Young Writers Society

James nodded slowly, noting the smile that graced Maahes's features at the mention of his... friend. He wasn't entirely dense. He knew that kind of look, but if Maahes was solely referring to her as a friend, he wasn't going to press it. There was always the off-chance that that really was all that they were, but his gut told him differently.

"Well I'll be happy to meet her when we find her in the crowd. If she's won your favor I'm sure she's wonderful company."

"Uh..." he nervously said, thinking of some of his previous interactions with Vala. While she was as polite as could be during their earlier ones in the many bookstores they coincidentally both frequented, their later meetings revealed another side to her. A side that he had come to not mind and even love, but one that might be a bit offensive to other people. "Vala's a wonderful person, but sometimes she can...er...be a little hard to handle? She tends to get into people's space a lot, and she doesn't have the most honest profession..."

"Hm," James nodded. He'd run into many people of the similar sort. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see," he said with a small grin.

The little group fell quiet. Taber stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned back on the balls of his feet. Then he remembered why he and Vala had gone over here in the first place.

"We should find that guy you were with!" Taber said, looking over to Vala and smiling beneath his mask. If his tail wasn't stuffed inside of his suit, it'd probably be wagging.

"Oh?" Eremia said, standing on her tiptoes and peering out from over Taber's shoulder. "Who is this other person?"

"Yeah!" Taber said, a thought immediately forming in his head. Why not say it? "Is he your boyfriend or something?"

"He's my friend," Vala said, her face growing warm behind the mask. She shouldn't have been getting so worked up over this, not when she regularly flirted with complete strangers. Maahes was someone she had known for longer than said strangers, but they were still nothing more than friends!

"What's his name?" Aaron joined in, a glint shining in his eerie red eyes. He definitely knew what he was doing from that tone. He wasn't trying to find out more about her love life - he was trying to figure out Maahes' identity.

She shrugged. "It's not up to me to say." She paused. "Aaron."

It had only been a lucky guess, but the way he froze up when she said his name that way made it clear he was using an alias. She had already guessed that from the lack of a last name - if you didn't trust someone with part of your name, why trust them with any aspect of it to begin with?

Kratzer glanced up as he heard an oddly familiar voice, searching the crowd for its source before his gaze fell on a man with a golden mask covering the upper half of his face and a bushy brown beard concealing the rest. He wore black and gold, similar colors to a noble, and there was something about him that was eerily familiar. He led the way through the crowd, weaving towards him.

When he heard someone approach them, he paused his search to see who it was. He had the strangest feeling of déjà vu - almost like he had seen the man before, even though he couldn't remember exactly where. He instinctively took a step closer to James - the man seemed to be making a beeline towards him and not Maahes, and Maahes was going to make sure nothing terrible happened to him.

"Ah," said Taber. "Sorry! But you seem like a nice person, so I hope you find the boyfriend you're looking for. Or girlfriend. Or maybe you're just happy with a friend - that's also cool! But, I mean, you already have a friend, so yay! More people need friends." He laughed, tugging at his collar. Why couldn't he stop talking?

Eremia put her hands over her eyes. It wasn't like she could put a hand over Taber's mouth, because a. he was wearing a mask, and b. even if he wasn't, he'd probably still keep on talking.

She raised a finger. Taber breathed a sigh of relief. "In any case," she said, "It may be best to find this other person. We need all the help that we can find. Where do you think he might be?

"Somewhere in the center of the room," Vala said, trying and failing to ignore the warm sensation that stubbornly remained the more she thought about Maahes. "He was heading in this direction the last that I checked, and was heading towards someone else in this room."

James noticed the man approaching them at the same time Maahes did, and was immediately put on guard. He instinctively prepared himself for a fight, but there was something odd about him. He seemed... familiar, which in most any case, could only be a bad thing.

"Hallo," he greeted with a small, almost comically formal bow. "I am der Silberfuchs, and this fine lady is Viper."

James skeptically looked the man up and down with a brief sweep of his gaze before giving a small bow of his head.

"I'm Aaron," he replied simply.

"Really?" he feigns surprise. "Here I was thinking you looked an awful lot like a Thomas."

James had to stop for a minute, squinting at the fellow before he was able to place the voice in his memory. This guy was... in the cave too. With Maahes. And the others. But he couldn't remember for the life of him what the guy's name was. With a look of annoyance, he sighed.

"Okay. How is it that everyone recognizes me, even though it's a masquerade ball. I feel like that defeats the purpose."

He moves to take his mask off before quickly recognizing that this is a futile gesture. "Ah, sheisse," he sighs. "Ah, well, we can't spoil all our secrets about finding people, now can we?"