Demitytes Bride

An Ugly Truth

Kashara was surveying the field from behind the curtain. Just then she spotted Eraiek with a group of giggling ladies and smirked victoriously.

Ahaha! Target spotted! Eraiek was the best bet in such an environment. Kashara set a foot out of the curtain slowly.

"Oh Lady Tilda! What a wonderful crochet handkerchief! You must tell me who your seamstress is! Only yesterday Lady Bennet was telling me about your absolutely exquisite tea cosies!" A group of loud ladies passed by tittering and exclaiming dramatically just as she tried to emerge and Kashara scrambled back.

What a tragedy averted! She wasn't going to hear another word of tea cosies ever again. She surveyed the surroundings again, and decided a mad dash was the way. She gathered her dress and jumped out of the curtain. Shit. A few nearby group of men and women stopped staring to stare and her, and she tilted her head up defiantly.

She decided to proceed at a more leisurely pace after all, and glided across the ballroom. The walking lesson with Lintenberg with all the books on top of her head paid off after all. She neared the group of ladies who were giggling at something Eraiek said and tried to signal to him.

However Eraiek was too interested in the womanly charms of a particularly underdressed lady. And Kashara said underdressed, not in the normal sense, but in that she was certainly lacking quite a bit of clothing. Poor girl. Kashara thought, her family must be struggling.

She had no wish to wrestle her way through a bunch of young, hormone driven girls so she quietly cleared her throat. The effect was instantaneous. The girls and Eraiek turned towards her. Some of the girls looked at her with something akin to hero worship. And others with apprehension or distaste. She ignored them and moved towards Eraiek.

"Eraiek, a word if you please?" She asked, her eyes mildly roving over the two girls at her side. They were probably younger than her. Yet so eager to marry or form an engagement to a man perhaps twice their age. They had wealth, freedom and power, but yet so willing to sign it all away.

She came from a background and had a history that made her think they were crazy.

However if they knew how much she would give to escape from Fallon, from the throne, they would probably call her crazy. She smiled wryly at that. It was cruel twist of fate, she ended up here, for anyone of these ladies would have given a hand and foot to be in her place, and perhaps be better suited too.

The irony of fate, that both of them looked at each other here, both wishing what the other had.

Eraiek looked at her questioningly, having noticed her lost trail of thought, but nodded and turned back to the ladies. "I'm afraid I am in high demand today, Ladies." He bowed low dramatically, making them giggle again before offering Kashara his arm.

They walked quite a distant from the group before Eraiek finally asked. " What's troubling you Kashara?"

She sighed. There were so many questions running through her mind. The loudest were concerning Eraiek's loyalty and his rebel tattoo. "Did you know I...Fallon actually kidnapped me here?

If Kashara had expected Eraiek to be surprised, she would have been sorely disappointed. "Hmm, I kind of guessed. I don't know if you knew it, but the way you kept screaming at him to 'go jump off the nearest Space dock into outer space' seemed like dead give away. Also the fact you also nearly tore my ear drums asking me to hide you from, I quote, 'the devil's sadistic spawn'.

Kashara smiled wanly, but it soon faded away. She looked down and bit her lip, before looking at Eraiek and asked an unrelenting question in her mind ever since she had arrived at Demitytes.