The feast was full of rare meats, cuts of cows and pork, an assortment of the kingdom’s delicacies, desserts from the finest sweetworkers, and the party itself was laced with wines and drinks that embraced and enhanced the desires of the nobles. The nobles ate, drank, and made merriment on the first day and every day since; their works have become worse and worse.

  The foods that were delicacies had become ordinary now, and yet, these parasites would not dare stop the party. The countesses slept with their knights and with other lords in the night and gossiped and slandered each other in the morning. Their man-servants, short and armored, looked on gleeful merriment, cutting choice parts of the meat, dipping it in bloody sauces and grilling it, before giving it to the lords.

  The esquires fought each other throughout the day, ending the day sweaty and soaked, while the chevaliers drank their worries to oblivion, finishing kegs of wine and whiskey before the day was done. The baron held his whip at the ready, and laughed merrily at the misfortune of any who dared play his games.

  The blood red drinks and the smell..dear god the smell. It smelt of rotten meat, spoilt game, and a mixture of bodily fluids. I searched within the crowds for another lady who would satisfy my appetite, when I was accosted by the baron’s impeccable wife, with a request for a dance.

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  The musicians were paid, and they played and played till they could not. I swayed with her in my embrace, while the baron looked on in impotence and anger. I danced with her and made sure that this one would fuel gossip till the end of the party. I was disgusted too, by these pathetic parasites, gorging on my family wealth as though it were their own. But the party was necessary for my shipment of rare articles and expensive relics to reach my manor.

  The Baron's wife bored me with her greed and lust, her every word laced with intentions of money and men, talks of taxing her lands and sleeping with her man-servants. And in their midst, a woman came in, her beauty leagues and worlds away from these pale, incest-ridden nobles.

  She wore a sleeveless gown, her every movement graceful and wondrous, and yet she carried herself with more nobility than any who were present here, who gorged on rare meats and ate with decadence and depravity. She took a blood-red wine glass, and it only accentuated her pale bouffant hairdo. But she had the eyes of a predator, and she was looking for her next meal.

  I stood on the dance floor and looked on at her, as did every noble and viscount and man-servant, who weren’t busy feeding or kissing another lady. I wanted her. She was the one who would satisfy my appetite. I lifted another bottle, drunk and insipid, waited as she wafted among the nobles like a butterfly, and drank, waiting. Suddenly, struck by inspiration, I picked up a knife and hid it in my back, waiting for her to approach the host of the party. She would be mine, whether she consented to it or not.