The table Amber was sitting at, was in the middle of a stone covered clearing, surrounded by flowering plum blossom trees, and a short stone wall. The clearing was slightly lower than the surrounding area, so it felt a bit sunken. All of the round tables were covered with a white table cloth. In the center of each round table were three tiered pure silver stands covered in pastries and little sandwiches. On each table, there were eight small tea pots in front of each sitting guest.
As a Baron's daughter, she wouldn't be allowed to sit at her current table normally, but in this instance, she was also the First Prince's fiancé. If it hadn't been for the unusual circumstances of her birth, she also wouldn't have been chosen to be his fiancé. It was widely suspected that eventually the First Prince would find himself seated on the throne. Most people felt like it was just a matter of time.
Personally, Amber didn't care all that much for a throne, unless the throne was hers. She had allowed the thought of sitting on a throne of her own to roll around in her mind. Of course, in a patriarch society, she wouldn't be stupid enough to easily voice that thought to others.
Amber settled in at her assigned table with Cray on her left and the First Prince on her right. In total, eight people were seated at the table, including herself. While one person silently stood behind each seated person.
Behind Amber, Jenna silently stood with anger and jealousy apparent on her face. Every once in a while, she looked at the First Prince longingly, as if she were trying to incite Amber's wrath, and cause a scene. Amber chuckled internally and ignored the little game Jenna was playing. Amber had no interest in that garbage man.
A much more interesting man to pay attention to was sitting across from Amber. Although she didn't want to get involved with anyone romantically, she wasn't dead or blind. She could easily appreciate looking at him. He was none other than the beautiful elvin man that she had admired in the Shadow Forest, shortly after meeting Nova. He had long light purple hair that reached to his knees which had diamond chains resting across it. An intricately woven golden crown, embedded with diamonds, rested on his head. The diamonds and his hair sparkled in the light. His golden colored, almond shaped eyes were enchanting and the rest of his features were elegant and handsome. Looking at him was like admiring a beautiful, but poisonous flower. He was wearing a long white robe with intricate golden flower stitching, and wore a large purple ring.
He hadn't touched the tea pot in front of himself. His artistically beautiful hand, with pointed nails, wrapped around a wine glass full of iridescent and sparkling white liquid. The liquid had an odd scent to it like cotton candy that had a slight metal undertone. Amber watched as his front canines extended while he smiled and looked at her with lowered bedroom eyes; then sipped. After he was done drinking, he slowly ran his tongue over his upper lip and his extended upper canine teeth. His fangs then retracted and a somewhat pleasant smile appeared on his face, as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever occurred. He lowered his empty glass and one of the twins quickly refilled it from a solid dark pitcher that she was holding.
A shiver traveled down Amber's spine and with it, a thrill that she'd never felt before. She could feel goosebumps forming all over her body against her will. This man was dangerous, it was obvious, but her logic couldn't stop her from feeling intrigued regardless of her mind screaming at her about danger.
Amber was only freed from his hypnotic stare when he turned his head slightly and whispered too quietly for her to hear towards the other twin elven woman standing behind him. The twin replied in a voice so quietly that it only looked like her lips were slightly moving in patterns that Amber couldn't follow, but no sound came out.
Those two servant women were the twins that Amber had watched fanning him the first time she'd seen him. The two women were identical with short platinum hair, ice blue eyes, beautiful delicate features, and pointy tipped ears. They were wearing identical silver dresses with thick metal bracelets around both of their wrists, just like the first time she'd seen them. This time she recognized those bracelets for the magic restraints that they were.
This time, the silver dresses the twins were wearing were somewhat more conservative in regards to showing no cleavage since their matching dresses had ruffled collars that went halfway up to their chin. Although, their long silver dresses had a long side slit that showed off a considerable amount of long leg. Their shoulders were exposed, showing off a house mark. This house mark allowed the world to see that these twin women were considered property. Much like a house or a carriage that you could also put a house emblem on.
Amber unconsciously grazed her hand across her chest thinking about the hateful brand that remained burned into her flesh, hidden under her clothing. Her slight movement wasn't missed by the elfin man whose eyes tracked her hand and rested on her chest. He was clearly interested in her, although she didn't know what had caught his interest.
She felt frustrated. The brand remained on her since she hadn't figured out a way to remove it, that didn't involve deeply flaying her flesh off. She'd tried cutting off the outer layer and healing it, but the brand remained. Although she could resist pain fairly well if it were inflicted upon her, it was an entirely different matter to inflict it directly to herself. This was another reason why she needed to train a good protégé, so that she would have someone trained to treat her. As of yet, she had been too ashamed to show anyone the branding in her skin and request that they help her remove it. She doubted it would be easy to convince anyone she trusted to cut her.
Thinking about it, she almost wished that she'd taken her time to kill that scumbag who had branded her instead of killing him so suddenly. With all of the resentment she had every time she looked at his branding, she would love to take some of her anger out on him. He was already dead, but his mark remained, and so she felt hollow and unfulfilled.
This was often the feeling that someone got after indulging their vengeance. After it was over and done, there would be a hollow feeling that remained. Amber didn't know it yet, but in time, she would become intimately familiar with that hollow feeling.
She was only freed from the elfin man's hypnotic stare when he turned his head to the side and whispered too quietly for anyone apart from the elves to hear. One of the twins standing behind him replied in a voice also too quietly for her to hear. Clearly his species has superior hearing capabilities.
The elfin girl sitting to the right of him was the girl about Nova's age who had been meditating with the green mana flowing around her in the Shadow Forest. She was even more enchanting up close with her doe like golden eyes and long golden hair. She looked like a beautiful little doll with slightly rounded cheeks in her youthful and dewy skin. Her ears were also pointed. Her blood relation with the enchanting lavender haired man was quite apparent since they had the exact same shade of eyes and similar noses and mouths. The two of them were utterly beautiful and enchanting, so much so that Amber could barely think while looking at them so closely.
Whatever he said to his servant, caught the attention of the little girl sitting beside him. She turned her attention towards Amber with an angelic look on her face and smiled while fluttering her thick golden eyelashes. Not only was this little girl sitting beside him otherworldly beautiful, she was also quite cute, and a child. This combination was three of Amber's weaknesses wrapped into one, causing Amber's heart to tug and try to soften towards her. Amber quickly looked away from the little girl and directed her attention to the other side of him.
The woman sitting to the other side of him, was the elfin woman with long green hair and emerald green eyes that Amber had seen trying to get his interest in the Shadow Forest. It was obvious at that time that she was enamored with him and it was obvious now that she still was. Whatever he had said to his servant, she had also heard, and wasn't pleased about. She looked like she had accidentally touched some disgusting thing as she quickly stood up, knocked over her tea cup, and excused herself from the table. She quickly walked away with heavy footsteps and a flushed face. Her hands were in fight fists at her sides.
Chasing after the green haired elf, was her servant. She was the same petite brown haired elfin woman who'd been following after the green haired elfin woman in the Shadow Forest. She was wearing a short brown basic leather wrap dress that had seen better days and had a hand print firmly outlined on her cheek. A look of fear was apparent on her face, but nevertheless she followed after her while her whole body shook, and her large brown eyes teared up in fear.
Amber watched as those two elfin women quickly walked away and glanced back at the man in confusion. While their eyes met again, Amber felt a spark of excited tension binding and building between the two of them once again. The feeling was so startling, that Amber didn't notice the angry and indignant look coming from the First Prince sitting beside her. For the first time in his life, he felt utterly ignored and outclassed.
Jenna however, very much noticed the look that the First Prince gave Amber. Her heart started to pound in her ears and she could feel ice flow through her veins. She had to stop this development before it could become anything!