A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 16 - Deadline

If Lyrani hadn't woken up to see Trelle's sleeping form outlined by the soft sunlight sneaking through the gap between the curtains that morning, she might've thought the previous night was a strangely vivid dream.

There was no sign of the frustrated, insecure ECISI agent who had woken Lyrani up to share mission updates and fallen asleep beside her.

Trelle was back to her confident, business-like self. She was in charge, and she hadn't let Lyrani forget it during the hours they spent getting dressed for the ball. Lyrani's legs were already exhausted from following her so-called lady's orders, and she hadn't even accomplished her biggest task for the night.

Vlitavia Palace's spiralling stairs had never felt so long. The night had never weighed so heavily on Lyrani.

"Lyrani, could you be any more suspicious?" asked Trelle through her teeth, keeping her perfect smile frozen in place.

Lyrani started where she walked beside the senior agent. "Probably. Why?"

Trelle turned to her. "You look like you're about to throw up."

That didn't surprise Lyrani. It was exactly how she felt, but she thought she was hiding it better than that.

She couldn't shrug off the feeling that something was going to go wrong tonight.

The cold presence from the dark, lonely bedroom lingered nearby, even as the guests danced and chatted in the ballroom two branches above. Sometimes it was a shadow that stirred at the corner of Lyrani's eye. Sometimes it was a sudden wisp of air streaking across her shoulder blades like an icy finger.

"This is a ball, okay? Lots of people will be there. No ghost is going to get you." Trelle touched Lyrani's elbow.

Perhaps Trelle's reassurance would've worked if Lyrani planned to spend her whole evening at the ball, but she didn't.

She was sneaking up to the royal family's apartments again.

If that thing that had attacked Lyrani yesterday was still looking for her, she was as good as delivering herself into its waiting hands.

She shivered at the thought until the couple walking ahead distracted her from it.

An elf with hair as white as ice wore a glimmering, figure-hugging dress that looked as though it had been woven onto her body by a spider. Her companion wore a black tunic shimmering with dark dragon scales.

Lyrani could almost hear Omiane and Dessie squealing and swooning over the marvellous sight.

Yet among the sleeves of butterfly wings, bodices of crystal-embedded silk spun from water, and skirts of glossy feathers Lyrani had already glimpsed, there was only one showstopper present that night, and her name was Lady Trelle Lore.

Both she and Lyrani wore gowns sewn from the fabric of night. Trelle's dress gleamed like the sky, covered with too many handfuls of stardust to count. Lyrani's gown, on the other hand, only had a sprinkle scattered over it as she had requested. The less she sparkled, the better her chance of not being seen.

Her dress was designed with her duty in mind, a tell-tale sign of Dessie's hand in making it. It was a simple sheath shape with thin straps, easy for Lyrani to run in, while Trelle's was strapless with a long train that could serve a seduction but foil an assassination attempt as surely as capture would.

Lyrani was the last person to gush over dresses, but there was no denying that this one was a masterpiece, falling elegantly from Trelle's tall frame. Lyrani was so busy admiring it that she didn't hear what the other agent was saying.