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Usages of Essence
Essence can be used to summon single colored weapons. There are two weapon types, soul and controllable. Soul weapons require no essence to be drawn. Essence also generates an invisible full body armor on people that has hit points.
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Cyeen entered the enormous ballrom inside the castle of Setina. It was at the last floor of the castle and had balconies on each side. As soon as one entered this room they could see columns on each side of it, carefully designed by the best of the architects and just as carefully decorated by the maids of the castle. At the end of the room was a set of stairs going up for a bit and then splitting into two different paths, both leading into the upper section for the duchesses, dukes and the royal family. Cyeen had zero knowledge of how that part looked like.
She looked around the main balroom to find a comfortable place before sitting down on one of the chairs located close to entrance. She looked around at the nobles close by. To peasants, this event would look like a mere celebration. But inside the world of nobles it was practically a hunt, a hunt for wealth and status, they were just not sure if they were the prey or predators. Cyeen was there on regard of her parents and to find a suitable lord to marry, the queen of the kingdom inviting them might have also had a small part. Almost all the nobles had found a partner to dance with by now. After a quick look around, she had found a duke's son, quite a lucky find. The young lord had also noticed Cyeen. He got up to her and asked her hand for a dance. With a hint of fake shyness, Cyeen accepted. They held each other's hand first, then, Cyeen put her other hand on his shoulder and the young lord grabbed her by the waist with his empty hand. They danced gracefully for about ten minutes before each going their seperate way. She thought that this dance could maybe help Cyeen get favored a little more than the noblewomen by this dukedom as she had showed the young lord the fruits of her dance lessons that she took in the last ten years. This was actually her second time attending a ball. Her first time attending was when she was sixteen years old and this time at eighteen. As she sat down again she saw Alysion on her right. That noble was one of the heirs to Drantu. Though, saying one of would be an underestimation. She was the most likely to lead Drantu among her siblings. Therefore making her a friend or at the very least an ally would be the most intelligent move.
Cyeen gracefully got up and scooted near Alysion, being careful as not to dirty her own red gown. She soon sat down next to her.
"Alysion? It's such a pleasure to see you here on this wonderful night. I was scared no one close to my age would show up."
"Likewise Lady Cyeen, it's a pleasure."
Alysion could guess Cyeen was trying to strengthen their ties with her because of her position. But Alysion had the same intention too. Cyeen was the most probable to rise to the duchess rank and lead Enidia, a land with vast coastal areas.
"If I'm not being rude dear Cyeen, may I ask how many lords have you danced with today?"
"Of course you could Lady Alysion. Though, I haven't had much luck and only managed to dance with one so far. But seeing as the cheerful mood you are in, I expect you've danced with a lot, am I wrong?"
Alysion smiled a little,
"Ah yes of course, in total I have dance with 3 lords and the cheery on top, Prince of Setina."
Cyeen looked at her shocked, dancing with the Prince? That was one of the highest honors a noble like her could have. And that would also mean that she was favoured by his majesty. Now that meant she really had to strengthen their ties before the other noblewomen all came flocking to her.
"Oh my, you've really danced with him?"
Alysion had a quick giggle,
"Why of course. And would you believe me if I told you that he was the one that offered me his hand?"
While the two ladies were chatting awal, the queen of Setina went down from the adults section and onto the middle of the stairs to announce some stuff while also celebrating the day Setina was established to the ladies, lords, knights and dames. And then, she started to talk about the topic most noblewomen were waiting for:
"Dear nobles and other visitors, as you know, my son Avalanche has reached the age of marriage and as you all could have guessed, we are looking for the most suitable partner for him. We would like you to be of support to him in this time as he might leave our kingdom or change houses."
Cyeen looked up at her majesty. This meant that either the prince was going to marry a princess of a foreign kingdom to form ties or get married off to one of the noble ladies. This was actually pretty big news, really big news. This one single announcement would invoke jealousy, hatred and huge tragedies among the noblewomen. Cyeen was now at a crossroad, either ditch the friendly act and try to play at higher stakes or sit back swallow her pride and help Alysion win this race of marriage. After a quick thought she decided on going with the first option as she made up an excuse to leave the side of Alysion. She now had to think of ways to charm the prince in any way. She didn't really have a good idea as to how she was going to achieve that though. She was barely even able to see the prince let alone flirt with him. She thought it would be better to breathe fresh air while trying to come up with a plan.
Cyeen went out to the balcony and leaned onto the railings looking up at the night sky. It was a full moon with a lot of stars surrounding the night, though it was hard to see them because of the big light source behind her. She sighed, her future was really starting to become a burden on her shoulders. She knew she would get crushed under the responsibilities of nobility someday. Not now maybe but someday for sure. What was going to become of her when that time came? She looked down from the balcony, admiring the size of the castle. Oh how great would it be if it was all hers...
Who are you?
Cyeen looked around her in an instant, her heart was pounding like crazy and she was sweating profusely. There was no one around her. But she felt something whispering in her ear. Something really bone chilling. She put a hand on top of her chest, roughly where her heart was located at. It was beating really hard and for no reason at all too. She refused to listen to the voice and wrote it off as a side effect of drinking. Cyeen took a one last look at the moon before going inside.
Alysion was now surrounded by a ton of noblewomen and dames as expected, but what piqued her interest were Solaris and Historion. They were both the heir of their respective houses, Solaris being the Sundom heir and Historion being the Varden heir. It would be normally important to get friendly with them but now it would benefit her more if they didn't partake in the marriage race. What looked like a pleasant conversation from outside was actually them trying to intimidate the other ladies. Seeing as how this could result in something good, Cyeen decided to join them, it'd probably make good drama. As Cyeen approached them, the ladies welcomed her in elegance. She put on a small smile and thought to herself "Dirty snakes" that was the best phrase to describe the noble ladies of Setina. Though, Cyeen had always looked down on others as well, even though she saw the other ladies as snakes she didn't fall too far away from that category. All of that was caused by her huge ego and even bigger pride. After a moment of welcomes and how are yous she joined in on the active conversation.
Historion,
"As I was saying, I think the mines in my territory are about to increase in value by tenfold. It might sound like a mere theory but I've come to this conclusion upon further inspection of nearby mines I and my father concluded that our mines might also yield some valuable gems."
Solaris,
"Oh how wonderful" her smile looked as fake as it could "I heard they were planning on setting up the tournament of elimination near Varden's territory this year. I myself was thinking about partaking in that tournament. It would be such a pleasure to wear a bracelet made out of those gems when I win."
Cyeen,
"The tournament of elimination? Huh, from what I know, the participants in those kinds of events were mostly consisting of criminals. So it's been a while since I paid attention to the winners of it. Now I got my hands busy helping my mother increase the trading routes in our territory."
The conversation between the ladies started to heat up after a while. Even though there were no foul words thrown out, they all had hostile meanings behind them. All of the potential and guaranteed heirs were now trying to intimidate their opponents into giving up in this race. After a solid fifteen minutes of talk Cyeen opened her mouth with words targeted towards Solaris but nothing came out...
Who are you? Who are you?
She stood frozen and held her forehead before excusing herself out of the group. She went out to the balcony again and curled up into a ball where no one could see her. "Who are you?" It had now turned into a constant echo cluttering her mind with nothing but three words. She held her head with both her hands to try and suppress the voice. It was getting closer... closer... it was right next to her. She summoned three purple knifes and threw them in an instant at the hand that was trying to reach her. In a moment, the black fog clouding her eyes had disappeared and all that she could see was... her mother, with 3 cut marks on her hand. Upon coming to the realization of what she had done, she immediately started to beg her mother for forgiveness but Zenith signed her to be quiet.
"Cyeen, mind telling me what you were doing on this dirty balcony?"
She completely ignored her question,
"Please, I don't want to be here anymore."
Suddenly, she was that eight year old girl again, fearing everything in the unknown world, trying to cling onto something familiar. Zenith looked into the eyes of her child. What she saw in them could only be described with genuine fright. What could have even happened to her? Cyeen's ears were ringing, barely allowing her to hear anything outside of her head. She heard her mother tell Cyeen to sit tight. At least it was what she made out from her obscure voice. Zenith also signed her to wait in case she couldn't hear her before going back inside and heading directly for the adults floor. She looked around once she was up at the floor and spotted her husband at one of the tables. She whispered the situation into the ears of Blair who was having a chat with the duke of Sundom. Blair looked at his wife before asking what happened to Cyeen. Zenith told him that she had no idea what happened to her but implied that it looked urgent. Blair went up to the queen of Setina, made up an excuse before leaving her side. He went down the stairs with Zenith, trying to appear as dignified one could be in the face of tragedy as he could. A moment later he entered the balcony, crouched near Cyeen and touched her head gently,
"Are you okay Cyeen?"
... Cyeen showed no reaction. He first thought maybe she had drank too much but quickly discarded the thought, it looked like something serious and definitely not a time to give into assumptions. He got into her arm and helped her get up before slowly making their exit. They had to leave through the castle with countless maids escorting them, taking little steps while helping her daughter stand up right. Zenith had also gotten into her other arm in this time. When inside the carriage, Cyeen's eyes looked empty, the same voice still kept echoing inside her mind. Among all of the noise inside her head she had managed to form a single thought:
Who am I?