The servants do a wonderful job transforming the hall into something beautiful, before their intervention it was already magnificent to watch but they manage to elevate it to another level.

  The hall is completely from marble, you can see a lot of enchantments with runes across the floor, I have no idea what is their exact purpose, and they hire someone to put floating crystal lanterns that danced like fireflies in twilight. Arcane light refracted from their surfaces, casting glimmering patterns across the floor.

  Vaulted ceilings arched high above in an effort to reach the greatness that Goddess Hecate represents, it is draped with shimmering silks in hues of midnight blue and deep crimson, the colors of the Davenport family. The columns look imposing, capable of supporting the heavens themselves. As a visual complement I can see enchanted ivy, glittering faintly, crawling along the columns.

  I can see elves, dwarves and gnomes entering the hall with musical instruments in their hands, every instrument seems crafted with great care, some runes can be seen in every instrument, and I cannot wait to see what kind of performance they are going to make.

  Some servants are placing some tables adorn with a lot of food in them, I approach the tables to have some taste.

  “You cannot touch it!”

  I turn around when someone screams at me, it’s the same servant who wanted to ruin my dress, apparently she’s ready for round number two.

  “Why can’t I take it?”

  “Everything in here is for the guests and for the family.” The servant named Monica says to me while she continue to avoid eye contact with me.

  “And what am I?”

  “That…” She cannot answer me and keep deviating her eyesight looking for someone else, like if she was send here at the orders of someone. The servants near us stop what they are doing and with smiles expect a good show.

  “Here you are.” I look at the woman who approach me and starts talking, She looks beautiful with a blue dress adorned with many jewels, that fabric screams money, but the person who is wearing it doesn’t look like she should be wearing it.

  “Yes, good day Lady Alya.”

  In front of me is the fourth wife of the Viscount, for the past year she has been trying to get in my path to make my life a little more difficult, fortunately she has been forbidden with the other wives to interfere in the lives of the children of this house, afraid that they may lose a prospect heir before the trial, this rule was written a long time ago.

  “What kind of modals do you have to not greet me the moment you arrive in the hall?”

  “This hall is not part of your house my Lady, it forms part of the principal building own by the Viscount.”

  “Always trying to find fault in the words of others, like mother like daughter.”

  “Is that so? I didn’t know that you were paying so much attention to me Ayla.” Another person interjects in the conversation and I see that is my mother, our little encounter occurred not long ago but she doesn’t look affected by it.

  “Lady Audry good to see you again, Lady Ayla was just telling me how the members of your family shouldn’t be permitted to eat in here?”

  “…”

  Both Ladies form a silence looking at each other after what I just say.

  “Is that true Ayla?”

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “What an unmannerly girl, I can see you in her.” Instead of responding the fourth wife choose to insult both of us.

  “Excuse me?” My mother starts clenching her fists.

  I wonder who would win in case both of them start fighting, my mother serve in the military but the fourth wife has her own way to enter this family even when she also comes from the common people.

  “What do we have here?”

  “The party already started?”

  “Common people will always act like street rats.”

  More people gets to scene and it’s not my first time seeing them, they are the three other wives of the Viscount, being nobles on their own before their marriage, they see the fourth and fifth wife as some beggars that enter the family.

  The servants continue their duties arranging everything that was necessary for the party without looking to the five wives of the Viscount, already accustomed to their little fights, in every noble house where there was more than one wife, problems would persist and fights would occur frequently.

  Being face to face with the other wives, Alya forgets about me and the way she wanted to fight with a little girl.

  Taking advantage of the confrontation, I move a few steps away from them without saying goodbye or giving any greetings to the other wives, without forgetting about the food that started the whole thing, I take some snacks before slipping away to some corner of the room.

  Eating the food display on my own, I examine the room and notice how the children of the family who are older of ten years old are arriving to the hall, the ones who are younger than ten years old have forbidden to attend a celebration like this, they will be able to attend until they celebrate their own coming of age.

  The musicians appear to have finalized their arrangement with their instrument, they are getting in position to start their performance, and maybe they are going to do a quick rehearsal.

  As sunlight streamed through the eastern arches of the hall, the ensemble of musicians gathered to rehearse beneath the lofty, enchanted dome. The elven harpers arrived first, tall, graceful figures in flowing robes of soft jade and silver. They moved like water, their fingers gliding along the strings in soundless tests. One adjusted the tension of her harp with a slight frown, pausing to hum a note in an old tongue, one that I’ve only heard when a musician of their race perform, the hum continues until it matched the harmonic resonance of her strings.

  Behind them, the dwarven percussionist set up his drum, I can observe the runes adorning the instrument. With thick, deliberate motions, he tapped the rim with padded fingers, then rolled his knuckles across the taut hide in a low rumble.

  To the side of all of them I can see the gnome flutists, three sprightly figures with instruments that gleam like polished opals. One of them brings out a scroll and unrolled it, the scroll starts levitating gently in front of them.

  With time after they have their instruments in place and practiced some notes, they start a proper rehearsal, and they moved in perfect sync, each note punctuated with a bounce of the heel or a flick of the wrist.

  A beast woman enter the stage in the middle of the rehearsal but I can see that the musicians don’t seem upset by her, I deduced that she’s part of the group. She clearly is a beautiful woman, I can see that she forms part of the fox tribe, with her distinctive features and her red tail that comes out of her dress. I’ve never seen such a dress in my life, it has some runes in it, and I wonder what level of craftsmanship it’s required to put runes in that type of fabric.

  The beast woman starts singing some notes and when a different note leaves her mouth, her dress starts glowing, captivating me in some kind of spell, I start to feel the urge to dance at the rhythm of the music.

  Before I succumb to the urge that I’m feeling, I activate my mental resistance skill, but the same can be say about the others, all the servants leave their tasks and come in front of the musicians, but before they start dancing, the performance is paused.

  “I’m sorry, we weren’t informed that a lot of you don’t have the means to resist a simple spell.” The beast woman says, apologizing to everyone in the hall. “We’ll perform without using charming spells, you don’t need to worry.”

  The rest of the musicians look at her with terrified expressions on their faces.

  I know that she’s lying, a performer who was granted access to this house and has experienced, surely knows that doing any kind of charm spells it’s against the rules. Being surrounded in this environment for so many years, I infer that her actions are the order of another noble. I have no idea if what she just do, it’s worth the risk that represents to offend a Viscount.

  [New skill acquired]

  [Lie detection Lv1]

  I look in the directions of the wives and all of them seem to be really angry, it looks that I can count with a lot surprises this night, at least it shouldn’t be boring.