As the dance was scheduled for this evening, classes were cancelled for the day. So instead of worrying and letting the monster of self-doubt creep back in, I decided to do some research. I remembered Fianna talking about how the Sidhe were a huge part of Irish lore, so I had to wonder what else existed in the lore of the green island. The computers here were impressive, and the local servers had a load of information on just about everything. The most impressive part was how much collected literature existed on just mythology and the occult.

My poking about on the Sidhe didn’t really give me too much to run on, but it did then bring me to a link about a fae called a “dullahan” or... the hand of death? That sounds cool. Wonder what that’s about.

When I opened the link, a familiar image greeted me. It was the figure from my dream after I met Fianna the first time... with some differences, like a lack of armor and light brown hair instead of red. It was actually kind of awe inspiring when it came down to it, and really the most amazing part was... those silver eyes. It was eerie how close the image resembled Fianna. And the more I read, the more intrigued I was.

See, a Dullahan was the source of the story of the headless horseman. It’s thought that the headless rider with a horse the shade of the darkest night rode about the countryside collecting and consuming souls. If the Dullahan arrived in your town and called your name, you would die... unless you had gold. Apparently they fear the element. A member of the Unseelie court, normally associated with “dark” fey, Dullahan were horrifying. Wagons made of human bones, whips made of spines, and the average description of one was... unlike anything I’d seen in my dream.

Eventually I got tired of reading, which prompted me to gaze at my clock. It took a moment to process, but I had only an hour to get ready before Fianna would arrive to get me. Damn it, Lauren. We talked about this! I though irritably as I hurried along with a shower and got myself cleaned up. My hair was a mess, as usual, but I thought I’d have time to comb it at the very least.

At precisely 7PM, there came a knock on the door, to which Val answered since I was getting my tangled mess of wet hair to straighten out. I heard muffled conversation, a few chuckles, and I assumed Krys had arrived. With how simplistically Val had dressed (a suit and tie, all colors of black and grey and red) I figured Krys would be awash with those same colors in a dress beyond compare. And as I got the last snarl out of my hair, I felt a sense of relief. Finally I was ready to get everything on.

I stuck my head out the door and was about to ask Val to pass me my parcel from the other evening, and then I saw it was not Krys at all who had entered our domicile... it was Fianna. It didn’t help matters that I was just about face to face with her when sticking my head out of the bathroom door, but that she saw I was behind schedule made me feel even worse. I opened and closed my mouth four or five times before I could get any words out, and even then it was a series of unintelligible “ums” and “uhs” that anyone would have felt stupid to say aloud.

“Lauren, you need this?” came Val to the rescue, shoving my package through the crack in the door and holding my dress nearby.

It was dumb, but I just nodded vigorously, grabbed everything, and slammed the door. I’m never going to live this down. She’s going to think I’m an idiot. Why am I so awkaward?!?  I thought as I hurried to get dressed. Just about tripping over myself at every turn, it took several minutes more than it should have.

I eventually came out of the bathroom, clad in the fantastic dress and evening wear I’d been given. I’d taken a little extra time to give my hair a little bit of curl and stuck the pillbox hat just at an angle to make it cover the band keeping my hair in place. And for once it was my turn to smile as everyone else in the room looked on in shock and awe.

The first one to respond was Krys, who apparently had snuck in as I was getting ready, and she jabbed Fianna in the ribs with her elbow. “C’mon Prince Charming, your princess deserves a compliment!”

Fianna took in a breath and held it there for a moment, her eyes welling with tears of raw emotion I didn’t completely understand. She then took me in her arms and held me there for a moment, the feeling of her breath on my neck due to our difference in height was... well it made me tingle a bit. Fianna took another moment or two and broke the hug.

“You look every bit the beauty I believed you would appear. I am rather lost for words... or more aptly, there are no words to describe the splendour before me.” She said this with such conviction that I just didn’t know what to do.

Both Val and Krys stood behind Fianna as she went over me once more with her sights set on perfection, and my friends made a point to talk about me... probably to embarrass me.

“Did you know Lauren could look that fancy? I bet you’re regretting telling her no touching you, huh?” Krys kidded, poking Val every time she ended a question.

“Maybe I’ll just dance with her all night, leave you to fend for yourself.” Val said, the humor in her voice was evident for once. “And I mean all night.” She added with a wink. I’d not seen her act so... cheery. This was almost more scary than when she stripped Krys of her dessert privileges.

“She will most certainly be saving the last dance for me, but I guess I had best let you two each take a turn on the floor with her, hadn’t I?” Fianna said aloud, adding to my embarrassment. “I will warn you two though, I’ll be walking the princess home tonight, and I expect her to be safe come first light.”

Moments later a knock came on the door, and when Val opened it, Shuri was just outside. She looked dashing in her cobalt blue dress and sapphire earrings, and her partner looked just as ravishing in her white tuxedo. The colors seemed to really bring out the splendour in their darker skin tones. But even with her own escort, who I’d never met, Shuri couldn’t help poking fun my direction when she saw me.

“Well, well. Look at what we’ve got here. I see a prince, a squire, a lady in waiting, and the queen of the castle herself! Girl, where did you even get such a wham-bam-glam kind of dress like that? You’re making it hot up in here!” Shuri said in her most “African American” stereotyped voice. It felt like I should be a little insulted for the women in the African American community who don’t speak like that, but at the same time, I’m a pasty white girl so what should I care.

I pointed at Fianna, “That’s where I got a dress like this. She gave me some other special accessories too.” I winked at her on that last comment. The mood in the room was electric, a smile on every face meant nobody could feel left out, and it was a magical start to an evening of wonder.

We all walked down the corridors to the grand ballroom where the event was to take place, all arm in arm as couples, and I could feel the heat in my face as I saw all the other couples walking down the halls. We reached the double doors and entered as slowly and gracefully as we could. Fianna gently tapped one of the women manning the doors, a brief exchange was had quietly, and the woman stepped toward the stairs and announced us to the room. And as we descended the stairs, the woman repeated the process for Val and Krys, and then Shuri and her partner Semiramis. There’s no way I’m remembering her name, I thought with a sheepish grin.

As we reached the bottom step and peeled off to the left hand side of the room, I felt the atmosphere tense just a bit. Looking about I saw a lot of eyes were upon us, and I felt a little self conscious. I turned to Fianna and was about to ask if we should do something, but she tightened her arm on mine and muttered very discreetly, “Don’t say or do anything. Just follow my lead.”

We walked in a semicircle around the room, eventually reaching about the middle of the room’s inner walls, and then made our way to the very center of the dance floor. Fianna released my arms and clapped her hands twice. Any sound left in the room went deadly silent, all eyes were absolutely upon us. She made a wide bowing gesture before she spoke.

“Beloved student body, I would take this time to address you. This is an eve of joy and splendour, but even that can’t be complete without a little magic.” She waved her hand and gestured to the ceiling. “I present you with the stars in the heavens, a sight of equal beauty and stature to all of you gathered here this evening. Let the festivities begin!” she flourished her arms about, the ceiling seemed to melt into the walls, and to my utter amazement the stars in the night shone with the utmost brightness above us. The lights were dimmed slightly, and Fianna grabbed my hand.

The next few hours were a bit of a blur of music, dance, and smiles. But now we’re at the last dance of the evening, Fianna and I move in a slow circle about our part of the dancefloor. I heard her sigh, so I looked up a little to meet her gaze.

“When I approached you that first evening, when you had just shown up at the academy, I’d had nothing to go on save your file. The way it was written, I wanted to hate you. I truly wanted to be able to say you were not worth the time and effort Mistress Black put in to bring you to our academy. But something about you... made that all but impossible for me. I couldn’t help but feel powerless when I looked in your eyes, and I wondered if the Sidhe didn’t have some crazy powers to make a person desire them. A nonsense thought, but when you grow up with tales of these mischievous fae, you tend to make some small allowances in your thinking.” Fianna’s voice seemed almost drooping, a syrupy lilting sleepy voice.

“Lauren, I owe you my apologies for the first encounter we had. And for the second encounter I engineered. I knew this dance was coming, in fact all the prefects knew a week ago, so I made an excuse to talk to you again. I’d thought I could trick you into doing something uncouth, just so I could remove you from this academy before I lost my mind completely... but you defied all the logic I had based on your file. I can’t help but feel... maybe I was afraid of giving into that first feeling of warmth and desire that you sparked in my heart. But now, under these wonderful stars, I’m going to ask a favour of you. Can you forgive my earlier horrible actions, and if you can, might I be graced with a kiss?” Her voice seemed to take a slight slur, as though she was excessively tired.

I pulled her in closer, my sense of desire overriding my sense of outrage toward her confession, and I whispered in her ear; “Just this once.” And I kissed her on the cheek. She blushed an intense shade of red and we moved toward the exit.

“Lauren, have you been wearing those gold earrings all evening?” Fianna asked as I walked her back to her room. My hand flew to the one set of earrings I had been gifted by my father when I was younger, during my “I want to be pretty” phase. Come to think of it, they are made of gold... gold and lapis lazuli.

“Yeah, I... don’t have many other sets, so I just threw them on.” I chirped, hoping not to offend.

“That explains the feeling. I’m allergic to gold. No wonder.” She admitted in a manner that made her seem less authoritative and more... scattered.

I blanched at this. Way to go Lauren, you managed to screw up so badly on the first almost date you get. I scrambled to get the earrings off and into my hand away from her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think about it.” I all but muttered, the sense of shame rising to the surface.

“Don’t think anything of it. I didn’t tell you, and I should have. This was all my fault, a stupid little oversight and I’ve likely ruined the whole evening. I think I should walk the rest of the way to my quarters alone. Maybe it will clear my head” Fianna said, already sounding a bit better.

I turned to wish her a good night, when she... kissed me dead on the lips. It was hot, it was romantic, I saw a firework go off outside the window we stood in front of before I let myself melt into the kiss, and I felt my foot move up behind my body of its own volition. And we stood there like that for what felt like forever and no time at all, until she broke it off and... ran away. It wasn’t just a stumble and a walk, this was a full on unbalanced sprint in the direction leading away from me. She bounced off a wall, and a painting, and another wall before vanishing around a corner.

I walked back towards my room in a haze of happiness and concern, I mean seriously, when somebody kisses you and then runs away like they’re being chased by the hounds of hell, it’s a little unsettling. When I did eventually reach the door, I found it wide open and Val was once more flopped on her bed in a most unique manner. So I walked in, silently closed the door, shifted Val into a more comfortable position, and went to clean off all the makeup I had put on before the dance.

After I managed to clean the muck from my face, I made my way over to my bed and promptly fell asleep. It was a good, restful, dreamless sleep.