Chapter 17 : Growing the growth elixir (Galasing i galas elixir)

The episode with the manticore, though dangerous, had the effect of cementing Diana and Silvanus's friendship. Diana had made an actual friend! Though friendship with Silvanus was not without its set of perils. Since she didn't avoid him anymore, they both had to contend with occasional slips into each other's minds. Aletheia was happy that she no longer had to worry about Silvanus staying away from her. Even the twins, Arion and Genevive became friendly with Silvanus though a few vestiges of their weird formality remained while speaking to him. The other students were positively awed that there were people actually talking to the Prince Avedis without courtesying every five minutes. Best of all, Silvanus could be around people without having to endure deferential treatment all the time. His happiness was literally visible for days in the bits of vegetation - flowers, creepers, even cacti - that burst into bloom every time he passed by. Speculations about the manticore's escape attempt swept the palace for the next few weeks. While all they'd heard from Herdir Faun is that Azreal had somehow broken his shackles and followed his old familiar way out of the dungeon, stories about how Azreal had bewitched a maid into opening his shackles by hypnotizing her were going around. Silvanus rolled his eyes each time he heard whisperings of Azreal being able to do everything from commanding people into subordination to turning himself into a kitten.

Forodren miraculously beat Runen with a very wide margin in the next Equineox match that was not at all exciting but put the Annui team in high spirits as Forodren would be a weaker opponent against them. Their lessons were becoming tougher but as Diana's grasp of Elvish improved and she climbed through the mountain of previous years books, it was getting easier to keep up. Gemino helped her abundantly as his eidetic memory freed him from mundane matters such as revision for tests. As much as Diana had observed, it seemed that his heightened memory was his element. Auditions were held for the War of the Two Worlds play but it was difficult to say whether it was Bella or Diana who was more dismayed after Diana had been named Snow White. For none other than Adriano had gotten the part of Rowan.

"How am I supposed to look at his dumb face and say 'I have honoured your coming with all my heart. For you are my one and only love.' She mimed vomiting over the script while pacing the length of the common room. "I told Silvanus to audition. I told him. He just had to show up and Hiril Apolla would've cancelled auditions for Rowan. He's a real Prince, for crying out loud!"

"Silvanus will show up for auditions to a play when Cirilla decides to adopt you." Alethia's face was torn between exasperation and amusement. "C'mon! Just grit your teeth and get on with it."

"No way I'm going to do this! I'm going to go straight to Hiril Apolla and tell her I'm giving up the role-"

"Oi! Are you mad? Bella will never let us forget it, okay?"

Pretending that Adriano was her 'one and only love' was bad enough, but then Bella's smug, plastic smile swam into her mind. Diana slumped into a chair in defeat. The weeks flew by while the children were kept busy with studies, Equineox practices and rehearsals.

Soon, the castle windows were covered in frost and the blurry outside was blanketed in powdery white snow. There was so much snowfall that the palace looked rather like it was inside a snow globe constantly being rattled by a child. The river froze over so thick that many of the students took to ice-skating bundled in scarves and coats. The paddock was enchanted to resemble a circle of spring inside the deep snow so that the pegasi could graze. The wind bit at the exposed parts of the children's faces as they trudged through the snow from the greenhouses after Botany. Hiril Salvia was still aloof towards Diana and Silvanus after Azreal's destruction of her precious biting plants. It was the last day of the school term before everyone went home for Saturnalia holidays and Diana was trying hard not to think of the lonely Christmas her father would be having at home.

"Cheer up, Diana! You can help us put up the Saturnalia decorations." Silvanus had been trying to distract her from her brooding for the past ten minutes.

Arion nodded. "Yes, five minutes of bossing us about the perfect places for the holly wreaths will definitely put you in a better mood." Diana aimed a punch at him but missed. Chortling, Arion waited for her to try again but she stopped, looking at something over his shoulder. Silvanus looked up too just in time as his hands were seized so violently that he was pulled a couple of centimetres off the ground.

"Prince Silvanus! Such an honour! Such an honour!" boomed a deep voice and the elf bowed low, his felt hat almost falling to the ground in the process.

"Thank you, Duke Darius." Silvanus balled his hand to his chest, still a little shaken.

The Duke smiled showing all his teeth; Diana counted two gold ones on either canines. But his wide smile did not reach his slightly glassy eyes. "My Prince, I've just been speaking to the Queen. What luck to have found you here so that I could request you myself. Your Highness, please do me the honour of inaugurating the distribution of my growth elixir."

"Uh okay."

"Ah to have my small business expansion blessed by the progeny of the great Talish." He continues to smile genially while ignoring everyone else. "Farewell, Your Eminence. I shall see you on the eve of Saturnalia for the function." And he seized Silvanus's hands again, squeezing them before leaving through the Entrance Hall.

"Small business expansion?" Aletheia muttered in contempt. "So says the man who paid a million for a mirror."

"Please come with me, will you?" Silvanus turned to Aletheia making his best impression of a puppy-face. "It'll be a little less painful if you're there too."

Aletheia rolled her eyes. "I don't think I was invited."

"Oh come off it! You are the Princess of Vorantia. You don't need an invitation. Besides he talked to mother. That means the whole family is invited."

Silvanus widened his eyes, pleading, and Aletheia gave in. "Fine. I'll come if Diana will."

Diana stared at her, taken aback. "Wha-"

"You would be coming as our guest. It'll be fun!"

When Diana still looked doubtful, he took her hand and whispered. "Please! I can't bear to stand alone grinning like a stooge in front of the paparazzi."

"All right. All right. I'll come."

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Diana woke up on Christmas eve feeling thoroughly depressed. No Grace waiting by her bedside with a present. No Ethan bounding up into her room and trying to throw her off her bed. No Alex jumping up and down trying to lick everyone's faces. No Dad booming wishes from beside the Christmas tree. No Miss Pepper turning up for Christmas tea wagging a finger, asking whether she'd been naughty or nice. It was going to be the worst Christmas ever.

The atmosphere was the opposite of what she felt. The sky was bright white, the air, cold and nippy. A fine layer of snow dusted the treetops, the lawns, every bit of exposed surface turning the palace into a winter wonderland. While she stood in the cold balcony staring out into the expanse of snow, Aletheia burst into her room fully dressed. "Why aren't you dressed yet? We have to go to the inauguration, remember?"

"Yes, Theia. But that's in the evening."

"True. But you cannot possibly wear another plain dress like the one you wore to the Lux soiree. So we are going to pick out a dress for you."

"You need the whole day to pick out a dress? Besides, if you think anyone is going to take us out today when everyone is off for the holidays-"

"We're not going to go out. We're going through my personal wardrobe."

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"Do you even know what a wardrobe is? Cause that's not it."

Diana was staring dumbfounded at a large room containing a colossal mountain of dresses. A sea of racks spread across the room holding dresses, skirts, tops, gowns, scarves and every other piece of clothing known to elf-kind. Shelves on one wall held an assortment of bags, shoes, headbands and accessories to rival those at the Valhalla boutique. The opposite wall glittered with the numerous tiaras, crowns, diadems, necklaces and earrings set with precious stones. "This is nothing. You should see Lady Valha's collection."

"Yes. But that will only happen if Lady Valha thinks you are worthy of feasting your eyes on her treasures." Lady Valha stepped from behind a rack of gowns wearing a simple mauve dress but looking no less ravishing than she'd done in the Lux party.

"Lady Valha. May I present the daughter of Celestia, Diana Drew." Silvanus gestured to her.

"Hello," said Diana, quelling a strong urge to courtesy as Lady Valha glided forwards. She peered at Diana with a practised eye, looking like an artist staring at a blank easel.

"It has been long since I've had the pleasure of styling a fairy. A pity that you haven't transformed yet. There is nothing more exquisite than the true form of a fairy. Ah the old days... Valha was worn like a crown by the royals, fairy, elf and davizae alike. Alas I only have the three remaining royals as my canvas."

"Thank you, Lady Valha for helping Diana. Now if you will excuse me, I would-"

"You're not going to escape, my Prince." She clucked disapprovingly. "On Lux, you managed to get away with wearing your Elven army uniform but this is a soiree outside the walls of the palace. And hence, you will wear the royal robes that I've already sent for." She pulled a rack and held up a hanger with deep red robes in a heavy material. Silvanus looked like a cornered little puppy as he hung his head.

The girls had a very pleasant time trying on clothes, accessories and jewelry, pretending to be famous celebrities, laughing at Silvanus as he fidgeted and jumped at every poke from Lady Valha's pins (some of the pokes actually looked deliberate to keep him standing still). They were having such a good time that Diana actually forgot about all her gloom of the holiday.

In the evening, they set out in ten large unmarked heleds that were pure black instead of the usual glass. "Why do we need ten of them?" One black heled was big enough to seat all of them including the Queen and the Prime Minister. "Security precautions," explained Broge as he swiped his band on one of the heleds that opened up. "One for the Queen, one for the Prince, one for the Princess and the others will seat the Imperial Guard, all unmarked so that no marksman would be able to distinguish which one contains the royals. "Are we going to war?" spluttered Diana as Alethia rolled her eyes. "I don't think my step-mother remembers whether the davizae are inside the forest or outside."

"Mother has always ordered the entire royal Guard whenever we go out for such functions. It is supposed to be for my safety. You know, the grand Avedis and all that." Silvanus sighed and got into the heled.

"Well there's no danger, of course. It just makes her feel a little less worried so Silvanus puts up with it. Step-mother has been paranoid about safety ever since Dad-" Aletheia sighed, wearing the same resigned expression as her brother and got into the next heled. Diana felt a surge of sympathy to the Prince who had everything he could ask for except for the one thing he needed - freedom.

The trip took much longer than the last time Diana had traveled into the city or maybe it just felt longer because she couldn't see outside the heled. She climbed out of the heled to see Silvanus already outside panting a little while trying to compose his face into a smile for the cameras.

"What's up with you?"

He gestured to the heled and said, "I swear they're getting smaller."

"The heled is not small, silly, you've grown bigger since the last time. Silvanus has claustrophobia." Aletheia added as an explanation to Diana. Something occurred to Diana. A memory from months ago when she was kidnapped and taken to the warehouse. The silky sheets, the breathlessness......

Whoa. He manage to have an attack because of my situation? We must be more connected than I'd imagined....

But before she could dwell on the point - or do more than exchange a surprised glance with Silvanus - they were whisked away by the guard. Silvanus looked very regal and somehow older in the ruby red robes with gold trimmings. Aletheia looked resplendent in a baby pink gown with real never-wilt flowers cascading down her shoulders. And as if by magic, Lady Valha had decided to dress Diana in the same blue gown that she'd admired in the Valhalla boutique. Maybe she can read minds too.

The inauguration was held, surprisingly, in the shop-floor of Darius Alchemicals, the huge factory, as tall as a cathedral, as large as a few football fields at the edge of the city. Duke Darius dabbled in all sorts of businesses but the alchemical factory was his golden goose. It was the biggest manufacturing unit for everything related to pharmaceuticals. However, they recently forayed into the branch of fertilizers with the DariG+ growth elixir. The elixir was said to triple the growth of agriculture produce thus helping the farmer elves meet the increasing food demands of a society confined to a limited space.

One section of the factory floor, away from the huge tanks filled with the lurid pink elixir, was cordoned off for the guests and decorated so lavishly it was like stepping into a gold explosion. The floor was the colour of molten gold, the waiters wore gold jackets, gold baubles floated in the air connecting the streamers of holly and mistletoe, a Christmas tree stood in the middle decorated with more golden lights.

Sensing Diana's confusion, Aletheia began to explain that many of the pagan traditions were born of the elven festivals. "And you must be pagan, yes?" "Theia, the pagan religion died out centuries ago." Diana explained with a bemused smile wondering how elves would react to the current human world where atheists formed a large section of the population. "Oh well whatever religion came after that would also have inherited our traditions from paganism," she continued. "Saturnalia is the celebration of winter solstice, honouring agriculture as signified by the tree. That's why Duke Darius picked this day for his inauguration. And the return of the sun signified by the-" she gestured to all the gold. Lady Valha joined them from between the crowd looking breathtaking in a silver spangled gown that showed off her curves. She straightened a butterfly on Diana's shoulder and stood back to admire her work. "Less is more is the principal of fashion, my dear. Of course, some people operate on 'More is more.'" She grimaced at the tacky gold jacket worn by the waiters and glided away to a gaggle of elves who welcomed her looking star-struck.

The inauguration was nothing short of spectacular.

The gloomy, gray atmosphere of the factory seemed to stop right at the edge of the golden section. After the ribbon-cutting by Silvanus and the mandatory proclamation of 'Growing the noble elven world' there was much back-thumping by Darius - a toast to his top alchemist who had used cutting-edge magic to perfect the exact formula of the elixir, to his partners who believed in him enough to pour in an ocean of money, to King Talish, to Queen Zinnia, to Prince Silvanus, to Princess Aletheia, to Prime Minister Jafral - by the time he was done, all the adults in the party were properly drunk. Silvanus tried his best to squirm out of the spotlight, but he was pinned to the side of the Duke who couldn't seem to figure out which pose would be best for his photo for the Vorantian Vogue. It was almost the end of the party and Diana and Aletheia were coming out of the ladies' room when she saw someone she was sure was not invited. Hiril Cirilla, not in finery, but wearing her usual Wicked Witch black gown was arguing in a low voice with an elf behind the Christmas tree. The elf moved to the side giving Diana a full view of his face and bright red hair. It was the alchemist who developed DariG+. As Diana watched, he cast a furtive look around the room and walked away from her.

Hiril Cirilla walked out of the party without a backward glance.