"Well this is turning out to be pretty boring," thought Sahana as she stood at the center of the hall, all by herself while others around her gathered in groups talking in normal tones and gossiping with one another about the events that were going on in the empire.
After a few minutes of waiting for the queen to speak and do whatever she was supposed to do to usher the debutants of the day into society, Sahana quickly found out that the queen had no intention to speak anytime soon, as the main intention of the banquet was for people from the noble houses to mingle and interact in a friendly atmosphere.
The older women talked about their children and their families, the ladies talked about the men wooing them and the latest fashion in season while most of the men talked about Politics and the things going on in the kingdoms surrounding the Empire of Darkus.
Sahana stood silently, sometimes changing positions to enable her to eavesdrop on the various conversations around her, and the more she listened the more aware she became of the lack of information she had and she immediately grew an urgent need to visit a library as soon as possible.
Even from the memories of the real Sahana that she had, all the knowledge she had consisted of tea parties and etiquette lessons on how to stand, sit and walk properly regardless of how tight your corset is set to be.
It became clear to Sahana that in the new world where she was, Men had the power and knowledge to easily rule while most women mostly concerned themselves with looking pretty and getting married to a good, rich, and handsome suitor whom they could show off to their friends.
"Living here is going to be harder than I thought," Sahana murmured to herself, the moment she got to the back of the hall, a good distance away from almost everyone there since for some reason, most of them wanted to be closer to the queen and most of the debutants hoped to win the queen's favor or one of the princes whom they heard might also show up at the banquet.
Bored with no one to talk to, and since no young woman seemed interested in talking to her, her legs started to slightly ache and she couldn't help but sigh aloud as she considered the possibility of looking for her father and brother, hoping that it would be socially acceptable to hang around beside them.
Sahana was still scanning around for her family members when she unexpectedly heard someone behind her speak not too far away from her.
" Isn't it boring, standing here alone all by yourself? asked an unfamiliar male voice from behind her.
Shocked, her first instinct was to turn her body to the side and look at the person who had spoken to her but in a second, she resisted the urge and even though she considered the voice to have a sexy allure to it, she retained the same position she had been standing in before opening her mouth to speak.
" Isn't it considered rude to speak to a lady behind her back?" said Sahana trying her best to resist the urge to look back.
"What if in the process of speaking to me, you had startled my fragile heart and caused it to stop beating?" said Sahana in the most gentle and appealing voice she could muster trying her best to observe all the etiquette standards that she could recall.
"Then I would find the best miracle workers and quickly replace it with mine," said the stranger in a clearly amused voice walking into her line of sight on her right-hand side.
The moment she saw him in full view, she couldn't stop herself from lifting her eyebrows in surprise.
He had blonde hair and was dressed beautifully from the clothes he wore to the shoes on his feet.
However, what shocked her the most was the bright Red- mask covering the top half of his face, and unlike the Queen who wore a full silver mask on her face, he only covered half of his face, leaving most of his nose and lips visible to everyone.
" It's okay, you can stare, as long as you allow me to do the same, " he abruptly said with a hint of a smirk at the edge of his lips when he caught Sahana's eyes roving all over him.
" My name is Tamen" he continued speaking, meeting her eyes with his own.
Flustered at how intently he was looking into her eyes with his deep green eyes and coupled with the fact that she had been caught gawking at him, she turned her face away as different thoughts started to run through her mind.
" Ki.., nope...Sahana, get a grip and stop behaving like a young teenager who's meeting her crush after a long time. Just because he's super good-looking does not mean you should fawn over him. Moreover, there's magic in this world, which means the possibility that someone might be able to read your mind is real. How are am I meant to save...shit!...Ummm, save myself from this boring party. Urghhh, living here is so hard..." thought Sahana trying her best not to think about anything relating to her world or who she was since there was a strong possibility that the queen would have a lot of magicians protecting her, hiding somewhere in the shadows.
Lost in thought, for a second she had forgotten the beautifully masked man she was talking to. Sahana turned to face him and still found him silently looking at her.
Refusing to look away, she decided to have a conversation with him and she was about to open her mouth and speak with the intention of telling him her name when she suddenly noticed how quiet the lively hall had suddenly become.
Shifting her gaze from the man beside her, she was shocked to notice that not only had everyone in the hall stopped talking and interacting with each other, but everyone including the queen had focused all their attention towards the corner where she was standing and was staring at her and the man beside her.