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Are you a lie detector dog or something?
Luke kept the thought internal and smiled blandly.
"I'm a normal man," he said aloud. "If I had no opinions about my dance partner whatsoever, that would be a much bigger problem than the alternative."
Elise stumbled slightly in the next step. Luke caught her, smoothly redirected the misstep into a turn, and brought her back into the rhythm without anyone outside the dance floor noticing.
"That's…" Her cheeks had gone faintly pink. "That's really direct."
"I'm a direct person."
"Apparently." She recovered her composure quickly, but the pink in her cheeks lingered. "I'm finding myself increasingly interested in you, Luke Mercer."
She executed a controlled spin out, skirts flaring, then returned to his frame in time for the next sequence. The two of them, paired up so visibly on the floor, had drawn attention from the surrounding observers that no amount of strategic positioning could deflect.
"Plenty of women seem to be interested in me tonight," Luke commented dryly. He'd noticed several pairs of eyes tracking him since he'd entered the hall, with intentions ranging from polite networking to considerably less polite calculation.
Elise rolled her eyes elaborately.
"Those women want your career trajectory," she said. "Not the same thing."
"And what do you want?"
"Currently? Continued use of you as a human shield. We can discuss further details when the banquet is over."
Luke laughed. The frank, slightly imperious confidence behind her response was hard not to find charming, and the small pink flush still riding her cheeks suggested the confidence was a partial bluff.
The orchestra moved into a second piece without pausing. Luke and Elise didn't leave the floor. Their movements had grown noticeably more synchronized over the course of the first dance, a fluency that came from two people who both knew how to follow a lead but were trading off implicit decisions about which one of them was actually leading. Their second piece looked, from the outside, like two people who had been dancing together for years.
The whispers around the periphery shifted accordingly.
"Maybe they're just hiding from us…"
"Have you seen the way they're moving together? That's not 'hiding.'"
"Are they actually a thing?"
"They were just enemies in the tournament, weren't they? Like, half a day ago?"
"…how does that not count as a thing?"
"Right? The conversion rate from 'crushed her in combat' to 'dancing with her at her family's banquet' is suspicious."
-----
"Luke."
Harrison Cole's voice broke through the orchestra's volume from the floor's edge. Luke turned his head, caught Harrison's expression, and immediately understood that the timing of this interruption was Harrison's deliberate choice.
"President Cole."
"President Hargrove wants to see you." Harrison's tone was professional, but there was a note of barely-concealed amusement underneath. "Both of you, actually."
Then Harrison registered who Luke's dance partner was, and his eyes briefly widened.
"Oh. You too, Elise. Your father just relayed the message. President Hargrove apparently wants to see both of you in his office."
He paused as he processed the implications. Luke and Elise dancing together was new information. Luke and Elise being summoned together by Edmund Hargrove was very new information. And Harrison's brain was already running interpolations that even his mouth wasn't authorized to voice.
Did this kid actually charm Edmund Hargrove's granddaughter? In one night? After publicly demolishing her in front of her entire family?
If true, the implications for Ashenvale were considerable. Personal connection to the Hargrove family would be a career accelerant for any Card Master. Combined with Luke's existing trajectory, it would catapult him into a different stratum of regional politics.
Way to go, Luke. Way to go.
Harrison maintained a professionally neutral expression and gestured toward the exit.
-----
Luke completed the last figure of the dance with a final flourish, brought Elise to a graceful pause, and bowed lightly. Elise returned the courtesy and rested her hand on his arm as he led her off the floor.
The walk to the exit drew every eye in the hall. The two of them, dancing together, had been entertainment. The two of them being escorted out by Harrison Cole, presumably toward an Immortal Realm summons, was something else entirely.
Behind them, the banquet's would-be social climbers exchanged frustrated glances. Their target had just walked out the door, and trying to chase him would mean intercepting Edmund Hargrove's personal request. Nobody had that level of nerve.
-----
In the corridor, Elise turned to Harrison with a slight frown.
"Uncle Cole, did Grandfather actually call us?"
"Not directly. Your father caught me at the banquet. He said your grandfather wanted to see both of you. I'm just relaying the message."
"My father?" Elise's frown deepened. Roland never relayed casual social messages. If he'd taken the trouble to find Harrison personally, the matter wasn't trivial.
"Don't worry, Ellie." A new voice joined them. Roland Hargrove emerged from a side corridor, having received Harrison's earlier confirmation. "This is going to be a good thing. For both of you."
Harrison and Luke both turned to look at him. Roland's tone carried a particular kind of restrained excitement, which suggested whatever was happening behind Edmund's office door was significant.
"What kind of opportunity?" Harrison asked.
"Father will explain when we get there." Roland's reply was diplomatic enough to convey that he wasn't going to spoil the reveal. He gestured toward the corridor leading deeper into the Capital Association's restricted areas. "This way."
Even Harrison's curiosity sharpened. He'd spent years navigating the Eastern Region's political landscape, and Roland's specific phrasing suggested they were about to be admitted to information that wasn't being shared widely.
-----
The walk through the Capital Association's inner hallways was longer than expected. They passed several checkpoints, each one staffed by clearly-attentive personnel who let Roland's group through without challenge. Other attendees they passed in the corridors stared with frank curiosity at the unusual cluster, Edmund Hargrove's son leading two visibly-interesting young Card Masters and their satellite city's branch president.
None of them dared interrupt.
-----
Edmund Hargrove's office door opened at Roland's approach.
"You're here." Edmund didn't rise from his desk, but his nod toward the available seats was unmistakable. "Come in. Take a seat. Just waiting on you."
Luke filed the phrasing away. Just waiting on you implied other people were already present. He scanned the office as he entered.
Lily Fairchild sat in one of the chairs along the wall, looking faintly embarrassed at having been pulled away from whatever she'd been doing instead of attending the banquet. Serena Frost sat next to her, expression as cool and unreadable as ever, having apparently never bothered with the banquet at all. Vance Ashton occupied a third chair, looking professionally composed but slightly tired around the eyes.
Three competitors. Plus Luke and Elise, that made five, the tournament's first tier minus none.
The office's other occupants included Grant Whitfield (Moonvale's branch president) and Miles Thornton (Everhold's branch president), both of whom had presumably been invited as the senior representatives for Lily and Serena's home cities. Both men nodded acknowledgment as Luke entered.
Harrison glanced at Grant and Miles. Both shook their heads in response to the unspoken question.
They don't know either.
Edmund had assembled this group personally, but he'd kept the agenda to himself even from the branch presidents involved. That was a deliberate information-control choice.
Luke and Elise exchanged glances. Whatever Edmund had assembled them for, it was significant enough to override standard branch-president communication protocols.
"Now that everyone's here, I won't waste your time." Edmund waited for the latecomers to settle into their seats before he continued. He surveyed the assembled group with the measured attention of a man preparing to deliver information he'd been holding back for considerable time. "You're probably wondering why I asked you to come at this hour."
He paused. Even Lily and Serena had stopped fidgeting. The room had gone quiet.
"A year and a half ago," Edmund said, "during a joint exploratory expedition involving three of the Eastern Region's capitals, we discovered a Dimensional Plane. A new Dimensional Plane. Recently formed. Not yet stabilized."
The bombshell landed in dead silence.