The hour of the party was coming soon and everyone was getting ready. Baron Sorenson’s tour concluded and Alden took both teams out for a meal on Count Dancarlo’s coin. Afterward they went their separate ways and began preparing. The encounter with the Count had been as hired help meeting with their employer so they’d dressed in full armor with weapons buckled and on display. The party was something else entirely.

  The morning of the event saw Brivaria and her team cleaning themselves up. Despite their profession, the girls kept their clothes clean, their hair decent, and generally tried to ensure some level of all-around cleanliness. Adventurers were known to have a scent, some worse than others. Bathing was sometimes a luxury for those who trekked through the wilderness. While there were magical conveniences of many varieties to aid with such things, those were usually not a priority on many adventurers’ shopping list.

  Based on her many visits to adventurers guilds around Velk, Brivaria would have liked to believe that her team was better than the average adventurer when it came to odd smells and stains. That wasn’t always the case but most of the time it was. The party demanded better than that—a lot better than that. They would be rubbing elbows with the peerage, affluent merchants, and folks of what passed for high society in Velk. Even if Brivaria had no desire to please the Count after their duel yesterday, she wanted to look her best.

  The first order of business was washing Trixie. Trixie didn’t get a lot of baths as she was a fairly clean dog and her glossy coat was perpetually, well, glossy. The golden sunchaser was a beautiful dog. The main reason Brivaria bathed the happy pooch was when she started to smell. Trixie was beautiful, gorgeous, and lovely… at a distance. Once Brivaria noticed the dog’s coat starting to take on a smell, it was time for a scrub.

  Fortunately Trixie loved bathing. The golden loved playing in water of all kinds. Storms and thunder upset the dog but rain and baths delighted her. Getting Trixie to come out of the bath water was often more of a challenge than getting her into it. Once out of the bathwater, she gave an obligatory shake which always succeeded in moving most of the water off Trixie and onto Brivaria. Afterward the angel used Current Control to blow-dry the dog and often herself.

  It took a little effort but Trixie was soon beautiful and sweet-smelling. She was coming to the party and that was that. The angel would fight anyone who said no to her beautiful golden dog or, worse, sick Kseniya on them. If an irate lamia was not on someone’s short list of fears, Kseniya would change that.

  Everyone else busied themselves tending to their own preparations. Nyx had the black dress she’d picked out which hugged her curves and further cemented her complete inability to wear fabric of any other color. Kseniya had a gossamer purple ensemble which was equal parts lovely and scandalous as several parts of the gown were so thin as to be transparent. The serpent woman’s modesty was preserved but just barely.

  Giselle had a lovely green gown with gold trim that matched her antlers. Supposedly it had been a cheap purchase due to a mistake with the stitchwork but Brivaria couldn’t see it. The angel chalked it up to her own inexperience on the battlefield that was fashion on Zlithia. Even so, the dress was very pretty to Brivaria’s eyes. Giselle was becoming more confident with each passing day as she received ever more of her ancestral knowledge.

  The angel’s own red dress was stunning or so Nyx insisted. There was a clear and unfair difference in quality between Kseniya’s purple silk and the rest of the group’s ramshackle collection of styles and fabrics. Still, Brivaria’s heart beat a little faster when she saw herself in a mirror. It was the first time she’d worn anything like this and found herself blushing at the compliments.

  After a little debate, Nyx and Kseniya insisted the angel try changing her hair and eye colors to see which combinations went best with the red dress. Brivaria would go to the party with her normal blonde hair and blue eyes, of course, but they argued this was a matter of science. Brivaria could give her hair a vibrant crimson hue that matched the dress though the sorceress decided that red eyes were a bit too much. Now a pair of chestnut brown eyes was perfect, according to the sorceress. Nyx had Brivaria go for a midnight black hair that was deeper than Nyx and Kseniya’s own. Nyx’s dream of the whole team having dark hair was dead thanks to Giselle’s golden tresses… at least until the cat girl found some hair dye.

  Once the group was done using Brivaria’s shapeshifting ability for these very important, very necessary purposes, they began making the final preparations. Rory’s mace and Kseniya’s scepter went into Brivaria’s inventory. Kseniya had intended to keep the magical scepter on her but Nyx argued vehemently that Brivaria could store it and give it back if the sorceress needed or wanted it for whatever reason. Finally the lamia relented.

  Brivaria took note of its name in her inventory—Divine Scepter of Velaiset. The angel’s Inventory skill showed Brivaria the System-granted name of any object put into it. If she were pulling a magical artifact from a dungeon or similar location then it would show up as unidentified until a proper magical identification could be made. For items the angel knew and understood, the name would be displayed. For those in between which the angel did not know the name of but were either generally known or known to those around her, it would still show a name. This was a case of the latter since obviously Kseniya knew the name of her own scepter. The name made the angel curious but this wasn’t the time for questions. The carriage they’d charted for their ride to the castle had arrived.

  After their mad dash to get to the guild the previous day, the group decided to schedule someone to pick them up and deliver them to the party. Everyone was thankful the Count’s ire hadn’t ended their financial arrangement as chartering the ride in advance was not cheap. It was a necessary evil, unfortunately, as the weather had been alternating between “about to storm” and “actively storming” since the day Brivaria returned with Giselle. There was no way they were getting all the way from one side of the city to the other in their dresses, while making good time, and without some sort of fashion disaster befalling them.

  Brivaria spent mana on Wind Formation to keep them all dry as they packed themselves into the carriage. Four adventurers and a dog did not fit comfortably in a carriage and Kseniya’s size as a lamia made the already cramped space that much worse. The storm outside only grew louder and everyone was glad for the carriage despite the tight quarters. Trixie grew more nervous with each rumble of thunder and Brivaria pet the shivering dog. As the ride passed, everyone took turns comforting the scared golden with pets or scritches. It didn’t make the loud storm less terrifying to the dog but Trixie calmed a little bit.

  The trip to the castle was swifter than Brivaria expected. The castle was on the far side of the city but the storm saw a large portion of folks choosing to stay inside. With almost no one on their side of the city heading to the castle, the roads were fairly light. In fact, the winged girl had only seen one other coach on the streets but it was pulling away from their inn just as the girls emerged from the inn to board their own. Of course, all the carriages were on their way to the same destination. Things slowed down drastically once they reached the castle. Maybe some of the guests would have chosen to disembark ahead of the entrance and walk the distance to the keep but the ferocity of the rain ensured no one wanted to emerge anywhere uncovered.

  After a wait to disembark that felt at least as long as the ride there, everyone was finally let out. The reception area was alive with activity. The actual party area was further inside the keep and there were plenty of servants strewn along the path to ensure the guests moved in the correct direction and didn’t wander off. Even so, a number of people chose to stay near the entrance. A few, Brivaria noticed, weren’t going beyond that point. A merchant was making a scene about not being allowed in but wisely chose not to pursue the matter further when uniformed men approached to “handle” the disturbance.

  Everything was background to Brivaria for what caught her eyes were the clothes everyone wore. The colorful dresses that she and her friends wore, that she felt were so very pretty, looked downright dull compared to some of the attire on display by the other partygoers. Bright and colorful gowns of all sizes and shapes were on display with the women wearing them fully done up with a combination of oils and powders. The men wore as many ruffles, frills, and decorations as their feminine counterparts but Brivaria noticed the colors were what separated them. Many men wore blues, reds, and greens but they were darker or more subdued.

  It was while the angel was taking in the crowd that she noticed a man in an elegant maroon shirt and matching pants approaching her. Brivaria let out a little gasp when she recognized the bronzed skin and dark hair—it was Alden. This was the first time she’d seen him out of armor and her mind struggled to reconcile this Alden with the man she’d gotten so used to. He was handsome in a suit of armor and he was damned handsome out of it.

  “Afternoon ladies, you all look lovely,” the warrior said softly once within range of polite conversation.

  “And all different colors too,” Isolde commented and that’s when Brivaria realized Alden wasn’t alone. The lephori summoner wore an elaborate cerulean gown that resembled a cascading waterfall while Tobias wore a slightly nicer set of his normal blue robes.

  Most adventurers dressed closer to Tobias than Isolde or Alden, Brivaria noted with chagrin. It was very easy to tell who was a noble or merchant versus who was an adventurer. No one came in full armor or gear but a few had done the bare minimum to be presentable and no more. They were a stark contrast to the nobility who wore ever fancier outfits paired with beautiful brooches, jewelry, and other ornamentation. In the back of the angel’s mind she had to wonder what such a party was like in a major city if the peerage of a frontier region like Velk could put on a display like this.

  “Nyx will get us all in black dresses eventually,” Brivaria said with a wide smile while Nyx mock-glared at her back. “You look very dashing as well.”

  “Indeed, you do. I am thinking you have some experience with parties like these,” Kseniya observed aloud, evidently not the only one who recognized the fact that the man looked as comfortable in his current clothes as his armor.

  “My preference is to be as far away from events like these as possible but sometimes it can’t be helped. It’s worth having a nice set of clothes for the one day of the year you need to wear them. Just make sure to take them out of your pack every so often and make sure they’re still nice,” the warrior commented.

  “That is oddly specific advice. Is there a story behind it?” the angel asked.

  “A small one. I’ll tell it while we walk. We’ll be sharing a table at dinner tonight. It’s near the front so Lucian is already there and watching it just in case someone feels they deserve a spot closer to the front and decides our table is it,” Alden explained.

  The mention of Lucian got looks from Brivaria and Kseniya but Alden smoothly shifted the topic to a story of discovering a group of clothes-devouring forest mites making a nest at the bottom of his pack. His retelling of the subsequent mad scramble for clothes put smiles on the faces of those listening.

  Meanwhile, Isolde gave Trixie her due in pets. The lephori had been quite distressed by the dog’s surprising capabilities in that first meeting but later decided those capabilities were a lot nicer when the golden was on her side. After petting Trixie, she discreetly dropped back to walk with Giselle.

  “How are you getting on?” Isolde asked in a low voice.

  “Good. Everything is happening so fast but everyone is so kind,” Giselle said quietly. Her manner of speaking had grown tremendously in just a couple days but the deer girl still seemed perpetually nervous. Isolde understood. Heck, it was hard for her to believe the golden hind was a person let alone casually walking next to her. Had she not watched Brivaria rescue Giselle and steal the girl away from the forest, Isolde wasn’t certain she’d have believed it. Going from a beast of the forest to this was unbelievable in the lephori’s eyes.

  “It’s good to hear that. I didn’t know if you’d come,” the summoner confessed. Giselle shrugged and looked down at the ground as they walked.

  “I wasn’t certain if I would. Brivaria said that if I didn’t want to go then she and Trixie would stay at the inn with me. Kseniya and Nyx then said they’d do the same.” Isolde was nodding as Giselle spoke.

  Divine Blessing not showing up would have caused a problem for Alden but Isolde had no doubt Brivaria would make that decision. The angel was rash and impulsive. She was a lot like Lucian which made the whole attempted murder thing a bit of a shame as the two might have otherwise gotten along. Yet, despite their similarities, Isolde found herself liking the angel despite being unable to stand the rogue for one simple reason—the angel listened when her team gave advice.

  “Well I’m glad you came in spite of what happened yesterday and all the rest,” Isolde offered with a reassuring smile. Giselle nodded, her antlers bouncing up and down with movement.

  “Me too. I think this party will be fun.”