The evening arrives and Scarlet leaves the house squinting her eyes at the map in the dim light.
As the darkness envelopes the forest, the girl gets more and more nervous. Luckily the grand and luminous structure of the castle shows up in the distance.
At the sight of it Scarlet hurries to find a place to hide the map then continues walking calmly towards the castle.
When she arrives at the gates they ask for her info and she speaks calmly from memory.
"Identify yourself." one of the guards demands
"Monica Ludenberg, from sixth level"
"From where exactly?"
"Uh.. A small village, not very known"
"And what's it called?"
"Um...."
"Think fast...uuh damnit" the girl thinks while the guard gets impatient.
"Monica? Is that really you? I haven't seen you in ages!"
A familiar voice to Scarlet is heard from behind the gate.
The guards stand aside to reveal a boy with red hair and piercing red eyes smiling at Scarlet.
The boy is wearing a fancy black tuxedo with red roses beautifully sewed on the right shoulder and left bottom corner.
As he gets closer Scarlet notices he is wearing small black earrings.
He now stands right in front of her, taking her hand in his and kissing it softly like a gentleman.
His nails are painted black and he is wearing a few different silver rings on his fingers.
"T-Tho!-"
"Don't worry dear, you don't need to explain yourself. You're my special guest." the boy says as he leads her toward the gates.
"B-But sir, the bracelet-"
"Gentlemen! If you will excuse us.."
"Of course sir"
And just like that Scarlet is saved by her dead boyfriend.
The walk through the front garden is silent. Scarlet stares bewildered at Thomas as he holds her hand, leading her to the palace.
"What do I do?
Is he really Thomas?
He looks a bit different.
Does he remember me?
Even if he did he wouldn't recognize me.
How is he alive?
What is he doing here?
Is he some kind of boss around here?"
Scarlet's train of thoughts is interrupted by Thomas.
"So Monica, how is your friend doing? The one with black hair and amber eyes."
"Is he asking about me?" the girl thinks before answering.
"Well, she's had a rough time lately, but she stays strong"
"I'm sorry to hear that...But tell her that I will be there for her when she nees me. Even though I've been gone for a while.."
The boy says looking at Scarlet like he knows her secrets and can see right through her.
"I'm sure she will apreciate that"
Says the girl smiling at the same time with Thomas.
The two of them enter the ballroom with a big shiny chandelier hanging from the ceiling that looks a little bit too familiar to the girl.
The room is filled with people with pointy ears or horns or tails or wings, wearing all sorts of fancy and flashy outfits.
"I will leave you here my lady but if you ever need my assistance with anything you may come find me"
"Sure, thank you- but wait! I didn't quite catch your name"
"Sir Thomas Evermoor, king's royal counselor. But you may call me Thomas" he says with a polite smile then taking his leave.
"Um! Ok b-bye!"
"Congratulations Scarlet, very polite and mannered answer" the girl thinks taking a look around the room.
"I wonder where is Trystan..." she thinks slowly walking around.
A song starts to play, even though it sounds strange, it's still pretty catchy and good for dancing.
"Hey girly, you up for a dance?"
A stranger with a horn on his forehead comes up to Scarlet and asks her to dance. Even though she declines the invitation, the man still presses on and it's pissing Scarlet off really bad.
"Come on just one quik dance, you can't let that beauty go to waste"
Just when the girl is about to put that guy is his place someone puts their arm around her shoulders and no, it's not Trystan.
"What are you saying man? She clearly doesn't want to dance with you! She needs a man that can keep up with her moves"
It's another random freak trying to get her to dance. Both of them smell like alcohol, cheap gross cologne and sweat.
"That's it, you idiots!" Scarlet snaps at them.
"You want to see my moves? I will show you some moves!"
And with that she yanks the man's arm off her shoulders and pushes him towards the other guy, both falling on the floor.
Scarlet notices she made other people turn their attention to her and start wishpering.
She decides to leave to the other end of the ballroom to get away from them.
There she bumps into a guard that notices she doesn't have a bracelet.
"Hey lady, where's your bracelet?"
"Um..well you see, sir Evermoor said I'm his special guest and I'm allowed to not wear one"
"Oh yeah? Well why don't we ask him?"
"You can go ask him, I'm telling the truth"
"Ok then, you wait here and I go ask sir Evermoor, what's your name?"
"Monica Ludenberg"
"Sure..." and with that the guard leaves, looking for Thomas.
"He's really dumb, right now I could escape if I wanted to and he only has my name" she thinks turning around and walking towards a table nearby.
As Scarlet inspects the strange food, not daring to taste it, someone comes up to her putting a hand on her shoulder.
She turns around ready to throw hands but to her relief this time is Trystan the one touching her.
"Hey blondie, I was wondering if you would like to dance" the elf says flashing a playboy smile.
"Really, Trystan?" the girl says looking at the boy almost amused.
"O-Oh! Sca- Monica! Haven't seen you in a while, how's life? Heh..."
Trystan says slightly blushing.
"Life is pretty good thanks for asking. So how about we have some fun, if you get what I mean"
Scarlet says winking at the boy.
For a moment the elf looks very red and confused but then understands what she means.
Trystan flashes a misheveous smile kissing the back of her hand then subtly glancing towards a door guarded by a knight.
Scarlet nods subtly eyeing the door, letting Trystan leave to create a diversion.
Not much time passes and a table away from the door is set on fire, the fire extinds to the curtains and plants nearby alarming all of the guards, making them leave their positions.
Now that the door is not guarded, Scarlet runs up to it and tries to open it but it's locked.
"Damnit..." she wishpers under her breath.
Then she takes a hairpin from her hair and puts it in the lock, and using a little magic she models it in the shape needed to open the door.
The door unlocks and with a swift move, Scarlet dissapears behind it.