The debut ball begins

Sabrina finishes styling my hair. They retain their messy charm while being elegant. She did a great job. I hope Eric appreciates what a great hairstylist Sabrina is. Stupid Eric.

The servants finish getting me and Arti ready and leave us to get dressed. Once we finish dressing up, we look at ourselves in the mirror. I am wearing a similar set of clothes I was wearing to the ceremony of awakening. These clothes, however, look on a completely different level. Under a black velvet jacket with magnificent silver trimming, I am wearing an elegant silk shirt. The jacket is decorated with silver pins and buttons. Next, I have black slacks on. They have silver trimming and buttons in them. Finally, there is a pair of shiny black dress shoes. Arti is wearing the same set of clothes but in a different color. His jacket, shirt, and slacks are deep blue. The pins, buttons, and trimming are all golden. His dress shoes are dark brown. We look exquisite.

Arti looks at the clock. “It is almost 6:30. We should get going.”

“Alright, let’s go,” I reply.

We leave the room and follow the servants leading us to our positions. In the end, we go in two separate ways. I am to enter through the left staircase, Arti through the right.

I reached my position two minutes before 6:30 and stopped in front of the door. A servant stands there waiting for the signal to open it and let me through. From the other side of the door, I hear my father's voice. “Noble houses of the nations of our continent. I am pleased to welcome my sons, First Prince Artias and Second Prince Zenovia.” The servant opens the door and I step through.

As I make my way down the stairs and see Arti doing the same on the direct opposite side from me. We keep climbing down the stairs until we reach each other and turn to keep climbing down facing the hall together. Only when I am faced with a hall full of people in colorful dresses and suits do I notice them clapping loudly at our appearance. We finally descend the stairs and enter the crowd.

We instantly get surrounded by people trying to introduce themselves. Both male and female, young and old. Arti and I nod and respond politely. It takes more than half an hour for the crowd to clear enough for us to walk further into the hall. Arti and I go our separate ways, deciding to divide and conquer. We will be able to pay attention to more people if we are not together. I walk around for several minutes exchanging pleasantries, before noticing a table with three dwarves and four beast folk sitting together. I haven’t had the pleasure of talking to dwarves or beast folk yet so I make my way to their table. As I approach the table, I see the people sitting there more clearly. Hard to notice details in a huge crowd like this one. Anyway, there are two male dwarves and one female dwarf. They all wear dresses that look like a mix between a dress and armor. Dwarven men have long beards. It is hard to guess how old they are. All dwarves are also short. Among the beast folk, there are three females and a male. Beast folk look almost like humans, but they have animal features on their bodies. Most have animal ears. Some have tails or paws. The four beast folk at the table have animal ears. Two of the females seem to be cat people. They have cat ears, one is black, the other ginger. They also have tails the same colors as their ears. The last female is a tiger person. She also has ears. Hers are a mix of white, black, and ginger. She doesn’t have a tail but she has tiger paws instead of her hands. She is very buff. The last person at the table is a wolf person. He has grey-white wolf ears and a tail.

I reach the table and greet them. They bow in my direction, I return the gesture. “Greetings, Prince Zenovia. Congratulations on your and Prince Artias’ debuts,” one of the dwarven men sitting closer to where I stand says.

“Greetings and thank you for coming. You are from the United Tribes of Kin, correct?” I reply. “I am at a disadvantage of not knowing your names.”

“That is correct, we are. Let us introduce ourselves,” says the same dwarf. They sit in the semicircle around the table. From left to right sit two dwarven men, one with a long dark grey beard, another with brown. The first one, the one who spoke, was clearly older. Next to them sits the dwarven woman. She has short dark blond hair with strands of white in there. Looks to be around her 50s. Next to her sits the sole beast folk man, a wolf person with grey-white wolf ears and a tail. He is muscular, his face weathered and there are scars on his hands. Next to him sits the tiger person woman. Finally, there are two cat women, one with black cat ears and tail, the other with ginger. They introduce themselves in order of their seating arrangement, starting with the old dwarf. Balwin, Dulin, Tofe, Kratz, Sashala, Nifra and Cinni. I take a seat at their table. Checking my breast pocket watch, I notice I have 15 minutes before the beginning of the ball is announced.

“We are here as the representatives of our nations,” Balwin says. “Chieftain Doralgat and Chieftainess Yohea send their warm regards and hope that today will be a splendid occasion for you and the First Prince. They also send their apologies for not being able to be present today. Normally, at least one of them would have attended an event like this one. Our nation is currently facing a crisis that got worse due to external interference. There was a big earthquake 2 months ago. A lot of entrances to the shafts of the mines had collapsed, trapping miners inside. Our infrastructure also got damaged severely. While the Chieftains were dealing with relief efforts, a cell of what we suspect to be followers of Shavia started causing mayhem in our cities. They were squashed fairly quickly, but not before causing even more damage to the city and the people. From what we uncovered, they were a group of rogue individuals working without the support of the Shavian Theocracy. At least it is what it seems like. I would bet my right arm that the Theocracy has something to do with it and covered their tracks completely,” he scoffs and downs his glass of wine in one gulp. “Is there ale by any chance here?” he asks me.

“There is. We here know perfectly well of the dwarven taste for ale,” I reply smirking a little.

Balwin roars with laughter. With the formalities out of the way, everyone seems to feel more comfortable speaking less formally. “Very good. We do indeed. It is not a party without some ale. Shame you can’t drink yet, young prince. I would have loved to have a drink with you,” he says cheerfully.

“If you visited our kingdom in six years, perhaps we could,” I grin back and check the watch. The ball opening was about to start. “I am afraid I need to get going. The ball is about to start. Call one of the servants and they will deliver your drinks to the table. It was a pleasure meeting you all and I hope we get more occasions to talk in the future.”

I stand up from the table and bow politely. They bow in return. I then start making my way towards the center of the room. I see Arti still surrounded by people. Both men and women of all ages. Just then, the music quiets down and I hear our father speak loudly from the center of the room.

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