A Court of Shadow and Melodies

Chapter 5

The dancers walked to the front of the stage and bowed, everyone including myself clapped. Then my friends joined them in the middle bowing but keeping a small space for me to fit through. I finally joined them and grabbed Reuel's and Aoife's hands bowing for the crowd who was cheering. I let go of my friends and grabbed the microphone I had set on the last step.

"Thank you all so much. Tonight we performed two new songs that will be released on the next album we release. We wanted to thank you for having us, and to the amazing leaders of Prythian for having us perform tonight. It was our pleasure to do so." I mention them bowing my head in appreciation. "Thank you and have a great rest of your party!" Everyone clapped again and I smiled in thanks. The five of us walked off the stage before the dancers. We got backstage and started talking before we were interrupted by a knocking on the dressing room door.

Reuel gets up and opens the door a crack, "Can we help you?"

"Yes, I was told that Ms. Atarah is invited to dine with the High Lords. I am here to collect her and show her to her seat."

Reuel glanced back at me, and I held up a finger. He turned to her, "Give us a minute let me ask her" He shut the door.

"I don't want to do this without you." I said instantly, nerves building up inside of me.

"You should go. Represent us on your behalf. I doubt Reuel wants to go, and the three of us are fine to not dine with a bunch of high lords, but you Ari, you can do this." Aoife says putting a calming hand over my shaking one. "Take a deep breath, freshen up, and go out there." She encouraged. The others nodded in support.

"Alright, tell her to give me a couple of minutes to freshen up." I stood up, and Renna followed me into the changing room where my stuff sat in the corner.

"You can do this Ari. Just take a deep breath and put that confident mask on. You will do great. After the dinner, you can come back, and we will have gotten through this. Also, this gives you a chance to convince the other High Lords that we should be able to perform in their courts." Renna said calming the nerves. "So... you're going to put your dress back on, pull up your big girl panties, and go back out there and seduce some lords, alright?" She said, her tone growing with every phrase.

"Yeah, what she said!" I could hear Aoife yell from the other side of the wall. We both giggled, and my nerves settled down.

"Alright, I can do this how bad can it be?" I said lacking confidence whatsoever. Renna rolled her eyes, probably a little upset her words of encouragement didn't work as well as she hoped they would have.

After she touched up my makeup, she asked if I wanted to wear the same dress, or a different one. I ended up putting the same one on because I hadn't really brought other nice clothes. Once we walked back into the room, I walked over to the door Reuel had opened previously. There stood a young girl, probably about 15 years old, and she smiled.

"Wow it's really you. I'm Opal, umm. I love your dress by the way and the concert was so cool!" She rambled. I smiled and thanked her.

"So you're my guide to the table?" I asked, wanting to get this done and over with.

Her cheeks turned a dark shade of pink. "Of course, I'm so sorry."

"No worries, I'm just not thrilled with the idea of sitting and eating dinner with a High lord I basically gave a lap dance to fifteen minutes ago." I joked. She giggled and nodded. We got to a pair of doors, and on the other side, you could hear people talking and joking. I looked over to the guards and nodded. They opened the door and Opal guided me to the front of the room where there was an empty seat between Tamlin and Helion. Great.