Behind the High Society Veil

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

The ball was in full swing. Artis Lekal sat at a table with the rest of his family, an extremely bored look on his face. He slouched in the chair, not joining in with any of the meaningless small talk. The more time he spent with Kai, the less he cared about noble politicking. He didn't give a damn whose House was allied with whose.
His eyes skimmed across the room, past the couples on the dance floor. The women tended to wear colorful, frilly gowns, while the men wore muted colors of black and brown. The dancers were beautiful to watch, their grace a mark of their upbringing. Eventually, he rose from the table, ignoring questions from his mother, and made his way around the dancefloor to the other end of the room. He hoped he could slip out of the ballroom without attracting any attention.

[addied]

Danai was in much the same position as Artis. She sat in the back corner of her family's table and glared hatefully out at the dancefloor. How much more boring could this get? She sighed and looked around. A couple men around the kept throwing glances at her and she rolled her eyes. She had put up quite the grumble when the maids had dressed her in the sleek dark green dress that hugged her in all the right places. Her hair was piled artfully on the back of her skull with bright, expensive pins and her bangs shadowed her kohl covered eyes.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

(I made your alter. So if you look where it says "Post Quick Reply" there's a button next to it that says "Alters." Click on it and choose your character)

Artis's eyes skimmed over the girl in the green dress, but honestly--strange for a young man--he had little interest in women. He'd much rather be running around with Kai's band of criminals making trouble and killing people. With a quick glance back toward his family table, catching his mother's displeased eye across the room, he slipped through a door out into a wide hallway.

[addied]

Danai watched the crowd as she artfully slunk out of the room. Not many would miss her. Maybe someone in her family would notice her absence, but more than likely they wouldn't. If they did, they'd soon forget. She neared the bridge that led down into one of the courtyards. It was wonderfully empty and she leaned against the archway with a deep sigh. Slowly, she began to loosen the pins from her hair.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Artis stepped out onto a balcony that branched off from a small sitting room. Looking down into the courtyard, he saw that girl again. Hmm, he thought. Now what is she doing away from the party? It was unusual to see a pretty young noblewoman not gossiping and vying for attention.

An amused look crossed his face, and then he stepped away from the railing and made his way down into the courtyard. The young man looked quite dashing in his dark green suit and his blond hair falling loosely over his shoulders. A strange fashion for a Luthadel nobleman, but he'd never been a conformist. Clearly.

[addied]

Danai sighed deeply as she removed several more pins from her hair, dark locks gently flowing down to cover more of her face and shoulders. The strapless dress may have caught some attention, as her maids would have wanted, but it was cold and Danai found herself drawing her arms tight around her. Some of her hair still loosely pinned to the top of her head, she began to unravel the fine scarf that had hung from the crook of her elbows to more effectively wrap it around herself.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

"Cold?" Artis asked lightly as he stepped up beside her. He watched closely for her reaction, as the somewhat sadistic side of him would find it amusing if she screamed in surprise.

[addied]

Danai flinched, nearly imperceptibly, glanced at the stranger then looked away. "It is a bit chilly for me in this foolish dress."

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Artis chuckled. "Perhaps I should offer you my jacket," he said. "That would be the gentlemanly thing to do, yeah?"

[addied]

Danai eyed him warily. "I suppose so. I'm not really up to date on gentlemanly tactics. I simply avoid...gentleman." She said the last word with a sneer, as if the idea of gentlemen were too ridiculous to fathom.

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

Artis didn't show any reaction to the snide tone. He shrugged off his suit jacket, leaving him in his white shirt, and handed it over. He stepped around the bench and leaned on a tree nearby. "Is that why you're hiding out here, then?"

[addied]

Danai held that coat as if it were some poisonous, slimy thing for a moment before she loosely, and clearly reluctantly, flung it over her shoulders. Danai snorted at his question. "No. I'm out here because in there is a bunch of rich people with bad attitudes talking about shallow things pretending that they haven't slept with each other's wives."

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

"Hmm," Artis mused. "I haven't heard anyone said that in a long time. Why come in the first place if you hate it so much?"

[addied]

Danai rolled her eyes and scoffed "I'm required to show my face for at least an hour so no suspicions arise."

[Cʀʏsᴛᴀʟ]

"Suspicions of what?" Artis asked. "That you despise balls?"