22. FALLING

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🌸 A N E E L A 🌸


Aneela hadn't attended a lot of balls in her lifetime but she could tell that this one would be the one she would remember her whole life as 'the ball'. Genya Safin made sure that this special event at the Grande Palace would impress everybody with their extravagant decorations, the various foods and the huge orchestra who played music to dance to.

Unfortunately, the mood wasn't as great as the tailor had hoped it would be. The vicious looks that were thrown around the nations and Aneela could grasp the tension between them. It was an uneasy atmosphere one would want to escape from immediately. The air quickly turned thick, and it seemed harder to breath with every minute passing, but everything eased up a bit when the Queen and the prince entered the room and opened the ball after a quick speech.

Yaniya nudged her sister with her elbow. "You should go talk to him."

"He just came through the door."

The older zemini shrugged, not seeing a problem. "So?"

"They are going to bite my head off. I need to wait until he has spoken to at least two of them if I want to survive this afternoon."

"Don't pay attention to them, they are just jealous because the two of you have a connection." Yaniya tilted her head in judgement as she watched Brigitta hurry over to Nikolai to drag him towards her entourage. "And they can't stand the fact that they have not a slightest chance with him."

"Your sister is right, she still hast to be careful," their father agreed with his youngest. "Even though Mr. Yul-Bataar is looking out for trouble, Aneela doesn't need to provoke any."

"But I want to see them dance," Yaniya huffed disappointed.

"Don't pressure her, Yaniya." He turned to Aneela. "We'll go and sit somewhere, we'll catch up with you later, your friend is looking for you."

When she turned around, she could see Kheru across the room scanning over the ball room, not listening to what her entourage was whispering to her. She waved as she finally noticed Aneela and gestured her to meet her in the middle of the room, ignoring everybody else around her.

"You have to keep me away from Makhi's advisors – they are still on about the fact that I should convince Nikolai to marry me." She rolled her eyes and exhaled. "They keep coming up with plans to meet him alone and get onto him."

Aneela shot her an alarmed look. "That's concerning. And creepy."

Kheru shrugged. "What can I say, those are Makhi's specialists who she has the most trust in."

"You could ask Nikolai if he would be willing to stage a fake meeting to keep them quiet and-"

"Ah, Nikolai is it now?" Kheru interrupted her with a bright grin, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Not the prince anymore?"

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