Shadows and The Sea - The Darkling

The Night of the Fete & Missing Sun Summoner

Fair warning, there are quite a few POV changes because there's so much intersection happening but enjoy!

Percy's POV

After the kiss between Aleks and I, we had to go our separate ways for the time being since he had responsibilities concerning the fete and other matters.

That left me to mill about as the sun went down and people from all over started to flock to the Little Palace, dressed to the nines.

As I walked up the spiral staircase that led to the ballroom of the Little Palace, the spinning of colors caught my eye as an acrobat hung in the air. When I reached the top of the staircase, I waited a moment longer to watch the talented performer when I heard a voice behind me, "I didn't know the Zemeni had such talent."

Well that was wrong, seeing as the woman spinning was obviously Suli. Even I could tell as she was continuously making rotations in the air.

"She's Suli."

Another voice stated the fact in tandem with mine and as I turned to see who had spoken, My eyes latched onto a highly decorated blue kefta. The embroidery of a Squaller was recognizable and so was the face.

Zoya and I held each others eyes for a split second but that was enough to convey the dislike for one another. On my end, the way she treated Alina. On hers, the fact that I beat her so bad on the training field.

She continued to walk past me and into the crowd of people and I waited until she was out of sight to make my way in the same direction.

There were people with plates of food just conversing with each other and luckily, before I could get lost, I found my favorite person in red standing near the sweets table.

"Fedyor!"

The man in question spun around at the mention of his name and his small smile grew wide as he saw me making my way towards him.

"Percy! You look amazing!"

"How dare you wear black stitching."

The other voice came from the other person in red that I didn't like so much but didn't realize he was there.

"Ah, nice to see you too Ivan. And thank you Dyor. I love your kefta as well. The shimmering embroidery is gorgeous," I complimented my friend but the attention was again pulled by the more sour of the two.

"You should not be wearing that color," he said sternly. Almost sounding as if he wanted to command me to go and change.

I finally turned to face the now annoying Heartrender and put a hand on my hip, "Well why don't you take that up with your general, hmm? Seeing as he is the one who asked me to wear this."

He seemed to not know what to say at that, not wanting to go against what his general said.

Percy 1, Ivan 0

I smirked at his silence, picked up a small cookie, and walked away from the pair.

I knew that Ivan was Fedyor's boyfriend and I love Dyor to death but my gods, did he have to love someone so irritating? I don't get what Aleks meant by saying he was funny.

I walked into the main room of the event and realized that almost every other person I walked past had their eyes on me. I was confused as to why when I realized what I was wearing. The black stitching on me was not something that was normally seen on a blue kefta so it drew some attention.

Just as I was about to walk out of the room to get away from the eyes, the velvet voice of the man I held affections for reached my ears.

"Tsar. Moya tsaritsa. I do hope you're both enjoying the festivities."