Let it Snow!

❄️Fifty-One❄️

A gasp escaped Nora's lips as she entered the ballroom.

The enormous room was decorated to look like a clearing in a snow-covered forest, with potted Christmas trees along the walls, fairy lights glittering among their branches like tiny fallen stars, small round tables scattered underneath and among them, some laid with trays of party food and others covered with more glasses filled with wine, safely out of the way of the fairytale couples and groups milling around the centre of the room. Soft ambient music played in the background, complementing rather than overlaying the many human voices. It felt like ascending a stage set for a play or walking into an enchanted world of a book.

She deposited her empty glass on a table and took another from a passing waiter, drawing deeper into the shadowy corner by the door as her eyes followed almost unconsciously a large, black, musketeer hat sailing through the crowd, slipping off a too small head, forcing its tiny owner to keep it in place, covering an infinity of golden curls, with his hand, as he pushed his way through the much taller guests carrying a glass of champagne to another musketeer, this one fully grown. Daniel. And Eric; she recognised him instantly. Nora giggled. She had loved The Three Musketeers as a teenager, and both the brothers knew it; she wondered whether they chose these costumes purposely and if yes, whose idea had it been...

Her musings were scattered a moment later when the two were joined by a third musketeer, Martin!, and as they shifted around, one of the two brothers leaving shortly then coming back with a glass of champagne and another of what looked like apple juice, and they both kneeled to speak to the boy momentarily, she wasn't sure which one was which anymore.

Their costumes were identical, and so was their hairdo and their height-- Eric must have picked his pair of knee-high, black boots with care. Nora was absolutely sure that he was a little shorter than his brother in reality, but now the difference was gone. She would need to see their eyes to distinguish them... Goodness, this should be... interesting... She laughed nervously, attracting the attention of the vampire she had met before, who promptly stood in front of her, erasing the Musketeers from her view, swapping her empty glass for a full one.

"Nice to meet you, Cinderella," he said, making her sigh with frustration.

She wasn't here to chat with strangers; she was here to be with Martin; they had a game going... Oh, well. At least Martin couldn't see her now, hidden as she was from his line of sight by the vampire's tall and broad body. Not recognising the man's voice, she decided that it was safe to talk.

"Nice to meet you too," she said, sipping at her wine, glancing around the man's arm inconspicuously; the Musketeers were gone.

"May I ask... what is your name?" the man probed, his eyes scanning Nora piece by piece, from the tips of her transparent shoes up her wide skirts and her tightly laced corset, to her eyes.

"Why, it's Cinderella, you guessed right," she said, suppressing a laughter. Maybe she would learn to like masked balls by the end of the night.

"Will you dance with me, fair Cinderella?" he asked as the music slowly morphed into a classical waltz, scattering some of the people from the middle of the room while others drew closer together in couples and started to dance.

Nora shook her head; she didn't trust a stranger to lead her through a dance she had only performed a few times in a too distant past. She would only trust Martin with that... Her breath caught as she realised just how much she learned to trust Martin in such a short time; it had never happened to her before...

"Are you sure? I promise I won't step on your gracious toes," the vampire muttered, his eyes glued to her feet encased in the transparent shoes again.

"I... excuse me," Nora said, thrushting her empty glass in his hand and pushing past his as she noticed two mermaids sailing past them in that instant, a little girl and a tall woman whom she instantly recognised as Lily and Victoria by their long, loose, red hair.

Without another word, she slipped past him into the dancing crowd, her eyes trained on the two gorgeous sea creatures.

Soon, the mermaids found one of the musketeers and the taller of the redheads wrapped her arms around him even as Nora observed his hands travelling up and down her back tightly wrapped in a body-coloured stretchy fabric looking like second skin, which morphed into a scaly, iridescent, greenish fishtail-shaped skirt indecently deep under her waist.

The reasonable part of Nora's mind was telling her that this must be Eric, that Martin wouldn't hold her to him like that, not now, not after their evening in the Rotunda, that night when so much more was supposed to happen... But it didn't happen, did it? another voice whispered in her mind, emboldened by the champagne she had drank. And he had spent that night with her, not you...

She shook her. No. This was Eric, she was sure, but all the same, she drew closer, accepting yet another glass from a passing waiter automatically. This must be Eric because if it wasn't, then, then... She didn't know. She had no idea what would happen if this wasn't Eric; she just knew that she... had let all her defences down before Martin, had laid herself bare, she had allowed him to enter her heart, giving him the power to break it. Her heartbeat drumming in her ears drowned the music entirely as she looked around the vast room.

Where was the other brother??? She needed to see them next to each other!

She could see Daniel now, standing nearby with Lily, the two rooted to the spot as they observed the musketeer... whose lips were now pressed to Victoria's, the gesture making the girl's lips under her mask erupt into a content smile while Daniel seemed petrified. His lips and the hanful of curls that had come free from beneath his hat to frame his masked face in gold could have been carved of that metal, lifeless and cold... Until he turned away from the scene and left his companion standing alone among the swaying crowd, as he pushed his way through the multitude of people, bolting from the room.

Nora caught the sight of the second musketeer appearing at the farthest end of the ballroom from behind the row of Christmas trees, but she had no time to study him now. She felt that she had to catch up with Daniel and comfort him, she knew too well how he felt, she could perceive his pain and whether it was justified or not, just the idea of his father kissing Victoria today would hurt too much. She had to tell him that it was Eric and not his father who had kissed her, that she believed it, and so must he.

Without another thought or look around, she followed in Daniel's wake.