Sorry this took so long....

The group of eight ran to the town entrance, mana blazing from their hands. True, the girls had little formal training aside from Cael, but they held the fragments of the amulet and it would be no problem for them to trash a few bandits. A large steam ball, a fire ball, two flaming blades after wind blades passed through the fire and binding shadows flowed forward to the oncoming bandit troupe. A strange mist of combined light and water flowed across the town rousing many and banishing hangovers in the taverns and inns. The eight nobles stood at the forefront of a gathering band of adventurers who were all in town because of Anisyble’s ball. Seeing the bandit army and the nobles they could impress, the adventurers rushed toward battle at nearly inhuman speeds. Three quarters of the town seemed to be caught up in the rush and magical attacks were outnumbered twenty to one by the arrows flying at the bandits.

Sarabeth yelled, “Everyone down!” Gripping her medallion, she willed an illusion of a vast water dragon to appear above the town flowing toward the bandits. Sheer terror filled a large number of the bandits causing confusion. However, Sarabeth collapsed shortly afterwards, unconscious and breathing shallowly. Jote took a moment to check her condition and returned to action using a broad motion to call into being a highly visible and bright sphere of light. Noh used his wind to envelope Esther’s fireball and move it into the light sphere. The three moved the blinding combination magic toward the front lines and forced it down onto the bandits en masse. Caught by surprise, dozens of bandits were blinded while several times more experienced painful burns. By the time this was completed, the bandits were surrounded and apprehended by the defensive forces. A signal was sent for the army to come and take custody of the bandits while the party of nobles returned to the inn after Sarabeth finally awoke.

“I didn’t know you ladies had that much power already. That water dragon was amazing!” Sarabeth tried to downplay the compliment feeling that it was due to the amulet, not her innate power. While they were waiting for food, they were told the dresses would all be completed in the morning at half price for commanding the defensive forces. Again, there were protests that it wasn’t their doing, but no one paid Sarabeth any attention on this point. Jote said, “The ball’s in a week. We’ll be doing dance lessons and magic lessons until then.” Four pairs of eyes scrambled between delight and frustration.

The men separated from the women and head to bed after they finally finished a high class dinner, apparently at a discount again. Esther posed an interesting question when they were at their doors, “How are they going to have new dresses ready in the morning? I was never able to sew half a shirt in a day, and these aren’t going to be simple dresses.” They guessed, probably half correctly at least, that there were more than a dozen women in the back room who would be working all night long. “Now, we have another issue at hand. The three of us have rarely worn shoes, much less dance shoes.” They spent the next few minutes discussing trivialities of the noble lifestyle and etiquette. Cael realized that the sisters had the basics of proper table manners but not much else. She’s surprised at how clean their language was with the lack of formal education. It must be the influence of their grandfather.

The dresses were delivered the next morning along with dance shoes secretly ordered by Cael. The men met with the group at breakfast where Cael asked about a practice room for dance. As all the men were nobles, there should be little to no excuse for them to not know the traditional dances of Ahnek and Tumal. Dressed in their new clothes and shoes, the group took the carriage over to the practice hall where they paid the fees and hired a band. For the next four days they practiced the dances with the premise that all the woman had to do was allow the man to gently push her into the next step of each dance, except of course for a few minor steps that were performed without direct contact. Finally, ready or not, the day came for them to head to the capital and register their attendance to the ball.

It was decided to register the men’s names only and list them as dates. It was shallow protection as they all knew there would be charms, wards, and other spells scattered around the castle. It was the hope that not providing names would gain them enough time to meet with King Louis before the Black Princess could pull anything that would remove them from this world. Because of the preparations required, more than just wearing the clothes, they arrived the night before the ball. In the morning, a veritable army of maids descended on the high scale inn they stayed at and separated into battalions and further into companies as they went floor by floor to the rooms of the noble women present leaving twenty eight in Cael’s group, seven for each girl. With a sadistic grin, the maids bore down on the unsuspecting trio who had previously used magic to take care of their clothing and looks. Cael, on the other hand, bore it like a true noble even after having spent a while as a thief and cutpurse. The most humiliating part of the process was unmentionably personal as the maids started out with providing them almost nothing but liquids for breakfast, bathing them while giving them both manipedis and an excessive hair treatment, and ensuring that they used the facilities before dressing. Dressing was the most uncomfortable part because of the maid brigade’s theory on corsets: if you can crush another inch out of the waist, it’s not tight enough. By the time the two hours were spent on their hair, they had less than an hour to present themselves at the castle and no food in the last twelve hours. Luckily, one of the maids had beads of healing potions available that also seemed to quench their appetites. Each girl was given three additional beads hidden in their jewelry with one in each earring and one in their necklace.

Arriving almost exactly when the girls were ready, the Ahnek delegation as they were registered, struck dashing poses before the giggling girls. Esther finally spoke, “Do those poses have any battle value? Otherwise, they just make you look like little boys pretending to be heroes. The only real hero is a dead hero you know.” Jote nods sagely indicating that the poses are meant to cause incurable laughter in their enemies with a deadpan face. No one believed him of course. Shortly after, they were disembarking the carriage at the castle steps. With a nod, as each man took the hand of their date, the group entered the lioness’ den. Upon entry, the maids and butlers placed an amulet around each neck that caused the symbol of their noble lineages to display above their heads. As predicted by Cael, all eight of them had lineage marks and the three sisters were very similar to hers. But it was the shock and gasps that radiated around the floor that indicated all eyes were on them.

The crowd had only a few seconds of silence to contemplate the symbols as a voice rang out from the Royal Balcony, which was situated directly across from the entry. “Esther, Sarabeth, Vivien, and is that Micaela? Dears, you have some explaining to do.”

Four voices rang out in the silent room, “Yes, Grandfather.” But the joyous look on their faces lasted only seconds as black garbed assassins descended on their group led by a fierce woman. Knights and guards alike were pinned in place by shackles of dark magic as fighting erupted. Before much longer, the obvious reason one does not attack a noble party where all nobles were well versed in combat magic came to light as dozens of spells attacked, encapsulated, and even outright destroyed most of the assassins with only the female getting away. Seconds later, and unusually tardy, Black Princess Anisyble came out behind her grandfather immaculately dressed with an impossibly thin smile. With the assassinations failing, the rest of the party resumed and the group got to speak with the King for the first time using their real identities.

“Your Highness,” Jote began as soon as they were out of earshot of everyone including the Crown Princess. “In honor of my esteemed cousin’s family, I have extended to these four of your granddaughters entry into the Ahnek Imperial School. Since they are obviously still in danger here, and they suspect their foe is here in the capital, it would be the safest place for them and with many noble sons of both kingdoms, you can be assured good prospective partners when they reach graduation.”

“They suspect someone in the capital? Who?” Jote signaled Noh to produce some documents that were magically sealed.

“Your Highness, I dare not say as we don’t have sufficient proof. However, these are documents secured by the Lady du Uisce regarding the tragedy that befell your family. Be warned, we also suspect your memories or minds have been corrupted by the culprit and opening this case will release a powerful dispel charm that will affect the entire castle. Since we do not know what was done, we have to warn you that if it was a black magician, you may be nothing more than golems or undead shells. Our suspect however, would not resort to that tactic. If we are wrong about who it is, the possibility remains that you could die. What will you choose, opening the documents that may solve the mystery, destroying them, or leaving them be?”