Once the door opened, she walked forward with a key in hand. She felt the need to go out for a while. The worlds outside called to her more than duty. She had touched the hatch to enter the stiern-boat when one of her brothers called out to her.
“Hey,” he said, “where do you think you’re going?”
“A private ball,” said Soror Valide. “Would you like me to crash both of yours?”
“No need to get testy. I’m just curious why you would go somewhere alone when there’s plenty of party to go around? The Lady Tunderek will be curious as well. She might even insist on coming with you, may she be blessed.”
“That’s quite enough, child,” said a familiar voice. Lady Tunderek and her husband entered the hangar wearing their own fancy clothes. “You should be playing with your brothers and sisters. So go, wreak havoc with them.”
The more they stood there, the more that Soror Valide found herself not liking this particular young brother. He bowed and said, “Yes, great Lady. Hallowed be the Tunderek.” Then he left, leaving Soror Valide to the whims of her Lord and Lady.
Lady Tunderek and her husband smiled through their beaked eye masks and boarded the stiern-boat, which had been modeled and painted differently from the others. Soror Valide went in after them and took a seat in the front compartment.
Fuel was plentiful for flying around the stellar system and back. Judging by the time and date the planets were drawing close together, which allowed for the trip one way to take next to three hours. Soror Valide set the course for Elysium IX and activated the liftoff.
“When was the last time you went out the ‘normal’ way?” Lady Tunderek asked.
“I can hardly remember, Hallowed Lady,” Soror Valide said.
“Nope, not tonight. You will be addressing us by our more social names for the evening. Wouldn’t you agree, dear?”
“Oh yes,” her husband said, “we can’t have anyone being confused and angry during the annual ball, can we?”
The stiern-boat left the hanger through the large door and into the courtyard. It flew into the port off to one side that stood opposite to the hangar, and then the port let them out into the frigid airspace. All systems continued to check out while the craft made for escape velocity. One of the patrols in the upper atmosphere passed them and did nothing. Before long, they were free of Dereskoo.
“You fly well, young lady,” the hallowed man on the ship said to her.
“Thank you, Admiral Fjorfolia.”
[ 27]
Zoey had spent so much of the past day learning how to put up her hair and do her makeup. This was something she had never done before since her hair used to be one or two centimeters in length, and now her straight, rosewood-colored hair went down her back past her bra. Learning to take care of it was one thing, but styling it for a formal event was another.
The biggest saving grace for her first time was the mirror in her mom’s room. It projected laser outlines inside the mirror’s surface. These outlines gave Zoey visual aids for every step along the way. Still, she needed more practice. She needed more time than she had to get it right. She grew frustrated with her hair and makeup as the night of the party drew closer. Any moment Zoey was going to break down into tears.
Bon’sinne stepped in behind her and rubbed Zoey’s neck with a gentle hand. She said, “I’m proud of you, you know. I’m not sure I would have handled everything as well as you did.”
“Thank you,” Zoey said. “Can you help me, though?”
“Tonight? Of course. Why don’t you go get changed, and then come back so I can help you?”
“OK.”
They’d both rented their dresses for the evening after Tong-Chang had sent them specifications as to what to look out for. Zoey remembered standing in the dressing room for a good, long while as the fitting room system cast the image of the dress around her form, but she had not worn it yet.
Staring at the dress hanging in her room, she stilled with trepidation. It was the same sort of sensation as when she had first tried a few rollercoasters, when she had experienced her first day of school, and especially the moments before she’d first had sex with a man. This dress was a bigger milestone to her than the feminine outfit she’d picked out in Natt Grans.
She slipped out of her casual clothes, dropping her shirt and bra on the bed while the pants and socks remained on the floor, and put on each and every piece of the dress, taking a second to think and breathe ahead of several parts as they came. A few pieces, such as her stockings and matching, fingerless opera gloves, begged to be slipped off by some unknown lover.
Once the final skirt dropped, hanging from her waist to the floor, Zoey walked from one end of her room to the other, and back again, all while twisting and twirling to examine herself in it. Walking in a dress like this one was going to take getting used to. She didn’t know how often she might get to wear one.
Zoey walked out and crept towards her mom’s room. This dress didn’t give her a lot of leg room to take wide steps, so she had to roll her feet sideways. She had no idea what Bon’sinne would say upon seeing her like this. Uncertain if she was ready to be seen like this, Zoey stood outside of the doorway for a minute. She knew that they would have to leave the house sooner or later. She knew that Tong-Chang was doing this for her.
She poked her head forward into the doorway where she saw her mom putting her own hair into a braid. Bon’sinne picked an emerald green ribbon to match her eyes, and tied the bottom off on the braid. Her dress wasn’t quite as complex as the one Zoey was wearing, but it was equally as beautiful.
“Come in, dear,” Bon’sinne said. “Let me have a look at you in your dress. Don’t be shy.”
With a reserved nod, Zoi’ne stepped forward. For a moment, while no part of her dress was necessarily bushy, she felt an instinct to squeeze in sideways and twist her way through the doorjambs. She raised her gaze to meet her mom’s again. Bon’sinne smiled with warm approval at her and stood up. She examined the dress that her daughter was wearing, and Zoey swore that her mom was about to shed a tear over it.
“It looks good on you. How does it feel?” Bon’sinne asked.
“What do you mean?” said Zoey.
“Is it too tight anywhere? Do you feel like taking a single step forward will trip you and make you fall over?”
“Well, no. I think I can walk in this. I’ve never walked in a dress like this before.”
“You haven’t?”
“I only became a girl a month ago. Ah, well, this isn’t something most boys wear on Earth. I don’t exactly understand it myself, but I think they’d be laughed at. Are we going to see men wearing outfits like this at the ball?”
“We might. There’s nothing against it, but it’s also not very common. Don’t ask me why that is, either. We may also see women wearing a formal pair of pants. People wear what they like to wear, dear, as long as it’s appropriate to the occasion.”
“Like Dad showing up dressed like a pirate with an open jacket, his chest all sticking out to show how ‘manly’ he is?”
“I think I’d like that. Now then, please sit down over here and I’ll help you with your hair and makeup. Let’s see, we’re using more subtle colors, yes?”
An hour later, a car pulled up into their driveway. Zoey and Bon’sinne mounted their ways into the backseat, in the middle of which Tong-Chang sat in a dress of her own. The light stayed on for a few seconds so Zoey could see the plum-colored fabric with ivory shapes and trimmings.
“Hi, look at you two,” Tong-Chang said.
“Good evening, princess,” said Bon’sinne.
“Please don’t. You can still call me Tong-Chang. In fact, I insist. Really.”
“I’m only playing, dear. I know better.”
“Stars beyond, it’s bad enough that I’m really doing this, but it’s worth it if it helps you. Speaking of which, how are you, Zoi’ne?”
Zoey said, “I’m fine. It’s just that I’m so not used to sporting a fancy dres
s like this one, you know? What if I stick out for the wrong reasons because of it?”
“For what it’s worth, I think you’re gorgeous in it. Oh, and allow me to introduce our driver. This is Bolin, the younger of my mother’s trusted servants. Bolin, you have probably seen my friends’ mom, Bon’sinne Thalassas?”
“It’s a pleasure, Bolin,” said Bon’sinne.
“This is Zoi’ne, my girlfriend.”
“Um, hello,” Zoey said, though Bolin barely acknowledged that either woman was there.
“I’m not sure he believes me. Members of the royal High Houses don’t really partake in same-sex or interracial lovers, you see. It’s one of the reasons I left. That, and I wanted to pursue my own dreams in life without their influence.”
“So what’s going to happen now that you’re talking to your mother again?”
“Well, she was surprised to hear from me, or that I would agree to play the part of our House’s delegate this year. She said that the only thing anyone would know was that there was a representative here on Elysium IX already. Then, I think, Mother hinted that my father was OK with recent purchases that I’ve made. So I don’t really know. He might send someone.”
“To do what?”
“I don’t even know. High House Leezu hasn’t exactly been known to be the most predictable of families, except that we would be formal about it when our intentions are revealed.”
“Formal, really?”
“Yes.” Tong-Chang lifted a cloth bag to her lap and opened the top to reveal a bottle of plum wine. “With Father’s Yingbi, I bought my dress and this offering to our hosts for the evening. It is a family custom to present this as either a cool drink or as a bludgeon at the whim of its recipient. I have also bought the three of us our masks.”
She revealed them in a separate bag. Each mask covered the eyes and top of the nose, but then stopped part of the way down. Bon’sinne was the first to pick one.
“I haven’t worn one of these since before either of you were born,” Bon’sinne said, raising the mask to her face.
The destination was in a lavish nightclub on the far side of Trullwick from the Thalassas residence. Every car was stopped short of the curb where they were searched from the outside by guards. Bolin pulled up to the checkpoint, and Tong-Chang rolled down her window.
One guard shined a light into the car. Zoey used a hand to block some of it as the illumination passed across her face.
“Do you have an invitation?” the guard asked.
“Yes, I certainly do,” Tonny said. “I am Tong-Chang II, second daughter to High House Leezu of Heudee, Ginserei Prime. These wonderful ladies are my ‘plus two;’ Zoi’ne and Captain Bon’sinne Thalassas. You should find me on the list, or would you care to see my identification?”
The guard flashed the light over Zoey again and squinted at her before taking the light away. He said, “Move along.”
As they pulled up Tong-Chang said, “That worked well. I haven’t used my full name in eleven revolutions. Besides, the guards and bouncers don’t really need to see the invitation as much as the usher will. Are we ready?”
“What if I say no?” said Zoey.
“Then I’ll have to say me too. Let’s go in before that happens. Thank you for the ride, Bolin.”
As the ladies slid and climbed out of the car, Zoey thought about one of the names she had heard Tong-Chang say. She remembered Heudee as being a nation that took part in the Ranemao Wars in the book she had read aboard the Marslou. She considered asking Tong-Chang about it, but what about it? That conflict would have been long before Ginserei took to the stars.
Tong-Chang carried her bottle of plum wine as they walked to the front entrance of the club. She held it close to her chest.
* * *
I don’t believe this.
Soror Valide looked on from a distance through her ball mask. She saw three women coming closer to the club whom she’d never thought to see again. The one girl, who now put on a mask of her own; it was her. Soror Valide clenched her fist in anger.
[ 28]
“Introducing Her Highness Tong-Chang II, second daughter to High House Leezu of Heudee, Ginserei Prime, and her two guests Zoi’ne and Captain Bon’sinne Thalassas,” said the usher, who managed to say everything without pause for breath or crack in his stone face. The fate of the wine bottle that Tong-Chang handed him became unknown as it slipped from view.
The ladies walked further inside. Zoey took Tong-Chang’s arm and rubbed it with her free hand as they progressed. She didn’t want her girlfriend to have a nervous breakdown over hearing a title at the front of her name.
Seeing other people in their dresses and suits made Zoey feel less like the sore thumb in the crowd. Her worries about being in this dress she’d picked out now melted away, and all that was left was her wearing another outfit that she liked. She could handle that, she realized.
She soon noticed Admiral Fjorfolia talking to two other men next to an hors d’oeuvres table. He said, “That was when she cracked the chassis, and . . . Oh! Excuse me, gentlemen; I will be one moment.” The admiral strode a few short paces towards the ladies and greeted them. “It’s a pleasure to see you all again. I was not aware of your royal status, Your Highness.”
“I try never to talk about it,” Tong-Chang said. “It is good to see you, Admiral Chan-Yeol. Might I ask where the Lady Fe’remene is? I Would have thought she was here with you.”
“Oh, my wife is having a little chat with a server she recognized. Who knows? Perhaps our estate will see an addition to our many employees. Zoi’ne Thalassas! You have certainly come a long way, haven’t you? And, Captain?”
“Retired,” Bon’sinne said.
“Nonetheless it’s good of you to adopt her when you did. The times are going to get rougher soon, I’m afraid, so giving this young lady a home is brave of you, if I may say so.”
“I appreciate that. We are working to enroll her at the university here.”
“Is that right? When do you mean to apply there?”
Zoey said, “It already happened, sir. Yesterday I filled my application and gave them a letter of recommendation written by Captain Druvvin. They assessed me then as well.”
“Oh? Well, I can’t have the good captain outshine me, can I? I’ll speak with the dean as soon as I’m able. He’s constantly telling me how much of a favor he owes me. We can get you in a little faster. What do you intend to study?”
“History and archaeology, sir.”
The admiral grunted. “Oh, this was a fine talk, but I must be getting back to this story I was telling, if you’ll excuse me.” He bowed out of the meeting and turned back towards the pair of gentlemen that he was speaking with a moment earlier.
Tong-Chang swiped a glass of, presumably, champagne from a passing tray, and then she drank down half of it. Zoey hoped that she could hold it together tonight. She also hoped that the champagne wouldn’t mess with her pregnancy. Tong-Chang set the half-emptied glass down and turned her attention to her two guests.
“So,” Tong-Chang said, “I guess the plan is to find people and mingle? I can do that. I think.”
Bon’sinne said, “Just think of me as your bodyguard against any unsavory types. Otherwise, I’ll be having myself a good time while we’re here, like you should be. So relax and enjoy yourself, and try not to touch any more alcohol.”
“That’s fair. The question is what do we say? ‘Hello, rich person, my girlfriend is from another world and needs money to afford college?’”
“To be honest,” Zoey said, “that sounds like a better plan than I would have had if I stayed there. Hey, I’m going to grab something from the table. I’ll join you in a moment if you want to go forward.”
“We won’t be far, love.”
Zoey grabbed a few appetizers from the table, and put them on a plate the size of her hand. It was good to see something similar to shrimp, but then she wasn’t surprised by this after being away from Earth for over a month, even if
she’d been awake for half of that, at most.
Past the table, and below a safeguard rail, was the dance floor. There were a few couples were down there making use of it, while everyone else stood and talked away from the designated space. Zoey saw Aelfs and Ginserei chief among those who were around, along with five humans and two from another race she hadn’t seen before. She wondered if they were the other race her mom had mentioned once.
Their masks hid their upper faces but not their pink skin. She thought she saw something behind one of their necks, but Zoey’s eyes might have been playing a trick on her from this distance. Whatever it was appeared to be small and flat, and it lined their spines.
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