Chapter CIII (103) - Winter’s End Ball
Anata swirled in her ballgown, giggling as the blue fabric twisted around her legs. After helping the girl into the outfit, Aoi had bummed at jump off Kizu and started back up to the academy. When Kizu asked the necromancer why she wanted to head back up instead of studying on Owl’s Respite, she surprised him by saying she had a date to the ball.
Kizu felt immense gratitude at having his niece go with him. The thought of bringing an actual date tied his stomach up in knots. This was definitely the right decision. It was less stressful for him and made his niece extremely excited.
He wore the formal outfit Basil sewed for him several months ago. While the green and brown outfit didn’t match with Anata’s blue and pink dress, Kizu didn’t really care much.
With Mort riding on her shoulder, they set out towards the academy. Mort wore a pink neckerchief to match Anata. It only cost Kizu a dozen puncture wounds on his hands from the monkey’s teeth.
These day’s Mort spent more time with Anata than he did with Kizu. They still went on their nightly runs around the forest, scavenging for brewing supplies, but Kizu dedicated too much time to books for Mort’s taste. He preferred playing games with Anata and messing around with the skeleton gnome sailors. With spring break fast approaching though, Kiz was looking forward to spending more time with his familiar.
When they arrived at the corridor in front of the ballroom, they approached a James stationed in front of the double doors.
“Hello,” Kizu said. “You have masks for us, right?”
“Of course, simply place your head in the helmet and visualize what you would like.” The James gestured at two full head helmets laid out on a table. They were round metal domes with no eye slits. The only opening was the base.
First, Kizu lifted Mort off Anata’s head and slid one of the offered helmets onto her. He didn’t bother taking off the circlet she wore everywhere, the helmet fit over it without issue. It wobbled, far too large for her tiny skull, but it should work just fine. Then he placed one on his own head, picturing a simple green eye mask, to match his outfit.
Professor Kateshi had gifted them the enchanted objects as an apology, of a sort, for thrusting the masquerade theme on them so suddenly. She had crafted the devices herself and as Kizu removed the helmet and examined himself in the mirror, he had to marvel at the skill of a master enchanter. The green eye mask was exactly as he had pictured it in his mind.
He helped Anata remove her helmet and sighed at the thing plastered on her face. A bat had wrapped itself across her face, with slits in its wings to see out of. She rapidly looked between himself and the mirror on the table, smiling giddily.
“Very creative,” Kizu complimented. He had practically no knowledge of fashion, but even he could see it clashing spectacularly with her baby blue ballgown with pink accents. It didn’t really matter though.
They entered the ballroom.
The last Kizu had seen of it, it had all still been a work in progress. Just the bones of the decorations. Now though, it was like walking into another world.
Half of the room was a winter wonderland, with snow covered pines and an ice-skating rink surrounded by the ice sculptures he had set up. The other half was a springtime paradise, with pink cherry blossoms stretching over a babbling creek and origami animals scattered about among the chatting students. That extra budget Kateshi had given them hadn’t gone to waste. The caterers had supplied all manner of treats, split between winter themed and spring themed foods.
In the center of it all, students danced while a small orchestra played over to the side. One thing Kizu couldn’t help but notice though was how sparsely populated the winter side of the ballroom was. While looking beautiful, he quickly realized the low temperature kept everyone at bay.
The students all wore masks. To his dismay, he realized Anata’s stood out far less than his own. He remained in a minority of standard looking masks while the majority opted for bizarrely inventive objects on their faces.
Ione saw him and waved him over. Accompanying her was none other than Jak the gnome. She wore a mask that looked like her skin peeled back to show the red brains under her skull while thick, demonic horns spiraled off of her forehead. While Jak countered that look with a mask covered in exotic feathers of every color imaginable. His eye holes glinted, rainbow glass replacing his usual spectacles. The sight of them together made Kizu feel weird and unsettled, but he shoved the feeling away as they approached.
“Ooh, I love your mask Anata,” Ione said cheerily. “You came up with that on your own?”
“Decided to stick to something more traditional?” Jak asked Kizu.
“You mean, boring,” Ione corrected before Kizu could answer. “We had the option to choose anything at all, and that’s what you went with? You look a pair with my sister.”
Kizu scanned the crowd, looking for Sene. He spotted her talking to Professor Kateshi and a few officially dressed adults wearing full blank facemasks that Kizu assumed to be the judges. While they wore full oval facemasks with no distinguishable features besides their colors, Sene wore an eye mask akin to his own. The only difference was that hers was black, to match her conservative dress, instead of his green.
Kizu groaned. Of course he had to match Sene of all people.
"I'd be careful if I were you," Ione said in a conspiratorial whisper, crouching next to Anata. "I think your date might be two-timing you."
Kizu rolled his eyes. "Who is Sene's date, anyway?"
"She didn't bring one."
"Wait, seriously? She made a big fuss about us finding one."
"She's above such things," Jak said dryly. "Likely believes she doesn't have time to waste on dating."
While Sene wasn't the easiest person to get along with, Kizu still felt bad for the girl. He doubted Sene attended the ball alone by choice.
The song changed and Jak asked Ione to dance. She shrugged and joined him on the floor. Kizu thought the image almost comical, as the gnome wasn't even a full meter tall, but realized with a bit of mirth that his own dance companion was the same. He'd likely look far more silly than them, soon enough. Besides, at least Jak looked like knew how to dance as he guided Ione through the steps. As a child, Anna had taught him the basic dance steps, but those memories were buried so deep as to be irrelevant.
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But it wasn't like he cared about looking foolish.
"May I have this dance?" Kizu asked Anata, holding out a hand to her. She giddily grabbed it and dragged him out onto the dancefloor.
They bumbled around, getting in everyone else's way as they spun around. People began to dance in the other direction whenever he and Anata approached. He considered dancing up closer to Ione but decided against it. Getting in Ione’s way was one thing, but he’d feel bad about ruining Jak’s night.
He was enjoying himself, right up until he saw Emilia. She wore an elaborately designed half face mask, covering the left side of her face. Ulric, her dance partner, wore the other half of the mask on the right side of his face. Despite himself, Kizu took satisfaction in the large limp Ulric endured while dancing. His teeth were clenched, smiling through pain. A quick glance with his spellsense showed that Ulric kept himself standing with an enhancement spell.
Rationally, he shouldn’t feel jealous. He had been the instigator of terminating their relationship. But unfortunately, he didn’t feel particularly rational.
Anata tugged on his sleeve, making Kizu realize he had stopped dancing in the middle of the floor. He smiled at her and tried to resume, but his heart wasn’t in it anymore. After a bit more swaying and twirling, they returned to the edge to go find some food.
Kizu, knowing Anata’s penchant for finding trouble, never let his niece out of his sight. Not when there were so many people around. And it was a good thing too, as someone with a full-face mask stylized like a perpetually overly smiley person took a knee beside her and started speaking. She reached out to touch Anata but jerked back as Mort lurched forward to bite her hand.
“Excuse me,” Kizu butted in, putting himself between the masked person and Anata. “Can I help you?”
He expected to hear the voice of a friend, someone familiar with Anata. Instead, it was a squeaky voiced girl whose pitch kept warbling. He immediately felt something off about her.
“Is this your sister?” she asked.
“That’s not your business,” Kizu responded coldly.
“Not my business that you came with a child? It’s certainly odd. She’s definitely not old enough to be a student here.”
“Yes. Not your business,” Kizu repeated. “Take it up with the headmaster.”
“Oh, he already knows, does he? My mistake.”
The woman took her leave, glancing back over her shoulder to look down at Anata. Kizu figured she must be a caterer and made a note to ask Sene about her after the dance. Whatever restaurant that woman was from, they wouldn’t be catering any other Student Council activities if Kizu had his way.
“You need to be careful,” Kizu warned Anata as he handed her a glass of punch. “I know the people you’ve met on the surface seem friendly and trustworthy. But not everyone is. Keep your guard up. And stay with me or one of our friends.”
Anata nodded and sipped her drink. The visible part of her face lit up at the taste and she started guzzling the juice.
Speaking of friends, Kizu spotted Aoi gracefully swoop past. The princess obviously had extensive dance training as she elegantly glided across the floor. She wore a skeletal mask and her usual pair of braids, which was a dead giveaway to her identity for Kizu. Her partner, on the other hand, Kizu didn’t recognize. It was another teenage girl, though a bit taller, wearing an even more luxurious dress than the princess. It cut low, exposing far more than just a perfect set of shoulders. Her mask was equally as dazzling, a multicolor display that glinted in the light and reflected it back.
“Basil?” Kizu asked Anata.
Mort hummed in agreement from his spot on top of Anata’s head. She giggled, wiping her mouth with her dress’ sleeve.
“Yeah, nobody else at the academy would wear a light show on their face. Good to see he and Aoi finally made up.”
As they lounged off to the side, Kizu spectated the other students. It was a fun challenge to discern who was who under the masks.
He spotted his Music F classmates, Tara and Gregor dancing together with Tara pressed so closely that Gregor practically carried her across the dancefloor. And Yon danced with a partner off in the less popular winter side of the ballroom. They both wore suits and Yon looked uncharacteristically happy.
Edgar, the medical assistant that had helped him at the beginning of the semester, danced alongside one of Emilia’s followers. And his old girlfriend Raygen, the student responsible for ‘healing’ Kizu’s leg, danced nearby with an unfamiliar boy. It looked as if she was trying to get her ex’s attention, but Edgar’s eyes were focused solely on the girl in his arms.
Tip and Weston, friends of Ulric and Harvey, both had dates, but there was no sign of Harvey anywhere. Unsurprising, but Kizu still found himself a bit sad. Date or no date, the Harvey from the start of the semester wouldn’t have missed this dance for the world.
Kizu also noticed his brother’s absence, though that was even less surprising than Harvey. Finn showed no sign of affection for anything other than studying. The fact that Kizu had lived with a hag in the jungle for ten years and somehow turned out more sociable than his brother was an irony not lost on him.
A few of the professors participated in the festivities as well. Arclight and Oasaji danced together, the turkey wearing a human face mask over his face, though his red wattle still stuck out from below, making the face look decapitated. Arclight lifted the turkey up and threw him into the air, he spiraled back down in a glide before they resumed their dance seamlessly.
Emilia had moved on from the dancefloor and onto the ice-skating rink off to the side. Kizu recalled her explaining the sport to him back at the festival. She showed off her skill, leaping and twirling across the ice with even more grace than she’d displayed while dancing. Ulric stood applauding off to the side.
Looking down at Anata, she watched the dancers with complete fixation. Wonder clearly written across her face. He knew he’d made the right choice in priorities.
“Want a break from nannying?” Ione asked, appearing from the dancefloor with Jak to her side. Her face was covered in sweat, dripping down to her cheeks from beneath her demon mask.
“You’re okay watching her for a minute?” Kizu asked.
Ione waved him away and he maneuvered along the edges of the crowd until he reached the front of the ballroom. Sene stood, looking up at the judges who had just seated themselves in wooden thrones that hovered above the crowds, overlooking the dance floor.
“Do you want to dance?” Kizu asked her. He felt that he should at least offer. She had set up this entire party and didn’t even have a date to show for it. He felt bad.
Sene didn’t respond for a minute. Then she looked over her shoulder and started.
“Were you asking me?”
“You’re the one I’m looking at.”
She bit her lip, looking up at the judges who were chatting amongst themselves. Two of the seats, likely belonging to the tutors they’d hired, were empty but the others each wore the full oval facemasks Kizu had spotted earlier in the night.
“Yes, I suppose. But only for a minute.” She took his arm and guided him off to the side.
“Ah, before we start, I should warn you that I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Fine, I’ll lead, you follow.”
Sene was very forceful as she directed their movements. He could tell they looked stiff, but far less chaotic than his dance with Anata. Sene smiled to herself as they danced. For a moment, she looked like her sister. Perhaps that was the biggest difference between the two of them. One of them was far happier than the other.
“Why didn’t you arrive early for the dance instructions?” Sene asked. “You knew we hired some of the best tutors available. And they’re still about somewhere.”
“I decided it wasn’t worth the bother. I was going to stand out with my dance partner regardless.”
“Well, don’t expect to get very far in that competition you arranged. These professionals are picky people. And the other judges are high nobility as far as I can tell. They’ve questioned me about almost every student here. Likely they’re using this as a political move and are going to vote for whoever’s family is in their best graces.”
Kizu processed that as Sene pushed him forward and out of a couple’s way. She sounded irritated by the process, which he supposed made sense. As far as he could tell, Sene had achieved all of her positions by her own academic merit.
“Thank you for the dance,” she said. “You’re terrible, but I enjoyed it. Now, the competition is about to begin. I need to go facilitate things, go find your partner.”