Abuse of Magic

Stella sidled up next to him, and Joseph looked up.

"Yes?" he asked, confused. She never interrupted him when he was practicing.

"I need some help with one of my missions," she said, hesitantly.

"Oh! Okay!" Joseph stopped what he was doing, and turned to focus on her completely.

She grimaced, then seemed to nod to herself.

"I need to practice sneaking up on someone, but if you are working, its too easy. Could you help me without actually practicing?"

"Okay," he said. Turning his back on her, she practiced sneaking up on him for almost an hour. Every time she made a noise that he could hear, he would say so. By the end of the hour, she was able to walk from the other side of the room to his back, without him hearing a thing.

She was beaming at her success. Even though it took an hour away from his own training, he was so happy to see her smile, he didn't mind at all. She had gotten so serious since they had arrived, constantly on alert, even though he had so many guards.

Turning back to his work, he thought back over the contract his father had made with the king.

He still couldn't believe his luck. The king surely should have had some of his men there to oversee any such contracts before signing one, but Joseph wasn't going to complain. This gave him the perfect opportunity to learn about court etiquette, and take notes on what he would change in his own court.

A knock on the door had Stella on her feet in seconds. He was a little surprised at her reaction, until another knock hurriedly came, that was the signal that the guards were the ones knocking. She immediately calmed down, but stalked over to the door. This was the first time he had seen her this angry, and he leaned back in his chair to watch.

"I'm sorry, sorry," stammered one of the young guards, Sam.

"What is it?" she asked, very proper.

There must be a messenger, thought Joseph.

"Thank you, I will inform my master." She shut the door and turned to him, noting with a hint of surprise that he was watching her.

"Master Joseph, the king's messenger came to inform you that there will be a ball at the end of the month, and if you are still here, you will be invited to attend."

"A ball! That sounds like fun!" His eyes lit up and he smiled at the look on her face. She obviously didn't think so.

"I don't believe you have proper attire for such an event," she said.

"Of course, I do! The clothes father had made will work just fine! The fact that they are different from what everyone else wears, just means that we'll be exotic!" He was really starting to get excited at the idea of dancing at a party. Joseph knew that it wasn't going to be like in his memories from the different worlds, after his etiquette classes.

"You would be expected to take someone to dance with, or they would assign someone to you…" This was obviously the part she hated the most.

Was it that he would dance with someone else that bothered her so much, or the thought that she would have to go and dance with him? He knew she didn't like to be in the lime-light, but he refused to dance with anyone else. They would all probably be too tall for him anyway.