The pounding that awoke me was painfully loud. I discovered soon after that it held no flame to the absolute hate filled light that now filled my room, slamming into my tired brain like a hammer.

"Alana? Are you there?" I recognized Charles' voice from the other side of my door and sat straight up, an action I instantly regretted.

"Um... yeah, one moment." I struggled to keep up as I took a quick look around my room.

The first thing I noticed was that it was dark outside, very dark. I had been working in the morning and must have just knocked myself out for the whole day. There was no way that someone hadn't noticed at some point, but I could probably make it fine by just saying that I'd been feeling off and took a nap. That issue was no big deal.

What was certainly a big deal was the fact that there was still a visible distortion in the middle of the room. I could feel my eyes getting bigger as I looked at it. I had no clue if this was dangerous, safe, or just a weird visual trick, but there was an absolutely zero percent chance that I could explain that away. It looked like a lens or something , with a slight swirl and color change. My apple still sat on the floor below it and while it looked fine I was in no hurry to put any body part into this thing.

"Alana, is everything alright?" Charles asked from the other side of the door, my head was still pounding, and I needed to think.

"What!? Um... yeah, everything's fine, I'm... I'm good. Um... how are you?" Internally I was cursing, just trying to figure out what in the world to do with this mess.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'm sure. One second."

I stood up and made my way to the door. My mana had fully recovered as far as I could tell, but I was still coming back from the knockout of using all of it at once. I got to the door and opened it just a crack so I could stick my head out.

"Hi there," he said as I popped my face out into the hall. "There's a party tonight where we'll be going over a lot of tomorrow's activities, and I haven't seen you all day to talk about it. Is there a problem?"

"Um... no, no problems, none at all." I thought for a moment before amending my statement. "Actually just a bit, but like, girl problems." That seemed the surest way to get him to go quickly.

"Oh... um... like down in the undercity?" I could see he didn't believe me, and his hand was drifting down to the blade at his waist.

It was a bit surprising that they let him carry that, but I supposed that most casters were at least as dangerous on their own. I was also touched that he'd made his face not match his words at all. It was clear that he didn't believe me, and that if I said yes he'd be coming through that door swinging at whatever 'problem' he found there. He'd even chosen the perfect words for some assailant to not know how I was answering.

"Not at all like that actually."

"Do you need me to go fetch one of that maids to help you then?" He said as he began to turn.

"No, nope, I'm good, totally good."

He turned back and sighed. "Alana, if you don't go to the party tonight, it will be noticed. I don't know what's wrong, but you're obviously lying."

"I'm..."

"You're really bad at it. Anyway, can you fix whatever the issue is promptly?"

"Um... one moment." With that I closed the door.

"Sincerely?" I heard his muffled voice gripe from the other side of the door.

I could throw an illusion over this thing for the time being, but what if someone walked into it. That would be... I didn't actually know, but I was going to go with worst case and move forward from there. so we'd assume bad. That meant that I needed to fix it, preferably without passing out again.

I would have loved to stick around and study this... whatever, but that seemed a bit dangerous at the moment. For now I'd have to do what I could and so I began to focus again. I reached out in my mind and tried to smooth out the area of space that I'd previously pulled, imagining it coming back together.

Luckily for me it seemed that the world wanted to undo whatever I'd done and while it was still a strain it did come back to what it should have been in the first place. As space flowed back how it should be I got the distinct feeling that I needed to investigate that phenomenon when I got a chance, hopefully somewhere slightly more private and on a smaller scale. For now I was back to running on the fumes of mana.

I turned and opened my door once I saw that my screw up was fixed. "Hi there, I don't suppose you would go and get me that maid would you? I may need just a bit of help getting ready."

Charles narrowed his eyes and gave a quick look around my room. I was fairly certain that he could pick up on things I never would, but after a moment nodded. "Okay, if you're sure you're alright."

"Thanks!"

It was only a few moments before a maid came and shortly after that I was dressed and ready to go. I was lucky that I'd already been about halfway to presentable and all I'd done all day was sleep after my morning routine. The fact that the maid knew her business also probably helped a lot.

As I walked down the hall with my escort he looked at me with a quirked brow. "You going to tell me what that was about?"

"Nope." I tried to stay cheerful even though I'd exhausted myself twice today and really could just go back to bed.

"As long as you're alright I suppose it doesn't matter, but please be careful."

The party was lovely. We were shown the main part of the venue and I was given a small card to indicate where I would be seated tomorrow. After that we were shown to the hall where the feast would be held afterwards. There was one tonight as well. This room had been used for several of the larger discussions and so was familiar to me, but it was still wonderful to see.

The meal was light by feast standards, having only a few courses of lighter foods and a very small amount of wine given out. This wasn't a large party but rather a gathering for most of the wedding guests to get acquainted with the proceedings for tomorrow.

The happy couple sat at the top of the head table, surrounded by high ranking officials and close friends. From there the tables were separated by sex with those closer to the high table being of higher standing. Mother and I sat together, we were not the closest, but were still nearby enough to hear the louder parts of the conversation there if we cared to. Even from here I could tell that they both looked rather tired.

Afterwards everyone was going off to the dance hall, where those who chose to could go through some of the dances that we'd be doing tomorrow. It wasn't nearly as decked out as it would be, and the band was significantly smaller than a true one, but this would serve as a good rehearsal for those who needed it, or who just liked to dance.

"You look tired dear, will you be joining in the dancing tonight?" Mother asked as she learned over.

I didn't know if I should take the opportunity or not, but I was surprised she could see how depleted I was. "I'm not sure. Do you know if Charles knows these dances? We'll have to once or twice tomorrow at least."

She blinked at my question. "Oh, I didn't think to ask. He should know some right? He's a magic user and all and... actually your father didn't know any until recently, we may need to ask."

It was for that reason that I ended up at another dance rehearsal. They weren't bad after all and I did know those that were on the docket, months of etiquette classes will do that for you. After a few of the larger group dances I finally ended up with Charles on the floor. He held my waist with calm confidence and led me through all of the steps at least as well as I could have done.

"I didn't know you knew these," I stated as our second round came to an end.

"I don't."

"What? You're doing better than I am, didn't you practice?"

"No. I'm watching the steps of the other dancers and repeating them." He said that as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be able to watch dozens of people and mimic them almost perfectly.

I just sputtered for a second. "That's so unfair, I had to learn all of these by rote."

"Eh, I got used to watching Meg's moves and having to repeat them as she did them."

"You cheater."

He chuckled at my accusation and we returned to the floor for a couple more. At the actual party we'd have to switch partners, but for this it would be fine. He also wasn't bad, I may have personally wanted Kala to be here instead, but it was nice to at least have someone who knew what he was doing, even if he was just faking it.

As we left the dance hall Mystien approached me, his brow a bit furrowed. We moved off to the side and he put up a minor privacy ward. It seemed he wanted to speak privately.

"Is everything well?" He asked.

"Yes..."

"Your aura looks like you drained all your mana out. Is there anything we should worry about?"

"No, I was just trying out some new spells earlier and didn't realize how mana intensive they would be. There's so much going on here you know? The ice magic event alone was something else, and while I can make it, I can't sculpt anything like that, yet."

"I see. You know that that will happen though Alana, please be careful. When you came in late looking like death and strained aura I was a bit concerned."

"Is this all you wanted? To chastise me on mana regulation?"

"No, though honestly you should be more careful. Didn't we cover that when you were just a child?" He frowned a bit and so did I, but he had other business. "Did you sincerely suggest democratic elections of mayors for villages in the meeting on that?"

"Good grief Mystien, they were just a bunch of old farts. It's not like they decide that stuff or anything." I couldn't believe he was asking about that of all things.

He looked like he'd want to bonk me on the head or something, but now was not the time. "Alana, think about where you are. Those 'old farts' and I do love that turn of phrase, are the movers and shakers of the empire, they are making those decisions. If you were sincere you could write up details on how you think it might be done. I think your father and I might well support that bid."

I blinked. "You'd put your stamp on it?"

"Both of us lived in a village Alana, and we know how it can be screwed up. I also don't think it's a terribly bad idea, we might have to try it and work the kinks out, but I'm willing to support that idea."

I thought about how long it would take to do all of that. "Okay then, I'll write some things down and send them over to you. I don't know specifics, but for a general idea, it should be okay."

When I got back to my room I scrawled out a general layout before bed. Secret ballots, all adults having an equal vote, maybe place a few basic constraints on who could run. It wasn't much of a proposal, but I hoped it would pass. I had it done in under an hour and sent it off to Mystien. Dad was really busy at the moment and he'd not asked for it, but I could answer most of his questions then.

As all that was done I fell back into my bed and laughed at the idea that most of what I'd done today was sleep.