"Papa, what…what is going on?"
"I…I don't know. Let me…I will sort this out."
With the decorations in place, Oriana watched from the side as she took a bite of the second dessert she had grabbed and saw a man enter the room with his family.
Albeit, they entered from inside the Royal Castle, and the crown on his head very clearly showed that he was the king.
Which made the young woman standing by his side, who was completely bewildered, the princess.
Most of the whole family was there, the King, Queen, princess and two sons all looked around the room at the decorations, seeing them to be different from what they had requested.
The most shocking of them all is the ice sculpture in the middle.
"My Dear… why does it look like Lady Greenthorn is about to-"
"I don't know," said the King as he quickly cut the Queen off. "But I can assure you this is not the request I passed along,"
Moving over to one of the men near him, who Oriana assumed was a butler or something similar, the King quickly spoke to him.
"James. What is the meaning of this, this, monstrosity?"
"Your Grace, I do not know. This is the first I have seen it, but I assure you, the request that was passed to the Merchants Guild did not ask for anything like that."
The butler was sweating profusely. Whether it was his fault or not, which obviously it wasn't, it was possible he would somehow be reprimanded in some way for this. He had been the one to pass along the request to the Guild.
Grabbing a nearby servant, he sent them off to the Merchants Guild in order to get an explanation on what had happened here.
This left the Royal Family to wander into the ballroom in a way that almost made them look like they were dazed.
They should have been announced and then given some sort of speech, but they were far to shell shocked to bother with that.
---
"What is with this sculpture. I know I didn't give a direct set of instructions on how to make it, but I did not ask for something like…this."
The king stood before the sculpture, staring up at the elegant monstrosity. Words eluded him for how to describe what was in front of him.
He turned to his daughter, the one who had requested this piece, with her adoration of the great Lady Greenthorn, and she, too, looked up at it aghast. The only saving grace was that while the message it appeared to provide was all over the place, the image of Lady Greenthorn was still stunning.
He could only be thankful that it was her visage that the princess was looking up at, rather than the scene it showed.
Looking around the rest of the room, many of the nobles moved out of his way as he wandered, and so far, none of them had spoken. Talking up without being addressed by the king, when he was clearly in the middle of something, was very disrespectful and a quick way to earn you problems down the line.
Many wanted to ask about the design that went into the ice sculpture, his reasons for choosing it, and why the dishes and drinks tasted… different. But alas, if the king had asked for these, who were they to voice an opinion that would surely get them ostracised?
That's not to say the king was some sort of dictator. No, he was a well-loved man and involved with the heroes in improving the city. But, he was the ultimate power in said city, nay, the kingdom. A person that no one wanted to get on the bad side of.
"What are…what are these pictures of Sir James Kraven doing plastered along the wall. I never asked for these."
All he could do was pull a face at the sight of pictures of an old hero among those of his daughter.
"It makes it seem like she adores the man…or even has a crush on him. No, no, no. The rumours from this alone."
He was almost pulling his hair at this point. All he could hope was that once this was all over, he could spread rumours around about the princess being fascinated by Sir James Kraven's battles, and that is why the pictures were present.
To take them down now would make it look like he was hiding something. It would look like he was embarrassed by his daughter's infatuation with a hero, or that he made a terrible mistake and got the wrong pictures. Either way, his reputation would sink in some way.
So, all he could do was leave it.
"This carpet, it's…but I asked for purple, not every colour known to man."
Head tilted, he followed the carpet along the room, seeing that it stretched all the way around, laying the foundation that kept the tables up, serving food. But amongst the elegant ballroom, it truly caused a clash of colours in more ways than one.
Although thankfully, it didn't seem to cause much of an issue for the princess.
"Excuse me." The princess said to one of the servants. "Once my Ball has finished, can you have that carpet sent to my room. I would like to use it to make some changes."
Turns out, she quite liked the rainbow colours of the carpet. Not that her father had heard this, so he was still a wreck about it.
But at this point, rather than search around for more oddities in the decorations or listen to the murmurs between the nobility commenting on his taste in furnishings, he decided to address the icy elephant in the room.
"Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for attending my daughter's debutant ball. I know some of you may be wondering about the ice sculpture. All I can say is that while I did purchase such a masterpiece, this sculpture here is not what I requested. I will be having words with the ice sculptors that put this together to see how this ended up like…this."
Murmurs continued in the room.
Some agreed, understanding that it was not the king's intention to bring in this mixed-messaged sculpture and possibly insult a great hero.
Others, however, spoke of how the King was failing to cover up his mistake, figuring that he had placed the order, and the description of what he wanted ended up creating what they saw now.
Lastly, there were the odd few, those who clearly had an agenda against the king, who spoke of him wanting to cast shade on the hero. The reason for this was not delved into, with the men saying that there were many possible reasons, but they would not dare to say them here.
Not that it stopped them from bringing it up in the first place.
Whatever these people believed, it meant nothing to Oriana. If anything, seeing such a divide was quite exciting, thinking the split would lead to more rumours being thrown about in the future, causing all sorts of chaos.
"Now, let me introduce my daughter", he said as he held his hand towards the princess, beckoning her over, "Princess Kayla."
The princess gave a beautiful curtsy, to which the response was a round of applause, before the King then spoke once more.
"Now, this is a Ball, so let's get the dance started."
Pointing to a few of the servants, he ushered them over and asked them to move the ice sculpture out of the room.
It was in the middle of it all, where the ballroom area was. But the idea was that everyone danced around it, ensuring it was the centrepiece. Now, however, he used safety and the need for more space for others to dance as reasons for its removal.
Before long, the floor was clear, and the orchestra started to play.
The nobles all looked around and took hold of their partners before heading towards the center of the room. Well, that was for the ones that were married or had fiancés.
There were a dozen or so people, married or not, who had decided to leave the dancing for the time being. Age or embarrassment, you take your pick. But they stood at the side to watch the dance unfold.
In and amongst them, you could see many others, both men and women, wandering around, chatting to anyone else who seemed to be standing by themselves. These were the singles in the crowd, hoping to find someone else to dance with, and to possibly court should things go well.
Obviously, Oriana was also one of the singles, which meant she caught the eye of a few of the men wandering around. Not really able to use magic in front of all these people without someone noticing something, she had to grin and bear it as three men came forward to proposition her.
"Your beauty is divine. The gods and goddesses would surely weep if we did not dance together tonight."
"So, I'm single… you're single. I mean, it only makes sense, right?"
"Look, can you just say yes to me. If you do, then that will surely cause jealousy with some of the other women. We would have to do one dance at least, but once that is over, I am sure that the rest of the women here will flock towards me. I'll even pay you."
Oriana was a little tempted by the last one, even if she was a little offended by it as well. But being paid for a quick dance. That was no skin off her back.
But before she could even formulate a response, the man was pulled back by a hand on his shoulder.
Oriana thought that maybe his plan had actually worked, and it was one of the women showing their jealousy…pfft, yeah right. Besides, the size and hair on the hand clearly indicated it was a man.
Probably.
"I think you will find this lovely lady is already taken," said the man behind the hand.
While it did give her an out, she realised that she recognised that voice. Looking up, she found the man who had given her an invitation to this very ball standing before her.
Looking just as annoying and obnoxious as he had at the restaurant.