Blood Shaper

Book 5: Chapter 36

Kay reached out to tug on the edge of his sleeve and paused. With a small grin he mentally adjusted the feel of the “fabric” around his wrists. The shaped blood that made up his outfit rippled as it changed to his will and he chuckled softly at the sensation and the possibility. Even after years of being able to do actual magic it still sometimes snuck up on him how damn cool this all was. Outside of the tragedy of being separated form all the people he loved from Earth, his life was doing great. There were monsters and a possible threat to life as Torotia knew it, but overall he was living a fantastic life. He swore to himself then and there to never let himself lose that bit of wonder that came from even the simple things bits of magic.

Turning to the side he checked himself out in the nearby mirror. The entire outfit was the same ruby-red color with a slight sheen to it, thanks to his magic keeping the blood fresh. He thought he looked okay, but the outfit was a little old-fashioned in his opinion. Native Torotian styles were interesting because they could tell you things about the history or culture of the area the style was from, but this was designed by a fellow Outworlder, one from an Earth. The tailor that Miri had found who let him look through was what popular in the Isles at the moment had gushed about the man and how much of a genius he was. Unless he was from some kind of parallel to old Britain then Kay thought he was just stealing ideas that hadn’t been seen in Torotia yet. Coats with incredibly long tails, almost touching the ground, were not fashionable in Kay’s opinion.

They were, however, what a lot of people were going to be wearing tonight, and he was already going to stand out. It was better to stand out while being part of the “in the know” crowd than to stand out by wearing something vastly different from everyone else. The outfit had the bonus feature of being able to instantly turn into armor and weaponry, but that was more from his own Class than it was the style of clothing. Pulling the bottom edges of his coat together with a thought he sealed them together and added a decorative button before heading to the door.

Miri followed quietly behind him, dressed in a very basic outfit similar to her regular uniform but with fancier materials, darker colors, and a red trim. He’d subtly and not so subtly tried to ask her what the hell was going on with her, but even his direct questions of “What the hell is going on with you?” and similar were somehow turned away with a mastery of conversational aikido he’d only ever read about in fiction. She’d insisted over and over again in the most unhurried and calm manner that she was just there to help and do her job, but her job wasn’t following Kay around trying to be helpful. Not that she hadn’t been helpful, but that wasn’t her job! He’d settled on ignoring her for now.

He moved out into the small waiting room attached to the bath and changing rooms he’d just left. They were still in the palace, just moved to a section he hadn’t been in yet. The large ballroom the dance was going to take place in was only a few feet away form the exit to this room, and he’d be entering at whatever the predetermined best moment. He assumed that meant some variety of fashionably late, but he’d never been the type of person to pay attention to those kinds of things. Now he had to follow those types of rules and cultural mores, but he still didn’t pay much attention to them, he had people for that. Or in this case, people he could borrow from Alahna.

He sat around, waiting for Eleniah to appear. His current project was experimenting with the kraken blood, and the blue liquid glowed under the lights as he tried to amplify the inherent magic in the vital fluid. He wasn’t trying to meld it with anything, not yet. He was trying to use Blood Manipulation to bring the magic in it to the fore without any other Skills being involved. Messing with somethings structure and inherent properties were both manipulation, right? If he could amplify the color changing property the kraken had in its blood he could make an even stronger version of the camouflage blood substance he’d created, or at least make sure he got it right every time while making one. That was the plan, at least, could be he tried at it and never got results. But that was part of the fun of this king of messing around. He was so caught up in his experimentation that he didn’t notice Eleniah slipping into the room.

Kay flinched when Eleniah cleared her throat and the blue blood sloshed around where it was floating between his hands. He looked up at her and froze. He vaguely made out the annoyed expression pointed at him by her, but he was too caught up in looking at her to notice. The dress she was wearing might have been a mermaid dress, if he was getting the terminology right, but his first thought was that it was the kind of dress a seductive vampire queen would wear in a movie. Black with red trim, to match the colors he was wearing, it clung tightly to her upper body and most of the way down her legs until it flared out into a spread of fabric right at her ankles. Her short hair looked glossy and almost feathery and Kay was completely stunned by how fantastic she looked.

She graced him with her trademark single eyebrow raise. “You alright?”

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Eleniah smirked while glancing down at herself. “That good? I know you liked how I looked when we went to Kolm Davidson’s restaurant but this is a significantly stronger reaction.”

“I-“ He coughed and looked away. The only reason he didn’t blush was because of his magical control over his own blood. “You look great.”

“Thanks.” She looked over at Miri and did a double take. The maid’s outfit was much more subdued than her own, but it’s coloration was the same, declaring allegiance without a word being spoken. Eleniah gave her a much different eyebrow raise look but said nothing. “It’ll be time to head in in a little less than an hour.” She sat down next to Kay and gestured at Miri, “Alahna told me you have a briefing on the movers and shakers to pay attention to?”

“Yes, I do.” She grabbed a file from off of a table and flipped it open. “A number of well to do nobles won’t be attending tonight. Since the social season hasn’t started yet most of the attendees will be nobles who live on Sel year-round, local non-noble influential figures, and anyone who thinks they’re someone that happened to be here at the right time. The first noble worth knowing about ahead of time is Duchess Marieena. This is what she looks like.” She handed over a sketch she pulled from the file. “The duchess is loyal to her majesty, to a point, and has spent the last several years…”

They’d covered all of the nobles that were considered important enough to let Kay know about them ahead of the dance and were starting in on several wealthy merchants when a servant stuck their head in and told them it was time to appear. They moved out as a group, with Miri silently trailing behind the two of them, with Lauren and a couple of other Blood Guard hanging back unobtrusively. They stopped at the door and Kay held out his arm to Eleniah. “Shall we?”

“Yeah, of course. Why would we be here if we weren’t going to?”

Kay shook his head and laughed. “It’s a thing from Earth. Men say it to the women they’re escorting to fancy parties and such.”

“Why? Oh, are they checking that their partner is still interested in attending with them? I can see that, there’s been more than one event where I’ve wanted to bail on the partner I had to go with.”

“I actually don’t know why. It’s just a thing.”

“I don’t really do much research, I just keep up to date with what’s currently being worked on so I can teach it to students,” She murmured as she slipped her arm into his, “But I’d love to learn more about the culture you’re from and where all of these “just a things” come from. Without the cultural context to understand its all really weird.”

Not having anything to say to that, Kay nodded at the crier to announce them.

“His Majesty, King Kay of Avalon, Lord of Spilled Blood, accompanied by Lady Eleniah Selthoran of Avalon, The Indomitable Fist!”

“I’m not a lady!” Eleniah hissed, quietly enough that only Kay could hear her.

“Just roll with it.”

The ballroom was very similar to what Kay pictured when the word “ballroom” was used, a large open room with a tall ceiling and polished stone floors with more than enough space for dancing to take place and people to stand around and mingle at the same time. The floor was polished to almost a mirror shine, with the reflections cast in it just blurry enough to protect the modesty of anyone wearing skirts or dresses. No one was dancing as they entered and Kay saw a small orchestra setting up at the opposite end of the ballroom, meaning that portion of the night hadn’t started yet. Several dozens of people were spread out through the closer half of the room, some congregating around a smattering of tables and others near the long tables holding food. The quiet sound of conversation cut out as they were announced and entered, but resumed quickly after, if at a reduced volume.

“What’s the plan?” Kay quietly asked.

“You’re a king. Find a good spot with a decent line of sight to most of the room and just wait. Make people come to you, you don’t go to anyone except Alahna since we’re guests here.”

“I don’t have anyone I want to talk to, but what if I did? For future reference.”

“You give them looks until they come over if its not a punitive thing. Don’t stare though. If you want them to come talk to you because you’re mad at them you send someone to go get them.”

“I’m going to need more protocol lessons when we actually do balls and stuff on our own.”

“Of course you will, but it’ll be a while. There’s no point in throwing events to wow your nobles into submission while letting them talk with each other if you don’t have nobles.”

“We could throw a small one, just for Cindy.”

Eleniah laughed at his dumb joke and they maneuvered their way off to the side, where the Blood Guard could watch everyone and anyone approaching them would be doing so deliberately. Kay and Eleniah made some small talk while they waited for something to happen, and something did within a few minutes. The guards at the front of Kay’s detail started tracking movement toward them and a quite tall and equally thin elven man stepped between the two guards and bowed shortly to Kay.

“Greetings your majesty. I’m Duke Karmondur, and I would love to make your acquaintance.”

Kay stared at the top of the mans head as he began to rise. Duke Karmondur had been part of the briefing he’d just received. He was one of the Isle’s higher ranking nobles and was a survivor from the wars that had led to Alahna ruling over the entire peninsula. He’d been an ally to one of the larger islands that had warred against Alahna, but had surrendered when his larger ally had been crushed, negotiating for position as a noble in exchange for giving up and becoming part of the growing nation without a fight. He was also one of the nobles that couldn’t deal with someone ruling over him and had been constantly causing small problems since the Isles were founded.

“Duke Karmondur, a pleasure. I’ve heard such interesting things about you.”