"Alright," her voice echoed across Happy Time.

There were people leaning over the Mezzanine, lining the staircases and filling every nook and cranny from the double doors to the edge of the stage. Hundreds of eyes were on her, waiting to see what she would do. Leyla walked over to the musicians that sat to the right of the stage and couldn't think of a single Greenlandic song to name for what she was about to do.

"I need you to improvise. Start slow, then follow my lead," she told the man who looked like the groups leader. Once they nodded their agreement, she walked to the other side of the stage and leaned down to the nearest table where a blonde couple in rich clothing sat in anticipation.

"May I have those flowers, and that red fan?"

"Certainly!" The man passed over the roses and his companion's fan without hesitation, then winked. Leyla gave them a tight-lipped nod of gratitude. Alright, she was ready, but she had no idea how the performance would go down. Her fingers tingled with nerves. She had never attempted the Aschian sky dance...Maybe she aught to reconsider, do something different or not do anything at all. Perhaps there was a different way to negotiate with the Green King.

"My Lady Alessa, we are waiting" The King drank from his tankard while playing with a lock of one concubines hair.

"Yes, your Highness. I just need one more moment." Leyla tucked the fan into the waistband of her dress, then plucked the rose petals, letting them drop near her feet before throwing the stems to the side. Next she tipped her head up to judge the height of the thick swaths of silk that were hanging from the ceiling, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

A hush fell over Happy Time, as she raised her right hand for the musicians to start. The string instruments began to play, following the slow pace of her softly waving hand, filling the chamber with a slow, haunting tune. She lowered her hand now that the music flowed and focused her energy while swaying gently. She could feel the material of her dress moving, the loose silk shifting over her arms and legs, brushing against her to the rhythm of the music.

Her muscles warm now, she waited for a high note in the melody, then jumped, catching two hanging silks in each hand and drawing them together in one fell swoop. Gasps drowned out the music for a moment, but only for a moment, and then she was climbing, twisting the material around her ankles and wrists as she made her way upwards. Now high above the audience, she wrapped the silks around her waist and twisted, then flipped, hanging from her knees down.

Gasps filled the hall once more, and now Leyla looked down as she executed the moves she had seen performed at the Jade Palace. She copied the moves she recalled, twisting the material around her legs as she twirled and spun and stretched her hands away from her body.

The audience below pointed in amazement as her legs split horizontally between the two ropes, her feet wrapped up in the silks. For a moment she hung there, suspended, then she pulled her heels together and spun, wrapping the materials around her waste in ever faster motions.

Seeing her cue, the musicians far below picked up the pace of the melody. She flipped forward, then twisted, wrapping the silks even more tightly around her body. Then, when she was well and truly cocooned high over the audience's heads, she released her right foot and unravelled. Her dress billowed, the dangling red silks and her skirts blending into one as her body whirled downwards. It felt like she was falling, spinning in the air with her hands circling around her, but Leyla made no effort to save herself, until she had almost reached the ground. Only at the very last second did she reach for the ropes and pull, just in time to stop her face from touching the floor. The music jerked to a halt and a few guests squealed in fear.

Leyla waited two long paces as the audience held their breaths, then she swung her whole body up, untangling herself from the ropes in the air before landing on her feet with her fan raised in high. The silence in the hall was deafening. The ropes swung back out to their original places. The musicians were looking to her for a cue.

Taking a shallow breath, Leyla swung the fan open and shut, then brought her arm down and jabbed to the left. The music started up with short quick notes as Leyla dipped the fan owards the ground where the rose petals stirred.

The steps of the Seven Star Sword came to her easily. With the fan in her right hand, she raised the left hand high and brought it down her centre while looking forward. Flipping the fan open, she swung in a half circle, stirring the rose petals on the floor before slamming it shut on her left shoulder. She turned, bent and twisted, opening and closing the fan and stirring the rose petals from left to right and back. Finishing one set of the sequence, Leyla came back to the centre and started again.

This time her moves were faster. The music sped up, following her turns, the rapid openings and closings of the fan. Faster and faster she moved and as she did so, the petals on the floor began to lift. They shifted in unison, sweeping up now, then left and right. Her movements became so fast, the music so hurried that the petals began to dance in the air, not dropping for a single moment. Up and up they went, twirling around her body, flying with her fan, looping around her red skirts that spread out from her waist in its own dance.

Her arms burning from exertion, Leyla reached up for a final time then put all her inner energy into a tight spin that sent the flower petals shooting out over the audience. With a last flick of her wrist, she closed the fan between her palms, and came to a stand still at the same time as the last note sounded. A silence descended over the audience, as rose petals floated down gently like flakes of red snow. But Leyla did not notice the display, nor could she hear past the sound of her pounding heart. She just stood, with her eyes closed, wondering if at any moment the laughter would begin.

But it didn't come.

Instead, after another moment of stunned silence, a clapping sound appeared. It was a smattering at first and then, as if everyone had woken from a dream, the whole house erupted in applause. Leyla opened her eyes tentatively and saw that the audience were on their feet, clapping and cheering with looks of wonder. Finn wiggled his eyebrows at her and whistled along with the crowd, the King who was plucking a petal form his shoulder looked impressed, only Alec looked displeased.

His eyes hot with anger, he stared at her from across the short distance between where he stood and the stage without moving a muscle. Had she embarrassed him again?

"Again! Again!" a chant rose from the crowd, but the King cut them short with his hand.

"Lady Alessa, I must say, that was...very unusual."

"Thank you, your majesty." Leyla stepped forward, relieved. "I am happy to have satisfied your desire to see something unusual."

Another cheer burst forth from the crowd, but the King held up his hand for silence, suddenly looking less than pleased. "I was surprised," he allowed, then gestured vaguely. "But I am afraid that what you requested remains impossible. Make a different request and I will grant it on the spot."

Shocked silence followed his words. An awkward cough sounded from somewhere nearby. Leyla felt hot under the collar. She had been played for a fool. The King had never intended to keep his word. Suddenly, fighting her way out of Happy Time didn't seem such a bad notion. Her fingers curling in anger, she stepped forward.

A lone clapping stopped her short and drew everyone's attention to the steps leading up to the mezzanine floor. There, dressed in splendid Land of Light white robe stitched with gold and silver, Raphael walked down the stairs flanked by two Light guards. From the jewelled headdress to the graceful and precise way he moved, every inch of him shouted royalty.

"Bravo!" He called out, a warm smile on his face. Men got out of the way and women stared enraptured as he stopped before reaching the bottom step so that he was still visible to one and all.

What in Gaia was he doing here?

Raphael smiled at the confounded faces around him then addressed the King. "I apologise for bursting in uninvited, your Highness," he said with his most charming smile. "I meant to wait and request a formal introduction, but the excitement in this hall was impossible to resist."

The King stood up, several guards rushing to stand behind him incase of danger, "You too, are visiting from the Land of Light?"

"Indeed," Raphael nodded. "Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Raphael Castus, Prorex of the Land of Light."

Gasps filled the hall anew.

The Light People were regarded with a mixture of fear and respect by the Greenlanders, so coming across a regular Light citizen was a big deal. But meeting the future Leader of Light was something not even the Green King had expected to happen in his life time.

"Prorex!" The King stuttered in surprise. "To what do we owe this honour?"

Raphael's smile turned warm as his eyes met Leyla's for the first time. "I have come to fetch my Queen."