บท 2: Valtor Toast
Victor raised his crystal goblet high, the candlelight refracting through the faceted glass and casting a thousand glimmering shards across the hushed ballroom. When he spoke, his baritone voice resonated with the weight of decades of authority.
"Lords, ladies, esteemed colleagues and guests... It is with immense pride that I welcome you all here tonight, to celebrate a century of Valtor supremacy!"
He paused, his piercing gaze sweeping over the assembled elite with calculation and command. Near the front, Lord Percival Winthrop leaned over to murmur in his wife's ear.
"Typical Victor bluster. He never could resist the opportunity to flaunt his ill-begotten fortunes like a preening peacock."
Lady Winthrop responded with a derisive sniff behind her lace fan, even as she smiled politely toward the dais.
"For one hundred years, our esteemed dynasty has stood as the unwavering heart of influence and prestige," Victor carried on with mounting fervour.
"Through times of prosperity and hardship, war and peace, the Valtor legacy has endured - our dominance solidified by the ruthless perseverance and bold vision of each successive generation."
A murmur of fervent agreement rippled through the crowd. Nearby, Bastien Durand turned to his companion with an excited grin.
"Can you imagine, Giselle? A century of the Valtors shaping the tides of our world! Why, their family's influence holds more sway than kingdoms of old."
The young debutante offered a breathless giggle. "And to think, the heiress apparently walks among us this very night. Oh, to be so well-favoured as she!"
Victor allowed the susurrant buzz to crest before continuing in his resonant timbre.
"Yet we must never become complacent, resting upon the ever-fading laurels of past triumphs! Even as we bask in the splendour of our reign this evening, we must remain eternally vigilant against the tide of usurpers who covet our hard-won station."His eyes flashed with the zeal of a zealot, fist clenching atop the dais.
In the crowd, Clennet Beaumont's lips quirked in an amused sneer."Listen to the arrogant blowhard pontificate," he muttered to his companion, Lady Isabelle Fox. "He speaks of usurpers, yet how quickly he forgets his own humble origins before clawing his way into high society."
Isabelle's perfectly arched brows rose in mocking disdain. "And they say new money has no tact. Really, the grotesqueries to which one must bear witness."
"There are opportunists both within our ranks and without who seek to undermine our patrimony - snakes slithering through the tall grasses, biding their time to strike at the heart of all we have built!" Victor thundered, his voice reaching a fevered crescendo. "To falter in our convictions, to surrender to the seductive lure of complacency, is to sound the clarion call of our decline into irrelevance!"
A tense hush fell over the ballroom at Victor's impassioned pronouncement. Elara watched the unease play out over the faces of the guests - the furrowed brows and sidelong glances speaking to the gravity of her father's pronouncements.
Grace Valtor's expression remained stony and imperious throughout it all, her presence lending a regal counterpoint to her brutish cousin's performance.
After allowing his words to hang suspended like an executioner's blade, Victor's demeanour shifted once more, softening into the gracious host.
"And so I call upon you all tonight to raise your voices in unity with mine!" he cried, lifting his goblet anew in salute. "Drink deep of the promise our legacy affords - the favours and indulgences that await those who would stand unflinching at our side! For those who prove their loyalty and ambition shall be rewarded most handsomely as our reign stretches forth into the new century!"
A susurrus of murmurs and nods whispered through the throngs as crystal goblets were lifted high in answer. Even those who harboured silent resentments and seethed with petty envies committed the outward display of fealty.
"To the House of Valtor!" Victor bellowed in triumph, his eyes alight with uncompromising determination. "May our supremacy reign eternal, a dynasty unbowed and unbroken!"
The crowd echoed the ancestral toast with fervent vigour. Bastien and Giselle drained their goblets eagerly, swept up in the grandeur of it all. The Winthrops joined in as well, though Lord Percival's tepid response hinted at his distaste.
Among the mass of upraised voices, Clennet and Isabelle remained conspicuously silent and unsmiling, their lack of fealty noted by their peers. Yet their posturing mattered little at that moment as the overwhelming din of the Valtors' sycophants reverberated through the vaulted space.
As the guests began to drain their goblets, committing their obeisance to the Valtor reign, Elara felt the undercurrent of her family's true power, its legacy reverberating through her marrow like the solemn toll of ancient bells.
The thunderous applause and cheers gradually died down as the guests began to drain their goblets, committing their obeisance to the Valtor reign. Elara felt the undercurrent of her family's true power reverberating through her marrow like the solemn toll of ancient bells. She allowed the faintest trace of a smile to grace her lips, having borne witness to the rallying charge that would herald their dynasty's perpetual ascendance.
Just then, the towering doors at the rear of the ballroom swung open with an abrupt groan of wood and metal. The room fell into a hushed stupor as every head turned to look upon the unexpected arrivals.
There, framed by the entranceway, stood a mature woman possessed of an almost ethereal beauty. Though elegant lines had been etched at the corners of her eyes and mouth, her ceremonial white gown and sweeping silvered tresses made her seem more akin to a mythical woodland sprite than a mortal.
At her side was a young man, his handsome features and confident poise rendering him the perfect complement to the mysterious vision beside him.
A collective indrawn breath coursed through the assembled guests at this most unforeseen intrusion. Elara's brow furrowed slightly as the crowd around her erupted in a torrent of hushed murmurs and gasps of shock and recognition.
"Grand'mere?" one matronly voice hissed in disbelief. "Impossible! She's been gone nearly twenty years!"
"Who is that young man accompanying her?" another whispered none too quietly.
Only Lucinda Valtor seemed unsurprised by this dramatic turn of events. The regal blonde allowed the faintest of smug smiles to grace her lips as if she had been anticipating this very moment.
At the head of the ballroom, Victor Valtor went utterly rigid, his towering presence seeming to diminish as the shock settled into his very bones. The crystal glass slipped from his fingertips to shatter upon the floor in a burst of shimmering shards.
For endless moments, he could only gape slack-jawed at the intruders, any sense of composure or imperiousness utterly forgotten. His lips struggled to form words, to produce any semblance of sound as he took one halting step forward.
"R...Ro..." he rasped at last, the solitary croak escaping his constricted throat.
Then, as if giving voice to that which had been locked away for decades, Victor raised one trembling hand and exhaled the name in a reverent whisper that resonated through the tomblike stillness.
"...Rosy?"
At the murmured utterance, a hush more profound than any in recent memory fell over the ballroom. Rosy - the woman whose departure had fueled a thousand hushed rumours and scandalous asides for a generation, now returned as unexpectedly as a vengeful spirit.
To the younger guests for whom the name held little meaning, the moment was one of bewildered curiosity and scepticism. But for those possessing longer memories...those who recalled the tale of the night Rosy Valtor had allegedly abandoned her family forever...this was an event more monumental than any centennial gala could ever hope to encapsulate.
The woman stood motionless in the entranceway, utterly impassive save for the spark of challenge that danced like foxfire in her pale eyes. Then, breaking the stillness with the faintest of smiles, she extended one hand in a silent beckoning toward her estranged husband.
As if awakening from a trance, Victor jolted back to life, his bearing seeming to regain some of its lost grandeur. Yet his expression remained that of a man being offered a tumbler of the most exquisite, irreplaceable vintage - or a vial of the deadliest poison.
His next footfall was steadier as he began an inexorable progression across the gleaming parquet floor, each footstep ringing out like the tolling of a bell.
This night, which had begun as a celebration of the Valtors' ironclad legacy, had clearly taken a turn into uncharted territory. And based on Victor's sudden pallor and the bead of sweat glistening on his brow, even the indomitable patriarch could not predict what cataclysmic upheaval awaited them all.
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