We left the books at the small table where we had been sitting and left the room. Serin took me downstairs once again. This time she showed me to arge hall. I recognised Jill and John both busily finishing of the preparations for Serin''s party. Alongside them were several other servants that I hadn''t met yet.


    "How are thingsing along?" Serin asked John as we approached.


    "Everything is in hand mydy. We''re just making the finishing touches now. You and Sir Theo can wait to greet the guests."


    "Great. Thank you, John."


    Serin took two sses of wine from the table that Jill and John were busy filling. She passed me one of the sses, before taking me by the hand.


    "Come on Theo. Let''s wait near the hall entrance and greet the guests." She said already pulling me along towards the entrance.


    "Are you sure I should be greeting them with you? Won''t it look weird, I mean you are the hostess and well I''m not really anyone important. Perhaps I should just hang back here with the staff…"


    "No, no. Of course, not! Remember a lot of the peopleing areing to see you. I did say earlier remember?"


    "Yeah, you did say that, but…"


    "Come on. It will be good for you to meet them as theye in and get to know everyone''s names. Don''t worry, Lillia and Altria will be along shortly. We''ll all greet the guests together."


    "Okay."


    I wasn''t exactly happy to be greeting a load of guests that I didn''t know, to a party that well, wasn''t mine. There wasn''t much I could do about it, Serin was set on me standing there with her and the others would be along soon enough, I hoped. Even if some of the people wereing to meet me and the whole thing was to celebrate our party''s sess, I still felt awkward about it.


    We had barely been stood there waiting for a minute when the double door to the room opened and another of Serin''s servants stepped inside. Behind her were two familiar faces, Altria and Lillia. I was relieved to see them both.


    "I present their highnesses Lillia Lithsentine and Altria Ailouros." Serin''s servant introduced them with a bow, before heading back to the door.


    It was the first time that I had heard either of their family names before and the first time I had seen them properly being treated like royalty. This was a more formal situation than normal. Both girls were dressed for the asion. Altria was wearing a tight fitting and low cut ck dress. I had seen her out of her adventuring gear before, but nothing as fancy as this. Then there was Lillia, she was also wearing a dress, hers was a pure white one, matching her paleplexion. It wasn''t quite as tight fitting or revealing as Altria''s, but it still left little to the imagination.


    "Good evening both of you. I''m d to see you both arrived before the rest of our guests." Serin said weing them in the hall.


    "Well, you did ask us to." Answered Lillia.


    "I did!"


    "I thought this was supposed to be in celebration of our achievement?" Lillia asked.


    "It is."


    "Then why do we have to be here early?"


    "Well, I thought it would be good for us all to meet the guests together. I thought it might prove a little much for Theo. You know there has been a bit of excitement about this since we returned. If we''re all here together it will take some of the focus from him."


    "I suppose so. He hasn''t had to do many of these events either, not like us." Lillia said.


    Jill seeing that Altria and Lillia had arrived, brought a small tray of drinks over for the pair. Both of them epted a ss of wine and thanked her before she left to continue making preparations for the party.


    Seeing how all of the girls were dressed and the amount of effort that seemed to be going into the night, I really was starting to worry about how much a big deal tonight was going to be. I quickly knocked back the ss of wine I had in my hand. Before I knew it, John hade by and offered me another ss after taking my empty. I''d have to watch myself, it was going to be easy to drink too much in a situation like this. Thest thing I wanted was to get drunk and make a fool out of myself in front of important people from the town. People that hade here to see me for the first time.


    As the four of us waited at the door, Altria who had stood next to me asked.


    "What do you think of my dress?"


    "It looks great on you."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Thank you." She said with a smile.


    "What about me, don''t I get apliment too? I don''t often dress like this outside of the capital you know." Lillia said slightly pouting.


    "You look great too. It really suits you. All three of you look beautiful tonight. I hardly know where to put my eyes."


    "You can help me out of itter." Altria said quietly into my ear leaning over my shoulder.


    "Thanks… I''ll be looking forward to that."


    At least that gave me something else to be focused on, rather than just being nervous about meeting the towns dignitaries and people in power. The four of us stood there waiting at the entrance to Serin''s hall ready to meet the guests as they arrived.


    I looked around the room while we waited, and it seemed that the staff had finished making the preparations. The tables around the room were all now filled with delicious looking food and drinks. The servants were no longer busy filling the tables, they were now stood at the sides. Each of them carrying trays of drinks ready to serve the guests when finally got here.


    It wasn''t long before the guests started to arrive for the party. They were each announced to the room by Serin''s servant as they arrived. All of them were a local noble of some sort, or an official connected to the guild in some way. All of them were female and dressed for the asion, which was no surprise really. After they were announced we met them at the entrance. Just as Serin had said before they were all keen to meet me. Luckily enough this seemed to be more of a formality and just to satisfy their curiosity. After being served a drink by Jill and little chitchat, they soon went on their way and joined the party behind us.


    The hall slowly started to fill as the guests arrived. The room started to hum with conversations andughter. The four of us were still stood near the entrance, briefly meeting every new arrival. We had been stood there for about thirty minutes perhaps and I was wondering just how long we would have to stand there and wait when another guest arrived. I could tell by the reaction from the others, even before they said anything that this person was important.


    "I presentdy Lisa Rothering." Serin''s servant introduced her with a bow.


    She had introduced her asdy, but from a first nce she didn''t look to be a noble. She was smartly dressed in a beautiful green dress, but it looked as if she was ufortable in such clothes. I could see that she had clearly seen some battle. She was well built, and her left eye had traces of a scar above and below it. She had long flowing ginger hair, with ck marks in it. I''d say she was one of the catkin, but there was something slightly different about her than the others of Altria''s kind that I''d met so far.


    "Lisa is the guild master of this town." Lillia quietly whispered into my ear before the woman approached us.


    That was why she seemed important, despite not appearing to be a noble.


    "Good evening all of you. I''m notte am I Serin?" Lisa asked as she joined us.


    "No, not at all. There are still guests yet to arrive, you aren''t thest." Serin exined.


    "Good, good. So how are you all doing? I hope you''ve all recovered since returning from your big quest."


    "Everyone has recovered well, thank you Lisa." Lillia answered on behalf of the group.


    "Great! I hope you will be ready for the next one soon enough. I have a few ideas for where you could head to next. That will have to wait until you have all returned from the capital of course."


    "The capital?" I asked surprised.


    "Yes… I assume you are Theo, that I''ve heard so much about?"


    "I am."


    "I see. Had you not told him yet?" Asked Lisa.


    "No, we were going to tell him tonight." Exined Lillia.


    "I see, sorry. I let the cat out of the bag. Yes, you have all been summoned by the guild masters to the capital. It seems the news of your victory has already spread widely."


    "They want to see us?" I asked.


    "They do." Replied Lisa.