After Leon's heart-stopping "second offering" debacle, the banquet gradually returned to a surface veneer of splendor and harmony. Music drifted through the hall as the guests mingled in elegant finery. The powerful gathered in small groups, speaking in low voices and exchanging knowing glances. The air was heavy with the subtle mingling of fine wine, perfume, and power. On the second floor, behind a half-drawn curtain of crystal beads, a pair of clear, curious eyes quietly watched everything below.
Anne Windsor, the only daughter of Her Highness the Eldest Princess Elinor and William Windsor, had just turned seventeen. Like a newly blossomed rose, she was delicate and radiant, with a freshness and liveliness untouched by the world. She wore a soft cherry-blossom-pink court gown, its hem embroidered with tiny pearls that set off her snow-white skin. Her brown curls, like her mother's but lighter, honey-colored in the sunlight, were loosely pinned up and adorned with a few small diamond starbursts. Her eyes were the Windsor family's characteristic light brown, but unlike her elder brother Reinhardt's, they held an innocent curiosity untouched by worldly experience. Now they twinkled as she eagerly "spied" on the grand spectacle below through a gap in the bead curtain.
As the little princess of the Windsor family, Anne had been well protected since childhood. Unlike her cousin Elisa, she had no astonishing magical talent that demanded she shoulder the family's hopes and train relentlessly. Nor was she like her elder brother Reinhardt, who, as the eldest son and grandson, had been taught about duty and political intrigue from an early age. Her world was simpler, filled with poetry, music, painting, and all things beautiful. For a grand occasion like tonight, she felt both excited and a little shy. She preferred to hide in this quiet corner