Chapter 85 The Entrance

Soon they were close enough to the entrance to see what was going on, even Evernya, through the windshield. In about two minutes intervals, fancily dressed people stepped out of their just as fancy cars to walk down an aisle lined with fans and media.

"There is no way I am putting myself in the spotlight on a red carpet!" Evernya rejected, trembling with nerves.

"Don't worry. I doubt the crowd will even notice you once they announced my name," Meira assured, causing Elizabeth to scoff at her friend's arrogance but remained silent for her patient's sake.

"That hasn't stopped them before." Evernya fretted while stroking her tail to calm herself.

"It will be different this time because, as I'm sure you've noticed, my name carries a bit of weight, but very few people know my appearance. I suppose you could call it a public reveal." Meira assured, smiling down at her nervous kitten.

"For my sake, I hope you are right. Otherwise, I may learn how to teleport on my own out of desperation." Evernya joked with a forced chuckle as she continued to stroke her tail with trembling hands.

"Well, you are kind of fucked since there is a spatial lock here, so no teleporting for you," Meira revealed.

"Stupid spatial lock, those damn things are everywhere," Evernya grumbled.

"It's not like teleporting will do you any good either. You will just bring more attention to yourself if you try. Besides, your range limitation probably affects your teleporting range so you wouldn't get far." Meira continued.

"You just have to destroy my hopes, don't you?" Evernya grumbled, but despite her escape plan's failure, the trembling in her hands calmed down.

"Yup," Meira confirmed, chest puffed as if proud of her accompaniment.

Ten minutes later, when they were a few cars away from their turn, Evernya recognized Inferno along with a mixed group of six other teens, all fancily dressed in suits and dresses.

"He's pretty cute, rich, and single. You should claim him." Meira commented.

"I agree he is handsome, and from the look of all the screaming fangirls, it's a popular opinion." Evernya agreed to the shock of her companions.

"You can hear outside with all the soundproofing?" Meira asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I've been listening for the last fifteen minutes or so hence my little freak out session earlier," Evernya revealed, prompting more tail stroking to calm her nerves.

"Damn, soundproofing has nothing on you." Meira whistled, with Elizabeth silently nodding in agreement.

Suddenly, the previous topic replayed through Evernya's mind, "Wait, how do you know he's single?"

With a smug look, Meira explained while waving her smartphone she stole back earlier. "I did a little research on him after I saw the video to make sure he wasn't a threat. Also, you see how all the other teens have partners, yet he doesn't. I'm surprised he didn't just take one of his millions of fans as a date."

"So you web stalked him? You naughty naughty elf." Evernya teased.

"I noticed you didn't outright reject my comment. Has our little catkin found her target?" Meira teased back.

"I didn't bother because I know you're just teasing me," Evernya stated with a suddenly serious expression.

"Mostly, yeah, but he would be a good catch. You wouldn't know from how he acts, but that kid is richer than me because of his family. He's from a close branch family to one of the few fire-based old families in Buran. There are even rumors he inherited their bloodline. Getting close to a powerful family like that would open a lot of doors. The best part is that his family is actually on good terms with shifters." Meira suggested.

Evernya diverted her attention from Infernos entourage as she said, "I would rather stay away from the old families as long as possible. Besides, I know nothing about the guy. I'm not just gonna chase after him because of his family connections. I think he's cute, but I don't feel an attraction to him if I did rabid fangirls would probably maul me."

"I would try to make friends with him, at least. You have a chance to get an in on the old families of Buran which I can't provide you." Meira insisted.

After a second pause, Evernya sighed, "Fine, if he isn't an asshole, I'll try to be nice if we meet again."

Meira smiles encouragingly as she added, "Good, don't pass up on opportunities to make connections. You never know when you may need them."

Evernya crossed her arms before she said, "All I want to do is to explore this world unimpeded. I don't want to play politics."

"How do you think you will travel around? You need connections to remain undisturbed, no matter how powerful you are. Even the current known strongest beings in Sespina couldn't trapeze around the Federation without some protection. Even at the ascended stage, if even one tier 1 city hunts you down, you wouldn't survive. There is a reason those cities are tier 1. Some nearly unbeatable beings take up residence there, attracting many people for protection by proximity. Someone as powerful as me is nothing in any tier 1 city." Meira lectured.

"So, you want me to play nice here?" Evernya questioned, despite knowing the answer.

"Yeah, to be honest, that is the primary reason I brought you out here. I knew I could find you passable weapons at the festival. Even though you won't find any old families here, but many of the people attending here have connections to them." Meira revealed.

"I thought we were going to hide out in our private booth?" Evernya questioned, turning toward Meira with a suspicious stare.

Meira smiled innocently as she revealed, "Well, we will, after a mingling session with live music. The auction itself doesn't start until around eleven, going till midnight to 1 AM, depending on how many items they auction off."

Upon hearing this, the beautifully dressed shifter gave a certain elf a glowing-eyed look of fury. Her hair fluttered from the storm brewing around the furious girl. "How dare you trick me!" Evernya growled as her temper exploded.

With a flick of her wrist, Meira created a shield of wind encircling her raging kitten before raising her hands in surrender. "Whoa, calm down! I did this for your own good. There is no way you would have come here if I told you ahead of time. You can hide by us the whole time. I just wanted to experience how the upper echelon operates without too much risk. You have nothing to worry about. The auction isn't a mage's only area, and you have both of us to back you up. Besides, you look beautiful, so flaunt it. If you're still angry at me after, I'll let you use me for target practice."

Evernya closed her eyes and sucked multiple deep breaths while stroking her tail and focusing on the flow of her mana system. With each breath, the turbulent telekinetic storm weakened until it winked out completely, allowing Meira to withdrawal her magic. She reopened her eyes several minutes later to find their car lined up with the alley leading towards the grand entrance of the auction house.

Before she could even prepare herself, Elizabeth's surprisingly strong arms shoved her out of the car as soon as the announcers called Meira's name. Unprepared, Evernya stumbled a few steps on her unfamiliar high heels before her tail automatically corrected her balance. She peered at her surroundings with a rapidly reddening face. However, a moment later, a sigh of relief escaped her mouth upon finding the spotlight focused on Meira a few meters ahead of them, ignoring Evernya and a smugly smiling Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, her peace only lasted a few seconds as an unknown voice in the crowd to her right shouts, "That's the catkin from Inferno's video!"

A moment later, Evernya's world turned bright as the spotlight and camera flashed, blinding her sensitive eyes. Blind with ears flattened tightly to her skull, Evernya dashed forward in a blur, somehow making it up the steps without tripping. Unfortunately, despite avoiding tripping on the stairs, her high heels severely limited her mobility, leaving her wide-open to the loud crowd.

"Wow, she is even cuter in person!" Shouted someone to her right.

"Look at her outfit! It's so beautiful it must have cost a fortune! I wish I could afford a dress like hers." A teenage girl gushed near the railing on the left side of the aisle.

Finally, after what seemed like the longest two minutes of her life, she made it inside the building, away from the hordes into the boss's chamber. Meira and Elizabeth followed a minute later, who may as well be invisible next to their flustered companion.

Stupid fucking heels! Why did I allow Meira to force me into these things? I don't know who I want to kill more, Meira or the asshole who recorded me without my consent. Evernya fumed while hiding just inside the entrance, out of view of the crowd.

The moment Meira and Elizabeth leisurely waltzed inside, Evernya sent glare promising retribution. The smile she received back from a certain elf only infuriated her more. Dammit, someday I'll have my revenge! I wonder, is there a video on Manatube on how to elf proof your room? As if reading her kitten's thoughts, Meira shivered as she approached her kitten hiding in the corner.

After giving up on glaring at her elf, Evernya zeroed in on her second target, Inferno. Within seconds, she spotted him standing in a group of similar-aged teens chatting. A smile blossomed her malicious glare succeeded, causing Inferno to freeze mid-sentence.

Inferno scanned the finely dressed crowd of people, trying to find the source of his discomfort. Unfortunately, his scan came up empty, as he found no one looking directly at him.

Still smiling from her glare attack, Evernya turned her attention to the rest of the room. The room itself is a large open ballroom with polished hardwood floors and beautiful stonework on the walls with many large Gothic windows. On the opposite side of the door, they entered, was another large door made of decorated wood marked auction hall in elegant curvy script above the door. Along the right wall was a long table filled with various foods and drinks, causing her mouth to water. She made a mental note to check that table out later, before focusing on the inhabitants of the room.

She estimated about a thousand people of ages ranging from teens to what appeared to be middle-aged, but they could be centuries old for all she knew. As Meira predicted, everyone was wearing formal attire, such as suits and floor-length dresses. Some women were even wearing dresses that looked like they were from over two hundred years ago on earth, with the tight corset flowing out into a monstrosity of a skirt that looked impossible to walk in.

I refuse to wear a monstrosity like that. Sure, it looks amazing, but it's so impractical to move in or even breathe. Though you never know what the future holds, I never thought I would wear a dress like this. However, it would take some major bribing for me even to consider trying on a Victorian-like corseted dress.

The trio wandered their way over to the corner on the left, grabbing drinks from a server along the way. Evernya observed the room from this different direction before letting out a few curse words. "Fuck, of course, he is here." Whispered Evernya, gesturing to a group of finely dressed men.

"I'm not sure why he's here, but if he were going to cause trouble, he would've already. So I think you're fine." Meira whispered back, unconcerned.

"I hope you're right," Evernya muttered, unconvinced.

Meira continued, only adding more worries to her already stressed-out kitten. "Who you really need to watch out for are the men he is talking to. Three of them are tier 2 council members of Minea. Unfortunately, I don't see any of the pro-shifter council members, so I would steer clear of them. It may not look like it, but those groups mingling around them are their guards. If you were to get within five meters, they would stop you."

"Don't you have to be a strong mage to be a council member? Why would they need that many guards if they really are all guards they have over twenty?" Evernya questioned after doing a quick count of the small groups surrounding the council members.

"You're right, all three of them are at least on par with me, if not higher. However, they aren't even the strongest here, but if a fight were to break out, their side would win with their guards who seem to be all awakened Grade 8 and above." Meira replied after a quick mana sense.

"Who's the strongest here?" Evernya inquired curiously, unable to gauge targets beyond a dozen meters because of the amount of people and inexperience.

Meira gestured toward a silver-haired woman who appeared to be in her 30s dressed in a light blue ball gown, standing off on her own, drinking some frosted wine. "That's Eira Snowbringer, but I don't know why she is here. She's a fairly well-known member of the Snowbringer family. As the name suggests, her family has a cold-based bloodline. The Snowbringer family is one of the powerhouses ruling Buran with several members in prominent positions, including one in Buran's mages council. Eira is a 300-year-old ice sorceress near the top of the arisen stage."

"Just looking at her makes my danger radar ring. I think I'll steer clear of her." Evernya whispered with a shiver.

While nodding in agreement, Meira added, "it's a literal minefield out there. I don't know what's going on, but there are multiple members of old families and close branch family members scattered all around the room. Usually, they send servants to these auctions, but I've never seen this many actual members before. No wonder those mages Council members brought so many guards."

While glancing around the room in a panic, Evernya whispered, "And you wanted me to come here? This place doesn't sound very safe to me, and I am the only shifter here."

"You are fine. They aren't here for you. As long as you don't attract their attention, nothing bad will happen." Meira assured, only increasing her kitten's anxiety at the massive flag she raised.

After taking a deep breath to calm herself, Evernya turned her body to look directly into her elf's eyes. "Fine, but you better not trick me into something like this ever again! I've dealt with enough surprises. Please be honest with me so I can prepare myself."

"I'm sorry. I should have thought about your feelings." Meira apologized.

With a nod of acceptance, Evernya continued, "Yes, you should have. Now, is there anything else you're hiding from me?"

While keeping her best poker face, Meira replied, "As far as I know, I don't think so. There will be a mingling session until around 10:45, then we will have fifteen minutes to get to our seats or booths before the auction starts. Live music should start any minute, though it's typical of the classical variety and all snacks and drinks are free to consume. Anyway, as I said before, you don't have to socialize. You can stay with us and observe things. As for the auction itself, I have three lots in this auction, but besides those, I have no idea what else will show up. Questions?"

Evernya stared up at her elf suspiciously, but disregarded it a second later. "No, I'm fine for now. I may nibble on the snacks later, though."

A moment later, a small group of humans carrying classical instruments, most of the stringed variety, came walking through a side door. They stopped on a small stage to the left of the doors leading to the auction hall before they began playing.

Soothed by the classical music playing in the background, Evernya fell into silence as she continued to observe the battlefield that was upper echelon gatherings.