No you are here with Mary not Ana

Besides Ana doesn't want to get married maybe having Lashay humiliate himself in front of all these nobles is part of that. Relaxing into your seat, happy with your decision. Mary's hand on your thigh squeezes and you put your hand over hers. She pulls her hand free and puts it over your, so you naturally free your hand and put it over hers.

Neither of you look away from the nobles as they begin to mingle and your keep playing footie with your hands. You feel her hand move faster than it should when you take your turn only for her to flip and end up on top of yours. "Do you recognise any of the nobles?" You asked as you put a trickle of your magic into your hand to even the playing field.

"Mostly their crests." Mary answered as your hands start wrestling to grab the back of the other persons. Nothing visible above the table but with very limited space to move Mary has the advantage. "Anastasia and Elizabeth are the ones to ask about who's who." She managed to grab you wrist between her thumb and forefinger and twisted it to face your palm upwards, her hand underneath, trapped between your hand and your thigh, victorious in putting her palm on the back of your hand.

"You said the prize was having some of your personal guard join their family, what does that mean?" You asked flooding your hand with far more magic than the trickle you had been using. Easily overcoming her hold on your wrist you spin your hand but don't let hers free. Instead you slot your fingers in with hers and close them. She smirks and you feel her aura enwrap your side in her victory.

"My personal guard are the best trained fighters there are. When they retire they can either remain with the army as instructors or find a noble family to adopt them." Mary's thumb stroked your hand softly. This was the first solid victory she'd had against you in a while so she was enjoying it.

"Adopt, what about their own families?" You looked at her and saw the smugness on it. A slight temptation to over power her hand was defeated by instead the decision to put your foot over the top of hers.

"I don't have any nobles in my personal guard. Mum said I wasn't allowed when I started it." She shrugged as if that was an absurd rule though you understood it. Mary didn't strike you as the hang back and let others fight sort and the prestige of guard the Princess is not the sort of thing a Duchess would snub. Having a bunch of upper nobles killed in a fight is one hell of a risk. Mary's other leg locked over your, trapping your ankle between her shins.

"Are you going to replace those three?" You asked straighten your foot and pulling it free only to put it over Mary's newly introduced leg and trap them both between your leg and her chair leg.

"I have a few in mind already." Mary said freeing her legs. She put one over yours and bent her knee. The other she locked her foot at ninty degrees and used it to twist your shin. The combined move trapped your leg against the bottom of her seat and pulling your down in your seat at the sudden twisting of you leg.

Aurora looked over at the sudden noise, she'd been talking to a noble who had approached the from the other side of the table and was looking up at her. Mary freed your leg and you shifted in your seat acting as if you were getting comfortable. Aurora turned back to the noble and you felt Mary's aura tingling on your arm at having almost been caught.

Trays of food and cups of wine were brought out for the royal table before you and Mary could resume your game. The smell of both were intoxicating. The wine smelled sweet and the food delicious. You tried to free your hand but Mary squeezed and looked at you with an idea in her eye. She picked up your cup and brought it to your lips. You tried to give her a flat stare but it would have been less impactful while either drowning or coated in wine so you open your mouth and start drinking. She pours a lot more than you were expecting and through swallowing one mouthful a little spills out before you can start the second.

Mary puts the cup back onto the table and dabs your lips with a bit of cloth. Your flat stare is also, apparently, less effective with wine stains on your chin. She starts to sip her own wine as your cup is refilled from a server over your shoulder who retreats to the wall behind you, waiting for more need.

Your hand is still claimed in victory and since you lack another you've nothing to do but look over the crowd and await Mary's victory to wan. You see several mimicking what Mary had just done to you with their own male counterparts with varying degrees of success. It's a little weird that, none of them were looking at you or Mary yet a lot of them were paying enough attention to know exactly what had happened. You wonder if this is how people feel when you extend your perception to not need to see them to know who and where they are.

You hear a sputter from your left. Looking over you see Lashay and Ana replicating you and Mary without the playfulness. If anything you worry for a moment Lashay is going to drown. She puts his cup down and gives him a cloth to wipe his chin which he does without comment of the attempted ****.

You do your best to not feel bad for him since if you do you know you are going to volunteer to participate in the games. Looking instead at Mary she rolls her eyes and picks a bit a bread with honey on it up and holds it out for you to take a bite of. She is really playing this up and you will free your hand, but not right now. You open your mouth but she does not move it further towards you so you lean into it.

She pulls the bread away, slowly pulling you further along until you are leaning over her chair. She sneaks a kiss on your parted lips. Her hand dropping the bread to rest on the back of your head.

You taste wine in her mouth and with a tilt of your heads she lets what had been a mouthful of her own wine tip into yours. You have **** but the swallow and she releases you.

"Are you trying to get me drunk?" You ask after taking a moment cough up the bit of wine that hadn't gone down the right pipe.

"Trying?" She teases, giving you a peck on the nose and releasing your hand. You plant your own kiss on her nose and then duck out of the way of her riposte, leaning back into your chair with the previously denied honey bread in hand. Mary bites her lip and you can see her contemplating kissing to be your next battle field but Aurora clears her throat and Mary seems to remember where you currently are.

Once more your and Mary's actions are replicated throughout the hall with more variety than there had been last time. More than one person leans too far and falls out of their chair which earns laughter. A few get a bit more into the kissing than Aurora had allowed the two of you. Ana does not replicate your flirting with Lashay.

You and Mary go back to playing footie with a bit less intensity than last time. Only attempting to one put only one foot on top of the others. A few nobles approach to chat with Mary. Mary engages as best she could but isn't her mother or her sister. Ana is happily chatting with whoever approaches about any topic but Mary lags whenever a subject not related to fighting comes up. You step in as best you can at those moments but you aren't exactly versed in politics so most of what you comment are variations of repeating their words back to them in a slightly different order. It works for a bit but you think it's pretty clear if the nobles want something other than to be seen talking to Princess Mary they need to go elsewhere.

"Lord Christopher." Lady Demise says from your side. You'd felt her approached but hadn't thought you'd be her target.

"Yes?" You asked looking up her. She is leaning over quite a bit more than needed and her chest is sitting at your eye line.

"Lucia would like to speak to you. I think she has recovered from," her eyes glance over at Aurora, "her introduction."

You take a moment at the reminder of having so recently seen a naked Aurora to try not looking directly at Lady Demise's chest, which is a replication of Aurora chest right down to her, not looking, not looking, not looking. "Sure thing." You look away from the chest you definitely looked at let Mary know you'll be back soon.

Mary looks a little betrayed at your leaving with nobles still trying to talk to her, but she releases your foot so you can leave. Lady Demise takes your of the ball room and the immediate decrease in noise is a relief you hadn't expected to enjoy as much as you did. "Lucia seemed to be very nervous, when she wasn't staring at my chest. I trust you'll ensure her display will clear up some questions about last weekend."

"My fight was actually Lucia practicing, I remember." You said earning a nod from Lady Demise.

"And do ask her to not stare quite as much. If she good Aurora may ask for a more personal performance." Lady Demise smirked as she said that, knowing exactly what effect that would have Lucia even if she meant it in a solely professional manner.

"I'll let her know." You said as Lady Demised walked you into a room with a naked Lucia sitting on a lounge starting at her motley costume resting on a chair. "Miss Lucia." Lady Demise closed the door behind you Lucia didn't look away from her costume.

"Hey Christopher." She said not looking at you.

"Hey Lucia. Are you ok?" You ask walking over and sitting down on another chair.

"Yep, totally, totally fine." Lucia said back, nodding her head affirmatively.

"You seem it." You said back. "So you ready to perform?"

"Yeah totally." She said. "Hey Christopher?" She looked at your for the the first time. "Do you think Aurora tits are better than Auria?"

"What?" You asked confused by that shift in conversation direction. "I, well Aurora's are smaller than Auria's."

"Yeah." She looked over at you. "Have you touched them? I think the only way to know for sure is to touch them." She held up her hand and groped the air.

"Wait, is that why you are sitting naked in here? You can't decided who tits are better?"

"Mostly." Lucia answered with a nod. "And I'm about to perform in a room full of nobles who, if I fuck up in front of, will end my encantor career forever. But mostly the tits thing." You don't have much of a response to that. "How are you?"

"I cut my arm off in Eve's memory when she lost control, Eve's the former wraith that is now sharing my Delilah's body, incidentally Eve was the former Empress of Calitian before being horrifically tortured and entombed within her body for a very long time. Turns out Eve's kinda insane after all that and is only being held together by Delilah herself and there's a chance Eve might blow up again and I'm not sure I can pull them out of it a second time becasue Eve killed me the last time. And talking about it right now I'm realising I'm scared I might have to kill them to save the city from being wiped out if they lose it again becasue I don't think I can let them kill me again. Also I've been reliving the moment Eve killed me and apparently I almost lost control and killed Mary a few days ago. Oh also I met Ana's fiancé and he's actually kinda a nice guy giving me mixed feels about fucking his fiancée, how his fiancée treats him and how I'm going to be leaving him to participate in games all alone even though he is visible nervous."

Lucia looked at you, then stood up and grabbed her costume. "How do you keep coming up with all this stuff?" She asked as she started getting dressed. "Oh also if you wanna join me I did bring your costume?" She pointed at her bag and you looked inside to see the colourful loin cloth.

You look at Lucia and wonder if she would ever believe at this point, maybe if Clare showed her her cock. And now you are thinking about how Lucia would react to seeing a cock on as beautiful a woman as Clare is. "Ready to perform?"

"Yep all good." Lucia said adjusting her costume and nodding at you. "Hey I've never been to a Maiden Party before but I've heard the rumours. Is it really going to be an orgy?"

You laughed and didn't answer as the two of you left the room and saw Lady Demise waiting for you outside. You wonder how much of that she heard but doubt you'd get a actual answer from her. "Please follow me Lucia. Lord Christopher, I trust you can make your own way back."

"Sure thing." You said leaving the two behind and heading back to Mary. When you arrive Mary is looking more than a little overwhelmed by the nobles clamoring for her attention. When you sit she starts talking to you, ignoring the nobles who get the message and leave the two of you alone.

After a bit of talking Aurora stands up and the room quiets, the nobles hurrying back to their chairs. "My people, allow me to introduce what promises to be a masterful encantor." The ball room door opens and Lucia is standing there with a wide smile and ready to leap into performing, none of her previous nerves even hinting at existing on her face or in her aura. "But before then, all those who would be trails please stand."

You look over at Lashay as he stands looking like he really doesn't want to.