Kill The Prince, Steal The Crown // Private rp

Demitri shrugged, then glanced down at Cinthia when he felt her tug at his sleeve. No word were exchanged, but it seemed like they didn't need to be. He rolled up his sleeve so his skin was bare, and Cinthia rolled up hers as well. Skin on skin, their arms were still locked, and nothing visibly happened beyond a simple locking of Cinthia's spine and a slight widening of her now-blank eyes. Just like Wolf, her eyes were covered, so the milky whiteness of them was hidden from view. Inside her mind, she breathed that tether between her and the spy, sorting through his memories to find the conversation he had had with Koralia. There. She watched and listened. Demitri kept walking, though he seemed slightly unfocused.

It took only a few seconds, and then Cinthia peeled away from Demitri. Both tugged down their sleeves and went back to the way they were. The princess looked to Lily. "Kora's curious about you, mostly. She wants to get a feel for you as the lover of her brother in law and as a possible friend. But," Cinthia added with an eye-roll, "Kora's also fond of new things and is bored with the royal family. You're a breath of fresh air, a fellow commoner, if you will."

"Kora is…" Cinthia swirled her hand around, searching for a proper adjective to describe her sister-in-law. Demitri beat her to it with an amused twinkle to his eyes. "–an interesting individual with interesting tastes. She volunteers to do the most mundane of tasks and makes it clear that she enjoys it. Actually, she often works down at the library in the main city, sometimes in nearby towns as well."

Cinthia lightly elbowed Demitri, huffing with false annoyance at having him take over her statement. He just smirked and fell silent. They were approaching the doors to the ballroom. "The point is, I highly doubt even Kora knows what bores her or entertains her. Just go talk to her and see how things go. If you'd like to leave, tell Magnus you'd like some wine instead of water."

"Adores them," Cinthia said, then nodded in greeting to the guards at the doors. Then bowed their heads and opened the doors for the trio, keeping their gazes pointedly away from Demitri as he straightened his spine and darted his eyes around the ballroom. Ever the spy, constantly seeking something to find. It was only the royal children in the vast room, Wolf already picking away at the chocolates. Cinthia's eyes zeroed in on the sweets and slipped away from Demitri, holding her skirts so she could dart over to the table—an action that revealed her lack of shoes. The spy sighed in exasperation and offered a kind smile to Lily. "I hope some good comes out of this boorish party. Enjoy yourself, Lily." With that, he bowed his head and went after Cinthia to scold her about her bare feet and chocolate hoarding.

Kora was sipping some wine, dressed in her usual casual extravagance as she examined some of the paintings up on the domed ceiling of the ballroom. The dress she wore was a baby blue, like the color of the foam formed by a wave, and fell over her body modestly without ignoring her curves. It was simple, almost, the bottom layer thin as it hugged her hips and thighs while the top layer was see-through, draped over her body with flowering lace patterns. The lace was clung low to her chest in a sweeping curve, leaving part of her shoulders bare as it traveled down her arms and loosened its grasp. The cuffs of the sleeves fell nearly down to the floor from where she had her arms near her waist, which was hugged by a wide, sandy cloth belt. From her waist down, the lace flowed freely; the front half stopped mid-thigh where the bottom layer ended, while the back half left a wide train on the floor. Her shoes were simple, just elegant enough to do its job and accent her dress.

Kora looked down and spotted Lily, her blue eyes sparkling like an ocean in sunlight. Unlike her dress, her face was unadorned, no jewels nor makeup. The only thing she did was her hair, and even then it was simply curl it some. "Ah, the breeze within a house of tornadoes." She gestured for Lily to come closer and pointed up at the ceiling she had been looking at. "Tell me, what do you see up there?" The painting was enchanted, a trick the siblings had put to entertain themselves and mess with curious guests. Not many people looked up, after all.

Kora ignored her last statement as she tilted her head back and studied the painting. "I see…" she started slowly, eyes drifting over the ceiling. "Castles made of coral, an angry ocean, a beast of fins and fangs, a scaled and colorful people. I see fishermen and dockworkers, merchants squabbling over who has the bigger swordfish." A flicker of a smirk. "I see children playing with sticks and rocks on the shoreline, seashells dancing beneath the surface, gulls stealing bread. I see my home and my culture."

Kora smiled fondly and looked back down to Lily. "I'm originally from a poor fishing village from a different country, but my family came here for vacations when we could afford it. I met Rhydar and Magnus on one such vacation, and then I found myself going on more vacations." She scowled at Magnus from across the room, her husband talking with his brother. "And thus begins his attempts at courting the poor fisherman's daughter."

Kora shrugged, loosely crossing her arms beneath her chest as she looked over her shoulder at Magnus again. She didn't look away from him as she spoke to Lily. "He wasn't the only one, by far. And he was failing miserably at first, doing everything the other suitors were doing. Paying for my vacations, sending letters when we were apart, finding out my favorite flowers and sending them to me, blah blah blah. But when I turned seventeen and moved here permanently, he… changed. Not himself, but his approach. He became my friend." Her gaze drifted to Rhydar, and then the twins. "He was himself, gave up trying, and that's when I fell. And that's what I think is so great about those four. They are themselves no matter the company, save for a few exceptions. They're their best when they aren't trying. Don't you agree?"

Magnus and Rhydar fell into a fit of laughter, the brothers catching up since the last time Magnus has been at the castle. The twins were chatting with one another as the raided the food and wine, Demitri off in the shadows somewhere undoubtedly keeping an eye on everything.

Kora snorted at that, though she couldn't disagree with Lily's first few statements. "I'd like to argue that I am not adorable, even when paired with that teddy bear." She huffed and looked back to Lily, seeing how she gazed at Rhydar. It reminded her of the way the spy looked at the princess, or how her prince looked at her. The thought made small smile twitch at her lips, but then a thought occurred to her and she whirled around, coming face-to-face with Demitri. He had silently approached them, as if summoned by the woman. "You did it," she said flatly, noting the lack of guests thus far.

"I did," he said, angling his head with slight amusement.

Demitri rubbed the back of his neck as he looked to Lily instead of Kora, the older woman slightly scary with her piercing and curious stare. "Koralia asked me to cause a diversion to give the royals some time to be themselves before the guests arrived, so I did." He made the mistake of looking to Kora, and he shied away some and went right back to looking at Lily as he answered the woman's silent question. "I released the royal hounds. The guests are not allowed to enter until they're all rounded up. Safety, I presume, and to ease the sounds of shrieking ladies."

Demitri shook his head, smiling softly. "They're precious to the royal family, Magnus mostly. The most harm that would come to them is perhaps a little too much to eat from their independent hunts around the palace grounds." Kora huffed a small laugh, then flashed Demitri a smirk of approval. "Well done, spy. I would never have thought of doing that." Demitri rose a knowing brow. "I know. You would've caused a more… dramatic scene." Kora just grinned cheekily—and perhaps a little dangerously.

As if her thoughts had summoned him, Rhydar swooped in behind Lily and pressed a ghosting kiss to her neck. "Hey there darlin'," he murmured, letting her know it was him before he wrapped two fingers around each of her wrists. He wouldn't hug her waist just yet, mindful of her issues still. And he had snuck up on her, so he didn't want to push his boundaries too much at once. He looked up, and Kora waggled her fingers in farewell, then tugged Demitri to the drinks with her to give the two of them some time alone before the ball officially started.

Rhydar smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek, then settled his head on her shoulder and nuzzled against the side of her head. "Fine, now that I'm back with you. I'd like to be able to do this for a bit before people start swarming through here and likely us." He didn't want to make Lily overwhelmed by the publicity, so he figured it'd be best if they kept their relationship on the down-low—at least, for now. He didn't want to hide forever, he was too proud of his flower to keep her in the dark for long.

Rhydar smiled and moved his hands to lightly rest them against her belly, not quite holding her by the waist but just enough. He loved seeing that excited sparkle to her eyes when she talked about the flowers she had received. "I'm going to pretend to know what you're talking about and just say…" He grinned and kissed her cheek. "I'm glad they've taken a liking to you. That don't happen much, and it makes life for you easier. No one likes a grumpy servant. They start stealing socks." He chuckled and closed his eyes breathing in her scent. "Maybe you could figure out who it was that got them for you, make a friend besides my siblings—which are a handful individually—and Kora, an even more of a handful than all of them combined."

Rhydar laughed softly and pecked Lily's cheek, adoring that scrunched up nose more than she likely wanted him to. "I don't think so. If someone gave me a gift, I'd want to know who it was. Especially if it was something as sweet as that." He paused and tilted his head as he thought about her friend list, counting in his head. "What are you considering me, Lily darling," Rhydar then purred in her ear, gently guiding her over to a wall where they'd have a little more privacy. He wouldn't press her against it—in fact, he'd put himself between her and the wall just like last time he had done so.

Rhydar lightly grasped her hand when she sought it out, lacing their fingers together. While he did that, his other hand came up and lightly cupped the side of her face, thumb brushing over her cheek. "Hmm," he hummed, eyes examining her face while he took his time thinking through his next response. He didn't know either, but all he knew was that Lily was his, just how he was most definitely hers. In fact, she had him wrapped around her finger and likely didn't even know it. He smiled softly and expressed as much.