Everyone rushed in. Their nervous energy dissipated in the face of hors d'oeuvres and sparkly drinks. The long table was getting ransacked as the fourth sliver's door opened.
Cutlery snapped sideways to look. Her mouth nearly dropped her food. The fourths outfits were divine. Their garments were quite minimalist in material use. The fabrics sparkled, gleamed, and were held together by magic. One woman's dress was just a spiral of cloth that happened to cover her chest, butt, and crotch on the way up from her left leg.
Everyone else's getups were similar. The men's clothes appeared more like armor. They had long jackets and puffy chests like the thirds. Their altered version had sharp angles and rippled as they moved. It was like their muscles extended into the clothes. Power radiated from them. That fact was also likely due to a spell. Whoever made their clothes wanted to wow everyone who saw them.
Some of the thirds and fourths met with great familiarity. Other fourths mixed into the newest thirds and started to introduce themselves. The ball must be something they had done before. Each floor's limited number of people likely made them giddy to see others. Greater freedom to socialize was a great motive for people to want more slivers. Cutlery had heard some people didn't like crowds, odd.
She looked for her targets. All of them came in last. Their clothes had long cylindrical bronze badges on their chests. They looked proud but tired. A small man in the group had a large fresh scar along the left side of his neck. Like something had torn it out. Perhaps the mission to become fifths had been difficult, Cutlery thought.
She could poison an exhausted target easily. After a few minutes of socializing the music picked up to a more lively tune. The small crowd of two dozen youths moved towards the dance floor. Nervousness flushed into Cutlery. Not because of the mission. The resplendent crowd of attractive confident people had begun to bow, curtsey, and pair off for the dance.
Cutlery's courage faded. A knot of anxiety built in her chest. A dark hand landed on her shoulder. Asim said,
"So shy little Cutlery."
Cutlery looked back at her and smiled. Asim pulled her onto the floor. The music moved at full speed. Asim reworked the moves Cutlery had partially forgotten back into her muscles. Cutlery fell into the rhythm of live music. Then the song slowed and people began to switch partners. Cutlery looked about and saw a bronze badged lapel and practically dove for it. Cutlery was racing ahead of her lingering anxiety at this point.
The figure caught her dive. He lifted her back up with no effort.
"Milady, be careful." The tall thin man said. His arms held her like iron. The devil she must kill was a smoke show.
-
He gently leaned Cutlery back onto her feet. Even with her high heels, their eye level was just equal. The music began to pick up again. He elegantly raised his hands for her. Cutlery fell into the rhythm with someone besides Asim for the first time. She stepped towards him. His left hand fell on her shoulder blade, and his right gently wrapped her own.
They began the same dance Asim had taught. She was pressed sideways by the firm grasp of her new partner. Asims loose guidance was a fading memory.
"I'm Kona." He said. His long slightly gray hair was framing his face nicely. It made him look old, but his eyes sparkled. The dance led them in the slow spin of the glinting floor.
"I'm Cutlery. Like a fork." Cutlery said. Kona eyed her then laughed when he determined she wasn't joking.
"Why do we all have such odd names? It is as if our parents were from a different reality that forgot the last generations' names." Kona said. Cutlery nodded at that. At times it felt like the sliver controlled her rather than her it.
Then she remembered she was supposed to be stabbing this guy. So she began her charade. She misstepped ahead, behind, and outside the rhythm. Messing up on purpose felt so much less awkward.
Kona gave her a kind smile. He didn't even speak to correct her. He just waited till she was back on rhythm. He would reset and wait. No quips, tips, or lip came from him. Stabbing him through the foot would be so much easier if he played his tower loyalist villain role better.
So she amped up her game.
"I heard the tower kills zeros on the first floor." Cutlery said. Zeros were the kids who hadn't gotten a sliver yet. Kona looked at her with dead eyes.
"That is not true. Where did you hear that?" Kona asked with a dark expression.
"Everyone says it. Especially the ones who watched their friends killed." Cutlery said. She couldn't help but look away. The beauty of the ballroom view contrasted their conversation.
"It is impossible to create a soldier without putting them in conflict," Kona said. Now Cutlery had it. This guy was a real villain.
"That's what sparring is for." Cutlery countered. Konas' face screwed up. Cutlery couldn't help but smirk. Her smirk became internal horror as Kona teared up. He took his first step in the second dance.
"You think, you think I didn't care when that happened to my friends. When..." Kona said but couldn't finish. Kona glanced at her. He pulled away.
"I'm sorry I, need a drink." Kona sped away. Cutlery was left alone and standing still on the open dance floor. Weren't the roles flipped here, Cutlery thought?
A dancing couple nearby almost rammed her as she left the floor. She caught a long stare from Jake as she chased after Kona.
-
Kona was bent over a punch bowl scooping out a drink. He sniffed at it and sighed. Seeing her he set the drink down.
"I would think bringing up trauma once would be enough," Kona said with lifelessly.
"I'm sorry. I just thought a fourth would know more. I've been moving up fast and I don't know what is happening!" Cutlery said. Enough whine entered her voice to sell it. The pain from the pitiful act was truly great.
Kona felt otherwise. He looked at her with sudden pity. The distance between them closed and he slowly placed a hand on her shoulder.
"These powers they give us seem to thrust us into a new world. It is the same Potestatem though. We are here to burn out cruelties like that, not perpetuate them." Kona quietly said. Cutlery blinked. She was biting her tongue. The sliver's pain debuff prevented her from making crocodile tears.
"Let us forget such heavy topics today. Another dance should help." Kona smiled.
"Oh I don't know, I wasn't very good." Cutlery said. She did the thing where she rolled her toes on the ground and put her fingers together like a little girl asking out her first crush. Kona seemed to be a dramatic fool. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the floor.
They hopped right into the song. Gill saw her and gave her a thumbs up from behind the tall spiral-dress fourth. He was one partner rotation away from a target. He wasn't supposed to stab them until told though. The man was just backup.
Again Kona offered his hands and they got into it. Cutlery figured her time might be running low so she got right to work. Her leg tensed and she 'fell' forward. To regain her balance she planted her heel on Kona's foot.
Except he yanked it back at the last second. She looked at him with real surprise. He smiled kindly back. Fuhger. Of course, his reaction time is gonna be good.
After they rotated twice more, she tried again. This time she jerked her foot when he dodged. He dodged again. What was this guy's speed!?
Throughout the song, Cutlery could pick out eight dents in the floor where her narrow heel had slammed into the wood. Eventually, she figured out a sure-shot method. Leaning forward she let the slow part of the song give their movements some ease. She tilted her head up and closed her eyes.
Then she puckered her lips. Kona's body froze. She took the chance. The most important one. Stepping forward she planted her feet on his to bring her face close. His frozen body stayed right there as her heels pressed into his foot. Her toes took most of the weight and she shifted them to click the contraption.
Kona grunted as the needle went into his foot. Hopefully, he assumed it was just her actual heels pressing on him.
"Cutlery I'm sorry but it's just a dance," Kona said quietly. She stepped back. Despite where her mind was, a flush flooded her face. She had killed him. Going in for a kiss was so embarrassing!
