Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

Lorem Ipsum was at his usual bombastic best.

His silvery white goatee had regrown and was now long enough to afford, if not a full blown question mark on his chin, at least a comma of a curl.

He was dressed in a stripped black and white outfit that looked as if he had draped a zebra over his goat body, and his large horns, coiled on each side of his head, was buffed and oiled until they shone with reflected light.

The effect was at once comical as it was magnificent.

The Princes names were all announced and one by one, they made their way across the stage and took their places on the raised platform.

It didn't take long for the Royal Princes to all take their seats at the gold table.

"And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I will be announcing the Avgo Females. Since this is a Ball for all the Avgo women, I will simply announce them in the order of their ranking."

He turned to the stage.

"In first place, Candace Farrah, of Earth!"

Since this was the Royal Ball, there was no loud screaming and shouting for favorite Avgo contestants. There were only polite clapping for everyone.

Candi moved across the stage, slowly and with grace, and took her place at the long white table. At first position was a placard with her name on it so she did not need to guess where to go.

Next to arrive onstage was Jenna Natoli.

She looked like a lean and sexy spotted jaguar with the body of a human goddess, forcefully shoved into a large cream colored ball gown with laces and frills.

Her large slanted green cat eyes were looking downright churlish as she held in her hand a fan made of some silk fluff instead of something more appropriate, like a whip or a dagger.

Candi turned to her with a smile.

"Hello again." She muttered under her breath.

"I hate this event." Jenna growled softly, foregoing even greetings. "It's not even an official Avgo event. Why do we have to do this?"

Candi chuckled.

"Don't you want to meet the Princes? If you win first place, you will at least know the man you will be marrying."

"I know what the Crown Prince looks like." She bared her fangs. "He's that tasty tall red head over there. What else is there to know?"

Candi laughed. She was saved from having to respond to that with the announcement of the next Avgo Female, Anaïse Paroles.

Anaïse moved across the stage with the lithe light movement of fine-blown glass.

Her gown was crystalline in structure, of a pale yellow. Where her body showed through, the combination of her blue body and the yellow dress showed a pretty green color.

It was so striking that Candi could not keep her eyes off the color display as the light shone on Anaïse's body.

"We meet again, Candace and Jenna." Anaïse greeted with a curt nod.

Candi returned her greeting with a smile.

"Your dress is beautiful!"

Anaïse turned and gazed at her, trying to determine whether Candi was making fun of her or was seriously complimenting her.

"Thank you." She muttered and turned away as Lorem Ipsum called out Valeria Marakesh's name.

The raven woman walked on stage in a demure soot gray dress, her wings closely moulded to her body like a cloak of feathers.

Of course, the Avgo members knew the reason why her wings were restrained, but the binding was done so artfully that most people just thought it was a fashionable statement, and not because one of her wings was in a cast.

Since Valeria was seated a bit further from Candi, she could not say much, merely smiled at her.

Valeria smiled back and turned to Lorem Ipsum as the next Avgo female's name was called.

Bethany Dresden was in even worse shape than Valeria. Both her wings had been completely broken in several places.

The bindings were obvious. There was no way to camouflage or hide such grievous wounds and she could not wear much of anything that even resembled a formal ballgown.

Gone was her usual gold antenna crown that denoted her position as a Princess from the moons of Coraline.

Her pale silver hair gleamed in the light with an unadorned gentleness that was not present in her cold and calculating gaze that looked stonily ahead, not meeting anyone's eyes.

In her simple pale pink sheath dress, Bethany looked barely acceptable to be at a Royal Ball. She could not even walk across the stage and ended up approaching the platform on a hover chair in a similar fashion as Slate.

The last person to approach the platform was Olivia Faraday, first of the Avgo Females to be eliminated from the events. Her chance to win Avgo first place was gone, but she was still eligible to be a chosen bride for one of the Princes of Erenveil.

Her gown was a simple black dress, but elegantly worn and matched well with her chestnut hair that was bound back into an elegant chignon bun.

Olivia's yellow monarch butterfly pattern wings had been bound back, just as Bethany's was, but at the very least, she didn't have any other wounds and could walk across the platform on her own two feet.

There was a beautiful tragic look about her that caught at the heartstrings of all those who were there. They all knew she had been the victim of a serious assault on her person at the start of the events.

Of Helene Cordera, there was no sign, which was just as well.

Helene herself had been banned from ever returning to Erenveil, along with the rest of her entourage. Furthermore, after having kidnapped and tortured the Seventh Prince, Emporia was on the verge of annihilation.

Lorem Ipsum was not yet done though, with his announcements.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this Avgo event is unique from all the others throughout history in the fact that at the start of the Events, we actually had not seven, but EIGHT Avgo contestants."

He held up eight fingers.

"Now, you might ask yourself, how in the world does an Avgo Event have eight contestants when it has always been seven. Well, the answer is, one of them showed up with a fake Avgo gem."

The ballroom began buzzing with sounds.

"Yes. The eighth Avgo Contestant is none other than Dahlia Halloway, the Earth Princess who showed up to take the seventh position."

He turned and gave a stony gaze at Dahlia Halloway. The guests buzzed softly to themselves.

Someone had cheated, got caught, and was sitting at the Royal Banquet Table with the Emperor and Empress. In fact, both Earth females were sitting alongside the Princes.

Was there something about Earth that they didn't know about? Where was it located within the Galaxy again? Oh. It was just a tiny far-flung out of the way planet.

Dahlia's face turned white as a sheet. Her green eyes turned venomous. She could not believe he had outed her during a publicly visible event such as this. Did he not want to live?

With dry uncaring eyes, Lorem Ipsum turned to face the guests.

"Of course, as you all know, Avgo Gemstones choose their Females, and the Earth Avgo had already chosen Candace Farrah as its Avgo Female, also known as the Egg Queen."

"Since this Face to Face Event is not an official Avgo Event, technically, I could call Dahlia up onto the platform so that she may also participate in the Face to Face with all the Princes."

"This would even out the numbers so that it would be easier for the Face to Face Event to take place."

He slowly shook his head.

"However, I have decided that it would serve no purpose since she does not qualify to be considered a legitimate choice for the Crown Prince."

"So there we have it, Ladies and Gentlemen, at this time, there are seven princes and six remaining legitimate eligible contestants."

"Since the numbers are a bit skewed and it's not a one-to-one correspondent," he gave an amused look. "Meaning we have more Princes than women…" he paused as the crowd tittered with amusement.

"We're just going to have to draw names."

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