บท 64: Cat Burglar Ballet
As the Raptor flew back to Dante's Moon, Candi peppered Dante with questions. Where is Slate? Is he okay? Where is Leonardo? How did Dante get on this ship? How did Dante know where to find her?
To all those questions, Dante tried his best to answer, but there was one question that she asked which he did not know the answer to.
Whatever happened to Mattheus Cordera?
At the point of traction, when all the Empire ships and the Guard-ships had surrounded Raptor 437, several transport pods had managed to escape from the huge starship.
Dante had sent several of the smaller ships in pursuit because he was afraid Candace might be on one if them but he hadn't heard back from them yet. Most likely, the man that Candace called Mattheus Cordera was on one of those pods.
Where the pods could possibly go, Dante had no idea. At this moment, Dante was more concerned with getting Candace back to his Moon and all her wounds tended to.
A full twenty-four hours passed before Candi was even allowed to get out of bed. For most of that time, both Dante and Leonardo kept wandering in and out of her room just to check on her, and they hovered over her for very different reasons.
Dante was just a hoverer. He was like a mother hen, wanting to make sure every detail was perfect and she was well-cared for. He also seemed to be a bit anxious of the time she spent with Leonardo.
Leonardo on the other hand, considered himself to be the quintessential healer and had to make sure all her tiny cuts and bruises were completely healed.
He was also struck with an inordinate amount of guilt because he was the one who delivered her into the hands of the former mer king. He had conveniently brushed off the fact that Candi had insisted on coming with him to retrieve Slate.
After twenty-four hours of their constant ministration, she finally threw them out and told them she needed to sleep and couldn't do so if they kept coming by. The truth was, other than the gash on her head which they promptly healed with their magic, she wasn't really hurt anywhere.
By morning, Candi could no longer lie in bed. She needed to get the kinks out of her body and she needed to practice her dancing.
She quickly got dressed in her bodysuit and twisted her honey blonde hair back into a bun, securing it with a headband. Dancing with all the hair whipping around her face was no joy.
She made her way to the ballroom. A bit of exercise would do her much more good than just lying in bed for even one more day.
As she got closer, she could hear the sounds of construction going on at full speed. There were people coming and going everywhere. Was Dante building something new?
She padded forward and peaked in through the open doorway. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped with bewilderment.
The workers had torn up the beautiful parquet flooring and was replacing it with floating long boards of a pale maple hardwood.
Above the ceiling, all the gorgeous crystal chandeliers had been replaced with light inserts that recessed into the ceiling.
The beautiful brocade walls had been replaced with gentle pale pinkish cream painted walls that were lined with large sections of mirrors.
She tapped one of the workers as he walked by.
"What happened to the ballroom? Why has it been changed?"
"Oh, you hadn't heard?" The worker chuckled. "Prince Dante was furious that his love, the Princess Candace Farrah left with his brother. In a jealous fit of rage, he tore up the ballroom."
"He was jealous?"
"Oh my goodness, he was upset! He's normally a bit hot-tempered, but I have never seen him in a jealous fit before."
The man raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice.
"To be honest, I think Prince Leonardo is a better fit for Princess Candace. They're both blonde, have moderate temperaments, and look good together. Their children will all be blonde since they are both fair-haired."
The worker leaned closer and whispered.
"All that blue hair Prince Dante has comes from his mother's side. It's a dominant color too, so any child that he fathers is always going to have blue hair, and we all know what blue hair means."
She whispered back.
"What does blue hair mean?"
He looked around.
"Don't tell anybody I said this, but blue haired folk are a bit on the low-born side. Prince Dante comes from the lower common folk. His mother is not royalty at all. She's the poorest of all the Emperor's Consorts."
He lowered his voice and whispered into her ear.
"Want to hear something even more surprising? Prince Dante is actually older than Prince Byron by about half a year, but the courts changed it so that Prince Byron, who is the Empress' son, would be First Born Crown Prince."
Candi's eyebrows rose.
"Ahhh. I see."
She leaned in closer to the worker's ear and whispered.
"You know I'm lower common folk too." She nodded with a grin as he pulled back and took a careful look at her.
As his eyes widened with shock, she giggled.
"Don't call me Princess. I'm not royalty at all." And she skipped into the ballroom as the last of the cleaners left with their buckets of dirty water, leaving a pristine floor behind them.
Another of the workers were testing out the sound equipment.
"Louder," she called out to him. "A little more."
He nodded and turned up the sound.
"Perfect!" She called out with a smile and ran into the center of the room.
With a vault, she began dancing.
It was mostly her warm up routine, but in the eyes of the casual observer, even a warm up routine looked like something that was planned and extensively prepared in advance.
As the music continued, Candace began to get into her zone.
Gone was the large gathering of workers and servants and cooks and gardeners who had come to see a real Avgo Female perform. Gone was the room with walls and ceiling and floor.
Her focus was solely on the music and on her body's reach for supreme expression of that music. Everything and everyone else didn't matter to her.
As focused as she was, she did not see that intermingled among the group of workers and servants was the spiky blue head of Second Prince Dante as well as Fourth Prince Leonardo.
Further back were the two green haired Princes Jason and Jared. It was the first time that they had actually been able to see her dance an entire performance.
For those who had the chance to witness, it was poetry in motion.
The twins jaws fell to the floor. Leonardo's aqua eyes were unblinking as he fixed his gaze on her lithe graceful body. Dante was blinking rapidly but only because he was trying to clear the tears from them so he could better see her.
She danced three full numbers, ending with Adagio.
As the last strains fell away, her arms were raised into the air, her head falling back, looking heavenward. It was almost as if she could float away.
A loud cheering and screaming brought her back into the present. The huge crowd that had gathered were cheering her on, clapping and yelling out her name.
CANDACE! CANDACE! CANDACE!
She blinked and turned towards the crowd that had filled up all the balustrades and the various seating areas around the room.
They were acting as if she was all made-up and in ballet costume instead of having a fresh-scrubbed face with her hair bundled up in a hair band and wearing her black cat burglar suit.
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