"Announcing the Princess Rita von Catabas of Askaia and her guest... erm, her guest? Do I have... oh. Oh! Sorry, sorry. Her date, Alina Cascade."

Immediately, heads all throughout the ballroom turn. Immediately, mouths fall open. The spotlight descends. And for one horrible instant, Alina seizes up. G-guest? Date? Not even... they don't even think she's a... the thought is interrupted by the feeling of fingers entwining with hers. Alina glances to her left and sees Rita smiling, and then everything else, even Oberon, falls away. She's so beautiful. Just so incredibly beautiful, more than Alina's ever seen her. Or, or is it just that she's noticing now.

Alina breaks into a huge smile of her own, and suddenly the pair don't need any stage lighting to shine. As one, they lift their joined hands up to show the glass bands on each of their forearms linked together by their closeness, and a pair of songbirds made from multi-colored light burst forth from the air just above them and come to rest on their shoulders. Flawlessly, both princesses step into mirrored curtsys that emphasize how perfectly matched their dresses are. They hold it for one second, two, three, and like a dance (did they practice this? Did they plan it?) they stand back up and start descending the stairs in lock step with one another.

Murmurs run across the dance floor, and for one shining perfect moment that not even the lack of truly friendly faces can truly spoil, everything about the Gala is just the way Alina had dared to imagine it. She has to suppress a giggle as she gets close enough to start hearing some of the whispers. Is that really Alina? But I thought she was dead! No no, just in jail. She got captured by that Watch Dragon in the middle of some new harebrained scheme or another. Oh, well I heard she turned into a statue! Are we really just going to sit here and ignore the fact that she's here with Rita? Oh yeah, what's up with that? They're so not compatible! But they look sooooo precious together! They're even wearing Askaian dresses! More like what she thinks Askaian dresses are. Well then, she must think they're beautiful, 'cause gosh.

Rita reaches the bottom of the steps with her date, and they offer another curtsy to the floor at large. As if on cue, there's a swell of music, and Rita tugs very gently on Alina's arm. Well of course they're going to dance. They have heads to turn, after all! In all the wide reaches of Hyperborea, were there any princesses who could match these two for dancing? Only Helya, surely, and she would only consent in the first place if you somehow framed it as a challenge. They steal hearts along with eyes, arms entwined and dresses swishing in harmony. Alina's eyes steal away every couple of steps to sweep across the room. This was Rita's night when you got right down to it, and she was very ready to let her girlfriend(!!) run the show, but it would still be a good idea to know who from across the various kingdoms had come (or managed the mazes, at least) and who if anybody she might be able to recruit for the most important task in her life.

But even if it was nobody at all, and even if Oberon and his obnoxious twit of a sun managed to cast a shadow over the entire night, it won't matter. She'll still have this moment. She'll still have this dance. And that's enough to have been worth making the trip for.