Chương 89: Chapter 86.5

5 Sarien The dress shop had been built to reward attention. Light settled through the space in warm layers, catching along polished fixtures and treated crystal that softened every edge it touched. Fabrics near the front shifted color as they moved, some threaded with enchantment, others relying on workmanship refined past the point of needing it. Even the air felt maintained, scented lightly with pressed florals and clean water, the sort of detail that signaled someone had decided comfort should feel effortless.

Ellara stood within the fitting space with a gown draped over her frame, and for a moment the rest of the day fell away. The color was a muted dusk-blue that deepened when she turned, the fabric drawing close through the waist before opening just enough to carry movement. It changed how she was read at a glance. There was something older in it, something composed, and the moment she smiled it shifted again, the contrast doing more work than the dress itself.

One of the girls worked the fastening near her shoulder while another adjusted the sleeves, both of them certain in ways that contradicted each other without slowing either of them down. Rade held position just outside the barrier, already resigned to a role limited to being present and surviving it. He was trying to help, which put him ahead of most people in similar situations. Fareth had settled near the entrance, one shoulder against the wall, attention moving through the room without drawing focus to itself.

Anyone who didn't know her would have assumed she was relaxed. That mistake would not last long. Ellara turned, studying herself from another angle.

"What do you think?" I stepped in before the others could answer.

"I think whoever invited you is about to develop a belief system around you." That landed the way I expected. Her cheeks warmed, one of the girls laughed outright, and the other followed a moment later after deciding there wasn't a better option. Rade muttered something that sounded like agreement and tried to pretend he hadn't. Ellara attempted restraint. It didn't hold.

"You really think this works?" I reached out, adjusting the fabric at her shoulder where the line sat slightly off. Up close, the resemblance was clearer than I wanted it to be. Not exact, and enough to recognize where it came from.

"This one works," I said.

"Maybe not the final choice, and it's close. It lets people make decisions they're going to regret later." Fareth made a sound behind me.

"That is exactly the kind of advice I expected from you."

"It's accurate advice."

"It's actionable bad advice." Ellara laughed again, and the tension she had carried through the fitting loosened enough to make the moment feel almost normal. The saleswoman approached carefully this time, another dress folded over her arm, her expression adjusted into something more cautious than confident.

"We also have this in moon-silver and rose ivory, if—" The front of the shop shifted. It showed first in reflection and posture, before any sound. Heads turned. Movement adjusted. The rhythm of the space changed the way it always does when someone enters who expects to be noticed and has spent long enough being right about it that the expectation no longer needs testing. I looked up.

A handsome young man about Ellara's age came through the door as if he had expected the space to open for him and had never once been disappointed by the world's willingness to comply. He was some sort of foreign national, wearing something that could have passed for robes or pajamas and still read as wealthy, in the dressed-down way of people with more money than sense, the ones who think being wealthy and looking wealthy occupy different moral positions.

Rich fabric, cut close enough to show shape, open enough through the collar to suggest confidence. His posture carried the polished ease Upper Plane sons were taught from birth, where even vanity learned to wear gloves. I recognized the gait and the temperament underneath it too. This was a son of one of the warrior clans. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The most obvious thing about him was the pale rose of his hair and eyes.

You don't see that color every day. A girl followed a step behind and quietly made him the less interesting of the two. She was striking in a way that made the idea of kidnapping her less a moral question than a problem of logistics and consequences, with almond-shaped eyes, a soft jawline, and the same rose color. On her it looked soft and feminine. On him it did the same thing and contrasted against the way he moved.

"Kaoru and Akemi Yamato," Rade whispered. The Heirs of the Yamato Clan.

"What in the world are they doing here?" Akemi's gaze traveled once across the shop, measured the fixtures, the exits, the cluster of girls, the boy near the barrier, and then landed where it had been going all along. Ellara. Kaoru smiled and adjusted course.

"Ellara," he said, warm and already too familiar.

"I thought I might find you here. I didn't expect to be rewarded so quickly." Ellara gave him less than the reaction he was looking for, without quite being harsh about it.

"You thought you'd find me here because I told you I'd be here." Kaoru smiled again, letting it soften his expression.

"I'm taking an interest in what you're wearing. I need to make sure I match properly. I wouldn't want to embarrass us." Ellara raised an eyebrow in a way that made the resemblance to her brother impossible to ignore.

"You're worried about me embarrassing you." Kaoru held for a moment, then recovered.

"I'm worried about embarrassing you. That seems like the more immediate risk." That landed better. I felt myself smile despite it. The reactions around us came quickly enough that Kaoru should have noticed. He didn't, or chose not to. He stepped closer to the barrier, attention fixed.

"Blue suits you," he said.

"Though I imagine that would be true of most things." Ellara made a small sound, caught between enjoying it and not knowing what to do with it. I stepped in beside her before the moment could stretch.

"Hello, Master Yamato," I said.

"Sarien. You're not supposed to watch a girl get ready for a gala. It's bad luck." Kaoru's attention shifted, measuring, placing, then setting the question aside.

"Lady Sarien. I trust your progress has been productive. I've been told you're quite the businessman." That took me aback. How on earth did he know who I was? I wasn't sure I liked the way he said it, either.

"My reputation precedes me," I said. The kid gave me a cocky smirk. I had a sudden inclination to punch it off his face. I held it. Ellara liked him, and that complicated things more than I needed right now. Akemi stepped forward. She didn't interrupt so much as redirect the space.

"Ellara Arcanus," she said, and the tone carried something warmer than courtesy.

"I'm glad to finally meet you." Ellara blinked.

"Lady Yamato, you know me? That seems crazy. Sorry, that's not what I meant. You're this big-time heiress and I'm a—""My brother has been talking about you," Akemi said, not unkindly, the faintest amusement at the edge of her lips.

"More often than he realizes. Ellara is so smart. Ellara is so pretty. It's driving our mother crazy." Kaoru's posture tightened just enough to register. His ears and cheeks went slightly red, and he gave his sister a glare that truly would have killed, if looks managed that sort of thing. Ellara's reaction came slower, color rising to match his.

"Oh, has he now." Akemi inclined her head.

"Honestly, it feels like all he talks about. Enough that I was curious." Kaoru let out a quiet breath.

"Onee-chan. Don't make me challenge you to a duel." She didn't look at him.

"Little brother, you could never beat me in a duel." She turned back.

"What about you, Ellara? You're attending the gala with him. Have you ever been to one before?"

"He asked me to go to the gala, yes. And no, I've never been. I don't exactly run in the fancy circles. Not that I'm complaining."

"Are you looking forward to it?" Ellara hesitated, then answered honestly.

"I'm nervous. Like I said, I've never been to anything like that, and I don't really know him, even if he is… charming." Kaoru looked like that answer had solved several problems he hadn't known he had, up to and including the secret of life itself. Then Akemi asked, "Ellara, this may sound odd. Will your brother be attending?" A stony silence held for a few moments. The fallout from that question landed like the aftermath of a level-ten disassembly spell.

Nobody, myself included, had expected the heir of the Yamato clan to ask about Cale Arcanus. Ellara studied Akemi now with a certain amount of suspicion.

"I don't know. He hasn't said. Half a dozen nobles from my grade wanted to ask him and were too scared to do it. I was told to pass along a couple of letters. I put them in his room. I don't think he read them." Akemi accepted that without pressing, and the focus stayed where it was. I felt irritation rise before I could decide whether it was warranted.

"Why are you asking about him." Akemi's answer came measured.

"I'm interested." I asked the obvious thing.

"And what could the heir of the Yamato clan want with Cale Arcanus?" She ignored me entirely and kept speaking to Ellara.

"I'm interested in the way he moves. I was hoping to understand it better. He has some of the purest form I've ever come across, and the grace of a skilled martial artist or a dancer. I suspect he's not a dancer." That wasn't casual curiosity.

"That's a very specific interest," I said.

"I'm a very specific person." I bet you are. Up close, she carried herself with a precision that made dismissal difficult.

"I'm unclear," she said.

"Who are you to Cale Arcanus?"

"I'm someone he trusts." Kaoru, bored with the conversation now, moved to change it, which was just as well. I was half a second from smacking the heir to the Yamato clan, and that was a bad idea. I didn't need another noble house wanting me dead.

"Ellara, if you'd like, we could go to Foudou-Le-Velos. I'd be happy to help you choose something." Rade's reaction failed to stay subtle. Ellara blinked.

"They wouldn't even let me in. That place is for nobles only, and trust me, Kaoru, I'm far from noble."

"Ellara, there's no one as noble as you." Kaoru seemed to register what he'd said, and his face went beet red. Ellara couldn't seem to help herself.

"I can find a dress here," she said, and turned back toward the dressing room.