I thought that I must be in the company of lunacy, for what was going on about me had completely baffled.

"Ah--I...Lady Eizenstrauss, you need not trouble yourself with any of that. I had intended on turning down the invitation. You see, I--"

"Because you did not have a dress, yes? Nonsense, I'll hear nothing of the sort" she replied to me, once more cupping her elbow in her hand and pinching her chin, "What are you, Traveleya? A twelve? Perhaps an eleven?"

"Ah, oh, a twelve, yes," I said stammering, then immediately caught my own words, "But really my Lady, you don't need--"

"No, no that won't do at all," she said in a matter-of-fact sort of tone, "An eleven it is, Mister Brockmeier. Green, I think. It suits her."

Before I could protest further, the curt man hobbled off, disappearing into a back room.

"With me, Miss Cleyne," said Lady Eizenstrauss forcibly and at once began leading me by the hand to a corner of the boutique where there was a small, black chair surrounded by several mirrors. The chair, I soon found out, swiveled easily and I gasped at the utter chaos that had befallen my hair and hastily-applied make-up since leaving the house.

I heard a quiet chuckle from behind me and looked up to see that Einen had appeared standing over my shoulder, watching me as I examined myself. He seemed to be smiling, clearly amused at my suffering. I was far from amused, however, and such was written all over my face.

Movement caught my eye, but before I could react, the brim of a hat fell over my head and eyes. It was quite heavy for a headpiece and I pushed it up to see that it was an exceptionally wide hat that seemed to be accentuated with all manner of fake flowers, leaves, and meshy veils.

I hated it. Truly, I had never seen a more gaudy piece of headwear in all of my life. The thought of showing my face in a place of high acclaim wearing such an awkward hat made me shiver.

"I love it," Lady Eizenstrauss exclaimed, carefully positioning the hat so that its rim touched the top of my eyebrows. Of course she did; surely I must have angered some powerful divine being for them to have me trapped in this odd situation.

"Lady Eizenstrauss..." I said with an exasperated sigh, "I beg of you, please. What is all this for? Why is it so imperative that I attend this ball with you?"

She was quiet for a moment, and I was certain she would likely dodge the conversation by switching the topic, but she simply adjusted the hat a little more and went on.

"Let's just say that I will need an accomplice for the evening. Someone reliable and clever, and someone will know what to do when the time comes. Someone like you, Miss Cleyne."

"Someone with my abilities, you mean?" I asked. Once again my eyes were drawn down to the chain that led from the silver bracer on her arm to the ankle of her servant. The sight of it had ceased to bother me, but the lack of a jingling sound still grated upon my mind. And just as Lady Eizenstrauss said, it seemed that no one else aside from the three of us could see it. I'd watched everyone we'd interacted with, including the driver of the coach, the pedestrians on the streets outside, as well as the proprietor of this very business.

So it was true, then. The reality of it set in almost as quickly as a sedative. I was in the company of a dead man, and a strange little girl who, by the mysterious power of that gauntlet and chain that no one could see, was able to manifest him, body and soul, to speak and act as if he'd never died at all.

"Precisely," she said with another clever smile as her eyes narrowed. "I need those beautiful amber eyes of yours. And your...other qualities, of course."

"My other qualities?" I asked, genuinely confused. What on earth could she be referring to? She didn't answer, though, and instead, I felt her hands fall on my shoulders and her face coming to within inches of mine. Her sharp nails dug slightly into the skin around my neck. I stared at her strange excited eyes in the mirror, feeling somehow unnerved by how they focused so very intently on my own.

"Ah, Mister Brockmeier," said Einen suddenly, rescuing me from the strange daze that had overcome me.

The crooked man had indeed returned bearing a great mass of forest-green fabric. It was immense, so much so that he couldn't even look over the top of it, and I paled at the idea of walking around in so many layers.

We made for the dressing area and Einen stayed on the other side of the blind as Mister Brockmeier went to work. Lady Eizenstrauss merely observed, pacing alongside the mirrors which lined the insides of the blinds. The shrewdness of her judgemental gaze was almost palpable as she watched every stroke of the scissors and every piercing of the needle.

Roughly an hour passed, though not in silence. Mister Brockmeier made something akin to small talk in his own unnecessarily flourished way, though the conversations would come to an abrupt end when Lady Eizenstrauss would utter a resounding 'hmph', signaling her displeasure at something that the man was doing.

When all was said and done, I could do little but gawk at the strange, misshapen form that stood before me in the mirror. The dress was...interesting, to put it nicely. It seemed to favor the left side more than the right, and the back was nearly entirely open. Strangle frilly ruffles lined the underside of the arm--a feature which struck me as disparagingly birdlike and overall was quite humiliating.

I stood there on the pedestal and turned to face my benefactor.

"Hm," Lady Eizenstrauss said in a tone that was frightfully approving. "You look smashing, Miss Cleyne. Absolutely splendid."

My heart sank. Plummeted, rather, and the surmounting dread of what would no doubt prove to be an anxiety-ridden night shot through me in a wave of sudden nausea.