Darius sat bent over, resting his head on his hands, which were propped up on his knees. It had been a difficult evening, for many reasons. He closed his eyes, recalling what had happened.
After sending Draco and James to safer areas of the party, Gizel blended into the crowd and, with compliments and favourable glances, bent her conversation partners to her will. Matheo talked loudly about armour with several military men, who listened to him with the utmost interest. Fiora smiled as she assisted her husband. Bleist had no choice but to join in the conversation with people he liked and those he would rather not have met in his life. The polite conversations continued until a wave of excitement, small but noticeable, swept through the room. Remembering the elf's plan, the colonel thanked his current interlocutor for his company and moved in the direction where he thought the epicentre of the phenomenon was. And indeed, he found Gizel with an expressionless face and Laven in a state indicating that he had consumed significantly more alcohol than anyone should. On top of that, he was shouting in Gizel's face that she had cheated on her husband, but that it didn't matter anyway because she was infertile. Darius gritted his teeth at the mere mention of it. The crowd around them was restless, and the elves in particular were very agitated. Meanwhile, Laven continued his tirade, adding more and more insults. Without a second thought, Bleist snatched Captain Forth's gloves from his belt and slapped his cousin with them, demanding satisfaction. Silence fell over the immediate vicinity, and only then did Darius realise that it was not only Gizel who had been insulted. A little to the side stood Matheo, red-faced and held back by Fiora. Laven didn't even flinch and said that for the dirty rabble and for the wh... He never finished his sentence, because Darius, white with rage, threw him across the banquet hall with a kinetic blast. The slightly battered aristocrat had no intention of stopping his insults, but instead extended them to Darius and his
