Later that evening, the girl had taken a bath and dressed up nice again. By now, she knew where the ballroom was. She thought she smelled nice. She was nervous. Usually, dinner and dancing meant a date. She didn't see the Skeksis eat really, so she didn't know what the Chamberlain liked.

She snuck down to the ballroom carefully after hours. She tried to avoid the other Skeksis and Gelfling guards. She made it there eventually. She hoped she hadn't kept him waiting for too long.

Sil was waiting for the girl to show up on her own. She said she would be there. His patience could only keep up for only so long. He had everything ready for them. Food in the proper dishes and such. There was a table he had gotten too, from the Gelfling guards. Even when they asked what it was for, he told them it was none of their business. The guards knew better than to cross him or any of their lords. That's what he liked about this. None of the guards or other servants had to know what he had planned.

There was a creepy sound and footsteps. Sil stood up. He got in front the table behind him to keep it shielded as best he could to make sure it was the girl and not another Skeksis. Then, in came who he wanted it to be.

His eyes lit up when he saw the girl come in. She was wearing some different nice robes and her hair was done up in a bun. She had done it herself. Most of the time, it was down. Her robes were a pinkish color this time.

"Hi, my Lord. I assume you got the message back?" she questioned.

"Hmm. Yes. Got it." Sil replied. "You come to dinner now."

"I would love to." She said and went over to him. He didn't take her hand or anything but they both went to their respective places and sat down at the table. She saw the candles on the table too, to provide light it needed in here. "This is really romantic." She commented.

"Guess, yes, it is." Sil realized.

"Was there a reason behind this?" she asked.

"Like spending time with human." Sil declared. "Must there be other reason?"

"No. Just wondered why. It was quite a surprise really."

"Shall we eat?"

"Yes. It looks good."

They both started eating. Since she mostly ate the fruits and veggies in the castle, her food didn't require cooking. Sil began eating his meat. He tried eating in a dignified manner, but if he didn't like something, he spit it out.

That caught her by surprise too. He had some sloppy table manners.

"What? This how Skeksis eat." Sil said.

"Not a problem. I've seen others who ate like that too. Can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I saw a part in the invitation that I've never seen before. What is SkekSil?" she asked.

"My real name. Chamberlain is title."

"Oh, ok. Thanks for clearing that up. In all my time here in over a trine, I'd never heard you being called that."

"Only other Skeksis use it. Gelfling not use it."

"Because of our special relationship, can I use it? For short?"

"Only when not around other Skeksis." Sil stated.

"What about just Sil instead? Do the others have Skek names too?"

"Does sound better to address me like that. And yes. All different."

"Can I ask what their names are? But I promise not to use them."

Sil proceeded to explain the other names except for the banished ones.

"Have you ever thought of wanting offspring of your own?" she asked him. That took him a little by surprise, but it figured a female would ask.

"Skeksis have tried to have offspring and never happened. Just can't." Sil stated.

"You're sterile?"

"If means no offspring, yes. And suppose you want offspring?" Sil inquired.

"If I had met the right partner. I couldn't raise them alone. Not that I know if I can or not." She replied. "Our scientists if you were all on my planet would probably be able to find out why you would be sterile. Perhaps even find a way around it."

"Really?"

"But I'm not really a scientist. I just know that human scientists have been able to do some new techniques to make babies in other ways too besides just the old-fashioned way."

"What ways?" Sil was interested.

"One way was called cloning. They did it on animals to see if it would work. It was never done on humans at least by the time I left." The girl explained.

"But you know how it's done?" Sil asked.

"Taking some DNA from an animal and taking out the DNA from an egg and putting the new DNA inside the egg and putting the egg into a surrogate mother and she carried the baby to term. Depending on the species. It would be the same species, of course. The new baby didn't have a father, just a mother. Or it was both in one." She tried explaining what she knew of it.

"Sounds intriguing to Chamberlain. Hmmmm." This sure had gotten his attention. Maybe it could be used for Skeksis too. But there would be the need to use a Skeksis egg cell. But it would be too hard for them without the advanced science. Even SkekTek couldn't be expected to know how to do it. But he would have to listen carefully. Tek usually did things for himself to discover them.

They soon finished their meal and then got up and did some more dancing in their own ways. Sil found he didn't really mind her human dances in the slow motion. But dancing separately but close was fun too. They just had to make believe there was music in the room. Real music would draw too much attention from the guards or other Skeksis.

They had a fun time together. When they left the ballroom, Sil carried one bag of his uneaten food and plate, and the girl carried hers. They made sure the fires were out too. Together, they took the contents to the kitchen. The Gourmand was retired for the night, so it made it easier for the two of them to drop off the bags. Then they made it off to the bedroom quarters.

There were some guards on duty for the night as they passed by. The Gelflings were still intrigued that the human was being treated special by one of the Lords. But once the two passed beyond a certain point, guards didn't go any further.

Sil first dropped off the girl to her bedroom. "See Human to her room." He declared.

"Thank you for a nice evening of the dinner and dancing, Lord Sil." She smiled at him.

"Now that sound nice, hmm." He smiled.

To her, his hum was getting cute, rather flirty there. Then she did something to surprise him. She actually moved fast and gave him a kiss on the side of his face.

That surprised the Skeksis. It made his eyes widen alright. "Good night." She smiled. She was being flirty with him as she closed her door.

Sil blinked questionably for a few seconds. He knew how Gelflings kissed. Humans evidently did too. He knew he would ask her about it later. Even if he did reciprocate, he didn't have the same kind of lips she did. But then, there was his tongue.

He had a feeling that the girl was falling for him. That made him grin in a sly way, like he did a lot of the time when things were going his way. He went on to his own room to go to bed.

The girl got ready for bed, and she was glad she had kissed him. It was a thank you kiss and good night one. She hoped he wouldn't take it the wrong way. Not that she knew if Skeksis could be intimate or not. Surely, they could, in their own ways and in private. They just had reputations to uphold.

Lying in his own bed, Sil was calm, and he looked up at his ceiling, thinking. Was he developing feelings for this human? She wasn't even his species, but she had come to know him better in the last several weeks and unums (months). And she didn't put him down. If anything, if he was in a bad mood from one of the others giving him a hard time, she would seem to know what to say to soothe his frustrations.

Just thinking about these things was making his heart pound harder. His stomach also felt a little weird. He also couldn't help thinking about what she said about the possibility of offspring. A chance perhaps to produce a Skeksis offspring. It sounded too good to be true, but the chances of ever finding out how were slim to none. Sil wasn't the Scientist by any means.

None of the Skeksis were virgins. They all had their moments when they felt like doing their own mating fun. Sil hadn't been on any for a long time. Just the thought of offspring and his new feelings were making him aroused. He had to take care of this before he could sleep.

He took care of himself and calmed down before he finally fell asleep.