The inside of the palace was, if anything, more overwhelming than the outside had been.
Ferran led him through a series of corridors that seemed to unfold endlessly—high ceilings vaulted with pale stone, tall windows framing the last blue light of evening, portraits lining the walls in gilded frames that Elian didn’t have time to properly look at before they’d already passed three more.
Servants moved past them at intervals, quiet and quick, none of them sparing more than a polite glance in his direction, all of them apparently far too used to guests wandering these halls looking faintly overwhelmed.
"We’re nearly there," Ferran said, without looking back, the same unhurried calm he’d carried the entire evening.
"Her Highness, the crown princess, insisted on greeting you herself before dinner properly begins. It’s a family custom by now, more or less."
"That’s not ominous at all."
"It isn’t meant to be. Try to enjoy the night, relax." A faint curve at the corner of his mouth. "Not everything tonight has to be survived."
They stopped, finally, at a set of tall doors near the end of a quieter hallway, set apart from the grander public rooms Elian had glimpsed in passing. Ferran knocked once, waited for a muffled response from within, and pushed the door open, stepping aside to let Elian through first.
"I’ll leave you here," Ferran said. "Someone will come collect you both when it’s time."
The door shut softly behind him, and Elian turned to find Oizys already looking at him and he stopped, literally, entirely forgetting what he’d meant to say by way of greeting for a second.
He’d never seen her like this.
Not once, in all the months of drills and duels and mud and bruises, had he seen anything close to it.
Her glossy silver hair, usually pulled back tight and practical for training, was styled loose and elegant, a few small silver pins catching the candlelight. She was wearing a pale blue gown fitted close through the
She still had the same subdued restless energy she always carried, just dressed in silk instead of training leathers. A thin circlet sat against her brow, understated but unmistakably royal, and for the first time since he’d met her, she looked exactly like what she was; the heir to Selenoir’s throne, unhurried and composed, standing in the center of the room like it belonged to her, because it did.
Softer too, he noticed. She looked much more approachable today than the entire time they had spent together at Lucenhall.
"You’re staring," Oizys said, a faint amused smile stretching on her lips, one eyebrow lifting in harmony with it.
"Sorry. You just..." He fumbled for a second, ears going warm. "You look... like..."
A long pause, Elian still fumbling for words.
"Like... genuinely... I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not covered in dirt or about to stab someone with a sword."
"High praise, coming from someone who apparently made a grown man faint in a courtyard earlier today." Her mouth curved, surprisingly delighted, clearly already informed. "Word travels fast in the academy."
"Please don’t remind me of that."
"I intend to remind you of that for as long as I possibly can."
She crossed the room toward him, silk skirts whispering against the floor, and looked him over properly in turn—slower, more deliberate than his own glance had been, something warm and genuinely pleased settling into her expression.
"You clean up well, Elian Valcourt." A pause, her smile finally reaching all the way to her eyes. "The flowers suit you a lot."
"Bellamy’s doing, mostly."
"Of course it was. Remind me to thank him properly sometime for the treat." She reached out, adjusting one loose strand of his hair back into place with easy familiarity, the gesture making Elian go even redder, before stepping back again.
"Come on. I wanted a minute with you before the rest of it starts... before my mother, before the guests, before any of the formal nonsense. Just to make sure you’re not about to bolt out a window."
"I wasn’t going to bolt out a window."
"You were absolutely considering it. I could see the math happening behind your eyes."
She smiled, reserved now, some of the teasing falling away.
"You’re allowed to be nervous. I just didn’t want the first face you saw tonight to be a stranger trying to size you up."
Elian nodded nervously, following her lead and taking a seat on one of the cushions, trying his best to not ridiculous as he sank into its soft expanse.
Both of them were silent for a long, Oizys humming a tune Elian had never head as she worked through something in her head.
Then, when the silence finally started getting unbearable, he opened his mouth, not exactly sure of what was coming out of it,
"You’re different right now," He said slowly, working it out even as he said it. "Not like, bad different. Just... you’re making jokes. You never really do that. Not outside of drills, anyway."
Oizys blinked, taken aback.
Then the princess huffed something that was almost a laugh, glancing away toward the window for a second like she needed a moment to decide how honest to be.
"I suppose I’m not, usually."
She smoothed a hand absently over her skirts, a small, unconscious gesture.
"Out there—Lucenhall, drills, all of it—I’m still a princess, even in training leathers covered in mud. People remember it, even when they’re pretending not to. There’s a version of myself I have to keep on, whether I like it or not."
"And in here?"
She shrugged, easy and unbothered, like it wasn’t a big admission even though it clearly was.
"In here, It’s just me and you. And you’re just Elian, and I’m just tired of holding my shoulders a certain way for one evening. It’s nice,I don’t get to loosen it often."
A faint, wry smile.
"Don’t let it go to your head though, I’ll have to pick my slack when we go out there again."
"I would never."
"You absolutely would, but I appreciate the lie."
She turned toward the door, gesturing him along with a tilt of her head, skirts whispering as she moved.
"Come on. If we linger any longer my mother will assume I’ve talked you into climbing out a window after all, or even worse we’re..." She paused, catching herself. "Point is, neither of us will hear the end of it."
She sounded embarrassed for some reason when she said it.
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