13.1: The Royal Ball (Patreon)

“You came all the way to Dakheng?” Jasmine asked. “Why?”

It had been a whirlwind of activity after we’d gotten back to the manor. The Alzaq patriarch had, rather predictably, been furious to have an adventuring party interrupting his meeting with House Rayes, but the arrival of the four nobles with a prisoner in hand had calmed him down. The visiting delegation from House Rayes—Jasmine, her mother and father, and two men a little older than us that I didn’t recognize—had immediately clamoured to question Faye, the elder Rayes claiming that they would be able to achieve results through methods that weren’t available to the Alzaqs. Lord Alzaq had made a rather big deal of the prisoner being his catch, as if he’d had literally anything to do with the capture itself, and Orchid had been trying to mediate when Jasmine had simply up and left. Orchid had paused his efforts for just long enough to tell us adventurers that we were excused for the day and could come back tomorrow if we still wished to continue, and we’d left almost immediately afterwards.

As far as I could tell, they were still arguing in there, but I was pretty sure we’d gotten all we needed out of the Strike Team Leader already. Also, I didn’t want to have to see her smug fucking face for a single second longer. There was a risk that she would divulge my deepest secret while she was in there, but something told me she wouldn’t. That look on her face when she’d seen her words strike home… she was the type of the person who would be satisfied with settling for just that victory.

Jasmine and I were alone now, the other adventurers having returned to their temporary lodgings in Dakheng proper. She’d healed me fully, promising to take me to a hospital by the night’s end so that it would stick. The two of us wandered around the noble sector as the sun started to dip behind the horizon, walking through streets surrounded by opulent mansions that probably cost more to construct than the rest of the city combined.

“I wanted to,” I answered Jasmine. “Just a feeling.”

“Wouldn’t have anything to do with me, would it?” she asked, and though I wasn’t looking straight at her I could tell there was a grin in those words.

“No, I came to see the summer estates of the nobles,” I said, and Jasmine chuckled. “In seriousness, I needed a job, and this was the most appealing open one.”

“Well, you must admit that the summer homes are quite nice,” Jasmine said.

They were. Dakheng was the official capital of Tayan, but most of the Houses’ heads spent the majority of their time in the cities that their family ran, returning to Dakheng only in times of crisis. A noble visiting would never stoop to sleeping in an inn, though, and thus came the luxurious mansions of the noble sector. Most of the properties here were tastefully designed, if a little excessive, and I had to admit that it painted a pretty picture in the sunset.

“Wish I could get one of these for myself,” I said. “How big’s yours?”

“It’s not mine,” Jasmine said, making a face. “Just because I was born into it doesn’t mean it’s something I own or deserve to own.”

“It must be enormous, then,” I replied, poking her shoulder.

“It’s… it’s something, that’s for sure,” Jasmine said. She opened her mouth to say something else, then closed it again.

“Out with it.” I gestured towards her. “What do you want to say?”

“Did you truthfully come out to the capital for a full week simply because you needed a mission?” Jasmine asked. “Nothing else?”

“Of course I would pick this over a shitty demolition job back in Yaguan,” I said. “The fact that I knew you’d be nearby definitely helped solidify this as the choice, though.”

“You know you don’t need to go that far for me, right?” Jasmine said. “I know you don’t like being around nobles, and the nature of this job doesn’t make avoiding them a possibility.”

“You say that like you aren’t one,” I pointed out, injecting levity into my voice. “I met a tolerable one, though. Orchid of House Alzaq. Know him?”

“Oh, Orchid,” Jasmine said with enthusiasm that was just a little too strained to be genuine. “Yes, he’s like me. One of the more progressive nobles, and a general pleasure to be around.”

“Is something wrong?” I asked. “You seem a little, I don’t know, on guard? That’s a good term for it.”

“No, there’s nothing to worry about,” Jasmine said, dismissing my question in a tone that indicated the opposite. “It’s been a stressful few days, is all.”

“How goes the operation on the side of House Rayes?” I asked. “Any progress on your end?”

“Our investigators are mundane, holding no oaths that would help,” Jasmine said. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but House Rayes is pretty uniquely disadvantaged in that our oathholders tend towards Ditas, and not a single one of us is oriented towards the human mind, which means that interrogating people is a lot harder.”

“Ah, the enforcers,” I said. “Then have you accompanied another House?”

Jasmine shook her head. “They don’t want us. The Houses are in constant competition with one another, it wouldn’t do to be indebted to another unless the situation was truly dire.”

“No fights, then?”

“I didn’t say that,” Jasmine said. “Just no pitched battles like the one you apparently had. It’s all hit-and-run. Whoever the one behind them is, they know us well. House Rayes has yet to enter a confrontation in which we directly fight our enemy.”

“You’ve been alright?”

“Of course. Not a scratch on me, even after two ambushes today alone.”

“All that, and you’re still no closer to finding the identity of the one behind all this?” I asked. “Surely even non-oathholder investigators should have at least found a clue, right?”

“Do not tell your employer this, but there has been evidence that implies that at least part of House Tempet is involved,” Jasmine explained. “It’s not wholly convincing, but it’s a lead.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Lord Alzaq anything,” I said, overemphasizing the title. “He’s not my favorite man.”

A bit of an understatement, that.

“Not mine, either,” Jasmine said, making a face. “He’s shrewd, but he’s hateful and he holds grudges.”

“I can see that,” I said, thinking back to the way he’d greeted the adventuring group as less than human before leaving.

“Anyway, that aside, will your group be attending the ball?” Jasmine asked.

I blinked at the non-sequitur. “I haven’t heard anything about a ball. Wouldn’t they not allow commoners?”

“There’s a royal ball two days from now,” Jasmine said. “Most of the Houses currently in Dakheng were invited.”

“What for?” I asked. “Or did the Crown decide that they just felt like it one day?”

“The ball is a facade,” Jasmine said. “That’s what House Rayes thinks, at least. The Crown probably wants to investigate everyone who was in the royal castle just before the time of the murder, and the guest list is the same as that last gathering.”

“Which means the murderer will probably be there,” I surmised. “Meaning guards.”

“We will be bringing ours, at least,” Jasmine said. “Into the ball, as well, since the threats come from within. So long as those serving as our bodyguards are able to avoid horrendously violating formal etiquette, there will not be a problem.”

“That sounds… interesting, if nothing else,” I said, concealing the irrational burst of excitement within me. My family had been an avid participant in these kinds of events when I was younger, and that had stuck with me like so much else.

“You should come,” Jasmine said. “Find a dress, join the festivities. Leave the investigation up to others.”

“I’m no noble,” I pointed out. “I wasn’t invited.”

“Easily dealt with,” Jasmine said, snapping her fingers. “You get brought in as bodyguards.”

“If I do, then I have to actually protect the investigators,” I countered. “And besides, it’s not even confirmed that the group hired by the Alzaqs is going to be brought in for the ball. I didn’t even know it existed until you told me just now.”

“That’s fine,” Jasmine said. “Most of the guards are likely just going to be on guard. Nothing stopping them from participating, if they know enough. As for your second point, if you are not brought in by the Alzaqs, I’ll add you to our retinue myself.”

“Really?” I was a little taken aback at that. I didn’t remember all too much about these noble parties, but I definitely did remember that being invited to one was a hassle even for nobles, let alone adding a random commoner.

“Of course,” Jasmine said. “You know how these nobles are. They’ll excuse a villager like you if I’m with you, as much as I hate that that’s how things are.”

“You’re not wrong,” I admitted. I thought back to Lord Alzaq, then much further back to my father. Either of them would be ready to view a noble’s commoner partner as a simple accessory, less a person and more a toy to be played with.

“Though I realize now that that might be a problem,” Jasmine frowned. “Sorry. I got excited and didn’t consider your general dislike of nobility.”

“It’s not a problem,” I lied. “I can deal with nobles so long as nobody tries to crush me under their status. All I need to do is avoid speaking to them.”

“You could pass for one, I think,” Jasmine said. “Especially with the right clothes.”

“I suppose that’s true,” I said. “You’ll actually bring me?”

“Of course,” Jasmine said. “No questions asked.”

“Wow,” I said, unsure of how to respond. It really was a rather generous offer.

“So will you come?” Jasmine asked.

“When given an offer like that,” I said, a stupid, childish grin on my face, “How can I say no?”

____________________

“That is certainly a price.” I stared at the paper slip tied to the dress.

I hadn’t been one for shopping, when I was a child, and so I’d never seen the cost of the noble life we’d led. This dress—a dark blue affair, with a floral pattern around the chest area—was all too revealing of how separate the lives that nobility and villagers led. Jasmine had suggested this place, a high-end boutique just off Dakheng’s noble sector, and I’d agreed without paying much mind.

“I’ll be paying for it, don’t worry,” Jasmine said. “I can handle that.”

“You’re sure?” I asked, eyes still glued to the price tag. “That’s a lot of suns.”

“Fifty suns, right?” Jasmine asked. “That’s manageable. I’ll pull from the family fund.”

Fifty suns was a thousand moons, or twelve thousand coppers. Enough to feed a family of four for half a decade if utilized properly, and Jasmine was talking about casually spending that much on a dress for a girl she’d met only a month ago.

And when one considered them with the other Houses, Jasmine’s House Rayes wasn’t even in the top ten richest families. The amount of wealth that nobles had tossed around—that I had once tossed around—genuinely boggled the mind. A decade spent living off spare coppers in Syashan had reset my understanding of money to a grounded, commoner one, and some part of me had to be appalled at the filthy wealth that I would be accepting a gift from.

That part of me, however, was largely drowned out by the warmth in my chest sparked by Jasmine’s offer.

“They won’t notice?” I asked. “That you spent a ton of money on a bodyguard?”

“They’ll be happy, if anything,” Jasmine sighed. “You may have heard Alex call me the Rayes ‘prodigy’?”

“I have.”

“I may be on the stronger end of the Rayes heirs, but my family adheres to tradition and does birth-order succession. I am far, far down the line, and my parents have been asking me to search for a spouse for years now.”

“A spouse?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat. “What… what kind of spouse?”

“Are you asking me if I am attracted to women?” Jasmine asked, a mischievous smile playing over her face. “I suppose so. Man, woman, it matters not. My mother found a dozen men who wished for my hand and almost as many women, but as much as I could acknowledge their beauty, I never felt a connection with any of them.”

“And,” I said, aware that my face was rapidly reddening, “And you would tell them that…”

“That I’ve chosen to be wed to you?” Jasmine asked, her smile widening. Gone was the reserved, almost meek Jasmine that had flinched away at the mere thought of close physical contact. Our interactions now were ones of words, a court in which she entirely had the ball. “Perhaps, but they will ask too many questions if I went with that story. I would introduce you as my date for the night.”

“That still sounds like it would create questions,” I said, the heat that had been pervading my body cooling some. “At the end of the day, I’d still be a bodyguard.”

“My parents have almost given up on my marriage, I was so unreceptive to their efforts,” Jasmine said. “They’ll be so excited that I show even the slightest interest in a relationship with… well, anyone, that they will not ask more questions than necessary.”

“Necessary?”

“You know how it is. Parents are nosy.”

I did not, in fact, know how it was, given that mine had rightfully met their end early on and that my primary experience with this kind of thing came through dusty old romance novels from the dilapidated Syashan library.

Something must have shown on my face, because Jasmine’s expression softened immediately.

“I’m sorry,” she said, the energy from earlier missing now. “I didn’t think—“

“It’s fine,” I said with a smile. “It really is. Come on, show me what else we have here.”

“Are you sure?” Jasmine asked. “I never mean to offend, especially not you.”

“It is, truly,” I told her. “I might be offended if you don’t find more dresses. These are beautiful.”

Jasmine laughed softly, and when she spoke again the energy in her voice was almost fully restored. “They are, aren’t they?”

I was a little bit behind the times, in terms of the current fashion, to put it lightly, so I let Jasmine guide me.

She was a natural hand at this, and I was content to simply be led around and listen to her.

“—and this one has a slit down the side of the leg, which some might find provocative but I think you would absolutely pull it off—“

Jasmine seemed in her element here, and her enthusiasm was infectious. It was hard not to get excited as the selection of dresses that she wanted me to try increased. The fact that they all had designs that felt right helped. It looked like the noble girl had actually gained a pretty solid sense of my tastes, which I had to appreciate.

She’d amassed four or five of them on her arms when she stopped looking for more. “I think that these are good to start with. Shall we?”

“I’m excited to try them,” I said, meaning it. “You’re not getting any?”

“Already have mine, you’ll get to see it later,” Jasmine said. “Henry! Can we get a room?”

“Take the third closet!” A man’s voice responded from the other end of the shop. I had to admire his projection, given that the store was a solid thirty meters across. “It’s open!”

“Thank you!” Jasmine replied, still keeping her light noble lilt even as she shouted. “I appreciate it!”

The “third closet,” as it turned out, was a bit of a misnomer. Jasmine led me to an unassuming wooden door at one end of the store, and it had opened into a proper lounge. A few sofas complete with lush cushions decorated the area, which was itself as large or larger than my university apartment had been. The carpet spanning most of the room had the Tayan colors, tasteful blending the gold and white. One curtained corner looked like it wasn’t carpeted, which I assumed was the actual place where people were meant to be getting changed.

Jasmine passed me the dresses, then gestured for me to go into the changing corner. It was more expansive than I’d expected, with a rack to hang the dresses on and a bench on which I could put my dirty clothes.

I shucked off my clothes, thankful that I’d had the presence of mind to at least request a quick change in an alleyway before we’d come here. The pants and shirt that I’d been wearing when we’d left the Alzaq manor had been crusted with blood and grime, and it would’ve felt wrong setting those down next to the pristine dresses Jasmine had selected.

The first dress I had was satin, colored a foresty green. I stepped into it, careful to keep myself from stretching it the wrong way. It fit snugly around me, though it was a touch loose in places. Jasmine had gotten my size almost perfect, which I had to be thankful for given that I didn’t know my measurements myself.

I hadn’t worn a proper dress in so long, I’d forgotten how they felt. The fabric was cool and soft against my skin, a comforting embrace that reminded me of more innocent days.

There was, however, one small issue. Over a decade spent without putting one of these on had erased the fact that putting a dress on required help to fully finish.

“Could I get a little help?” I asked. “I didn’t realize that the back would need to be fastened.”

“Oh, of course, sorry,” Jasmine said from the other side of the room. “It slipped my mind. I’ve gotten too used to, well…”

The term servants hung there in the air, but Jasmine didn’t voice the word, perhaps knowing that it wasn’t a discussion I wanted to have.

I heard rustling as the curtain opened and Jasmine stepped around the pile of clothes, and then the sound of her breath.

“This one is just a zipper, thankfully,” Jasmine said. “Some of them are more complicated.”

She was almost uncomfortably close to me. My back was turned to her, but I could feel the heat of her body next to mine, sense the change in airflow from her breaths.

A shiver ran down my spine as she moved even closer. By all rights, I should have been incredibly ill at ease with a noble so far into my personal space, but with Jasmine it felt different somehow.

I felt the shift in the fabric at my lower back, heard the slow progress of the zipper, and then suddenly there was a point of contact, a delicate finger brushing against the small of my back. The shiver returned with a vengeance. A small sound escaped my mouth.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jasmine said, backing off. “I, uh. I got it zipped.”

I turned around. The weight of the dress was a sensation that I knew I had once been accustomed to, but it was an unfamiliar one now, and facing Jasmine was a bit of a task. I would have to get used to this.

Jasmine was, for all her talk earlier, blushing fiercely. I looked into her eyes, and they darted away from my gaze. After a moment of looking quite like a child that had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, Jasmine recollected herself and took in the dress on me, eyes sweeping up and down.

“Wow,” Jasmine said. “You look beautiful.”

It was my turn to turn away from her eyes, now, hoping that the warmth I felt rushing to my face wasn’t showing externally. “Thank you.”

I lifted my arms, experimenting with moving around in the dress. It was frilly at the shoulders, strips of dark green fabric next to its straps forming a very short sleeve, and the frills got in the way when I tried to move too quickly.

I looked at the mirror inside the curtained area. It was a nice dress, but it felt like I was wearing something that wasn’t intended for me.

“I think it’s nice,” I said, “But it’s not the most… I don’t know how to say it.”

“I get what you mean,” Jasmine said. “I’ll step back. Try the others on, let me know when you need help.”

The next dress was tighter on me, a dark blue one with no straps and a cape of sheer fabric from the waist down. This time, Jasmine was able to secure the zipper without incident, which I had to admit I was ever so slightly disappointed by. This, we both agreed, looked excellent, and I felt a little more natural wearing it.

The third option was a wholly sleeveless one, silver with crisscrossing patterns of gold. It was heavy, and it was just a tad too close to the Tayan colors for me to feel comfortable in it.

The last was the one that Jasmine had called ‘provocative’ earlier, a strapless velvety black dress that hugged my body and featured a slit down the left leg that bared much of it to the open air. It gave a little more room for mobility than the other three, even if it trailed on the ground a little.

“I like this one,” I said, spinning around and feeling the fabric out. “It feels less restrictive than the others, and it looks nice without going overboard. What do you think?”

When Jasmine didn’t reply, I stopped spinning and turned to her. Her mouth was slightly open, but she wasn’t saying anything, and that blush from earlier, calmed over the course of the last few minutes, had returned.

“I’ll take that as an agreement,” I grinned.

Jasmine closed her mouth and swallowed before smiling back. “It’s amazing.”

“Wish it had some room to hide a knife, though,” I sighed. “I’m going to feel naked without one.”

“I can help with that, actually,” Jasmine said. “You’d be surprised, what you can do with your hair these days.”

“You have my attention,” I said. “A hair clip?”

“Something like that,” she replied. “I do not think we can get you one longer than five centimeters, but up to that should be alright.”

“That would be incredible,” I said. “You can get it for me?”

“Sure thing. By the night of the party, certainly. Have you settled on a dress?”

“I’ll be taking this one.” It was an easy choice. This last dress was the only one that I could move around in easily, and it had garnered the strongest reaction from my noble girl.

“I like that,” Jasmine said. “You’re sure?”

I took another look into the mirror. At myself, dressed in a manner that I hadn’t even considered for the better part of decade. At Jasmine, who was beaming from ear to ear.

“It’s perfect,” I told her.