“Have you heard? Lord Whisper has gone to personally guard Keep Seton against the the eastern tribesmen.”
“Now of all times? It seems almost inappropriate considering his military can barely keep house Jurn in check”
“Jurn? You really think it's them even after all their farmlands got burnt to the ground? The Geld's obviously benefit the most from the situation, isn't that right?”
“But the attack a couple nights ago on Galeide's life was done by a Brent family servant wasn't it?”
Dei stood still atop the second floor mezzanine by the unoccupied seat of Lord Julius, head forward as she affixed her natural gaze squarely on an uninteresting section of wooden wall. Her spectral sight however, was focused on anything but that boring view, twisting around to take a look at the gossip mongers talking between each other at the nearby table. She wouldn't even say she was particularly good at eavesdropping, its just that when you took away anything that resembled a human characteristic and made someone stand stock still, they had a habit of forgetting you were even there.
Marianne stood beside her in an equally statuesque display of courtly etiquette, an unspoken agreement between the two of them that there was a competition to see who could be the most well behaved elbow servant behind Lord Julius. Not that it mattered that Marianne was the one who did all of the actual duties like opening doors, delivering messages, and fetching random objects for Julius. Dei had far better things to do, like watching their Lord in waiting spin about the dance floor with a thin looking girl in a plain blue dress that she was fairly certain was named Janette.
She had been fourth in line to the Jocell family head of household up until four months ago, and very well hidden from the eyes of the court as far as Dei could tell. Recently however, she had been unceremoniously promoted to second in line to the family name due to some rather unfortunate accidents among her older relatives. The sudden upward moves to her position had evidently forced her father, Prince Jarrelius Jocell, to start introducing her to the court despite his obvious wishes to keep her away from state affairs.
The Jocell family certainly had a strange habit of naming their children with first names that started with J, a fact that continued to seem downright childish to Dei. Still, considering the way the prince watched the dance floor as Julius twirled around in circles with Janette, childish would be a polite way to describe the man. The man's flush of red cheeks and puckered lips would be downright entertaining to watch if it had been present on a boy less than half the man's age. As it was though, when the man tried to hide his expression behind an obviously forced smile, it gave a less than favorable indication of his character.
A woman sat across from Julius's empty seat without asking, and without invitation. The statues opposite her betrayed no expression at the sudden presence, but Dei had a feeling she wouldn't be the only one staring daggers at the Lady dressed in green.
“Now, now girls. You do know you are at least allowed to look around a little bit every once in a while, don't you? Or did Lucius not tell you?”
Neither of them responded to the woman Palm, clad in her typically distinct fashion that Dei had eventually discovered was called a cheongsam. Perks of being a wallflower at all the routine luncheons that Julius went to was the fact that she got to listen in on the recent ladies gossip, especially about fashion in the capital city.
Palm had brought her own wine glass this time, and stared over the top of the glass in her hands as her eyes darted between the two servants.
“So which one of you is the one pulling Julius's strings? Or is it the other way around?”
More silence awaited her as the trio performed their required roles to a perfect degree.
“Well, if you're too shy to talk openly in a ballroom like this, I can at least understand that. But I'm not here to threaten you or anything. I have a feeling I wouldn't live to see the other end of a week if I did.”
She swirled the wine in her glass, eyeing the light sediment that spun within the ruby liquid as she considered her next words.
“So. Assuming you actually are trying to do what I think your doing, you might end up having trouble finding someone willing to sit in a particularly hard role to fill. Just be a doll and let Julius know that if he succeeds with this mad little plan, I'll take care of the greens for him. And of course if he fails, I'll laugh along with everyone else when he gets strung up by the noose.” The woman smiled as she spoke, as though she were merely telling a passing joke in the courtly ambiance.
A man's voice bellowed over the room as the Jocell Prince stood up from his seat.
“Unhand my daughter at once!”
Dei shifted her attention down to the dance floor to find that Lord Julius had gone missing, and the girl he had been dancing with a moment before had somehow ended up in the arms of Lord Penton.
—
Minutes before, Julius excused himself from his table as soon as he noticed lady D'elm walking out onto the dance floor with Lord Penton. He'd had to pull quite a few strings to get this whole situation put together, but if he could manage to get things right the payoff would be worth it.
His feet descended quickly down the winding stairwell to the first floor as her did a quick scan of the hall and found his target hiding at a small table filled with ladies in waiting. Janette Jocell looked up at him quizzically as soon as she noticed him walking up to her table. He dropped into a deep bow beside her seat without a moment's hesitation, one leg back as he extended his hand out towards her in a formal offer.
“My Lady, would you care to dance with me tonight?”
“I, uh.” The girl stammered at his request as she started to look over at the ladies waiting beside her for help. Another woman in blue across from her started to shake her head, but Julius continued before the girl could be swayed.
“I'm quite well connected with your father's dealings, so I figured I simply must do you the courtesy of introducing you to the court this night.”
The young girl was noticeably apprehensive of the older man, but when he mentioned her father and the color all but drained out of her face, he knew he had taken the right path with this one. Her lower lip quivered only slightly before she drew it into a thin smile and took his hand, allowing him to guide her out of her seat.
The older woman in a matching blue dress stood up with them to place her hand on Julius's shoulder before he took her away.
“Lord Julius Brent. Don't you think you should be pursuing a lady more in line with your own age?” She said.
Janette blushed rather bashfully as she looked over at her older relative, but the Lady Jessamine had taken far too tactful an approach to win against Julius.
“Nonsense my Lady. I'll be right back after this dance to see to your own needs as well. I mean only to ensure that she has a respectful old man to entice all the younger suitors to her side.” He walked with the girl as he talked, withdrawing outside of a polite talking distance just as he finished his explanation and leaving a rather upset looking lady of the court. It was hardly proper, he was more than aware of that, but proper nobility hardly mattered at this point.
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Janette eyed him carefully as they drew closer to the dance floor, obviously suspicious of his intentions, but they had already been seen approaching the stage together by too many people. They were in too deep already, and her courtly etiquette would keep her from backing out by this point as their steps hit the wooden floor at the same time. He guided her over to the side of the dance floor near where Lord Penton had assembled for his own dance, and the man even smiled at him when they caught eyes.
‘The unlucky fool of a man. I'll have to apologize for this one day.’ Julius thought.
He turned to face Janette head on as they both settled into the starting stances indicated by the pre-song tuning of the nearby orchestra. Her petite face glared up at him, lined by thin brown hair that had been pulled back into a simple braid running down the side of her chest. It was certainly not the fashion these days, but he supposed she hadn't been intending on becoming the center of attention tonight. As the song began and they fell into their well practiced choreography, the girl began to speak with him.
“Lord Julius. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company tonight?” She asked.
He raised his eyebrows, surprised that the girl felt comfortable enough with the dance to hold a conversation at the same time.
“Well isn't it obvious my Lady? To ruin you of course.” He flashed a smile with the words. A real smile.
“You jest, surely.” The girl shook her head as the two stepped into a tighter section of the dance with her hand around his shoulder.
“Yes, I suppose I do. But would you really believe me if I told you that tonight would end up making both of us head of our houses?”
The girl raised a single eyebrow at him as they danced, obviously not taking him seriously. That was fine enough with him for now.
“I didn't take you for a courtly jester my lord.” She tried to deflect the situation with humor but he pressed on.
“Perhaps one day, but only in service to a shard-bearer of my own choosing.” He winked at the girl, though she looked nearly lost by his words at this point.
“That's treason my lord.” The pair snapped into a held position as she whispered into his ear. He continued as the song released them into a series of spins around each other.
“It's only treason if I lose.” The eyes that stared back at him at those words were not quite the eyes of a child as he had been expecting. There was something hard in her soul, lying dormant below the soft veneer she put on. It only made him smile even wider.
“Until next time, Janette.” He said, letting her hand go during the final spin in the sequence and calling out to another nearby woman, “Lady D'elm!”
He caught the aspiring member of house Brent as she let go of her own dancing partner to turn to Julius.
“I have an urgent message from the house prince, please come with me.” He said the sentence aloud to at least cover the two of them if anything went wrong, and they walked off the dance floor hastily passing between several couples. When they reached the side of the dance floor and were mostly hidden by a structural pillar that held up the second floor mezzanine, he looked back over at Janette where she currently found herself in the arms of Lord Penton. The two stared down at each other in a rather tight embrace with pure shock on their faces as they realized what had just happened. From his own perspective, they obviously looked like something had gone wrong and he had just caught the girl, but from the second floor seating perhaps it would look different.
“Unhand my daughter at once!”
The voice came booming down from the second floor of the ballroom, causing both Janette and Penton to look up at the man with matching confusion as they merely reacted to a fluke event. That was evidently not the right response for the Jocell Prince as he plucked Lord Penton off of the dance floor and pulled him up into the air while the wall fixtures on the second floor rattled behind the Prince.
“You defiled my sister, and now you attempt to sway my own daughter before my very eyes?” The man's face was as red as a turnip as he yelled across the hall, orchestral music coming to a stop as the entire ballroom turned to face the growing conflict.
“My Lord, I didn't-” Penton tried to explain himself, but was cut off by the Prince.
“You didn't what? Didn't think? Just who even are you? Nothing but minor. blooded. trash.” The man flung Lord Penton towards the floor with the words, punctuating each word with another slamming motion into the hardwood.
With the very first impact one of the man's arms broke as he tried to protect himself, and by the time he had been thrown face first into the ground the second time, half of the ballroom had already started running from the brutal scene. Women ran screaming away from the bloody spray errupting from the body, while men backed up slowly then escorted their dates away from the room and the gruesome display
Julius withdrew along with the rest of the crowd, looking back at the broken mess of a body that used to be Lord Penton as Prince Jocell slammed the man into the ground over and over.
“I'm sorry Penton. Glad that you had a chance to play with the big boys for a bit though, right?” Julius paid him the apology he so dearly deserved as he left with the press of the crowd through the ballroom doors.
—
“Julius, what the hell have you just done?”
“Why nothing uncle. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?”
“You know that I don't believe for a second that you've been doing ‘nothing’. Not now. Not ever.”
Julius stood in a well furnished burgundy room after a long and stressful ride home from a rather perfect night at the ball. Only to be requested in the Brent prince's study immediately upon returning to the manor. Julius waved over his shoulder, dismissing his two elbow servants from the conversation before Prince Brent stopped him.
“Marianne can go, the D'elm girl will stay.” He said.
“I didn't know you paid attention to the servants' names now.” Julius said.
“I typically don't, but when my fool of a nephew starts bringing two maids with him to every affair he attends it starts to get a bit noticeable.”
“Awe, it sounds like you actually care about me.” Julius coo'd.
“Don't play with me boy!” The man slammed the wooden mantle over his fine fireplace, shaking the decorative sword that was resting on top of it.
“Or what? You'll crush me into pulp like Lord Jocell just did?”
The words hung in the air as the shock of the moment slowly registered on the head of the family's face. He didn't speak, instead thrusting out a single arm towards Dei, pushing her back until she made contact with the wall with so much power it shook the entire room. Books rattled on the bookshelves and the sword slid wildly across the room as Derren Brent let his anger out on the surroundings. After a few good seconds of unveiled fury, the man let go of the room, letting Dei's body fall to the floor where Julius turned around to look at her.
‘Please, don't kill him yet Dei.’ He hoped that his eyes could convey his simple intentions otherwise her own anger might end them.
She dutifully stood up from the ground and resumed her perfect position by the side of his back.
“While you're over there playing games with the court for gods know what end, I'm trying to keep this country afloat Julius. Can't you tell whats happening with that big fucking head of yours boy?”
Julius cocked his big head to the side, content to let Derren spin his own story as the older man threw his hands up in the air.
“Someone's been burning up the better part of the western coastline. Hundreds of acres of the grain and flax fields, gone without a single hint of reason. It's like they're practically trying to send this country to an early grave this winter while the Prince of Whispers is distracted by some new offensive orchestrated by the Golden Kingdom. And you think that now is the time to undermine the Jocell family?” He was outright yelling now. Rather un-princely of him.
Julius threw on what he thought would look like a disarming smile before he spoke. “I really don't know what you're talking about uncle.”
“And I don't believe you for a second! Just know that if I ever catch you fucking around with the stability of the realm I will destroy you Julius. You and your fool of a consort.” He marked his words by slamming down on Dei's shoulders, toppling the girl forward until she landed on her hands and knees by Julius's side, then released the two of them with a wave of his hand.
Julius bowed deeply while he gave Dei a chance to stand back up. Hopefully her pride wasn't hurt too badly as he ushered the girl after him as he left the study.
‘Oh uncle. If only you were smart enough to see all the dots you haven't quite connected yet. Maybe then you would have earned your position by merit instead of stupid luck.’
The door slammed behind them as the two left the study.