Another servant came to fetch me to the Ball that evening. I told him I could find my own way back to the throne room. Nervously the man told me that the ball was to be located in a different place and so I was forced to trail along after the man like a lost lonely sheep.
The Ballroom was splenderously decorated with ribbons in green and white and tables with food were neatly lain out around the sides of the room. I had turned away several sevants bringing food to my room so by now I was ravenously hungry and filled the plate up with foods that did not look too suspiciously foreign to me.
I always ate sat at my table in the house that was my prison though in the main ballroom area I could see no tables to eat at. I needed to ensure that I did things that were familiar to me so I took a number of pieces of cutlery and went to a side area where I found a table that I supposed was used for private meetings. I then carefully laid the table ensuring that the larger knives and forks were on the outside and that the glass of water I had procured was around 2 inches above and to the right of the outer knife. Then I tucked into the food in predetermined order eating the vegeatble substances first followed by the meats.
As I was finishing a tall thin man with brown hair, a strong jaw a dour look on his face came and sat at my table. He was wearing a doublet of orange, yellow and brown and for the longest time just sat and watched me. Eventually I was forced to ask him.
"My name is Fergus, I have newly arrived here. Might I ask who you are?"
"You can" the man replied simply but unhelpfully. I waited for him to continue but was eventually forced to ask again.
"What is your name?"
"Benedict" he replied offering me no more information. This man was frustrating yet at the same time I got the impression he was weighing me up.
"Is there something I can help you with?" I asked to keep the conversion going.
"No" was all he replied. After a long pause he added "I just wanted to see." And that was the only eight words I got from the man before he got up from my table to return to the main ballroom.
I sat and watched the rest of the ball from the sidelines. The woman called Flora was busying herself going round and talking to as many people as she could. She came up to me eventually and asked me loads of questions about myself, giving me little chance to ask anything myself. What little I did manage to ask was what the ball was for, and she told me that it was to honour the visit of Mircalla, a Priestess of some sort it seemed.
There seemed to be much in the way of drinking of alcoholic liquids and dancing going on. I had never been allowed alcohol in the prison though I had heard of the intoxicating effects that ethanol could produce so I decided it best to avoid that. Indeed I had seen people dance on Holo-Vids but the dancing that they performed here was most unlike any that I had seen before. Not wishing to embaress myself I decided to forgo that as well.
So it was that I took to watching the goings on from the sidelines of the ball. Vialle was kind enough to come over to me and ask if I was alright at some point. As I talked to her I wondered how she could move around so easily with obviously blind eyes. As I was about to ask her some questions of this place though she was dragged away by three giggling ladies who told her that she must see what her husband was doing.
With naught else to do I decided to leave the ball early and retire to bed. An officious servant wanted to show me back to my quarters but I told him in no uncertain manner that I was perfectly capable of finding my own way back to my allotted room. I did not after all have the memory of a golden fish! I noted that the man trailed along behind me nervously, and I wondered if he had received orders to see that I did not wander off. I had no intention of wandering since I had not slept for some time and was looking forward to the comforts of the bed that had been provided.
