Chapter Text
“Finnegan’s fungus!” the kingdom’s royal sorcerer screamed as he burst into the ballroom on his flying machine that had gone out of control. Everyone in the room had suddenly turned to look at the madman crashing the party. Including the king himself. Earlier throughout that day various pieces of jewelry had gone missing around the castle, and now none other than the very sorcerer crashing into the ballroom had all the jewelry on him. It was easy to conclude that he was the thief all along, right? Wrong. It was a griffin that was accidentally set free from the griffin chamber, and was now flying around the castle, stealing jewelry, and leaving his feathers on the crime scenes. The sorcerer had only caught him and took all the jewelry from him to save it from any damage. However, he wasn’t believed his story, so the king ordered for him to be seized and possibly taken to the dungeons. It was only after the king’s daughter convinced him that the sorcerer really meant good and was telling the truth, that he was set free.
The whole ordeal had been observed by a woman who had only recently moved into the kingdom and was actually still very confused on how things worked here and who all these people were. She decided to walk up to and strike up a conversation with the man who took all the spotlight tonight.
‘Hello.’ She said in her mind, thinking of ways to start the conversation. ‘Do you need help with that? Are you okay?’ She thought of a few more sentences, trying to find the best one.
“Um, hi. Do you-“ She spoke when she approached the man, but he cut her off before she could say anything.
“Save it.” He got up from the ruins of his machine and turned around to face the woman. He even put his hand out to signal to her not to get any closer as he said it. He was a member of the castle staff, so he had to treat guests with respect, but the most he was willing to do was stay calm while talking to her.
“I just-“ She tried to get her words through, but the sorcerer wasn’t having it.
“You can keep your comments to yourself, miss, because I know what you’re going to do. And I know I’m supposed to ‘represent the castle’s staff’ and ‘be nice to the guests’, but I’m really not in the mood at the moment. So let me guess: you’re either going to tell me how horrible I am at my job, or you’re going to take something off this sad pile and actively make my job harder by refusing to give it back, or you’re-”
“I wanted to ask you if you needed help.” The woman explained as she talked over the sorcerer.
“Oh.” He responded. He looked at her for a moment in disbelief, since he didn’t receive such an offer every day, but after taking a look at his broken machine, he agreed. “Well, I suppose I could use some…” He thought. Even though help carrying the machine was the last thing he needed – he could’ve used magic to carry, or even teleport, everything to his workshop – he wasn’t going to miss out on a chance to spend the evening with a pretty woman of his age whom he’d never seen before. “I’m Cedric. The Royal Sorcerer, at your service.” He introduced himself and bowed.
“My name is Lunta. Pleasure to meet you.” The woman had her hand out for a handshake, but after she saw Cedric bowing to her, she quickly drew it back and curtsied in response. Her curtsy wasn’t the best – it seemed as if she didn’t do that a lot – but it was good enough to pass. It seemed like it was her first time at a ball, or at least her first ball in a very long time. Cedric took a better look at her. Her skin was pale, as was her long hair – it was white as snow, and it seemed to be her natural color, but she did have one black streak on the left side of her face. She was wearing a dress that had a pink long-sleeve top and a blue ankle-length skirt, both colors equally pale, and white boots were sticking out under the dress, with all of it hidden under a long white cape with fur on the edges. All in all, she was too casually dressed for an occasion such as a royal ball.
The two were staring at each other for a few moments, but when they realized it, they both quickly froze when they realized how awkward they were.
“Um… Shall we?” Cedric suggested that they get going.
“Yes, please.” Lunta agreed, and Cedric picked up the mess on the floor with one flick of his wand. “Woah!” The woman exclaimed at the sight. “How did you do that?”
“Magic.” He answered, looking at his wand to draw Lunta’s attention to it. He had to be careful where he waved it now, as it was controlling the broken flying machine.
“Right. Sorcerer.” Lunta realized. It was very quickly clear to Cedric that she had probably never seen any magic before. “That’s incredible.” She commented.
“You… you think so?” Cedric replied, as such a positive reaction to his skills was one he didn’t get often.
“Are you kidding? It’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” Lunta cheered.
Cedric turned back at the remains of his machine, and directed them through the door of the ballroom. He had his back turned towards Lunta, so she couldn’t see his blushing face and the shy grin that had appeared on it. He made his way into the hallway, and Lunta followed.
“So, um, I… I haven’t seen you around before.” He started after he finally composed himself. “Are you just passing by? Perhaps visiting someone?”
“No, I just moved here recently. Around three months ago.” Lunta replied.
“Is that so? And what do you think of Enchancia so far?” Cedric continued.
“I’m loving it here.” Lunta said with a big smile on her face. “I don’t usually stay in the same place for this long. The longest I’ve been in one place was around seven months, but I intend to stay here even longer. I’m thinking permanently.”
“Oh, and why is that?” Cedric asked.
“I’ve kind of just been going from place to place until I found one where I could…” she stopped, trying to find the right words. “One I’d be satisfied with.”
By now they had reached Cedric’s part of the castle. All they needed to do now was climb up the flight of stairs leading up to the entrance door.
“Right. Royal Sorcerer.” Lunta repeated again. “You have your own chambers inside the castle.”
“I prefer to call it my lai- workshop.” Cedric said.
“Okay. You have your workshop inside the castle.” Lunta repeated. “You know, I… I usually don’t enjoy talking to important people, but with you it’s… it’s fine.” She spoke.
“Important people?” He laughed. “I wish I was as important around here as I should be.”
“What do you mean?” Lunta asked.
“The king doesn’t think I’m good enough of a sorcerer, so he just uses me as one of the jesters most of the time and why am I telling you all this if I just met you now?”
“Sorry, I didn’t think this was going to go in that direction.” Lunta awkwardly laughed.
“In that case, if you’ll excuse me…” Cedric opened the door of his workshop and directed the destroyed machine inside with magic. He then he took what Lunta was carrying and took it into the workshop with him.
“Can I come in with you?” She asked before he could shut the door.
“I don’t think it’s a good time. I’ve got a lot of work to do with the machine now that it’s all broken up. And the place is a mess. And I think that all the magic you’ve seen tonight was more than enough for your first time.” He excused himself. “It was a pleasure to meet you, though.” He said and closed the door in her face.
“You too.” Lunta talked to the door. Before Cedric had closed the door, she thought that she had seen a faint red color on his face, but she wasn’t sure. What she was sure of, however, was that the same red tint had appeared on her cheeks as well.