heavy, embroidered robe and privy to all the intricacies of Gizel's plan, Darius finally descended to the hall. His head was spinning a little from listening to three servants talking over each other and the amount of information they had given him. As soon as he reached the ground floor, the mage put on a haughty, aristocratic expression and stood up straight.
He scanned the hall. Captain Forth and Lieutenant Retter were waiting in their ceremonial uniforms. They looked very dignified, and the fact that they were to be Bleist's assistants and bodyguards that evening added to their gravitas. Near them stood four younger guards who had become friends with Draco. Ari and Cassius were to assist the dragon during the ball, so they were also wearing ceremonial uniforms. Kei and Vincent, on the other hand, stood slightly fidgeting and adjusting their ceremonial half-armour with the coat of arms of Darius engraved on their chests. It seemed that Lieutenant Eghart had assigned them to the honorary escort.
-Is everyone waiting?- Draco came down, adjusting his stiff collar. Darius immediately understood that it was not only his attire that the Duchess of laVerture had interfered with. Bleist was sure that the dragon was wearing a snow-white shirt with a high, stiff collar embroidered with gold thread in flames, blue trousers with puffed legs tucked into high cavalry boots made, surprisingly, navy blue leather with gold buckles in the shape of flames. Over the shirt, he wore a sleeveless tunic made of extremely thin and durable blue silk, reaching approximately to the middle of the thigh at the front and to the calf at the back. On top of all this, the dragon had to wear a thick blue caftan with short sleeves, stitched with gold thread and embroidered with a dragon on the left side of the neck and a griffin on the right. Around his waist, he wore a belt made of engraved gold plates with a Gler'thys attached to it. Darius noticed that with every movement, the caftan reflected light caught by tiny sapphires set at each intersection of
