October 31, 1895 — Moonlit Cemetery Ball

Perseus was not adverse to things of a morbid nature. He saw worse on the job often enough. The ride to the cemetery had been pleasurable, scenes of the previous incarnation of "Hogsmeade" playing in the windows of the carriage. His carriage companions dispersed to find promised dance partners and friends whilst Perseus was left to admire the thought put into the events decor.

He had not been idling long when he spotted a familiar face emerging from one of the other carriages. He smiled as he approached to greet her. "Miss Adebayo, a pleasure to see you again. Might I interest you in a dance or a stroll?" He asked of her once he was in her company. A moonlit stroll sounded quite romantic though perhaps not so much the cemetery part of things.

Callista Adebayo / Elias Grimstone

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Callista hardly liked the idea of a ball set in the cemetery, whatever eerie-but-beautiful aesthetic became Asphodel in the moonlight – but she was a well-taught debutante, so she of course she was going, and of course she could feign pleasure in an event her heart was not really in. On getting out of the carriage, she did not have long to linger helplessly anyway when a gentleman came over, with an opportune chance that would free her briefly from the rather more stern company of her father.

“I should be delighted by either, Mr. Flint,” Callista said gratefully, for she was perfectly amenable to whichever activity he preferred (and, probably consequently, how many minutes he was interested in spending with her – a dance was less commitment for him, but perhaps he did not like to dance much so would not mind taking a turn towards the edge of the forest, even if it took a little longer). She wouldn’t mind getting away from the graves, either; the setting depressed her somewhat, and if she was not mistaken, Mr. Flint had a late wife who may well, for all Callista knew, be buried here. “If there is somewhere lit well enough to walk?”

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Perseus smiled as the young woman agreed to his company. She was a lovely young woman from a good family so he would be remiss not to try and see if things could go further here. He wasn't getting any younger after all and he would not mind a second wife. "There seems to have been a path designed for a walk," he explained. He had heard it sometimes rearranged itself as well so he supposed it was more like a maze of a sorts which seemed a popular event activity these days.

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Well, that was fortunate; Callista explained where she was going to her family and fell into step obligingly with Mr. Flint for the time being, projecting all the happy cordiality she could but feeling a fizzle of nerves in her gut. It seemed silly, surely, that she seemed to be losing confidence as she grew older, the more experience she had – but either her mishap with Mr. Echelon-Arnost, or Genia’s stronger start in society had somehow managed, Callista considered, to set her back.

A pitiful thing; she wished she were all carefree, and could enjoy herself. Perhaps Mr. Flint would be a good influence in that regard: surely things could be uncomplicated here. “Perfect,” she answered, deciding to throw herself in, to fake it until it felt real. The path seemed to be winding from the cemetery out towards the treeline. “I might have managed it in the daylight, but I would hesitate from wandering into the Forest this late were I alone,” she remarked, only half joking. Not because she was scared of anything in it, but because she was sure she wouldn’t have paid enough attention and eventually gotten lost.

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Perseus nodded in greeting to her family as the young woman spoke with them and smiled as she fell into step with him. "Quite understandable. It can be quite daunting," Perseus said in agreement. There were creatures best left alone in the forests, not to mention it was home to vampires. Not the sort of things anyone should meet alone, whether they were a man or woman. And of course, Perseus was traditionally minded enough that he thought a young woman ought not be wandering about forests alone in the first place.

"If we run into anything, I will protect you," he said in half-jest. He would if it came to that, of course but he doubted the hosts would not have thought of such things. At least, he would hope so.

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She thought of explaining her real meaning, that she would have been as likely enthralled as daunted, and gotten distracted looking at plants more than anything, and just had a bad sense of direction – but it was far better to keep the conversation flowing at an easy surface level, after all.

Mr. Flint was teasing, but he certainly had no lack of charm. “I fear once or twice more and we may make a habit of that, Mr. Flint,” she said back, with a light laugh, thinking of his patience and protection in disentangling her from that stray snake before. But for now, while they were strolling quite comfortably, this felt like a prime opportunity to get to know him better – or at least to try to flirt, a little, in case she had any luck charming him back. “In the meantime, I was hoping you might tell me a little more about yourself,” she asked – for in spite of the time they both must have spent on the social scene, they had not crossed paths very often, so he was still rather opaque to her besides being a healer; a widower; charming; protective; smooth. “And what sort of things you most enjoy.”

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