired out of that.

"Your Majesty," said markis Bain, the new chancellor. "It is good to see you here at a marksinna's pre-debutante."

I just smiled at him, trying to keep it as natural as was possible for me. his comment – though I knew was just meant as a polite greet – still sounded pretty stingy and hurtful to me, almost as if he knew what I had been doing in the palace. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't next comment on me putting on so much weight.

It was a matter of few awkward seconds between us when no one said anything, and then Bain gradually started to walk away from me, out towards the wine glasses. I didn't know whether to assume that he was going there for a peg of rum or to just get away from me and the awkwardness. Thankfully it was just a few minutes after that that Iris made her heavenly entrance as the debutante. She was in a purple and white ombre gown that was strapless and – like Elora – made her look as if she were floating instead of walking.

Her hair was in this messy bun that somehow made her face more radiant and attractive with all those loose strands of curly hair suspending from her head and the soft lump of hair in a rounded bun at the back of her head. Her face was all in a bright, striking smile, and somehow with this smile, she could always put you to a good mood (well, until she starts blathering and then it becomes annoying).

As soon as she had reached the end of her entrance, people slowly went over to her for questioning her different things and introducing themselves to her. It wasn't a very large crowd as my debutante ball had held, and not many people were completely unintroduced to Iris (since she was pretty social and a major help in the Trylle-Vittra unison), so she was much freer than I had been.

Somehow I couldn't just help comparing her ball to mine. In my party, I had been kind of sad and under depression due to Finn's resignation from his post just the day before. So, I felt kind of jealous that Iris was making such a cheerful and sanguine impression on the people (who were already under the impression that Iris could reunite the Trylle and Vittra with her amity).

I decided to spare Iris for today and let the others interact with her before I could get my chance to do so. I anyways didn't have anything very important to say to her, so I guess, it could wait. For the meanwhile, I went over for some food myself. Red wine would be preferable, but I wasn't sure how alcohol would do when you are pregnant, and not wanting to risk my pregnancy in any way, I decided against it, and chose food.

There was a lot of variation to choose from, but even as Trylle, we were too picky for our nutritioning. I chose some cheesy mushrooms, and they didn't taste that bad; maybe umami wasn't that absurd for Trylle. "Wendy," a voice interrupted my thoughts about mushrooms and cheese. "It's good to see you here."

"Yeah, you too." I said, facing Sara with her neat, black ponytail and a scarlet evening dress.

"I see that you are waiting here for the crowd to cease beside our little debutante before you go greet her." Said Sara.

I nodded with a smile. "You too, right?"

"Of course. Afterall the queens would always like to interact with total privacy and personalization; not with the rest of the town."

I smiled at that too, though it was a bit forced. "So, what have you been doing lately?"

"Well, just . . ." here came the part for which I hadn't thought of any reasonable excuse. "Working out with our new marksinna."

"She's been a real help to this society, you know that, right? All this Vittra-Trylle reuniting people had been trying on for ages; she could do this all pretty quickly, and successfully." Said Sara, considerably.

"Well, nothing very noteworthy between the Trylle and Vittra have yet happened, but definitely, our relationships have improved a lot." I didn't add that earlier it was like the biggest mistake and danger having a Vittra (especially the queen herself) in some Trylle event.

"Don't worry Wendy, something very noteworthy will happen between the Trylle and Vittra; sooner or later." Her words left over a mysteriously chilling effect over me as she walked over away to interact with Iris.

Iris seemed to having this unending group of people around her, and I soon gave up that I would ever even get to have a proper eye contact with Iris. Tove and I got to the official dining venue, where the food was served to all respected officials. After dinner, was the dance, where as the soft waltz played in the background, people skidded around the space, occasionally twirling.

I just watched all dancing couples from a distance, and as I began to lose myself in various thoughts, Iris's hushed whispering voices brought me back to the reality. "Hey, Iris" I saluted her. "How is your ball going?"

"Well, it's perfectly beautiful like any party a person could ever wish for – in fact I have to say that it is going much more better than I would've thought it would've gone – but then, it's also about worse in a way than I would've thought it would have gone. There is a problem."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, Elora just came some time ago – you know, when I was getting dressed for this party. yeah, so she came in her ghost form to me and told me to pass this on to you. Well, since up there you don't get all these psychiatric probs or migraines after using your abilities too much, she says that she had been painting unlimitedly and not getting any such problems or headaches so far. That's why she can just put in like, loads of efforts effortlessly and paint precognitive stuff for living people. And well, she just stretched off her limits too far and painted something."

"What did she paint?" I tried to stay calm.

"Well, I can't exactly describe that to you, but well, she showed me that painting and probably the next time we do that, I'm going to show you whatever Elora showed me, in real-life. the painting, it basically has Sara in your bedroom. I mean, it's your very own queeny bedroom – the one where you sleep with my brother every night. And well, she's in some very lacy housecoat that has a long, lingering trail and she's in front of your dressing table and examining your crown. Exactly the one that you're wearing right now. I don't know why, but the thought that Sara was there being the queen in your palace instead of you just freaks me out a bit more than it probably should."

"Well, we'll talk about this later and maybe you can even actually show me the painting. But for tonight please don't stress over it. if anything happens with Sara, it couldn't be tonight because she's at your place attending your party." I tried to comfort Iris.

"But then, she also is at Forening and you are not in your room. So Sara has all the free time to sneak into your room and play with your crown." with dread I realized that it was true.

"You don't know Sara; she would never do anything to offend me or break me. she might be a Vittra but she's definitely not evil." not if she wants to make up for whatever she has already done to me, I added mentally.

"Oh, Wendy, being a Vittra doesn't change Sara's personality in any way from being evil or non-evil." She said almost frustratedly. "Plus, Loki doesn't think she's not that evil afterall."

I looked at her, my jaw nearly detaching from the rest of my face. Iris walked away in frustration and hopelessness, and as she left three of her phrases left their effects on me. Sara was there being the queen in your palace instead of you. she also is at Forening and you are not in your room. Loki doesn't think she's not that evil afterall. That was not all. I also remembered Loki's last word before he . . . . Sara. Was what Iris saying anything to do with what Loki said? with Sara common in both of them, did they have a similar motive?