Aeotha had finished her first flute of wine and was pondering over whether she should return to the ball to find more wine, or if she should just hop over the rail and attempt to leave that way. It was a very long way down. Aeotha pushed more of herself up and over the rail to look down and into the vast gardens and what had to have been a menagerie of sorts. Such luxury was afforded to those of noble birth, of royal blood, when outside the city the people were poor and lived off land that they were forced to work. Not many owned land lest they were Lords. Not many at all.
As a child she hadn't understood that the land they lived on was owned by a lord. Aeotha's parents owned no house, but they didn't seem unhappy either. All were pleased by the lord Eibhear and his fair reign over them. But they owned nothing that was their own and none of them had seemed unhappy. Except Aeotha. Why should anyone own land over another person? Why couldn't they all share the land and the profits that came from it? Why couldn't the sweat of a man's brow be a way of measuring how much he earned in life? They didn't even own a tree. Not one tree. Not one that flowered, or one that made fruit. Everything belonged to someone else.
And here she was, drinking the wine of a king and wearing a dress made for a noble. Aeotha had half a mind to toss the glass and the dress off the balcony. There were no good Lords left. No good lords who treated people fairly. Eibhear hadn't even been put in the ground before things started changing hands and Lords assumed more power in place of the great man who had fallen for his country. Fallen because some fool thought he was a threat. Aeotha closed her eyes tightly and ran a hand down her face. If she'd been stronger she could have saved him. She should have told him not to go. Told him to stay. He'd left a child behind, a wife that was now a widow who kept herself locked on her estate. The fiery Etain was nothing more than a ghost of her former self. Here Aeotha was, playing a part that she didn't want to play anymore.
She heard it now, someone was coming closer. She could hear their feet just barely, another elf then. Aeotha straightened up and wiped the tear from her eye. Who would come out here and leave that ball behind?