The letter lay discarded atop the pile of dispatches, the wax seal broken and the words floating across the page for all to see, though the letter was short and to the point, it had crumpled and dirty edges as if it had been read many times in the past weeks.
Opposite the letter and dispatch tower was a very carefully placed portrait of a young beautiful woman, her brown hair curled most exquisitely and the dress she wore framed her face most brilliantly.
In front of the red Drakwald Mahogony desk was a portal that looked out over the farmlands of Nuestaat and to the Sol river beyond, Derek Contyre, heir to the throne of Stattenland, Duke of Nueremburg and Baron of Nuestaat was troubled.
The invitation to the Baroness of Sonnefurt's ball was nothing new to him. After buying Nuestaat off the Baron of Wusterburg nearly two years ago he had barely been in it to grow accustomed to the southern province, travelling to and from Stattenland far to the north to bring dispossed Hochlanders that were now Stattenland citizens to their new homes. Usually he had come back to numerous invitations to parties and balls, whenever he had received them he had politely replied to each explaining his absences but not really bothering to think on them afterwards.
Now this.
The invitation to this particular ball troubled him more than he cared to think about. For one reason he had no excuse not to attend, seeing as the last dispatch from his father had told him he wasn't needed this year to help transfer more refugees to Nuestaat and so he was stuck there for the duration. The second reason is that it was a marriage interview, normally it wouldn't of bothered him overly much, having recieved many such invitations before, mainly from lesser nobles and merchants asking him to marry their beautiful daughters.
But they really were interested in power, power that he had in abundance.
But this Baroness intrigued him, she had power that was true and needed not to raise her station (unless sending him this invitation was all that was, in which case she devious indeed), and was undoubtedly a very beautiful woman.
But still, deviousness and beauty he had dealt with in the past and it had not troubled him nearly as much as it did this time. His instincts were telling him something about her.
Sighing, Derek turned from the window and saw a messenger standing awkwardly at the door to the room. Awkwardly for him as the six foot zweihanders pointed at his throat and lower back were making him stand uncorfortably on his toes.
"He can enter Dietrich, stop making the poor lad piss himself." The zweihanders were lowered and returned to being invisible behind the door frame. The sweat stained (and possibly something else) messenger entered and bowed hurriedly to Derek.
"My lord, I bring dispatches from home." He looked relieved in more ways then one and bowed, turned and departed. The greatswords outside gave him a funny look as he left when he headed for the wash rooms, but since noone else saw the exchange, who could tell if they did or not.
Walking over to the table where the messenger had placed the packages, he carefully pulled the picture of the Baroness out from under them and placed it in his coat pocket.
Spending half an hour every day reading his dispatches gave Derek some time to think (and also work) about what his life would resolve into after he had finished setting in place the mayor of Nuestaat and he stopped being swamped in work every day.
Lately marriage life loomed menacingly over the horizon instead of leading armies into the Middle mountains to hunt chaos down and exterminate it.
Casually glancing over the letters he suddenly froze. There in his hand, a personal letter from Elayna, written in her neat perfect script.
He tore it open in a frenzy and began reading;
Dear brother,
You placed our father in a predicament when you sent that invitation to this baroness' ball, for you well know he had you ready to marry that little rich girl who owned very expensive estates in northern Hochland. He was dearly depressed when he saw it, but you know him, he is always depressed about something. After cheering him up by getting him his favourite photo of my mother he told me to tell you that I am coming down to see you regarding this Baroness and her proposal. HE wants you there, no excuses this time. All the other times you have dodged invitations from nobility have to be rectified.
I will be there in a week, I am flying down you see and bringing an old friend to see you.
Your beloved sister, Elayna Contyre II, Countess of Statten.
P.s. You had better get Uri to be there, I haven't seen or heard from him in a year now and I owe him a beating for it.
The letter dropped from his hand as he heard shouts from the courtyard. Turning, Derek ran for the door and pulled both his bodyguards out of their daydreams as they ran to catch him, their heavy plate armour clanking down the wooden hallway.
The Contyre villa wasn't overtly oppulent, but it wasn't small either and it took a minute of running to make it to the courtyard. What they saw there stopped the hearts of those nearest for a brief second.
There, atop a huge snowy white pegasus sat Elayna Contyre II, Countess of Statten. She smiled at her brother before lightly sliding out of the saddle and landing perfectly on the cobblestones, her body athletic and firm.
Derek moved forward and took her hand in his and raised it to his mouth.
"Countess, I didn't expect you for some time, what an honour." She smiled then threw herself at him in a massive bear hug. They laughed and hugged for a while, not having seen one another for nearly a year.
Derek pushed her back and wiped his laughter away from his eyes.
"What do you here Elayna? I only just got your message, you must of left that afternoon!"
"I left that morning actually, I only recieved your letter five days after you dated it and even then I got that first thing on the fifth day."
While they were talking, guards and porters rushed to take the saddle bags off the pegasus but it whinied and raised its wings, knocking them to the floor.
Derek jumped up and grabbed the reigns and pulled him back down, whispering to him softly and stroking his cheek and muzzle.
The Pegasus quieted instantly, his friends touch more than enough after a year.
"Elayna I owe you much, I hadn't seen Caspian when I last went north, I had missed him terribly." Caspian nuzzled Derek as he said this and almost knocked him over, the Pegasus was massive, half again as large as the biggest warhorse in the stables, its wingspan over eight metres long. It was a magnificent animal, and had a temperament as feisty as any person. Derek recovered himself by moving his body with the blow and came back round and cuffed the pegasus behind the ear. It responded by biting him.
"AH you damn horse!" Derek cursed and rubbed his thigh, Caspian's ears flattened and it kicked him in the shins with its front leg.
Now thoroughly beaten, Derek raised his hands at one of his oldest friends. "Ok, ok, you win, go find some oats to munch on instead of me. They taste better after all." Caspian the pegasus gave a short whiny as if it was saying yes, nodded his head and after allowing the porters to take of his saddle bags wandered off to the stables.
"Your pegasus is as bad as you 'Duke of Nuermburg'." Elayna finished her sentance by curtsieing sarcastically.
"Oh stop it 'your royal highness', come inside and get something to eat before you wink out of existense for being so damn thin, even after eating as much as you wanted last time."
Long after the two had left the courtyard, the whispers spread about the untimely arrival of the Countess of Stattenland upon a shining white pegasus, within a day the rumour had spread as far as the boundaries of the Barony of a beautiful angel having arrived atop a shining white steed that flew with angels wings.