There are time when Eileen wondered why she let Ayla so easily win these arguments when she shouldn’t. Considering how disastrous it had been the last time they had come to these, it was wonder she’d even agreed at all. She had swore she wouldn’t let herself be swayed, but under the weight of Ayla’s pleading and her own need to find answers, that plan had been thrown off track.
So here she was. At another ball, when she had already established just what an absolutely horrendous idea it was. Except worse, because she knew they now expected more from her. Or well him, if she were considering it from their perspective. In the end it made no difference because it came to same result.
To top it all off, she’d managed to be pulled into an asinine conversation as well. She didn’t even know what it was really about at the moment. All Eileen knew was that it had been going on for far too long.
Perhaps she she should have thought about it a little more before agreeing to talk to the Ash couple the last time she was here. But at the time she hadn’t thought that she’d ever be back to one of these. It hadn’t seemed necessary then.
In the last few days she had found out how naive that thought was. First of all, Ayla had a point when she said it would be suspicious if her date vanished into thin air so soon after his first appearance. It was something that Eileen had considered as well, but she hadn’t thought it would be too difficult.
Another point was that it would hardly be a good solution to Ayla’s problem if the relationship ended after a night. Her parents wanted to meet the man who’d taken her to the Bennett ball. And Eileen knew them well enough to deduce they’d find it suspicious if she didn’t continue doing so.
More important however was the knife. The knife that now sat in a secure box underneath her bed. The one which was sharpened and tipped with poison so thoroughly that it would undoubtedly have been able to kill its target if it hit them. The knife that she still had no idea about.
It had bugged her. When she had sat down in her home, unwinding after the absolute chaos that was their “first date”. It had been unsettling to think the assailant was still out there. That with the way the attack had been ignored, there would be no one looking for the assailant’s whereabouts.
She knew that with Ayla’s family and their relative position in this society, they would undoubtedly keep going to such parties. It made them easy targets. Even if they weren’t the would-be assassin’s targets, Eileen knew firsthand how messy these situations were. Someone could very easily be caught in the cross-fire.
And she didn’t want it to be Ayla.
For many reasons. The most important of which was that she was one of her oldest friends and simply because it was Ayla. Growing up in a ragtag army as she had, she knew there were times that killing was essential. You couldn’t fix every problem with a conversation or a drink. Gods knew she would have been bear food is she’d taken that route.
It was more complicated with humans. She knew that there were certainly ways it could be avoided, but it was universal instinct to attack when threatened and think of the consequences later. It was true for wolves and lions, and it was even more so for humans. There would be less wars if the species wasn’t so inclined to violence when threatened.
But the lives killed weren’t always the guilty. There was every chance that innocent people would be caught in the cross-fire whether you wanted them to or not. So when Ayla had told her about this event, insisted on going to it even after all of Eileen’s protests, she’d had little choice but to come with her.
If only she could find whereAylahad wandered off to. When the seconds ticked by and she still couldn’t find her. Eileen determined that it was time to cut this conversation short.
“Excuse me gentlemen, ” she interrupted, “and ladies, I hate to cut this conversation short, but I seem to have lost my date. Would any of you know where she wandered off to?”
They seemed to pause for a second, clearly hesitant to cut the tediously long conversation short. But still obliged with the request and seriously pondered the words. It took only a few seconds longer before she was given her an answer.
“I believe I noticed Miss Westford walking towards the east corridor.” A woman Eileen did not recognise cut in to give the answer when it was clear no one else knew anything.
“Thank you madam.” Eileen gave her a smile and decided that she’d had enough socializing for the day.
However, following the trail ended up being more difficult than she’d anticipated. She had been sure that she would be able to find her, but she hadn’t accounted for the droves of other people that would block her way before she even came to the door that led into the corridor.
They accosted her from all sides, wanting to start up a conversation. At any other time, she’d have humored them, even if only to pass the time, but this was not one of those. She was polite at first, gently telling them that she needed to find her date. To their credit, they made room after that, with some even giving her directions to follow.
The problem with that, was many of these instructions were contrary, with one person saying she’d seen Ayla leave right, and another saying she’d actually gone left. So, she’d eventually had to decide that any of the “helpful” instructions she got out of them were to be taken with a grain of salt.
As the suggestions kept coming, Eileen had to fight with herself not to simply push her way through the crowd. With the way people kept approaching her, it was starting to seem more tempting by the minute. Her patience was only so much. The only thing that kept her from following through with the impulse wereAren’swords in her head telling her to not do something stupid.
He’d always badgered Eileen not to follow a lead without thinking it through. Not that she’d been that reckless. That was more Damian’s thing than hers. She’d always just gone along with it because who knew what trouble they’d get in if left to their own devices.
She could also admit now, that it had been lonely staying in the camp without their familiar bickering. For all her grandpa and his friends tried to make her feel welcome, a lot of the kids tended to stay away. Being the Great General’s only granddaughter came with its own burdens.
In those moments, she had wondered how her father had dealt with being his only child. Then, she’d surmised that it had perhaps been due to her grandmother he’s stayed as humble as he had. Although she could never be quite sure. Even as Eileen politely excused herself for what felt like the hundredth time, she made a note to ask her grandpa about it someday.
Alright. Eileen had come to the conclusion that if she kept trying to politely make her way through, she’d never manage it. Not without significant delays. So, instead of continuing as she was, she paused in her step. Taking a deep breath in to calm herself, she thought back to all those lessons Dane had drilled into her.
Opening her eyes after the sigh, she looked up in determination, turning a lopsided smile to the crowd.
“As nice as it is to meet you, I really do have somewhere to be. If you wouldn’t mind, could you please move.” Putting emphasis on the please as she’d gone over with Dane did what it was intended to. It made them see that she was at the end of her patience.
“Thank you,” Eileen sighed when they complied.
She thought it was a little weird how quickly they had moved to do what she said. But a moment later, a thought entered her mind and she groaned. It was probably because of the knife. If she weren’t so determined to find Ayla without wasting time, she’d have given into the impulse to bury her face in her hands. Would she ever be to live that down?
It certainly didn’t seem so at the moment. But then again, this was only her second appearance in society. For all she knew, after some time they’d forget about it entirely. Even as she thought it, a small voice at the back of her head called her delusional.
One she ignored immediately.
Eileen decided that ifAylawasn’t in dead, she’d kill her herself. Her legs were aching from how far she had been walking. It felt like she’d been searching forever, and there was still no sign of her. With every second that ticked by, the irritation blooming in her chest grew.
One thing. She had told Ayla to do one thing. Stay within sight and not wonder off. That was all she had asked in return for the continuation of this crazy plan. But, Ayla didn’t even last more than two hours before she forgot about it entirely. Where even was she right now?
Worst case scenarios filtered through her mind. Gruesome images of Ayla bleeding out in a corridor somewhere, with Eileen none the wiser. It was an image of horror that she didn’t ever want to think about. A part of her wondered why her mind would even go in that direction.
But another part called that part stupid. Of course her mind would go in that direction given the way the last ball had gone. It might be her second high society event, but she had already determined they weren’t safe. Eileen did feel it was a little extreme to liken a party to war, but she couldn’t bring herself to really care.
Frustration overtook the worry when a glance into the next room showed no progress in her search. She bet that Ayla had seen something she could use in her book and forgot all about everything else. When Ayla had told her about how she had tunnel-visioned into a particular point for the sake of research in her letters, she had already thought it wasn’t wise.
Now, searching through empty corridors for a missing friend, with images of death flickering through her mind on repeat, she was even more sure it wasn’t. When she found her, Ayla was going to get an earful about what to do in dangerous situations. The foremost of which being not to wander off alone in the dead of night.
Even if she didn’t think it was dangerous situation, it was always a good rule to have. It was with the utmost self-reflection that Eileen knew she could have used the same in her younger days. But it had never been alone for too long with so many shadows to chase after her.
Another frustrated breath left her as she decided to stand at the end of the corridor. She went out onto the balcony at the end. With Ayla’s luck with fountains, there was a chance she might have been near one again. But a quick glance gave no results.
A phone would have been very useful right now. With her worries about the assailant and general lack of want to be here, she’d not brought it with her. Another long suffering sigh left her and she was about to leave when a voice caught her attention.
“Did you hear about that merchant down on East-end?” The voice was hushed and normally Eileen would have kept going, but something about it made her stay in place.
“Which merchant?” Another male voice replied almost immediately, it was more raspy.
“The one who knows a friend who knows a friend of a friend who heard from his sister that there’s a man living by the coast who used to worked for the Devencrux family.”
“Why’d you say friend so many times?” His companion sounded annoyed. “And I don’t see how this has anything to do with the merchant.”
“Well. He went to find the man to get a scoop on his connections, and he couldn’t find him.”
“What’s so interesting about that! There isn’t even anything going on.”
“Will you let me finish?” The man seemed to have lost his patience, his voice echoing in the empty air. Eileen held her breath, not making a sound as she stood frozen in place.
Carefully moving to the edge of the railing, but making sure not be in their line of sight, she glanced down. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she could vaguely make out two men smoking cigars. One of them had his cigar pointed at the other, nose flaring in annoyance. The other seemed unimpressed, but he made a motion for him to continue.
“Well, the family was rich. We all know that. So he thought they’d have some dirty secrets he could find. With them being related to the Great General and all, they’d sell for a lot. No one even knows what happened to their house.”
The second man was giving him a look that said he already knew all this, but didn’t interrupt his friend’s spiel.
“Oddest thing happened when he got to the place this man was supposedly living in.” He paused for dramatic effect. “It was gone. Not a brick left of the house. There was no sign of anyone living there.”
“No sign?”
“No sign. He asked around about him, but no one could say anything.” He ran one hand through his hair in a way that told her he was uncomfortable about what he was going to say next. “Freakiest thing is, they didn’t know anyone of the description but they also didn’t know a thing about the person who heard about him.”
Once again pausing in his words, he dropped the cigar to the ground. Staring into his friend’s eyes with a somber look as he snuffed it out with his foot. “The woman had been living there for years and those people didn’t even know who she was. Not even her relatives could say anything about her it. It was like she just faded out of existence. And that man too.”
His companion looked a little creeped out by this, but he quickly covered it up with a glare. “Have you been drinking? This sort of stuff is best left for horror stories.”
Then, without waiting for the first man to reply, he walked off.
“I’m telling you. It’s real!”
Eileen watched him chase his friend across the grounds back in to the ballroom. Her mind whirled with this new information, and she put it in a shelf in her mind. That was certainly interesting. She had a hunch there was something there.
But it would need to wait. Without the distraction, her mind went back to the objective she had been on. To find Ayla. So instead of following after them and shaking the man for more information, she took a deep breath to calm herself and turned to walk away.
Only she didn’t manage to walk more than a few steps before a distinctly familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.
There are time when Eileen wondered why she let Ayla so easily win these arguments when she shouldn’t. Considering how disastrous it had been the last time they had come to these, it was wonder she’d even agreed at all. She had swore she wouldn’t let herself be swayed, but under the weight of Ayla’s pleading and her own need to find answers, that plan had been thrown off track.
So here she was. At another ball, when she had already established just what an absolutely horrendous idea it was. Except worse, because she knew they now expected more from her. Or well him, if she were considering it from their perspective. In the end it made no difference because it came to same result.
To top it all off, she’d managed to be pulled into an asinine conversation as well. She didn’t even know what it was really about at the moment. All Eileen knew was that it had been going on for far too long.
Perhaps she she should have thought about it a little more before agreeing to talk to the Ash couple the last time she was here. But at the time she hadn’t thought that she’d ever be back to one of these. It hadn’t seemed necessary then.
In the last few days she had found out how naive that thought was. First of all, Ayla had a point when she said it would be suspicious if her date vanished into thin air so soon after his first appearance. It was something that Eileen had considered as well, but she hadn’t thought it would be too difficult.
Another point was that it would hardly be a good solution to Ayla’s problem if the relationship ended after a night. Her parents wanted to meet the man who’d taken her to the Bennett ball. And Eileen knew them well enough to deduce they’d find it suspicious if she didn’t continue doing so.
More important however was the knife. The knife that now sat in a secure box underneath her bed. The one which was sharpened and tipped with poison so thoroughly that it would undoubtedly have been able to kill its target if it hit them. The knife that she still had no idea about.
It had bugged her. When she had sat down in her home, unwinding after the absolute chaos that was their “first date”. It had been unsettling to think the assailant was still out there. That with the way the attack had been ignored, there would be no one looking for the assailant’s whereabouts.
She knew that with Ayla’s family and their relative position in this society, they would undoubtedly keep going to such parties. It made them easy targets. Even if they weren’t the would-be assassin’s targets, Eileen knew firsthand how messy these situations were. Someone could very easily be caught in the cross-fire.
And she didn’t want it to be Ayla.
For many reasons. The most important of which was that she was one of her oldest friends and simply because it was Ayla. Growing up in a ragtag army as she had, she knew there were times that killing was essential. You couldn’t fix every problem with a conversation or a drink. Gods knew she would have been bear food is she’d taken that route.
It was more complicated with humans. She knew that there were certainly ways it could be avoided, but it was universal instinct to attack when threatened and think of the consequences later. It was true for wolves and lions, and it was even more so for humans. There would be less wars if the species wasn’t so inclined to violence when threatened.
But the lives killed weren’t always the guilty. There was every chance that innocent people would be caught in the cross-fire whether you wanted them to or not. So when Ayla had told her about this event, insisted on going to it even after all of Eileen’s protests, she’d had little choice but to come with her.
If only she could find whereAylahad wandered off to. When the seconds ticked by and she still couldn’t find her. Eileen determined that it was time to cut this conversation short.
“Excuse me gentlemen, ” she interrupted, “and ladies, I hate to cut this conversation short, but I seem to have lost my date. Would any of you know where she wandered off to?”
They seemed to pause for a second, clearly hesitant to cut the tediously long conversation short. But still obliged with the request and seriously pondered the words. It took only a few seconds longer before she was given her an answer.
“I believe I noticed Miss Westford walking towards the east corridor.” A woman Eileen did not recognise cut in to give the answer when it was clear no one else knew anything.
“Thank you madam.” Eileen gave her a smile and decided that she’d had enough socializing for the day.
However, following the trail ended up being more difficult than she’d anticipated. She had been sure that she would be able to find her, but she hadn’t accounted for the droves of other people that would block her way before she even came to the door that led into the corridor.
They accosted her from all sides, wanting to start up a conversation. At any other time, she’d have humored them, even if only to pass the time, but this was not one of those. She was polite at first, gently telling them that she needed to find her date. To their credit, they made room after that, with some even giving her directions to follow.
The problem with that, was many of these instructions were contrary, with one person saying she’d seen Ayla leave right, and another saying she’d actually gone left. So, she’d eventually had to decide that any of the “helpful” instructions she got out of them were to be taken with a grain of salt.
As the suggestions kept coming, Eileen had to fight with herself not to simply push her way through the crowd. With the way people kept approaching her, it was starting to seem more tempting by the minute. Her patience was only so much. The only thing that kept her from following through with the impulse wereAren’swords in her head telling her to not do something stupid.
He’d always badgered Eileen not to follow a lead without thinking it through. Not that she’d been that reckless. That was more Damian’s thing than hers. She’d always just gone along with it because who knew what trouble they’d get in if left to their own devices.
She could also admit now, that it had been lonely staying in the camp without their familiar bickering. For all her grandpa and his friends tried to make her feel welcome, a lot of the kids tended to stay away. Being the Great General’s only granddaughter came with its own burdens.
In those moments, she had wondered how her father had dealt with being his only child. Then, she’d surmised that it had perhaps been due to her grandmother he’s stayed as humble as he had. Although she could never be quite sure. Even as Eileen politely excused herself for what felt like the hundredth time, she made a note to ask her grandpa about it someday.
Alright. Eileen had come to the conclusion that if she kept trying to politely make her way through, she’d never manage it. Not without significant delays. So, instead of continuing as she was, she paused in her step. Taking a deep breath in to calm herself, she thought back to all those lessons Dane had drilled into her.
Opening her eyes after the sigh, she looked up in determination, turning a lopsided smile to the crowd.
“As nice as it is to meet you, I really do have somewhere to be. If you wouldn’t mind, could you please move.” Putting emphasis on the please as she’d gone over with Dane did what it was intended to. It made them see that she was at the end of her patience.
“Thank you,” Eileen sighed when they complied.
She thought it was a little weird how quickly they had moved to do what she said. But a moment later, a thought entered her mind and she groaned. It was probably because of the knife. If she weren’t so determined to find Ayla without wasting time, she’d have given into the impulse to bury her face in her hands. Would she ever be to live that down?
It certainly didn’t seem so at the moment. But then again, this was only her second appearance in society. For all she knew, after some time they’d forget about it entirely. Even as she thought it, a small voice at the back of her head called her delusional.
One she ignored immediately.
Eileen decided that ifAylawasn’t in dead, she’d kill her herself. Her legs were aching from how far she had been walking. It felt like she’d been searching forever, and there was still no sign of her. With every second that ticked by, the irritation blooming in her chest grew.
One thing. She had told Ayla to do one thing. Stay within sight and not wonder off. That was all she had asked in return for the continuation of this crazy plan. But, Ayla didn’t even last more than two hours before she forgot about it entirely. Where even was she right now?
Worst case scenarios filtered through her mind. Gruesome images of Ayla bleeding out in a corridor somewhere, with Eileen none the wiser. It was an image of horror that she didn’t ever want to think about. A part of her wondered why her mind would even go in that direction.
But another part called that part stupid. Of course her mind would go in that direction given the way the last ball had gone. It might be her second high society event, but she had already determined they weren’t safe. Eileen did feel it was a little extreme to liken a party to war, but she couldn’t bring herself to really care.
Frustration overtook the worry when a glance into the next room showed no progress in her search. She bet that Ayla had seen something she could use in her book and forgot all about everything else. When Ayla had told her about how she had tunnel-visioned into a particular point for the sake of research in her letters, she had already thought it wasn’t wise.
Now, searching through empty corridors for a missing friend, with images of death flickering through her mind on repeat, she was even more sure it wasn’t. When she found her, Ayla was going to get an earful about what to do in dangerous situations. The foremost of which being not to wander off alone in the dead of night.
Even if she didn’t think it was dangerous situation, it was always a good rule to have. It was with the utmost self-reflection that Eileen knew she could have used the same in her younger days. But it had never been alone for too long with so many shadows to chase after her.
Another frustrated breath left her as she decided to stand at the end of the corridor. She went out onto the balcony at the end. With Ayla’s luck with fountains, there was a chance she might have been near one again. But a quick glance gave no results.
A phone would have been very useful right now. With her worries about the assailant and general lack of want to be here, she’d not brought it with her. Another long suffering sigh left her and she was about to leave when a voice caught her attention.
“Did you hear about that merchant down on East-end?” The voice was hushed and normally Eileen would have kept going, but something about it made her stay in place.
“Which merchant?” Another male voice replied almost immediately, it was more raspy.
“The one who knows a friend who knows a friend of a friend who heard from his sister that there’s a man living by the coast who used to worked for the Devencrux family.”
“Why’d you say friend so many times?” His companion sounded annoyed. “And I don’t see how this has anything to do with the merchant.”
“Well. He went to find the man to get a scoop on his connections, and he couldn’t find him.”
“What’s so interesting about that! There isn’t even anything going on.”
“Will you let me finish?” The man seemed to have lost his patience, his voice echoing in the empty air. Eileen held her breath, not making a sound as she stood frozen in place.
Carefully moving to the edge of the railing, but making sure not be in their line of sight, she glanced down. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she could vaguely make out two men smoking cigars. One of them had his cigar pointed at the other, nose flaring in annoyance. The other seemed unimpressed, but he made a motion for him to continue.
“Well, the family was rich. We all know that. So he thought they’d have some dirty secrets he could find. With them being related to the Great General and all, they’d sell for a lot. No one even knows what happened to their house.”
The second man was giving him a look that said he already knew all this, but didn’t interrupt his friend’s spiel.
“Oddest thing happened when he got to the place this man was supposedly living in.” He paused for dramatic effect. “It was gone. Not a brick left of the house. There was no sign of anyone living there.”
“No sign?”
“No sign. He asked around about him, but no one could say anything.” He ran one hand through his hair in a way that told her he was uncomfortable about what he was going to say next. “Freakiest thing is, they didn’t know anyone of the description but they also didn’t know a thing about the person who heard about him.”
Once again pausing in his words, he dropped the cigar to the ground. Staring into his friend’s eyes with a somber look as he snuffed it out with his foot. “The woman had been living there for years and those people didn’t even know who she was. Not even her relatives could say anything about her it. It was like she just faded out of existence. And that man too.”
His companion looked a little creeped out by this, but he quickly covered it up with a glare. “Have you been drinking? This sort of stuff is best left for horror stories.”
Then, without waiting for the first man to reply, he walked off.
“I’m telling you. It’s real!”
Eileen watched him chase his friend across the grounds back in to the ballroom. Her mind whirled with this new information, and she put it in a shelf in her mind. That was certainly interesting. She had a hunch there was something there.
But it would need to wait. Without the distraction, her mind went back to the objective she had been on. To find Ayla. So instead of following after them and shaking the man for more information, she took a deep breath to calm herself and turned to walk away.
Only she didn’t manage to walk more than a few steps before a distinctly familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.
