Open. Issy maybe?
Somehow he always got forgotten at these things. It seemed like he ought to be jealous of Mikino Alcaeyn, the man his fiancé worked for and got along so well with, but in truth it was little Shayleiah who had a habit of stealing Melisande away from him. When it came to the young girl, he just couldn’t compete. He was really going to be in trouble if Mel ever had any of her own children to dote on. Ultimately, he was just grateful he hadn’t been dragged into any fiasco the littlest Alcaeyn could cook up. Usually he spent this time hanging on the sidelines with Cedric, but he had been outdone on that front as well and when he wasn’t directly keeping an eye on Mel, he was off dancing with Jules.
Security was a tricky thing, but these galas were designed with it worked into every aspect. There were too many “important” people all gathered in one place for any of the planning to be lax. Getting in to begin with was a bit of an ordeal, though that was kept as unobtrusive as it could be. Being human might not have helped him, but Andrew in particular was here enough that he probably actually got off easy when it came to those checks. He was even allowed a weapon in most instances, though he had opted not to carry one tonight. He was effective without it, and if there were trouble here it was likely to be of the magical variety in any case. Then the coven would be the ones seeing to Melisande first, and to him second. She probably didn’t care for the order, but it wasn’t negotiable.
It was great luck that they had the whole “northern” theme going on because it gave the couple a better grasp of what sort of arrangement could be made in a year (if that date indeed held). That was where he was now, curious blue eyes having dipped to the snow crunching underfoot. He had both his hands tucked in his pockets, much as he had that fateful day years before when a snowball was pelted at the back of his head by a woman who would change his life. It had been some time since he had really seen snow and it brought him back to a different time, and a different life. He was paying enough attention (and moving at a gradual enough pace) not to run into anyone, but not a great deal more than that. It would take a bit of a nudge of some sort to draw him out of his reverie.