Chapter 30 – May Lillia Have This Dance

Lillia almost skipped into the next room after asking the three knights to dance. She had even offered one of them her blessing. Everything felt lighter about this third room. Like nothing could go wrong in the space. Like Lillia was finally on the right track.

The actual lighting of the room was one gigantic chandelier in the center, hanging from what was now a towering domed ceiling, larger and more stunning than Lillia had ever seen back home. Across the ceiling, just at the edge of Lillia’s vision, fantastical murals of great battles were…

Battles. Lillia’s hair stood on end.

Lillia had subconsciously put her weapon away during her time in the portrait room. She pulled the Bramble Slasher back out holding onto it tight with both hands as she approached the center of the room.

Around the edge of the room, close to the walls, sets of tables appeared. They were all small, circular, the kind that were set to the side at parties to balance a drink and allow a guest to take a break from the dance floor.

Back at the door Lillia had entered through, three knights marched into the room. They had all drawn their weapons.

Lillia sagged, the tip of the Bramble Slasher’s gleaming blade tapped the floor. “Come on. You know what wasn’t what I meant.”

[Lillia used Indignance – Level 2: There was no target!]

The knights took two steps forward, setting themselves up along the perimeter of the ‘dance’ floor that had been laid out by the tables. Once they were there, two shuddered, stood at attention, and then locked.

The third knight, the one carrying a traditional longsword, stepped over the line onto the dance floor, just as his hollow foot clanged against the stone, the floor shimmered. Stone gave way to wood, and the hollow sound of the dungeon faded away. Overtaken by the swelling sound of music.

Strings plucked nowhere to create sound everywhere. Horns blasted from beyond the walls in waves that bounced off of them. A single voice pierced the room, the low tenor of a young boy singing in the traditional tongue.

Lillia shuffled backward, holding her improvised stance with the bardiche and giving the knight more space as the cacophony of sounds settled down. As the instruments found their place, Lillia’s throat tightened.

Screw cake. She missed balls.

The knight stepped forward at an awkward pace. It was staggered and—and Lillia realized that the knight was following the beat.

Lillia had invited the knights to dance, so they were going to dance. Based on the tempo and the knights movements, her first dance tonight was to be a Basse. Low, slow. Feet on the floor. One. Two. Three. Four.

“Starting with such a formal dance, Sir Knight,” Lillia said as she followed the tempo across the floor. The knight matched her approach, turning his straight line into a slow circle as they rounded the floor toward each other.

The knight had his blade held forward toward Lillia, so she matched. The princess kept waiting for the moment he put it away. For the point where she was close enough that they stopped pretending to fight and offered her a hollow gauntlet as a hand to hold.

A knight who could properly dance and wasn’t going to boast about his achievements in a misguided attempt to win Lillia’s heart? That sounded like a dream.

The moment never came. Lillia and the knight were only steps apart. Lillia raised the bardiche and the tips of their blades touched. The music cut, the sound of ringing steel echoed in the suddenly empty chamber.

Lillia stared at the knight, past the slits in his visor and into the nothingness behind them. The knight’s sword trembled against the blade of the Bramble Slasher. Lillia could feel the vibration in her palms and heard it rattling through the knight’s empty body.

The knight pressed into the contact, pushing Lillia’s bardiche toward the floor. She resisted for a moment and the knight immediately redoubled the pressure, almost throwing the polearm out of Lillia’s hand. How was a literal empty suit so strong? What the hell was all of this? Lillia wasn’t packing much muscle but at least she was a living creature.

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“Sir Knight,” Lillia said through gritted teeth as she struggled to maintain grip on her weapon.

The knight looked up to her, the empty scratch of steel on steel punctuating the motion.

“Join me on the dance floor for this Basse?”

The knight took a step back, and Lillia almost lost balance and the pressure on her weapon vanished. The knight spun the sword twice around, flashing the steel around himself before stopping with it pointed toward Lillia’s throat.

Slowly, the music resumed. For the first bars, the knight’s arm bobbed with the music. One. Two. Three. Four.

On the fourth, the knight swung. Lillia got her blade in the way and they clashed on the first note. The knight pulled free of the clash, bringing the blade around for another strike. The blades rang out on two. The knight took a step away and aligned his blade for a forward lunge on the third note. He lunged on the fourth. Lillia followed the timing and was out of the way before the blow was close to landing.

If he could only move on the notes, that made this simple.

The knight pulled their sword back to their side on one. The tip of the blade sparked along the ground as he readied it for another strike.

Lillia struck first, cutting in front of the beat to try and knock the head off of the knight.