Shades of Grey

ESTHEN— MARCH 1843

“Forma! Wait!”

She cast one playful smile back at me and began to fly faster until she was so far ahead that I could no longer see her. We continued in our childish race until I turned a corner and almost knocked her to the ground. She stood absolutely still at the end of the hall, looking over a grand staircase at the ball guests in the grandly decorated courtyard below.

“What are you waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s go!”

I felt her shudder as she turned around and I could see the look of contrived nonchalance in her eyes.

“Why don’t we stay up in the room tonight? It’s such a nice room and we need as much rest as possible before we leave!” she said, trying to push me back up the staircase. “Parties are quite dull, after all!”

“Forma, I let you play with my appearance for over three hours: I am not taking this dress off without having someone aside from you see it! What’s the matter?” I asked, descending the stairs.

“Oh, nothing!” she replied in an unconvincing voice. Forma walked close to me and we descended the stairs together, garnering the attention of the dinosaur guardsmen (several of whom had been present during Forma’s little episode on the steps of the palace earlier). None of them made any grand gestures that they noticed us, but I saw several pairs of yellow dinosaur eyes darken in Forma’s direction. It was at this moment that I noticed all of the bipedal, independently intelligent dinosaurs meandering about the courtyard with the Xantharian nobles. An idea then struck me.

“Forma, I’ll bet you an extra hour in the bath that you can’t get a bipedal dinosaur to dance with you,” I challenged, urging her to leave me alone so I could investigate the cause of her nerves.

“You’re on!” she cried, offended. She then proceeded to enter the traditional dance occurring the middle of the courtyard and I got a few minutes of amusement as she clumsily tried the foreign steps, taking several humiliating slip ups before she began to dance smoothly. She sent me death glares as she noticed my delight in her embarrassment.

I casually turned and began scanning the crowd, looking for the source of Forma’s unease. To my frustration, I saw absolutely nothing out of order, even with my sharp eyesight. I saw happy men and women and dinosaurs dancing and conversing with each other: exactly the sight anyone would think to see at a royal gathering. After circling the courtyard twice, I decided that Forma was hallucinating and dismissed her apprehension. I wandered casually over to the refreshment table to pour myself a drink.

“Miss Echo?”

I turned around and smiled at Lord Remacus, dressed up in festive gold and purple robes and adorned in beautiful regal jewellery. The pompous, power-hungry air with which he carried himself was almost sickening.

“Good evening, my lord!” I greeted forcefully.

“How are you?” he asked, surveying the traditional dances, and picking out Forma’s poor performance in the centre. “I see your Maisling is enjoying herself!” he laughed.

“I am as well. We’ve been here only a few minutes and she’s tripped eighteen times,” I laughed. “It’s quite amusing. Terpischore would weep if she could see it.”

“Ha ha! Excellent! Well, I must introduce you to a man who also just arrived. He has travelled to Cronamia before and has agreed to be your guide, if you’ll have him. Miss Echo, I’d like you to meet Sir Rodag!”