Before long, the orchestra started again, and this time they went for a more energetic song.
They played the Starfall Galliard.
Now, while Oriana was not a noble, she did know how to deal with them.
She had spent time learning about the culture and interactions between nobles from many different sources.
Her work friends back in the forest spoke a lot about noble customs and stories, which Oriana absorbed, because it was much more fun than folding laundry.
She also spent time in the library, looking through history books about the city, where she learnt about the floats used in the Peace Festival and how magic circles helped her better use her illusion magic. It was through her exploration of Noble customs that she found information on the dances that Nobles did, providing information on the steps they were part of them.
She had read this shortly after arriving in the city, and at the time, she didn't feel she needed the information. But on her days leading up to the Ball, she revisited it to stock up on the knowledge.
Now, in addition to that, the dance she was about to perform also came from some of the dances she had attended in the forest, which she was brilliant at. They differ in some respects, but have quite a few similarities to those performed in the Human Kingdom.
Well, not everyone would agree that she was the best at it, but she was sure she had the coolest moves among everyone else. It was probably just everyone else's jealousy that stopped them from agreeing.
To understand the more boring side of the Noble dances, Oriana had taken the time to find out where such lessons were happening.
Namely, it was in the estates of some of the nobles in the city. Getting in with her illusions and invisibility wasn't too hard, and from there she spent the time watching and learning from a respectable distance.
All of which she was very grateful for, since the Starfall Galliard is one of the dances she had learnt.
But, while she knew the dance, that didn't mean she was going to do it the bog standard way. She was going to do it her own way.
As the music started, Oriana took Lady Eleanor's hand in hers and then started to move.
Side step, feet together, draw in close, pull back with arm outstretched, fingers linked as you side step again. A twist here, a slide there, hands together.
There were a lot of steps to the dance, and all of them were choreographed to give a cohesive, exciting and intimate dance.
The thing about this dance is that you can go at your own pace. Can't do some of the more difficult moves, then there are simpler moves you can do to compensate, while still being able to keep to the beat.
Oriana, however, was pretty confident in her abilities for this dance.
The music started to speed up, and Oriana picked up the pace.
Moving into Lady Eleanor's personal space, she took hold of her and moved her into a spin. Coming out of it, she held Lady Eleanor's hand and let her roll out slightly before pulling her back in.
Ending up with Lady Eleanor staring deeply into Oriana's eyes.
This move did happen in the dance, but not with quite as much flair as Oriana had given it.
After that, there were more turns, moving side to side, more getting up close and pulling away.
There were even a few solo spins, which Oriana ended up doubling down on, impressing Lady Eleanor quite a lot.
At one point, it looks like Oriana tripped a little. But no. She did a little skip, adding something extra to the dance.
She didn't trip.
As the dance came to an end, there was a slight lift, where the man generally lifts the woman slightly as they turn around.
To which Oriana jumped in with flair, lifting up Lady Eleanor and going all out on the spin, taking her around twice before putting her down.
Oriana also tri-skipped a little here, just to add to the dance some more as well. But thankfully, it was hardly noticeable.
With the final move, the music started to die down, signalling the end of the dance. The pairs that had been dancing all stood back, taking in everything, having danced their hearts out.
Clapping filled the hall from all of the nobles standing to the side. They were not clapping Oriana and Lady Eleanor in particular, but all of the dancers. Yet, Oriana was sure that their dance was the best.
With the dance done, Oriana thought back to the customs she had learnt about. Recalling what should be done, she gave a quick bow towards Lady Eleanor, taking her hand and giving it a final kiss.
"Thank you for the lovely dance, Lady Eleanor. I hope we meet again in the future."
In the corner of her eye, she could see the man from before starting to head towards her, and while she would have liked to continue chatting to Lady Eleanor, she knew she had to make herself scarce.
Or at least appear to.
But before she did…she decided to give a little bit of advice to Lady Eleanor.
"Now, I apologise, but I must be off. But, before I go. Don't eat the food, aside from the desserts. And don't drink the wine labelled Korvenka. Oh, and enjoy the show."
"Wha-"
Confusion appeared on Lady Eleanor's face as she heard that, and that was enough for Oriana to slip away into the crowd and out through the nearby door. She quickly found a location without people and turned herself invisible, just in time to see the man step out through the same door.
"Phew, just in time."
Now with the annoying guy off her tail, she headed back into the ballroom for the rest to come.
---
As she waited around for things to progress, she headed around the room.
It turns out, while gossip is something you shouldn't care about, you can get quite a lot of good information from it.
Well, good information may be relative, but in terms of the fun she may have with it, there were a few things worth knowing.
This included who was having an affair with whom, or at least who they thought was having an affair.
There was also some gossip on who may be pregnant based on what they have been doing, such as staying away from wine and buying larger outfits.
What pleasantly surprised her, though, was that there was some talk about what had happened at the Merchants Guild, namely the carnage with the ants, but still. Some people also discussed whether that incident was somehow related to the odd decorations the king had received.
Thankfully, there were enough nobles with grievances that they were able to throw shade on that theory, keeping it thoroughly on the fact that the king either made mistakes or got them on purpose.
On the other side of the hall, Oriana heard a little bit of gossip that was quite interesting. It turns out that the second son of a baron was going to be applying to join the Peacekeepers. It seems that they had recently started hiring again.
Something to do with dealing with some threat that had been plaguing the city.
Whatever the case, it seemed that now that her time in the Merchants Guild was up, in part due to the Peacekeepers, why not make them her next target to sow some chaos.
But before any of that, she still had the rest of the ball to go, and with more and more people taking food from the tables and drinking the wine, it was only a matter of time before things started to happen.
Case in point, where as the next song came to a close, where you should have heard a decrescendo and the sound of clapping, the only sound you could hear was the sound of someone spitting out a large quantity of drink.
Followed by an almost silent but deadly passing of wind.