#(who also died btw ring is not v good at marrying long-living wives but at least he didn't fool around when married)

[ulircursed]

[ Grannvale ] [ Whisper ] "I heard something about you tonight, you know." Deirdre cannot keep the knowing grin from her face as she dances close to Andrei. The knowledge has powered the joy of her evening and even just thinking about it has kept her spirits high. It is a beautiful thing.

She leans in close to his ear and tries to whisper. It is an attempt at giving him some privacy in the matter but the longer she speaks on it, the more excited she becomes. And the more excited she becomes, the harder it is to control her volume. "My dear, dear friend, Lord Naesala, told me that the two of you accompanied each other to this ball! I am overjoyed for you both. My two best friends! Together!"

Lady Deirdre asks him for a dance, and of course, it would be Andrei’s pleasure.

(It is the correct answer, like clockwork. Even if they did not have any sort of personal relationship, his answer will not, cannot, ever change.)

Still, he can’t quite hide his surprise when Lady Deirdre leans in, the excitement in her tone not enough to erase the accusation that would come with such a claim. Perhaps she does not think of things that way, but the infamous stories of Duke Victor come to mind.

For the first time since the situation began, he thinks of Antares, of his station. He is, had been, the Duke of Yngvi.

(That life is in the past now. Is that enough to justify how easily he'd changed his life in the present?)

"I— I understand that it is... not the most appropriate of me," he says nervously, "To indulge in such dalliances."

(His blood, his position, had invited nothing but lies from the one he'd thought might bring about the renascence of the Yngvi bloodline. It's only here, when his bloodline no longer mattered at all, that he'd seen, in Naesala's eyes, something he could trust. Could that be enough?)

Andrei swallows hard. "It did make me happy," he says, barely above a whisper himself, "Being here with him."